STANISŁAW ZNÓJ

On 5 November 1947 in Lublin, Mieczysław Nowakowski, a Deputy Prosecutor at the Court of Appeal in Lublin and a Member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, interviewed the person mentioned hereunder in accordance with the procedure provided for under Article 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the said testified as follows:


Name and surname Stanisław Znój
Age 29 years old
Religion Roman Catholic
Occupation an officer at the Voivodeship People’s Militia Headquarters in Lublin
Place of residence Lublin, Górna Street 8/5
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

In January 1943 I was arrested by the Gestapo in Łukowa, and after two weeks of imprisonment I was transported to the camp in Majdanek, where I was incarcerated until April 1944. There were five fields in Majdanek, each occupied by prisoners of different national ethnicities. The commandant of the camp was Weiss, and Thumann was his deputy. The head of the crematorium was Muhsfeldt. I do not know the name of the latter. The conditions in Majdanek were terrible. Prisoners died daily of exhaustion, and they were also beaten and murdered by the guards. Physical abuse was commonplace, and indeed somewhat of an amusement for the Germans.

Muhsfeldt distinguished himself with his cruelty; he was the same man who is in the photograph that was shown to me (a photograph of Erich Muhsfeldt was presented to the witness). On many occasions he would beat prisoners encountered on the grounds of the camp, quite often without any visible cause. I was beaten by him too. Once, Muhsfeldt noticed that I had smiled towards a waggoner. He immediately walked up to me and hit me on the jaw, causing me to fall, whereupon he started kicking me over my entire body, during which attack he knocked out three of my teeth.

In another instance, I saw the arrival of a transport of women and children; they were immediately herded into the bath, and from there to the gas chamber. After two days the bodies were carted off to the crematorium and incinerated. Muhsfeldt was an active participant of this action, making sure that everyone entered the bath. The Germans stood guard all around and issued orders to others of the prisoners, who in turn told the newly arrived women and children to go into the bath, through which a passage led to the gas chamber. The prisoners in Majdanek knew what this meant, for if a transport was at once sent to the bath, then these people were doomed. I think that this group was made up of Jewesses and their children, but I do not know where they had come from.

Returning to the person of Muhsfeldt, I would like to add that he was the terror of the entire camp. I feel obliged to stress that during his period of service at Majdanek he had a decidedly fuller face. On the photograph presented to me today Muhsfeldt is considerably thinner, however I do recognize him.

Prisoners who worked in the crematorium told me that Muhsfeldt ordered gold teeth to be torn out of newly arriving bodies and thrown into a pot.

Prisoners employed at the crematorium further told me that partisans captured by the Germans during an action were sent directly to the crematorium and shot dead there, and their bodies incinerated. Muhsfeldt took an active part in these executions.

I have nothing more to add.

The report was read out.