Oświęcim, 6 August 1946. Regional Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, acting in accordance with the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293) on the Main Commission and Regional Commissions for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, as a member of the Main Commission, pursuant to Article 255, in connection with Articles 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person specified below, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Józef Koczorowski |
| Date and place of birth | 1 February 1919, Poznań |
| Parents’ names | Karol and Helena Stachowiak |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Occupation | road and water technician |
| Place of residence | Katowice-Załęże, Osiedle Oborki 3 |
I was arrested in Kraków on 9 May 1940 and placed in the prison on Montelupich Street. From there, I was transported to the Tarnów prison, where I stayed until 14 June 1940. On that day, I was transported by rail to Auschwitz. I stayed in the Auschwitz camp until November 1944, when I was transported to Oranienburg.
I worked in the Transportkolonne [transport column] for a short time and then, on 7 July 1940, I was assigned to work in the construction office (Bauleitung), headed by Untersturmführer Schlachter. At the end of 1941, SS-Hauptsturmführer Bischoff, dressed in civilian clothes, came to Auschwitz. He came there as a special representative (Sonderbeauftragter) for the construction of the prisoner-of-war camp
(Kriegsgefangenenlager). For the purposes of the construction, a special so-called Sonderbauleitung was formed, which answered directly to Bischoff. Later on, the two institutions, the old S-Bauleitung and the Sonderbauleitung, merged under the direction of Bischoff into one institution called the Zentralbauleitung der Waffen-SS und Polizei Auschwitz [the Waffen SS and Police Central Construction Board in Auschwitz]. In 1941, it employed 60 specialists who planned and designed the construction and extension of various camp facilities, and by 1944 there were 164 of these. The institution’s task was to develop and execute plans of camp buildings. The initiative to build individual facilities came from the commandant’s office. From the beginning to November 1943, the camp commandant was Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höß. During his time in office, the Auschwitz camp grew nearly to the size it was at the end of its existence and acquired all the tools needed for the mass murder of prisoners. I mean the gas chambers and crematoria. I remember seeing the plan of the gas chamber in crematorium I in Auschwitz. On that plan, the chamber was marked as a Leichenhalle [morgue] for 600 people. When Höß was commandant, four more crematoria were built and put into operation. Höß himself was interested in expanding the camp, and he visited the Bauleitung barracks. I remember that in the summer of 1942 I saw Höß, Aumeir and Grabner in Birkenau near the cottage where a gas chamber was [later] installed. Immediately after that meeting, we drew up that facility onto some area development plan. It concerned a gas chamber located to the right of crematorium V. There were two barracks next to the building – women were driven inside, they went out naked and entered the gas chamber.
While doing field works, I personally saw such scenes through the telescope of a surveyor’s level. In the summer of 1942, there was a rebellion of prisoners in the penal unit. At that time, their job consisted in digging foundations for crematorium III. They formed groups of five and started marching towards the Vistula River. The penal unit (SK – Strafkompanie) then consisted of about 250 prisoners. I think that 19 rebels managed to escape. Following the escape, all prisoners from the SK, including the sick who were dragged out of the hospital, often on stretchers, were gathered together, and Grabner, in the presence of Höß, Aumeier and Palitzsch, who helped him, shot about 20 of them dead. The rest of the prisoners from the penal unit were then driven towards the gas chamber and the pits for burning corpses, and executed.
In 1941, I saw Höß riding on horseback through the Bauhof [building materials depot] and shooting a revolver at prisoners who were trying to protect themselves from rain under a roof. While working at the Bauleitung, I had an insider’s view of the escape of Jarzębowski’s group, so I know that the escape was initiated by Stanisław Chybiński from Warsaw. The third person in the group was Florian Basiński, prisoner no. 365, who was imprisoned in the camp under the name of Józef Rotter. His colleagues in the camp called him “Cowboy”. Not long after the execution of 25 prisoners from measurement offices, Basiński was arrested again in connection with a different matter and brought back to the camp, from where he was later on transferred to Sosnowiec and executed by firing squad. I believe that due to the intervention of Rapportführer Stiewitz, some 13 prisoners were executed by firing squad and the rest of them, 12, were hanged in connection with the escape of Jarzębowski’s group. He chose 13 prisoners with the highest numbers from the group of 27 who had been arrested in connection with the case and locked them in the bunker. They were gathered in the yard of block 11 and executed by shooting, without the intervention or participation of Berlin. Commander Höß and the Political Department arranged it on their own. I suppose that Stiewitz wanted to protect senior prisoners with whom he did business, of course, for his own benefit. In the meantime, Stiewitz was transferred to Riga. After his departure, another 12 prisoners were arrested and hanged in connection with the Jarzębowski case. Höß was present during the execution by hanging of those 12. He read the verdict and, in his short speech, he declared that this time 12 prisoners would be hanged for the escape, but if it happened again, that number would rise to a hundred. He also pointed out that the fugitives had reportedly poisoned an SS man. Höß had influence over the decisions made by the Political Department, and particularly by its head, Grabner, which was evidenced by the fact that he repeatedly saved Kwiatkowski and Dubiel, who were employed in his private household – once he even did so after they were placed by the wall in the yard of block 11. I suppose that this was thanks to the intervention of Höß’s wife.
A prisoner, whose job was to burn corpses in crematorium I, told me that Höß took an interest in their work, told them to hurry up, gave them cigarettes and additional portions of soup. The corpses of prisoners who died in the camp were burned in that crematorium, but people from outside the camp were brought to that gas chamber as well. I remember that for the escape of one prisoner in 1941, 40 men, reportedly from the prisoner’s village, were brought to Auschwitz and executed by firing squad in the place where the slaughterhouse is now located, almost opposite the crematorium. It was some village near Warsaw. The bodies of the executed men were burned in crematorium I. This was told to prisoners during the evening roll call.
People from outside the camp were gassed in the chamber of crematorium I. I recall that around the beginning of 1943, about 50 men, women, and children were brought there and gassed. They were transported by trucks driven by SS men with Sondergericht [special court] badges on their chests. It was also where Russian commissars, who had been brought to Auschwitz for that particular purpose, were gassed. All the people I have mentioned never made it into the camp and were not registered.
I would like to point out that the first gassing in Auschwitz took place in the basement of block 11. In October 1941, if I remember correctly, about 600 Russian prisoners of war and about 200 prisoners with tuberculosis from the KB [hospital] were gassed. Höß took an interest in all camp matters, interfered in them irrespective of the competence of his subordinates, and made sure – by himself or through people from the camp management who answered to him – that works and construction in the camp were rapidly executed. He was everywhere, so he must have known about the first gassing, and I believe it was him who ordered it. Besides, the gassing was performed by Palitzsch, who was an officer from the commandant’s office and not an employee of the Political Department.
Höß used his position for personal gain. The villa he occupied, which was officially named “Haus Höß,” was rebuilt by prisoners according to his and his wife’s design. The inside of the house and the furniture changed almost every year. The materials needed for all those works came from the Bauhof. Prisoners employed in his household “organized” food and various everyday items from Canada [the storehouse for prisoners’ belongings] for the Höß family. Höß’s wife supervised those matters. Höß must have known about it.
The report was read out. At this point, the interview and the present report were concluded.