Tarnów, 12 October 1947
Tadeusz Śnieszko
Tarnów, Starowolskiego Street 2
To
The Municipal Court
in Tarnów
From the list of former members of the SS crew of the concentration camp in Auschwitz presented to me by the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Kraków, I am familiar with the following criminals:
1) Hans Aumeier, SS-Hauptsturmführer, the Lagerführer [camp leader] of Auschwitz I. From May 1942 – i.e. since Aumeier took over the headquarters of the camp – the terror against the prisoners increased significantly. Virtually no day went by without any executions of prisoners. Aumeier participated in all these executions. He was an extremely malicious type of criminal – he beat and killed prisoners personally. As the Lagerführer, he harassed the prisoners by administering severe punishments for misdemeanors such as beatings, the post, the bunkers, jobs that were too physically demanding.
A saying of his was universally known – that a prisoner should not live longer than three months, because both the working conditions and the nutrition were so designed that no one could live longer. Whoever lived longer, was committing acts of sabotage towards the camp authorities, because he either didn’t work like the German interest required, or was robbing the camp to get additional food.
He participated in all the gas selections conducted among the sick or older prisoners in the camp. For example, during the delousing of the camp in August 1942, over 3,000 prisoners were selected after the evening roll call and sent to Birkenau, where they were destined to be liquidated in the gas chambers.
If any prisoners were every caught while trying to escape, he sentenced them to death by hanging.
Several times I saw, like during the so-called Lager[illegible], civilians being brought into block 11, including women with children in their arms. I heard later from the so-called Leichenträgers [corpse carriers] that all these people had been shot. Aumeier always participated in all the executions. The most serious execution of prisoners from the so-called Lublin transport took place on 28 October 1942, during which Aumeier flew into a severe rage, especially since four prisoners rebelled and barricaded themselves in block 11.
At the end of February 1943, first 40, and then 80 children – boys under 14 years of age, originating from the Zamość region – were sentenced to death by applying phenol injections.
2) Max Grabner was the head of the Political Department in the Auschwitz camp. He terrorized the whole camp, because he issued all the dispositions regarding the executions of the prisoners and approved all the gas selections, as well as those for the phenol injections. In general, none of the prisoners could live or die without his knowledge.
3) Ludwig Plagge was the Rapportführer [report leader] at the gypsy camp in Birkenau. I met him when I was transferred from Auschwitz. An extremely malicious brute. Constantly drunk, he used to harass the prisoners by beating them and mistreating them at every opportunity. His games were widely known when he would run around the camp under the influence, firing on all sides. He persecuted the Poles in particular.
4) I could say something about Georg Bayer if I was sure that he was the same one who was later a prisoner in the Barth camp.