On 23 September 1948 in Dąbrowa Górnicza, the Municipal Court in Dąbrowa Górnicza, with Judge E. Jurkow presiding and with the participation of a reporter, K. Merta, interviewed the person mentioned hereunder as a witness. Having advised the witness of the criminal liability for making false declarations, of the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and of the significance of the oath, the Judge took an oath therefrom pursuant to the provisions of Article 113.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, following which the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Józef Sosnowski |
| Date of birth | 24 January 1905 |
| Parents’ names | Walenty and Anna Wyporska |
| Place of residence | Dąbrowa Górnicza, Jaworowa Street 17 |
| Occupation | foreman metal-worker |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I was incarcerated at Auschwitz concentration camp from 6 July 1940 to 23 October 1944. The Germans deported me there for being a member of an underground organization. In October 1944, I was transferred to the camp in Oranienburg. I know the following former members of the armed garrison of the former concentration camp of Auschwitz included in the list that was presented to me: 1) Hans Aumeier, 2) Johann Becker, 3) Paul Götze, 4) Max Grabner, 5) Johan Paul Kramer, 6) Kurt Hugo Müller, 7) Paul Szczurek, 8) Hans Schumacher.
1) Hans Aumeier was the Lagerführer [camp leader] of Auschwitz. In May or June 1942, when I was loading gravel together with a group of fellow prisoners, I witnessed Aumeier drive up in a motor car. When he saw that two Poles (I do not know their surnames) were collecting waste vegetables from the rubbish heap, he jumped out of the vehicle and started beating them with his hands. When they collapsed, he proceeded to kick them all over. The pleas of these men were useless, for Aumeier tormented them in this manner for a good ten or fifteen minutes.
In September or October 1942, a prisoner of Jewish ethnicity was late for roll call due to being sick. Aumeier hit this inmate a number of times with his hand. When the man fell to the ground, a Blockführer [block leader] whose surname I no longer remember kicked him so severely that after roll call the prisoner was taken to the hospital block.
I do not remember the exact dates – however this was between June and October 1942 – but I saw Aumeier, on a few occasions, personally thrashing prisoners at evening roll call with a whip, this because they had failed to bow to him or because some food, matches or cigarettes had been found on their persons, or perhaps, due to exhaustion, they had been walking too slowly while returning from work. Such prisoners would be arranged on a special buck and receive 25 blows of the whip. Two, three or even five prisoners would be whipped simultaneously. Aumeier administered part of the punishment – four lashes – himself, whereupon he would give the whip to the Blockführers, who hit each prisoner up to 25 times. Their pleas and cries of pain had no effect – to the contrary, the beating would intensify. Once, Aumeier took the whip from the hands of a block leader who was hitting his victim with insufficient force. He immediately gave the prisoner a blow with all his strength, and ordered the block leader to follow his example.
From May 1942 until the end of my period of incarceration at Auschwitz, Aumeier would regularly order prisoners returning to the camp from work to be body-searched. He was always present at these searches, and indeed sometimes conducted them himself. If a prisoner was found to be in possession of even the tiniest amount of food, Aumeier would assign him to the penal company at block 11.
In May 1942, I was sent to the penal company for talking with one of the civilians who were working in the camp. In the beginning of June 1942, while toiling at the regulation of a nearby river, some 20 prisoners escaped from this company. In retaliation, the Germans shot dead 20 Polish prisoners in the courtyard between the first and second block in Birkenau. I was not present at the execution, however I learned from the inmates who lived in these two blocks that it was carried out personally by Aumeier. Next, some 300 prisoners from this company were gassed in the forest and incinerated in the crematorium.
In July 1942, the Germans brought a Polish family, this comprising approximately 30 people, to the camp. They were led to some pit and killed there with machine guns. I saw this with my own eyes, for at the time I was carrying out repair work in the camp kitchen. I also saw Aumeier go down into the pit after the firing had died down, and heard him shooting his revolver at those who were still giving signs of life.
2) Johann Becker was the head of the water and sewage squad, and a member of the SS. I worked in his squad throughout my period of incarceration at the camp. Becker caused me no harm whatsoever. And I did not see him tormenting anyone else, either, nor did I ever hear of such an incident. He did not beat anyone during work. I may even state that he accommodated us, for he did not forbid us to scrounge for food and carry it into the camp. Furthermore, he made every effort to ensure that no searches were carried out when we entered the workshop.
3) Paul Götze was a guard and escort, and subsequently a Blockführer at the Gypsy camp. In October or November 1942, when I was working on the water supply system in Birkenau, Paul Götze acted as our escort. One day when we were walking to work, I personally saw him hit one of the inmates, a Pole, with his rifle butt for having lifted a half-smoked cigarette. He hit me too, on a few occasions, in the face, while calling me a "Polish swine" and a "bandit". He beat me because I did not display sufficient haste during work. I also saw, it was about the same time, how he beat French Jewesses with his hands because they had paused work for a moment; these women were working near our squad. Generally speaking, Götze would rush us off to work and order us to labor without respite, and he did not even allow us to use the toilet. Götze was the terror of the prisoners.
4) Max Grabner was an SS man who was the head of the Political Department at Auschwitz. In August 1943, while I was working outside the camp, Max Grabner came up and started searching the prisoners. When he found that I had cigarettes on my person, he hit me in the face with his hand, twice, before I had a chance to explain and show him a card informing that I had received these cigarettes from back home.
Friends told me that during the interrogations held at Grabner’s department, prisoners would be beaten until they lost consciousness. On a good few occasions I saw prisoners returning from this department, swooning on their legs and horribly maltreated. I do not know exactly who it was that beat them there. One of the female inmates, who was also examined and tortured, told me that Grabner was present at these interrogations, and was particularly cruel towards her. The prisoner told me that she had a riding crop thrust into her vagina in order to force her to testify. This woman’s name was Jadwiga and she came from the vicinity of Oświęcim, although I do not know her surname.
I also saw Grabner in Birkenau following the execution of 20 prisoners; he was getting into a car, although I am unaware of his role in the killing.
5) Johann Paul Kremer was a doctor at block 28 and a member of the SS. Prisoners from various blocks told me that Kremer ordered inmates who had fallen ill with typhus fever or any other infectious disease to be given death-inducing injections. There is nothing more that I am able to say about him.
6) Kurt Hugo Müller, who is known to me as an SS man and the Blockführer of block 15. One day in August 1942, Müller was escorting me to work at the residence of Lagerführer Hössler. When I had finished work and was returning to the camp, he ordered me to run backwards and forwards along a distance of two kilometers. Due to the heat and exhaustion, I soon collapsed, whereupon Müller kicked me in the buttocks. I had to get up and keep running.
In January 1943, Müller conducted a search right before the entrance to the camp. He also searched me, but although he did not find anything on my person, he kicked me twice from behind. Müller was an ever-present at these searches, and on a number of occasions I saw him kick and beat other prisoners.
I was detained at block 15 until the end of 1942, when I was transferred to Oranienburg. When Müller was the Blockführer there, I regularly saw him hitting prisoners in the face and kicking them, ostensibly because someone had been bathing in his shirt, cleaning his shoes in the corridor, or had laid something down on a bed.
In the summer of 1943, I was sent to block 11 to help repair the piping. Müller was there. After work he searched me and found a slice of bread in my toolbox, which I had intended to smuggle into this block for the needy prisoners, however I was ultimately unsuccessful, for he seized it. As punishment, Müller beat me on my face and kicked me.
7) Paul Szczurek, whom I knew as a Blockführer at blocks 10 and 22. In November 1942, while I was walking to fetch some pipes from the warehouse, I met Szczurek along the way with his dog. He set the animal on me, and it bit my thigh, causing it to bleed. I had given him no reason to set the animal on me.
I also saw, and I think that this was in February 1943, how during roll call at block 22 one of the sick inmates could not stand and therefore sat down. Szczurek proceeded to beat him unconscious, and after roll call the man was transferred to the sick bay. I do not know whether he died.
Leopold Grabowski, who lives near the township of Tarnowskie Góry, told me that one day he was going to work at the house of one of the SS men, but had no pass. Szczurek met him along the way and, having determined that he did not have a pass, beat and kicked him with such viciousness that he lay in the sick bay for two months.
8) Hans Schumacher was the head of the prisoners’ kitchen and the SS men’s kitchen. In the summer of 1941 I was performing maintenance work on the boilers in the prisoners’ kitchen. At this time Schumacher hit me three times in the face with his hand because I had not finished my work on time. I was engaged as a maintenance worker from 1941 through 1944. On more than one occasion during this period I saw Schumacher beat prisoners on the face with his hands, but then again there were at least a few occasions when he would carry out slices of bread, sausage or some fat and give these articles to various prisoners.
As regards other of the persons mentioned in the list, I may well be able to recognize them and provide some information if I see their photographs.
The following may possess information concerning the behavior and activities of members of the armed garrison of the former concentration camp at Auschwitz:
1) Artur Krzetuski, resident in Gliwice at Styczyńskiego Avenue 1,
2) Magistrate Miazek, resident in Będzin, in the block near the station,
3) Jan Sikora, resident in Będzin at Paryska Street 6,
4) Franciszek Sosinka, resident in Tarnowskie Góry, although I do not know his exact address,
5) Teodor Szymański, resident in the Praga district of Warsaw,
6) Bolesław Łachecki, resident in Tarnów,
7) Stanisław Kuliński, resident in Tarnów, manager of the factory in Mościce,
8) Grzegorz Walczyk, resident in Kraków, an employee of the municipal waterworks.
The report was read out and signed.