Presiding Judge: Please summon the next witness, Otto Kulka.
Witness: Otto Kulka, 14 years old, religion – Jewish, resident in Nový Hrozenkov (Czechoslovakia), nationality – Czechoslovak, a school student, relationship to the accused – none.
Presiding Judge: I would like to remind the witness of the obligation to speak the truth. Due to the fact that he is not yet fully 14, the witness shall be examined without taking an oath. The Tribunal hereby asks the witness to tell us what he knows about Auschwitz, and in particular about the accused.
Witness: When I was nine years old, I was taken to the camp in Theresienstadt. Having spent a year there, I was sent with a transport of 5,000 people to Birkenau. Immediately upon our arrival, I was led into the camp. It was completely unorganized. Only the barracks had been erected, and we were forced to sleep on the bare ground, which turned into mud when it rained. Next, we had to go to the “Sauna”. There they took away all other clothing and gave us some rags instead. Shortly after I returned to the camp, we were approached by Rapportführer [report leader] Buntrock and Lagerführer [camp leader] Schwarzhuber. They started instructing us about “Viennese law”. We had to appear in the Äpelplatz [roll call square] before the block, arranging ourselves in 10 rows and standing to attention. We were instructed to remove our caps and told to perform various orders. And so they drilled us for some two hours, whereafter we were sent back to the blocks. We had to organize the entire camp ourselves, and even build a road, all the while being beaten and verbally abused by the SS men.
I would like to add that immediately upon our arrival, Buntrock came up to us with Lagerälteste [camp elder] Böhm and robbed us of our valuables, such as watches and similar items.
After we had been incarcerated there for six months, the Germans called out the entire five thousand strong transport that had arrived in September 1943, loaded the people onto trucks and sent them for gassing. Just prior to this they handed out postal cards and ordered each inmate to write to his family, informing them that everything was fine and that they should come and join him in the camp. The sender’s address was given as the “camp in Waldsee”.
At the time, some 50 people from the transport were in the so-called Krankenbau [hospital]. There were also a few women who, although not sick, had learned that those from the Krankenbau would not be taken to the gas chambers and therefore allowed themselves to be placed in the hospital. When Rapportführer Buntrock learned of this, he ordered that all of them be placed on stretchers and carried off to the crematorium. At the time, I was ill with diphtheria and they accidentally left me behind, for I was in the Krankenbau. After these 5,000 were gassed, some 10,000 people remained; they had also come from Theresienstadt in December 1943. Since we knew what happened to the former group, we were counting our days, certain that we did not have long to live. We calculated that we would share their fate in some six months’ time. And indeed, in June 1944 the Germans conducted a selection – those who were healthy and fit for work, some 4,000, were deported to the Reich for labor, while the rest were gassed. They also selected some 60 boys from amongst the former; these were to be sent to Germany as students. I was one of them. Even before I was so chosen, I aimed to survive by joining the transport of men who were healthy and fit for work. I nearly managed to get away, but Buntrock noticed me and turned me back to the camp – this meant certain death. But later I was chosen as one of the 60 boys whom I mentioned previously. I left with them for camp D II B, which was a male camp. There I was attached to the locksmiths’ kommando and worked in it until the evacuation of Auschwitz.
Presiding Judge: Are there any questions to the witness?
Prosecutor: No.
Defense attorneys: No.
Presiding Judge: I hereby order a recess.