MIECZYSŁAW BERGSON

On 24 June 1947 in Kraków, acting at the written request of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, dated 25 April 1947 (file no. NTN 719/47), District Investigating Judge Jan Sehn, member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, examined records forwarded along with a letter from the Kraków District Court Prosecutor’s Office on 17 June 1947, no. IX Ds. 207/47, in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), and in line with Articles 254, 123, 152 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The examination yielded the following results:

Investigation records concerning Franz Schebeck, born 15 October 1907 in Vienna, SS-Unterscharführer, interned in the prisoner camp at Glasenbach (American occupation zone in Austria).

The extradition department of the Ministry of Justice has received a letter from the International Committee for Jewish Refugees and Concentration Camp Internees, [written in] Vienna on 31 March 1947, informing of Schebeck’s whereabouts and of his criminal activities in the former concentration camp at Auschwitz. Attached to the letter is a copy of a declaration by Mieczysław Bergson, stating as follows:


Name and surname Mieczysław Bergson
Date and place of birth 14 December 1911 in Ciechanów
National affiliation Polish
Religion Mosaic [Jewish]
Place of residence Vienna, 18th district [Währing], Währinger Gürtel 97

During the occupation I was at Sachsenhausen from 1940 to 1942, and on 25 October 1942 I arrived in Auschwitz, where I remained until 18 January 1945. From January 1945 until the arrival of the Allies, I was at Mauthausen.

At Auschwitz, in March 1943, I was assigned to the Brotauflagekommando [bread kommando]. Franz Schebeck, SS-Unterscharführer, was head of provisioning at the time. Working under Schebeck’s orders were a couple of dozen SS men and a few hundred prisoners of different nationalities, mostly Poles and Jews. Schebeck was dreaded by everyone in the camp and was generally considered a butcher and villain. There were even SS men who could not stand his bestial exploits and applied for a transfer to another department. In light of my own observations during my time at the camp Schebeck personally killed over 1,000 people.

His usual course of action with regard to prisoners who he thought were not working hard enough was to beat them with a truncheon or – when sorting potatoes – with a shovel, until the prisoner dropped dead or – what was considered lucky – until the truncheon or the shovel broke. Schebeck’s tasks also included taking away products and other things from newly arrived prisoners. I witnessed him hide some of the more valuable items in his desk and then take them by car to his wife, who was living in Babice. On several occasions I saw Schebeck shoot and kill prisoners collecting bread crumbs that had fallen off cars carrying bread in the road. He [also] personally took part in rushing prisoners to the gas chambers, and if [he was ever prevented from taking part in this], he would assign a number of the SS men under his command to the task.

Bergson indicated further witnesses in the relevant case, including Mieczysław Kotlarski, teacher (Chorzów, Stalmacha Street), Mieczysław Wiatr (the address can be provided by Kotlarski), Fryderyk Wilk (Łódź, Wólczańska Street) and Zygmunt Benikas (Łódź, Państwowe Zakłady Krawieckie).

The examination and the report were concluded.