Martin Sztern, a shopkeeper from Čakovec, 50 years old, of Jewish ethnicity, hereby provides the following testimony before the Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes in the city and district of Čakovec regarding his incarceration at a German concentration camp, and also the treatment of inmates by the Germans:
I was a prisoner at the camp of Manovic [Monowitz] in Auschwitz from 2 May 1944 until 31 January 1945, when we were liberated by the Russians. During this time there were some 12,000 of us inmates in the said camp, of whom approximately 30 were Jews from Čakovec, while the others were of various national ethnicities.
We worked at the IG Farbenindustrie plant. Prisoners were treated inhumanely. Various crimes were committed on our persons. Two selections were carried out there during my period of incarceration. These resulted in 30 people being earmarked for gassing and sent to Birkenau, where they were incinerated. I know that Elewer Hofman, a Jew and a factory owner from my home township of Čakovec, perished during one of the selections.
While I was in the camp, eight people were hanged; all the prisoners had to be present and watch the execution. We were punished in various ways, among others by being forced to stand for up to four hours in the worst weather. We also were forced to lie on specially constructed appliances, whereupon we would be beaten with rubber truncheons. At night they would herd people outdoors, into the cold and the rain, making them bathe and then running them back to the blocks, and this caused a great many people to fall ill. Indeed, the whole camp was intended for the direct extermination of people. During work prisoners were maltreated, hit in the face and kicked. While I was incarcerated there, only a small number – approximately 30 – perished of hunger and exhaustion; these deaths were due to the fact that the only available food was boiled water and bread, and there was no potable water. Tens of people died in the hospital each day, for they received no food or drugs. People would come to the hospital because they were exhausted, or had recently been whipped or tortured. Our camp was closed in by a wire fence, and also by wires under high voltage. The greatest crimes were committed by the so-called kapos and kapois, who were in fact prisoners who had been placed in charge of other inmates.
Amongst the functionaries of the camp, who issued orders to proceed in such a way, I do not remember any who came to our blocks – at most, they came infrequently, and so I am unable to describe any of them.