Presiding Judge: Who of the witnesses summoned for the hearing have appeared?
Usher: Józef Głuszczak.
Presiding Judge: Please provide your personal details.
Witness: Józef Głuszczak, 34 years old, an apicultural instructor by profession, resident in Świdnica at Łukasińskiego Street 14, relationship to the accused – none.
Presiding Judge: I hereby instruct the witness, pursuant to the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that you are required to speak the truth. The provision of false testimony is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years. Do the parties want to submit any motions as to the procedure according to which the witness is to be interviewed?
Prosecutors: We release the witness from the obligation to take an oath.
Defense attorneys: Ourselves also.
Presiding Judge: I would ask the witness to describe the goings-on at the camp in Auschwitz.
Witness: I arrived in the camp in 1941. Höß was the commandant at the time. After he was transferred to Berlin, his position was assumed by Liebehenschel. Following Liebehenschel’s arrival, the official approach to prisoners became more lenient. You no longer had to take your cap off, while the SS men became somewhat more humane in their dealings with us. As regards shootings, initially these did not occur, however after a few weeks friends started disappearing again. The explanation was that they had been taken away with some transport. But there were rumors that they had been sent to the gas chambers. This would be all.
Presiding Judge: Did the witness have any specific encounters with the accused Liebehenschel?
Witness: I did not have any specific encounters or run-ins with the commandant, he did not hit me, and I did not see him kicking or beating anyone. I cannot say anything else about Liebehenschel.
Presiding Judge: Does the witness recognize the other accused?
Witness: Yes.
Presiding Judge: Who?
Witness: Liebehenschel, Aumeier, Grabner; I do not fully remember the surnames of the others.
Presiding Judge: Can the witness recall any acts of cruelty committed by those of the accused whom he knows, and also did the witness have any contact with Liebehenschel?
Witness: No.
Presiding Judge: Thus the witness did not have an opportunity of determining who of the accused tormented the prisoners? Please provide a specific response.
Witness: I only saw Aumeier beating and tormenting prisoners; this was during Höß’ term of office.
Presiding Judge: What did this tormenting consist in?
Witness: When I was walking from the workshop to Höß’ garden, Aumeier stopped me and inquired where I was going. I did not tell him where, for I had left the workshop without permission. Aumeier hit me in the face, kicked me black and blue, and wrote down my number. However, I was not reported and somehow everything passed over.
I also saw, once, a kommando of Yugoslavian women returning from work; they were stopped. They were all walking without shoes. It was snowing, and you felt pity looking at them. Another time some female kommando was walking along, and only some of them had shoes. Aumeier stopped them and started beating and kicking those who had shoes, even hitting them in the face. Next, I saw Aumeier beating prisoners, particularly near the bath, where prisoners would be up to things and Aumeier would be nosing around.
Presiding Judge: This would be all?
Witness: Yes.
Presiding Judge: Are there any questions?
Prosecutor Szewczyk: The witness worked in the camp until the end of 1944. Which kommandos was the witness employed in?
Witness: In the Gärtnerei [gardening squad] and the Zimmerbauleitung [room construction company] as a beekeeper and gardener. In 1942 and 1943, I worked as a beekeeper for Höß.
Prosecutor: Does the witness know anything about the transports from the Zamość region?
Witness: From the Lublin region.
Prosecutor: Please tell us about them. What kinds of transports were these? Were there any children?
Witness: I did not see what kinds of transports these were, I just know that they were directed to Birkenau. I heard that mass gassings took place. Some of the people from the Lublin transports were sent to the camp, where I met them and this is what they told me.
Prosecutor: What did these people say?
Witness: That they had been displaced.
Prosecutor: Did they say why they had been evacuated?
Witness: Because the Red Army was closing in.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Was there any reason why they had found themselves in the Lublin camp?
Witness: They said that they had been caught for various reasons.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Another reason came into play there. Does the witness know anything about the colonization of the Lublin region by the Germans, that the Germans occupied Polish farms and that Polish residents were sent first to the camp in Lublin, and thereafter deported to Auschwitz?
Witness: Yes, now I remember – that is what these people said.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Where there many children from that transport in the camp?
Witness: I did not see these children, however I heard that they were sent to the crematorium.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: From whom did the witness learn these things? Did these people talk about this in the camp?
Witness: Yes, I heard them talking about this.
Presiding Judge: Does the defense have any questions?
Defense attorneys: No.
Presiding Judge: The witness may therefore step down.