STANISŁAW KUBIŃSKI

On 23 September 1947 in Tarnów, Investigating Judge from the District Court in Tarnów, Judge Dr. J. Piec, with the participation of a reporter, A. Kucharczyk, heard the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname engineer Stanisław Kubiński
Age 58 years old
Parents’ names Julian and Emilia
Place of residence Mościce – Osiedle
Occupation head of the Mechanical Department in the State Factory of Nitric Compounds
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

On the basis of the list of the former members of the SS crew at the concentration camp in Auschwitz, which was shown to me, I declare that I know the defendants Hans Aumeier, Max Grabner, Hainrich Josten, and Arthur Liebehenschel, whom I knew in the camp by name, and that from the day of their arrival at the camp because I was one of the “oldest” prisoners, since I was incarcerated in the camp from 20 June 1940 to October 1944.

I met them because I worked as a warehouseman in the mechanical workshop in Auschwitz, and each officer came there for an inspection and had many personal dealings there.

Hans Aumeier succeeded Fritzsch as the camp commandant. Aumeier was a vehement man, he beat the prisoners and, as was universally known, personally shot prisoners who had been sentenced to death, which he did in block 11, where he would shoot prisoners lying on the stretchers. He considered every incident – even the most innocent oversight – to be a good reason for repression. The defendant Max Grabner headed the Political Department in the camp, and he was a first-class criminal. Since I was in touch with the prisoners who worked in the Political Department, I know that the defendant Grabner would make excerpts from the prisoners’ files by himself, as well as make lists of people earmarked for death; he used provokers and invented fictitious political organizations allegedly operating in the camp in order to introduce repressive measures in the form of shooting people. From my friends who worked in the Political Department, especially Feliks Myłyk, residing in Gliwice, I know that about 10,000 prisoners were condemned to death in this manner. Grabner’s abuses were so considerable that when the new commandant, Liebehenschel, assumed his post, which he did in November 1943, Grabner was removed and, as rumor had it, arrested. I heard that a German court sentenced him to eight years in prison.

As for the defendant Josten, who was deputy commandant for the employment of prisoners, he is the same man whom I often saw beat and kick the prisoners. He was grouchy and took his anger out on the prisoners and also on the SS men under his command.

The defendant Arthur Liebehenschel, acting as camp commandant, introduced a whole new order in the camp and eliminated the abuse of prisoners perpetrated by the SS men, kapos and block leaders, and generally relaxed the regime. He removed all professional criminals who wore green triangles from the positions of kapos and block leaders and appointed political prisoners in their place. I even heard from my friends that Liebehenschel issued an order that the prisoners were obliged to greet only the camp commandant, and not other SS men, adding that a political prisoner shouldn’t bow to a such a bunch. [illegible]. After four months in the office, Liebehenschel was dismissed and replaced by Hoffmann, who introduced new restrictions, although not so severe as during the rule of Grabner, Aumeier and Fritzsch.

The following people, former inmates of the Auschwitz camp, might be able to provide information pertaining to the behavior of the defendants: Stefan Kępa – office worker at the District Office in Nowy Targ,

Franciszek Balzar (MA) – resident at Mościce, employed in the PFZA [State Factory of Nitric Compounds]

engineer Tadeusz Śledziński – resident at Mościce – Osiedle,

engineer Jan Pilecki – Warsaw – Polish Radio,

engineer Artur Krzetuski,

engineer Władysław Plaskura, both in the Central Reconstruction Bureau in Gliwice,

engineer Hipsch and Józef Plaskura, both residing in Oświęcim Dwory.

The report was read out and signed.