On 12 September 1947 in Ruda Śląska, Municipal Court in Ruda Śląska with Municipal Judge Z. Skąpski (MA) presiding and with the participation of court reporter and legal apprentice R. Geilke, heard the person named below as a witness without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Jerzy Fliegel |
| Age | 32 |
| Parents’ names | Józef and Maria |
| Place of residence | Ruda Śląska, [...] |
| Occupation | dentist |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I was imprisoned in the Auschwitz camp from January 1943 until the evacuation of the camp on 18 January 1945, when I was evacuated to the camp at Mauthausen along with the others. Therefore, I remember the following people from the camp’s board:
1) Hans Aumeier – Hauptsturmführer, he was the Schutzhaftlagerführer [head of the camp] until June 1943. On many occasions I witnessed him beating and kicking the prisoners, [but] because he was short, he had a special taste for beating tall men. He was very nasty towards the Polish prisoners. He often got drunk, and then everyone fled from him, afraid that he would shoot them, because he would always pull out his gun and shoot into the air.
2) N. Bogusz [August Bogusch?] – SS-Unterscharführer, from Bytom, about 50 years old. He was worked in the so-called Schreibstube [camp office] with Hans Aumeier. He was hostile towards the Poles, and I can also declare that he stole some tins of sardines that came from Sweden for the imprisoned Jews. He urged the prisoners to steal things from the “Canadian” gifts, which he then transported to Bytom, to his wife.
3) Arthur Breitwieser – Unterscharführer, he was the manager of the warehouse for the SS men. What I know about him is that he was supposed to have beaten a prisoner in the presence of another prisoner, N. Wróbel, for taking a piece of soap or shoe polish from the warehouse.
4) Wilhelm Gehring – while I was in the camp, he served elsewhere and only came to Auschwitz for a vacation to visit his wife who lived there. I saw him in an SS uniform – he seemed to have held the Oberscharführer rank. My fellow prisoners told me that he used to harass the prisoners particularly at the time when he was the head of the so-called Arbeitsdienst [labor deployment office] in the camp.
5) Max Grabner – during my stay, until the end of 1943, he was the head of the Political Department in the camp. The initiative to sentence prisoners to death came from his directive, while the camp commandant Höß signed the death sentences that Grabner presented to him.
6) Heinrich Josten – SS-Obersturmführer, he was the head of the so-called Luftschutz [air raid protection]. He was hostile towards the Poles, and several times I saw him beat prisoners for trivial reasons.
7) Arthur Liebehenschel – he was the commandant of the camp after Höß. It should be noted that with this change the relations in the camp improved considerably. In particular, the order was issued that prisoners at work must not be beaten, and any cases should be reported to the Lagerführer, who was to decide whether a prisoner should be punished with flogging. In addition, the order was issued that the prisoners could not be addressed using the informal second person singular form of “you” (Du), but that the formal 3rd person singular form (Sie) should be used instead. The prisoners could address any complaints to him.
8) In the case of Lissner, who I think was a Blockführer since January 1944, and of Croatian descent, a clerk working at the City Council named Walder, who lives in Ruda Śląska, might be able to testify.
9) Herbert Ludwig – SS-Unterscharführer, he supervised the prisoners employed in farming in the so-called Landwirtschaftsabteilung. It was possible to bribe him with items from the shipments for the Jews, which had to be stolen in the warehouse, and whoever didn’t manage to do this was harassed by him in the usual way at work. I didn’t witness him being especially abusive towards the prisoners.
10) Karl Möckel – he held a higher function, but I can’t testify anything about him.
11) Kurt Müller – according to what I remember, he was employed in the so-called Arbeitseinsatz, and his duties included managing a group of prisoners assigned to him for work. I didn’t see him beating the prisoners, but I only know that he urged them to steal items taken from the Jews and then to hand them over to him.
12) Detlef Nebbe – he was a training instructor for people from various countries, such as from Croatia, who were chosen for the SS. He treated the prisoners brutally, and he often beat and kicked the prisoners for no reason, so the prisoners would always try to give him a wide berth. In the autumn of 1943 the so-called Standgericht [summary court] came to Auschwitz, resulting in the shooting of over one hundred people on the grounds of the old camp crematorium. The SS men led by Nebbe surrounded the place of execution so that none of them could escape.
13) Ludwig Plagge and Franz Romeikat – they were employed in the Auschwitz camp as members of the SS, but I can’t testify anything about them. Romeikat was not of German descent, but a Croat, or Romanian. As far as he goes, maybe Michał Ziółkowski, who lives in Gdańsk and attends the School of Maritime Trade, could testify more.
14) Helmut Schippel – SS-Obersturmführer, he commanded a detachment of SS men and that’s why I remember him, but I can’t testify anything about him.
15) In the case of Luise Schulz, maybe Józef Wróbel, who lives in Ruda Śląska at Krakowska Street 7 and is an official of the RZPW [the Rybnik Coal Industry Union], could testify more.