On 22 October 1947 in Tarnów, Investigating Judge from the region of the District Court in Tarnów, with Judge Dr. J. Piec presiding and 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 | Włodzimierz Białota |
| Age | 27 years old |
| Parents’ names | Paweł and Aniela |
| Place of residence | Tarnów, Zamkowa Street 8 |
| Occupation | post office worker |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
I was incarcerated in the Auschwitz camp from 1940 to 1944, that is, for the period of approximately four years, and I know the following people from among the former members of the SS crew in the Auschwitz camp: Hans Aumeier, Rose Brandl, Arthur Breitwieser, Max Grabner, Heinrich Josten, Stefan Kirschner, Ludwig Plagge, Kurt Müller and Luisa Schultz.
I knew the above-listed persons by name.
Hans Aumeier was the Lagerführer [camp leader], and he was cruel towards the prisoners. He took part in shooting the prisoners, and he himself tormented them on the camp premises, beating and kicking them for no reason. For the slightest transgression he would punish the prisoners with flogging, suspending them from a post or the so-called standing bunker. It was universally known that some time in 1942, on his orders, all prisoners from the punitive unit were either shot or gassed for the alleged attempted mutiny, and he was said to have participated in the shooting himself. When he was in charge of the camp, whole transports of people arriving at the camp were sent directly to the gas. I would like to note that in his time, due to the great numbers of typhus patients, people suffering from this illness were sent to the gas. Aumeier was very hostile, particularly to the Poles.
Theresa Rose Brandl was the head of the clothes’ storerooms and she was ruthless towards the imprisoned women, whom she beat about their faces and kicked, which I often witnessed myself.
Arthur Breitwieser, who initially worked in the camp management and later in the equipment warehouse, spoke excellent Polish, and therefore he was able to inform on the prisoners to the Lagerführer whenever he heard any conversation that was to the disadvantage of the Germans. He was very hostile towards the Poles, he told me himself that he came from the Poznań region, and he was a staunch supporter of Hitler, as exemplified by the fact that he wore a badge of a volunteer.
Max Grabner, who headed the Political Department for the period of four years, used to sentence the prisoners to death of his own will and en masse, especially on Polish national holidays and when Germany suffered defeats. It was widely known that a prisoner who went for an interrogation to the Political Department wouldn’t come back. Grabner was particularly prejudiced against the Polish intelligentsia, and as a head of the Political Department, he approved all death sentences passed against its members. His greatest joy was an execution at block 11, after which he would leave the block with a smile on his face.
Heinrich Josten, at first a deputy to the work manager and later a deputy to the camp commandant, was especially hostile towards the Poles: he tormented them, beat and kicked them without any reason.
Stefan Kirschner, at first a guard and later an employee of the camp post office, was the scourge of the prisoners whom he led to work. He used to set his dog on the prisoners just for fun, as a result of which the prisoners had torn bodies. Moreover, he beat the prisoners during their work, not letting them even straighten their backs.
Anton Lechner, at first a guard, was then a deputy head of the clothes’ storerooms; he would get drunk on purpose in order to be able to torture the prisoners he chanced upon in a most sophisticated manner. When a prisoner whom he was beating fell to the ground, Lechner would jump on him and then kick him, aiming at the kidneys, which I often witnessed as his subordinate.
Arthur Liebenhenschel for a short time held the post of the camp commandant, and he relaxed the regime in the camp with regard to the treatment of the prisoners. He took interest in the camp living conditions, and most importantly he forbade the kapos and the SS men to beat the prisoners, for which he punished them personally. On his orders, the prisoners were no longer required to take off their caps when crossing the gate on their way to work, and he ordered that all prisoners be released from the bunkers at the moment he assumed his post. He sent the informers and sadistic kapos to the penal camp in Flossenbürg.
Ludwig Plagge, who was a Blokführer [block leader], tormented the prisoners in such a way that when the first transport arrived at Auschwitz, he would conduct “exercises” with the prisoners for 12 hours per day, and as a result at least 50 percent of prisoners would drop from exhaustion. When he was a Raportführer [report leader] in Birkenau, he segregated the prisoners for gassing. I witnessed him beat one Jew about the head with a riding crop in such a way that the whole head of that man got swollen, which resulted in his death. In Birkenau, he would incarcerate prisoners in the so-called temporary bunker for three days without food or air, where the prisoner was kept until he died. He volunteered to mete out the punishment of flogging with his riding crop, and he was particularly sadistic when torturing women.
Kurt Müller was a Blokführer and a very strict and staunch supporter of Hitler, but he didn’t harass the prisoners in any special ways.
Luisa Schultz was a guard in Birkenau, and most recently she worked in this capacity in the experimental block in Auschwitz. I heard from some women, whose surnames I no longer remember, that she beat the prisoners and didn’t allow them to take the walks to which they had a right and which were their only opportunity to see the light of day since the windows of that block were boarded up. She wronged the prisoners by stealing their rations of fats. I don’t know the surnames of the prisoners who complained to me about this.
The report was read out and signed.