Witness:
| Name and surname | Józef Kroker |
| Age | 40 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | school headmaster |
| Place of residence | Chorzów III, Bożogrobców Street 37 |
Testified as follows:
I was imprisoned in the Auschwitz camp from 25 January 1941 until 21 May 21 1942. I know Hans Aumeier (number 1), Max Grabner (number 28), Hans Hoffmann (number 34), Stefan Kirschner (number 38) from the list.
1) Hans Aumeier, SS-Hauptsturmführer, was the Lagerführer more or less from the end of 1941 until my release. Even then I knew him by name. He was perhaps harsher than his predecessor Fritzsch, who had gone to Flossenbürg. He was small in stature. He would often take a jump and punch prisoners in the face. He was usually present while prisoners were coming back from work. He inspected them, and when he found food or cigarettes in their pocket, he beat them, and in addition he reported them, which resulted in the prisoners being punished by flogging, the bunker etc. He was a sadist; all the prisoners were afraid of him.
In his predecessor’s time, those condemned to the bunker were often forgotten about and died there. Aumeier would sentence people to the bunker for a specified length of time. After this time – e.g. after six weeks – the prisoner would leave the bunker. [Aumeier] therefore instilled a certain discipline in this respect.
More or less in May 1942, I saw Aumeier and Max Grabner were present during the second round of gassing of about one thousand people (all of them Jews) transferred in from Będzin. The chamber into which they were herded was closed for half an hour. So those who were gassed must have suffered for a long time.
I heard that Aumeier fired a machine gun at the punitive unit that had rebelled. He also shot [apparently] – probably in 1944 – at closed wagons that had brought in a transport of prisoners.
Aumeier invoked great terror among the prisoners.
28) Max Grabner, SS-Untersturmführer, was the head of the Political Department. He used to send people to the gas. I worked from November 1941 until May 1942 in the so-called Registrar’s Office in the camp. Initially, in the files of the executed people, notes were made in accordance with the actual reality, although later on [Grabner’s] order, in the records of those who had been shot the cause of death was recorded as: heart attack. In my opinion [Grabner] was the master of life and death in the camp. Even the camp commandant had to reckon with him. Every day, we wrote about 350 people into the files as deceased. During my stay – i.e. for about half a year – we entered approximately 37,000 dead. I note that this number only includes numbered prisoners, and does not include the transports that went straight to the gas.
I can’t give all the details of Grabner’s crimes today. It was widely known that during the interrogations, prisoners were atrociously beaten.
In the winter of 1941/1942, I helped to write down prisoners who were killed by injections. That list included about 600 people. They were mostly sick and weak prisoners.
As for Aumeier, I would like to mention that when a question came in from Berlin asking their opinion about release of a prisoner, he would first offer a negative opinion.
The urns up to nos. 10,000 contained the ashes of the right prisoners, and later family members received ashes of chance prisoners, so that some committee even made a reproach to the camp board for this reason, especially since several prisoners were burned together in one crematorium compartment.
34) Hans Hoffmann – a shepherd by profession, I think – was initially a Rottenführer, and later became a Unterscharführer. He was employed in the Political Department.
I can’t give details about him. I think that he also participated in the torture of prisoners during interrogations.
38) Stefan Kirschner also worked in the Political Department, as, I think, Scharführer, or perhaps even Oberscharführer. Since the list states that Kirschner was employed in the post office and that he was only a Sturmman, this is probably about another Kirschner. I would recognize him if I saw him. Kirschner, the one I’m thinking about, along with Lachmann, really tormented the prisoners. [Both of them] were Grabner’s right hand men.
More details on the conduct of Grabner, Hoffmann and Kirschner and the entire Political Department can be provided by the witness Feliks Myłyk (Gliwice, Association of Former Political Prisoners).
The report was read out before signing.