On 18 May 1945 in Oświęcim, the Investigating Judge Jan Sehn, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German-Hitlerite Crimes in Oświęcim, acting upon a motion and in the presence and with the participation of a member of the aforementioned Commission, Deputy Prosecutor at the Regional Court in Kraków, Edward Pęchalski, in accordance with procedure provided for under Art. 254 in connection with Art. 107, 109 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the former prisoner no. 82325 (with a triangle) of the concentration camp in Auschwitz, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Marie Stoppelman |
| Date and place of birth | 22 May 1914, Amsterdam |
| Parents’ names | Herman and Gratia née de Haas |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Nationality and citizenship | Dutch |
| Profession | physician |
| Marital status | unmarried |
| I | was arrested along with my brother, Theo Stoppelman, on 20 May 1944 in Wageningen |
on charges of membership in an underground organization fighting against the German occupiers. After a brief incarceration in German prisons in the Netherlands, I was deported together with my brother (we were escorted by two SS men) to Auschwitz concentration camp, where I arrived on 30 June 1944. I was first placed in block 19 of the Birkenau women’s camp, then in block 7, and finally in block 20 of the former Gypsy camp (BIIe [Bauabschnitt IIe – construction section IIe]).
From 9 July 1944 on I worked as an assistant at the laboratory of the women’s camp hospital. My superior was Doctor Mengele. He was a man of average height, dark-haired, slim, with a regular countenance, over 30 years of age, or so I think. He was married, however his wife was in the SS hospital suffering from diphtheria. Where he came from and what his first name, I do not know.
I have described this person, in particular his treatment of the prisoners and his purported research conducted on twins, on five pages of typewritten text, which I hereby submit. (The witness presents a document entitled “Meine Erlebnisse in dem Konzentrationslager Auschwitz beginnen mit dem 30 Juni 1944 bis zum Abmarsch der Deutschen am 25 Jänner 1945” [My experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 30 June 1944 until the departure of the Germans on 25 January 1945]).
As regards the part of this document which discusses the selections conducted by Mengele, I would like to add that he conducted large selections of women at the hospital of Birkenau women’s camp in September and October of 1944. Several hundred women – 200 or maybe 300 – fell victim to these selections. Mengele did not examine the patients, he just looked at their fever charts, making his decisions primarily on the basis of their physical appearance. If a woman was skinny or afflicted with a skin condition, he would send her for gassing. Everyone brought to the women’s camp individually, as was the case with me, was a so-called Kartermässige [?], excluded by the political department from selections. Why this was so – I do not know. Whatever the case may be, I was not ordered to take part in a single selection throughout my period of incarceration in the camp. I have no first-hand information regarding Mengele’s participation in the gassing of people in the crematoria.
Every now and again, an SS doctor from the laboratory in Rajsko would come to the quarantine section of the women’s camp and take blood from young, healthy women. They were not examined, and neither were they asked for their consent. Half [a liter] of blood, but in numerous instances even more, would be drawn from each such involuntary donor. These women were later issued two portions of sausage and half a loaf of bread in return for their blood. I believe that the blood was taken to be used in transfusions for wounded German soldiers.
My work in the laboratory was connected with the hospital of the women’s camp, of which the laboratory formed a part. Mengele’s research into the blood of twins was outside my scope.
The witness testified in the German language, which the presiding judge understands, and consequently was heard without a translator. After the presiding judge read out and translated the protocol into German, the witness declared the following: Die vorstehende Protokollniederschrift wurde mir von dem Richter in Gegenwart des Staatsanwaltes und der Protokollführerin in die deutsche Sprache übersetzt. Ich anerkenne die Aufnahme als richtig, meine Aussagen Wort- und Sinngemäße wiedergebend, demnach auch meinem Willen entsprechend und unterzeichne das Protokoll eigenhändig. Dasselbe betrifft das von mir vorgelegte Schreiben. Für die Richtigkeit der in diesem Schreiben gemachten Angaben stehe ich jederzeit voll und ganz ein. [Ich] habe zum Beweis dessen Blatt für Blatt eigenhändig unterzeichnet und bitte dieses Schreiben als Anlage dem Protokoll beizufügen in der Überzeugung, dass die in diesem Schreiben angeführten Details eine wesentliche Ergänzung meiner Aussage darstellen [the transcription of the protocol in question has been translated to me into the German language by the presiding judge in the presence of the prosecutor and the clerk of the court. I acknowledge the record as true, and the reproduction of my statement as verbatim and analogous and therefore in accordance with my will, to which effect I undersign the protocol in my own hand. The same applies to the letter submitted by me. I take full responsibility for the accuracy of the information present in this letter. [I] have signed this document as evidence in my own hand and request that this letter be annexed to the minutes, with the conviction that the details given therein are an essential complement to my statement.]. At this, the present protocol was concluded and read out.