WOJCIECH MARCHWICKI

On 30 September 1947 in Kraków, Deputy Prosecutor of the Tenth Region of the Prosecutor’s Office in Kraków, with its seat in Kraków, this in the person of Deputy Prosecutor Radwański, with the participation of a reporter, Trainee Judge J. Szeklucki, acting pursuant to Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Wojciech Marchwicki
Date and place of birth 31 May 1891 in Laskówka, Dąbrowa District
Parents’ names Antoni and Karolina, née Toper
Place of residence Prokocim, Krakowska Street 44
Occupation restaurant owner
Criminal record found guilty of contempt of the Higher Municipal Court in Katowice in 1932, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment commuted to a fine
Relationship to the parties none

I was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp from January 1941 to the autumn of 1942 – I was later transferred to the Mauthausen camp, and then to Gusen, where I stayed until 5 May 1945.

Aumeier and Grabner are the only names of the SS men from the Auschwitz camp crew that I recall. I never learned other names, or I no longer remember them. If I were to see all captured criminals from Auschwitz and other subcamps, I could possibly recognize them and say something about them in my testimony.

As for Aumeier, I witnessed him beating prisoners with a riding crop that he always carried around. I saw him attending and observing executions in block 11 with his subordinate Palitzsch. I cannot tell whether he personally shot people, because I never saw it, but I did see Palitzsch shoot. In 1942, Aumeier searched me and found a wooden box in which I carried large needles and buttons. He told me that this was sabotage, destroyed the box, and hit me in the face.

When I got to Auschwitz in 1941, SS men beat me up on Grabner’s orders, breaking three of my ribs and knocking out all of my teeth. Grabner was head of the Political Department, and I learned from fellow prisoners who had contact with him in this capacity that he tortured people during interrogations.

The report was read out.