On 9 November 1946 in Poznań, judge of the District Court in Poznań with its seat in Poznań, Judge J. Rzędowski, with the participation of a reporter, court trainee Józef Skalski, interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, of the provisions of Art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn in accordance with Art. 109 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Edward Błotnicki |
| Date of birth | 8 April 1888 |
| Names of parents | Stanisław and Józefa née Heinrich |
| Place of residence | Poznań, Senatorska Street 4 |
| Occupation | former head of a mine in Borysław |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
| I | was prisoner no. 45096 in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 7 July 1942 to |
27 January 1945.
I was arrested by the Gestapo in Krynica on 26 May 1942. I was informed I was a hostage. I was taken to the prison in Nowy Sącz on the day following my arrest and was held there until 6 June. Then I was moved to Tarnów, where I stayed until 7 July 1942. From Tarnów I was transported to Auschwitz.
My personal data was recorded, but I wasn’t interrogated at all from the moment of my arrest in Krynica until I was put in Auschwitz. I believe my arrest was to a large extent caused by the then-mayor of Krynica, Wikler. 11 other residents of Krynica were arrested along with me, and none of them was questioned. Out of the 12 of us arrested, the following are still alive according to my knowledge: Chojniak, a peasant from Krynica of Ruthenian nationality, resident at Zielona Street, and Edi Muli, the owner or tenant of the “Zacisze” restaurant in Krynica. The thirteenth arrested, engineer Walczyk, was released as he was needed by the local power plant. He was released before we left Krynica. The Gestapo chief in Nowy Sącz at the time was Hamann.
In Auschwitz, I initially worked on road construction, dug gravel, chopped wood, carried pallets, etc. In September 1942 I was assigned to a potato storehouse which was situated within the fenced area. In February, or maybe March 1943, I was sent to the Krankenbau für Häftlinge (AKB) [Häftlingskrankenbau (HKB)] – prison hospital, where I stayed until the end, with around two weeks of a break. I had a heart condition – angina pectoris.
The food in the hospital was the same as in the rest of the camp, the only difference being that the sick would receive boiled farina wheat and those with kidney problems would get unsalted potato soup. It was especially rough in 1942; we suffered from starvation. We were supposed to get a liter of soup for dinner, but the various attendants used more of it than we did, so a regular prisoner would only get three-quarters of a liter. The kind of soup varied depending on the season: beetroot soup, potato soup, sometimes barely soup. The soup would sometimes even be thick. There was definitely too little of it, especially as it didn’t contain any fat. Except for that, we would get half a liter of tea or coffee twice a day, and a quarter of a kilogram of bread for the whole day with a tiny piece of margarine, or sometimes a slice of sausage. Those who worked hard would receive an extra kilogram of bread weekly. From January 1943, it was slightly better because we were allowed to receive parcels from home.
The person to decide about submission to the hospital was a German doctor. In the beginning, there were three hospital barracks, and then there were five. The general supervisor of the hospital was a German SS doctor, as I recall his surname was Entress, and his subordinates were the Blockälteste – senior block prisoners who managed the barracks – prisoner doctors, clerks, etc.
The way the prisoners were treated, both in the hospital and in the camp, depended on their nationality. The Germans were treated best; they received double portions of bread, sometimes even cigarettes. Jews, Gypsies, and Russians were treated the worst; the Dutch, French and Poles were treated better. The ill would be given medicine – if there was any, or possibly if the patient was able to get hold of it on his own. You could buy medicines from a person who had access to them. The most severe punishment for a convalescent was to be thrown out of the hospital or a beating. Typhoid fever was treated with hot water only, and so-called Durchfall – diarrhea, bowel infections, dysentery, and other similar diseases were not treated at all.
The cleanliness of the camp was exemplary, except that there were lice and fleas. Everything was cleaned to a fault, constantly washed, scrubbed, and painted.
(In response to a query about the crimes committed in the camp and when asked if he could point the people responsible for the offenses, the witness stated:)
In 1942, typhoid fever was widespread in the camp. Up to 100 people died every day. The blocks were deloused in order to contain the disease. I saw all the ill or supposedly ill with typhoid being led out of block 20 KB ([Krankenbau] hospital barrack no. 20), or sometimes carried out of the block, under the supervision of the chief doctor. The ill were then loaded onto trucks and sent to the gas chambers in Birkenau. I learned from Czubak, a clerk from KB, that the prisoners taken away to Birkenau had all been marked off as dead and that there were 520 of them on that day.
The witnesses of this crime were Dr. Dering, whom I had met in Krynica, a Pole, the chief doctor of KB 21; Dr. Feikel or Feigel [Fejkiel] from Lwów, a Pole; both Dembowski (Kazimierz and Tadeusz, if I am not mistaken), nurses (Pfleger) from Nowy Sącz, sons of a pharmacist; Czubak, a secondary school teacher from Krynica; Dr. Szczepan Kruczek, presently resident in Kraków, Bracka Street 6; a clerk (Schreiber) Głowa, currently resident in Kraków, Municipal Board. Głowa could give more information on this matter as he was a clerk in block 21 at the time.
I know that those ill with typhoid were transported to Birkenau two more times, including Dziunio Bąk, a trader from Krynica, and Bartys Senior, a chauffeur from Nowy Sącz. I found out about it from Czubak or Bartys’ son, who was also a prisoner.
In 1942 (July, August, September), I also witnessed people suffering from phlegmon being admitted in the courtyard between blocks 20 and 21. The admission was granted by the Pfleger. They divided them into two groups, severely and mildly ill. Some of the mildly ill were picked by a doctor from KB 20 and accepted into the hospital. The rest, as there was no more room in the hospital, were sent away. They were probably transported or marched to Birkenau. I never saw them around anymore. They were liquidated, but I don’t know how. I saw four or five such groups of people suffering from phlegmon brought in to be examined; there were up to 200 people in one of the groups. The witnesses to that were Dr. Dering, Dembowski Senior and Czubak.
In 1942, the physically weak prisoners were exterminated to make more room for the newcomers. The senior block prisoners or the kapos were the ones who selected prisoners for extermination without any medical examination. In the potato storehouse where I worked, the extermination process was run by kapo Lisowski, a Pole, supposedly a lieutenant of the Polish Armed Forces. The Germans later executed him in the bunker. Lisowski picked 40–50 of his fellow prisoners, including me and Dr. Szumański, an attorney from Warsaw. Szumański managed to escape into the infirmary, while I ran off already on the way to the main gate. Szumański was later killed by the Germans in Auschwitz. Lisowski tried to excuse himself in front of the prisoners from the potato storehouse by saying he carried out the selection by orders from the camp authorities, and he only chose a few. The witnesses were engineer Gedel, Kraków, Św. Marcina Street; Master of Law Marian Strzigl, a director, presently in Sanok; Wiesław Witek, a manager from Żabno near Tarnów.
There was the experimental gynecological block no. 10 in Auschwitz, and about 200 young Jewish women – Polish, German and French – were used for the experiments. This was in 1943 and 1944. Experiments on artificial insemination were run there. Under the supervision of Dr. Kruczek, sperm from young Jewish men was collected at block 20 and was then used for insemination. I know about this from the accounts of doctors and Pfleger, and more details can be provided by Dr. Kruczek, Dr. Ławkowicz, a physician from Warsaw, and Dr. Fleck, a Polish Jew and bacteriologist from Lwów.
Every failed escape attempt from Auschwitz was punished with death by hanging. The captured escapees were hanged publicly in the camp. I witnessed such executions. The first of them was on 8 July 1942, when two captured prisoners were put to death; then, throughout 1942 and 1943, there were two single executions by hanging; finally, in August or September 1943, there was a mass execution of 12 inmates. That was when about a dozen colleagues escaped from the measurement unit (Landmesser), supposedly having killed an SS guard who had been watching them. Several of the escapees were shot and their bodies were brought to the camp and put on public display as a deterrence against further escape attempts. As retaliation for the slain SS man, whose body was not found, 12 prisoners from the measurement unit were hanged. They were hanged publicly during the evening roll-call, on a single gallows built from a railway track, all at the same time. All the prisoners were then told to march in front of the victims. Witnesses to that are all the camp prisoners. The camp authorities supposedly selected the ones to be hanged.
Some patients were liquidated by gassing in order to make space for new ones. Every now and then, every three to four weeks, the hospital was visited by the head doctor, a German, for that purpose. All the sick would show up in front of him with their medical records in their hands. The cards would be given to the head doctor by the patients who marched in single file. He would hand them over to the hospital clerk or to his assistant. A list was drawn up based on the medical records collected by the assistant and those included in it were sent to the gas chambers of Birkenau. Even the Polish doctors couldn’t tell me what Dr. Entress’ possible reasons for the selection were.
From 1942, with the exception of Germans, prisoners were being exterminated regardless of their nationality. By the end of 1943 and in 1944 only Jews were being exterminated. All the Greek Jews from Thessaloniki were killed that way. I would estimate the number of people put to death in such a way at 5,000. The witnesses to this were Dr. Fejkiel, Dr. Kruczek, Dr. Tondos, Dr. Zielina, Dr. Mężyk, Dr. Rogowski – a judge from Kraków, Dr. Herman – a Jew from Prague, Dr. Rubiczek – a Jew from Prague, Dr. Walentino – a Jew from Berlin, Dr. Bloch from Paris.
A release from Auschwitz (which happened extremely rarely) could be obtained only on the condition of cooperating with the Gestapo. The Auschwitz prisoners were interned there indefinitely. I know of this from Dr. Szumański, who was released from Auschwitz in 1941. According to his story, due to the inefficient, inadequate cooperation with the Gestapo, which he had undertaken when he was released in 1941, he was sent to Auschwitz again in late 1942.
I was also told about this by two Poles, academics from Pomerania (one of them from Tczew, the son of a doctor), with whom I shared a bed in early 1943, and both of whom were under quarantine in the hospital preceding their release. When I asked how they managed to get the release, they said they had been declared German as people originating from Pomerania, and after signing a commitment to cooperate with the Gestapo, they would be released. I don’t remember their surnames. They both got released.
Block 11 was intended for the so-called Polizeihäftlinge, that is detainees whose cases were tried before the Sondergericht. There were men and women there who were allowed to bathe only once a week on Fridays. There were also prisoners sentenced to jail by the camp authorities for various minor offenses in that bunker. The arrestees were either put in a dark cell or in rooms so tiny that they had to stand the whole time. From time to time, the Sondergericht would come down to Auschwitz and give death sentences that were carried out instantly, in front of the judge, in the bunker’s courtyard. The execution was a shot in the back of the skull while facing the wall which was called the “death wall.” The convicts were led out naked to be executed, and the so-called Leichenträger carried the bodies to the cars waiting in front of the bunker. By the end of 1943, the executions at the bunker ceased and the convicts were taken by an ambulance, probably to Birkenau. Witnesses: senior block prisoner from block 11, Jakub, a coach and German Jew; Leichenträger; trader Bąk from Jasło and a farmer from Lesser Poland, Gajdka Jr.
The ill who did not show any prospects for a quick recovery such as madmen, infectious patients, etc. were eliminated with intracardiac phenol injections. The injections were done at blocks 20 and 9, where the sick who were marked for extermination would be moved. I don’t know who administered the injections. Dr. Zielina should know about it, a doctor from Silesia, who was a doctor at block 9; and then Żuliński, a secretary of the voivodeship governor in Kraków, who was a senior block prisoner or his deputy at block 9. Dr. Kwarta, a doctor from Tarnopol, told me that in 1943 or in early 1944, 120 under-aged Jewish boys were killed in that way.
I only know about the gas chambers in Birkenau and the extermination of Jews from accounts. An architect from Warsaw, Kubasiewicz, who was a Pfleger at one of the hospital blocks, told me he worked at the chambers’ construction site. They were to be single-level basements made of concrete, hermetically sealed, with sieves imitating showers in its ceiling. Gas was supplied to the chambers by a pipeline closed and opened from the outside.
The liquidation of the Jews was to take place in this way: whole trains of Jews from the Netherlands, and then from Slovakia and Hungary, would arrive at the Rajsko railway ramp.
All Jews were deprived of their belongings. The strongest Jews were sent to the camp in Auschwitz, from where they would usually be sent to a coal mine in Jaworzno after getting their uniforms. Jewish doctors from the transport would be sent as assistants to Auschwitz’s hospital and to the camps in Rajsko. The rest – women, children and the weaker Jews – would be transported to Birkenau, where they were ordered to strip naked in front of the chamber under the pretext of bathing, to tie their clothes neatly into knots, and then they were forced into the chamber. The doors were sealed, and the poisonous gas was let in – it is said it was the Prussian gas. Death would supposedly occur instantaneously.
After airing the chamber and examining whether there were any golden teeth, the bodies were incinerated in one of apparently six crematoria, as well as in open fire in ditches. The chambers and the crematorium ovens were operated by Jews selected specifically for that role – the so-called Sonderkommando – who were also killed at some point and replaced by others. We knew that the Jews’ bodies were being burned from the smoke drifting from Birkenau to Auschwitz, and from the burning smell.
Our friends, who picked up and transported the loot taken from the Jews in Rajsko, which was brought to the warehouses in Auschwitz to the so-called “Canada”, told us about it too. I saw thousands of strollers for babies in the courtyard of these warehouses; these were loaded into trains. I saw an abundance of bundles with clothes that were also put into train cars. The food taken away from the Jews was given to us in the camp.
There are very few, if any, eyewitnesses of the Jews being murdered in the gas chambers. These are the SS men who took them to Birkenau, the Jews who operated the chambers and crematorium ovens (as far as they weren’t exterminated themselves), and prisoners who took out the ashes and unburned bones as a fertilizer for the local fields.
When it comes to the camp commandant Höss, I cannot put the name to a face. There were two commandants during my stay in the camp, and they changed sometime in early 1944. Which of them was Höss, the first or the second one, I don’t know, and his surname has stuck in my memory because of his namesake’s escape from Germany to England. I consider the commandant of the camp fully responsible for all of the crimes, with the exception of the judgments of the Sondergericht. I hold each commandant of the Auschwitz camp responsible especially for the following: underfeeding prisoners, selections at hospitals, administering lethal injections, and typhoid purges.
Regarding Himmler’s presence in Auschwitz, he was supposedly there three or four times during my stay. I didn’t see him. I also didn’t see any commission.
I declare the above is what I have testified. The report was read out.