Sixth day of the hearing, commencement of proceedings at 9.00 a.m., with the same persons being present as on the fifth day of the hearing.
Presiding Judge: I hereby summon the witness Adam Stapf.
Witness: Adam Stapf, 39 years old, a trader by occupation, religion – Roman Catholic, 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 counsel: As do we.
Presiding Judge: What information can the witness provide concerning his incarceration at Auschwitz?
Witness: I arrived at the concentration camp in Auschwitz on 28 August 1940. I had previously been detained for three days in the prison at Montelupich Street in Kraków, and for a month in Tarnów.
The Germans started tormenting us already at the ramp, immediately upon our arrival, using a full array of proven methods. Our transport was received by a group of SS men who had arranged themselves along the road, and they beat the marching column all the way to the camp. We were then admitted to the facility, maltreated all the while. In those days the camp commandant was Fritsch, and Meyer his deputy. Grabner was the head of the political department. After we had been deprived of our clothing and subjected to the usual torments – having our hair cut, being bathed, etc. – we were treated to some "sports". In actual fact, these "sports" served to separate those who were fit for work from those who were not, for they commenced at 6.00 a.m. and lasted without pause until 12.00 p.m., when we would have a half-hour break for dinner, and thereafter from 12.30 p.m. (sometimes 1.00 p.m.) until 7.00 p.m. The exercises completely exhausted all those of a weaker constitution, ultimately resulting in their extermination. Our transport was preceded by the arrival of thirty or so bandit-kapos from Sachsenhausen, and they had been instructed by the camp commandant that their status as kapos depended on the vigor and zeal with which they helped select the new arrivals. The selection was conducted in such a way that the kapos could demonstrate their physical prowess, murdering us prisoners at every turn. First and foremost, they hunted out the intelligentsia: priests, lawyers, Jews – representatives of the Polish intelligentsia. People were asked about what they did for a living, and if a prisoner mentioned that he had an "intellectual" occupation, he would be kicked, beaten up, and finally murdered.
It was during these "sports" that I first encountered the accused Plagge, who was the commandant and a specialist in conducting physical exercises. A column of prisoners numbering some 500 people (myself among them) was gathered before block 16. Plagge then walked up. I stood in the second row, and when he came up to me and inquired about my occupation, I said that I was an electrotechnician. Obviously, I was aware that you should hide your profession. He, however, insisted that I was a judge, and ordered me to hang myself. I avoided this fate by a fluke, for I left the line and ran right along the column, whereafter I mixed with the crowd and thus avoided death – especially as Plagge had interested himself in another prisoner, a teacher from Nowy Sącz. He asked about his occupation, and when the man replied that he was a teacher, Plagge ordered him to go and hang himself. The prisoner, beaten up and kicked, went aside and hanged himself on his own suspenders.
My next run in with Plagge occurred when he was the Blockführer [block leader] of block 13, later renumbered 11 – the "block of death". At the time, it housed the penal company, the SK, which was made up primarily of Jews. These were people who had been sentenced to death, or earmarked for death because they knew too much [about what went on in the camp]. I remember how in the beginning of 1941 Plagge, the Blockführer of the SK, led out a company of Jews. Some time prior, the kapos had been busy spreading rumors that today would be a doomsday for the Jews. After all the prisoners had left the camp, this column was led out in front of the facility, towards the foundations that were being dug at the time for new blocks, just beyond the wire fencing, and there this Jewish column, numbering more than one hundred people, was destroyed by the kapos – expert in murder – with the assistance of the then camp commandant, Seidler, and a doctor whose surname I do not know.
They were murdered in various ways – some had their necks severed with wire, while others were kicked and forced into a pit, and then crushed with steel wheelbarrows; those who somehow survived this ordeal were finished off with revolvers. I watched this from the block in which I worked, the Effektenkammer [prisoners’ assets warehouse], some 200 meters distant from the scene.
Following these grisly happenings, the remainder of the column returned to camp, dragging the bodies of their colleagues through the whole camp, right up to block 13. The Germans made a show of their procession, ordering the orchestra – standing by the gate – to play along. One of the Jews, dead, was carried in by the others; he had been most cruelly tortured. A band made from some tin utensil had been forced onto his head and a shovel handle placed in his hand, while the naked body was covered with rags. It looked as if he was Jesus Christ – freshly taken off the cross.
The methods of Lagerführer [camp leader] Fritsch were such that he handed over authority to the Blockführers and kapos, and himself just made sure that they carried out their "duties". All of the Blockführers and kapos wielded practically uncontrolled power. Prisoners were accosted at every turn, at every moment; if you did not take off your cap [to them], you would be kicked or even murdered. And if you were not murdered on the spot, then they would finish you off in the hospital – which was no more than a sham, really.
In February 1942 a new Lagerführer, Aumeier, arrived in the camp. The discipline – which he called the "camp discipline" – soon became ferocious. It consisted in finding ways of tormenting people, starting with the prolongation of roll calls, which took place three times a day, while the evening roll call lasted well into the night. Aumeier took immense delight in watching the hundreds of bodies being taken to the hospital after roll call. This was his specialty – he did everything [of his own accord], he supervised everything, and he observed every step taken by inmates in the camp.
After evening roll call, no prisoners were admitted to the hospital. The kapos finished such people off, and in any case they were by then dying of exhaustion; those who managed to get to the hospital were lucky indeed.
Aumeier conducted selections of prisoners in the hospital, for the camp commanders – Aumeier, Höß and of course Grabner – assumed that a prisoner could be productive only when alive. Once he ceases to work, he is to be exterminated. People were finished off mainly in the hospital, this by carrying out selections there – when the number of prisoners exceeded a certain figure, some of the inmates would be taken away and gassed.
In 1941, the first transport of Soviet officers, some 150 in all, arrived at the camp. Everyone knew that these were Soviet officers. All were gassed to death at block 11. The next gassing took place in the small crematorium. From then on, all the other transports were directed to the so-called Kriegsgefangenenlager [prisoner of war camp]. This camp did not exist for long, only until the end of 1942. In total, some 11,000 prisoners of war were murdered there.
The methods of murder were various. Some of the POWs were taken to work to the vastest areas of Birkenau, to the swamps and quagmires, where they died during work. Very often, the Germans faked an escape, and thereafter shot the inmates with machine guns.
In late autumn and winter, the POW camp was finished off. A typhus fever epidemic was spreading there, and many of our nurses, working tirelessly to help the inmates, perished. In order to conduct delousing, prisoners would be chased out of the block into a frost of minus 20 or 30 degrees, and thereafter these hapless souls would return to a block that had no blankets, no sheets, and no mattresses, so that the blocks were soon full of corpses. This is how the POW camp was finally gotten rid of.
In May 1941, a transport from Kraków arrived, and it was rapidly decimated.
On 11 May 1942 the Germans carried out a selection of prisoners, primarily of professional officers and non-commissioned officers. Aumeier conducted it himself, although I do not know on whose order. A total of 350 prisoners were selected and taken to Birkenau, where they were assigned to the penal company. As used by Aumeier and Grabner, these methods were intended to consign people to a slow death. I know this full well, for among them was my brother-in-law, Dr. Hodorowski, who had worked as a signing clerk at the Savings Bank. I established contact with him and frequently sent him food parcels. Later, I received a letter from my brother-in-law (it is still in my possession) in which he described his ordeals. With the help of a doctor who worked in Birkenau and of block elder Mordarski, who came from Nowy Sącz, I managed to help my brother-in-law fake being ill with typhus fever, so that he was placed in the hospital. A month later, on 11 June, the Germans simulated a rebellion and commenced a massacre of the prisoners. The inmates, finally unable to stand such maltreatment, threw themselves at the nearest guard posts, with the first wave being killed almost instantly. The camp command – headed by Grabner and Aumeier – was alerted. They arrived at the scene in the company of SS men armed with machine guns. Aumeier immediately ordered an interrogation. At the time, he was standing on the steps of one of the blocks, summoning the prisoners one by one and asking them what they knew about the affair and why the revolt had broken out. When a prisoner responded that he knew nothing, Aumeier would shoot him in the head. He killed 25 people in this way. The rest of the inmates were driven down into the pits that were normally used for incinerating the bodies of gassing victims. They were exterminated there with machine guns. Exactly 350 prisoners were murdered in this way. The Germans also ordered that all the prisoners from the SK who had been sent to hospital were to be gassed along with the others. This is how my brother- in-law perished. I know exactly how this occurred. All the patients went on their own – or were carried by others – to the crematorium. This is how engineer Kielanowski, the Deputy Director of the Municipal Waterworks, Colonel Karcz and my brother-in-law all died. Some 250 people were gassed. But the Germans’ revenge for the rebellion did not end there. The general population of Auschwitz suffered as well. In retaliation for the revolt, the Germans shot dead the Kraków group – more or less 200 people who had been arrested at the Artists’ Café. The second transport from Kraków, which included well-known artists, scientists and academics (for example Zbigniewski, the famous sculptor), was also executed. They had come to the camp at the worst time possible, and lost their lives after only two weeks.
Aumeier assisted at each execution held in the camp. He would even shoot at prisoners who tried to gather vegetable peels lying on the ground near the kitchen. I am not stating that he killed them, but he did wound them; probably his aim was off.
I encountered the accused Grabner for the first time in 1943, by which year a clandestine organization had already been set up in the camp. We had military, intelligence and counterintelligence branches. These groupings were frequently uncovered by Aumeier’s informers, 1,800 of whom were registered with the political department. When Liebehenschel assumed command, these infiltrators were transferred to another camp, for they had become too conspicuous.
In 1943 we learned that our organization had been uncovered, and arrests were made in the branch where I was employed (i.e. at the Effektenkammer, Bekleidungskammer [clothing warehouse]). After all the prisoners had been herded off to work, we were surrounded by SS men – Grabner, Palitzsch and Lachman were present in person – and led, all 160 of us, to block 24, which according to our experience was simply the first step to being executed. In any case, our captors told us as much. Grabner strode before our ranks, spitting in our faces, hurling abuse and saying that soon we would receive a just punishment. But we had to wait a long time for this punishment, late into the night, for at the time Grabner was assisting in a Sonderaktion [special action] that was being carried out at block 11, where they were shooting some 400 people.
There was no room for us in the bunker, and we waited our turn until late in the night. The execution continued, and when it was over they started removing the bodies. The camp streets were full of blood, and there were so many bodies that the stream of carts driving towards the crematorium was practically endless. We were taken to a special isolated block, and in the morning summoned yet again to block 24. I would like to stress that entire labor details were captured, not just individual prisoners. On the second day we awaited our turn until late in the night. Grabner, Palitzsch, Stieglitz and Lachman all came up. Grabner asked each prisoner in turn about his occupation, and if an inmate replied that he was a doctor, a lawyer, judge, or an officer, he would send him to the left, that is to be executed. Others were sent to the right, i.e. they were intended for gradual extermination. Grabner also approached me. I determined that each second prisoner was being sent to be shot – that is he was not decimating our group – and also that you should not provide your real profession or education. Therefore when asked, I replied that I was an electrotechnician, and that I had been sent to the camp following a round-up. But despite my efforts, Grabner sent me to the left, to those who were to be executed. Suddenly, Palitzsch, Stieglitz and a few other SS men started kicking all these inmates, myself among them. I fell to the ground, but all at once heard a voice say "Zurück" [Get back]; someone pulled me and threw me over to the group standing on the right. I do not know who uttered this word. It is a fact that Grabner earmarked some 90 people to be shot, and the lives of these prisoners depended solely on his whim, for he did not have with him any files from the political department, and therefore selected people for death on the basis of his own assessment, by inspecting their physical appearance.
Grabner was the leading murderer in the camp, the terror of the living and the last terrible sight beheld by the dying. His surname was synonymous with a ghastly, inhuman death, striking a numbing fear into the hearts of prisoners, for whom natural death held no terror. We were treated worse than animals. We were mere numbers, stripped of the right to call ourselves human beings. When a kapo at the gate made the mistake of saying that he was leading such and such a number of people, he would be beaten as punishment and informed that these were dogs, not people.
In 1943, Aumeier left the camp. He was replaced by Hößler. Commandant Höß was dismissed at the same time, and Liebehenschel came in as his replacement. Höß’ administration had disgraced itself beyond measure, and gained unnecessary notoriety abroad. The whole undertaking had to be masked. And so Liebehenschel – the Führer’s man and an expert at masking techniques – was brought in. But before he came to the camp, rumors were spread amongst the prisoners that there would be a change for the better, that a legion was being organized in Galicia in which Poles could enlist, that the food would improve, and that a raft of penalties would be abolished. And indeed, following his arrival he did just enough to give the exhausted and disoriented people, totally bewildered by the intricacies of camp policy, a glimmer of hope that the situation would actually change. When, therefore, a prisoner stole a slice of bread, not only did Liebehenschel not punish him, he also gave him a whole loaf, for the fact that the inmate had resorted to theft out of hunger had "profoundly moved" the commandant. At the same time, the methods of extermination – which hitherto had been applied openly, in full view – were being cloaked in secrecy. I learned as much from the SS men, who once declared that they had signed their own death warrants by divulging such secrets. They had signed them alright – but when Liebehenschel arrived. He bought with him a crowd of policemen, the task of which was not to improve conditions, but mask everything that went on in the camp. First and foremost, they were concerned with severing all and any contacts between the SS men and inmates. A special police group uncovered such connections, and the SS men were punished. A few people (for example Palitzsch) were removed from the camp, as were the well-known informers, but they were replaced with a secret spy network. Lachman, Palitzsch, Woźnica and others would dress up as prisoners and come up to the camp. Everyone from the political department did so, and in particular Lachman, Grabner’s right-hand man.
An intelligence unit was set up in the camp, located in the reconnaissance group of the political department, and hidden informers led by international spies such as Mallorme and Ołpiński provided it with information for the political department. The shootings, gassings and selections of prisoners continued, however in an altered form. While previously everything had been done openly, with prisoners being transported to gas chambers naked, even in winter, they would now be dressed in shirts and given a slice of bread for the journey. Liebehenschel’s methods were in all probability dictated by the military situation. The Germans felt that they were losing their footing, and that therefore everything had to be masked. The cover-up was introduced cunningly, using methods especially developed by commandant Liebehenschel.
For example, a swimming pool was built on the grounds of the camp. But this "swimming pool" was nothing more than an anti-aircraft ditch, which contained water that was to be used in the event of a fire. Nonetheless, steps were added to the structure and it was called a "swimming pool" – gifted to the prisoners by Liebehenschel himself. In this way they tried to dull our vigilance. But a prisoner who had been at the camp for two or three years was wilier than a fox. He acted by instinct. Our organization did not allow our colleagues to be misled. We were vigilant and prepared for the moment when the Germans would make an attempt to destroy the camp, either by ad hoc mass shootings, or by gassings, and therefore our resistance organization prepared itself for the fight – literally an armed struggle – and indeed awaited support from outside. But the camp command was excellently aware of what was going on, and commandant Liebehenschel knew that he had to do everything to conceal what went on in the camp, for out contacts with organizations on the outside and the quantities of weapons that we had gathered could result in the outbreak of a mass revolt. Liebehenschel assisted at all of the selections for the gas chambers, he received transports of Jews that were to be gassed straight away, and he knew about each and every transport, even though it was a special operation – the Höß action. In order to liquidate our resistance movement in the camp – for they were most afraid of the Poles, since we were too well organized and very strong – they started organizing transports with the objective of transferring inmates to other camps. If they could not finish us off in Auschwitz, they sent us to other camps. In 1944, I was arrested along with a group of forty something people, including a few doctors. These were all senior administrators, and the Germans were afraid that they could become dangerous. We were locked up in the bunker and earmarked for gassing. I do not know why we were not killed, however I think that a dispute with the then commandant of the hospital, who outranked Hößler, helped save us. An investigation was carried out and the doctor referred the matter to Berlin, demanding an explanation as to why these prisoners had been sentenced to death. The whole procedure took three weeks. Finally, to satisfy both of the concerned parties, we were penally deported to various camps. I ended up in Ravensbrück.
As regards the accused Kramer, I witnessed him carrying out a selection of prisoners – French Communists in this instance – for the gas chamber. Theirs was the first such transport, for back then, in the beginning of 1942, the methods of admitting people intended for the gas chambers had not yet been refined, and all the transports that were to be gassed were admitted to the parent camp. That was where the selections took place and where people’s personnel items were seized; from there, the prisoners would be sent to the gas chamber. I know that these people were sent to the gas chamber, because while working at the Effektenkammer I entered all the prisoners arriving at the camp in the register, whereas I did not record those who were received by Kramer. For us it was clear that these people were going to the gas chamber.
That would be about all.
Presiding Judge: Does the witness recognize any of the accused?
Witness: I recognize the accused Müller, however I have nothing to say about him. I do not recognize anyone else. These are people whom I did not encounter.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: I would just like to reference the fact that the witness called the doctor "Kramer", and I therefore want to ask whether he is the same man whom we have in custody, under the surname Kremer.
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: And so this doctor took part in the selections of French Communists?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: How many of them were there?
Witness: Between 400 and 500 people.
Presiding Judge: Can the witness be released?
Prosecutor: Yes.
(Following a recess)
Presiding Judge: Please be seated.
Defense attorney Rappaport: As regards the testimony of witness Stapf, the accused Kremer would like to make a statement.
Presiding Judge: Of course.
The accused Kremer: With reference to the testimony of witness Stapf, I would like to submit the following testimony: the witness is mistaken when he says that I took part in selections and assisted in handling the transports. I was never once present at a selection of French Communists, and I was never present on the ramp. That the witness is mistaken is best proven by the fact that the witness has stated that I took part in such selections in the beginning of 1942. I arrived in Auschwitz only at the end of August 1942. Maybe I have been mistaken for other persons with similar sounding surnames: Krämer, Kramer, as the witness himself stated. Furthermore, the witness appeared to recognize me only after the Prosecutor had made a clear and explicit suggestion.
Presiding Judge: I would like to instruct the accused that during the submission of testimony they are to direct their questions to the witnesses, and since witness Stapf is present in the courtroom, I would request him to respond.
Presiding Judge: Did the witness hear what was said by the accused Kremer?
Witness: Since I mentioned the surname Kremer, I think I knew who I was talking about. The accused maintains that he did not take part in any selections at the ramp, this I know, but he did participate [in selections] at the parent camp, and I have stated in my testimony that the selection in question took place between 26 and 27 October. This was a special transport, which was received at the parent camp. It was unknown what was to become of it: whether it would remain in the camp, or be sent to the gas chambers. A selection took place and Kremer, the camp doctor, was present; this occurred in 1942. Whether this took place in the middle of the year, I am unable to say. I state that the accused was present and carried out the selection. The transport stood there the whole day, and in the evening it was decided that it would not be accepted. And since the transport was not accepted, it was clear that it had to be gassed.
The accused Kremer: As regards these selections, I declare that I had no possibility of taking part therein, for I arrived in Auschwitz towards the end of August 1942. At the time, for a period of 14 days, I had no permission to enter the camp. I had to apply for an identity card, have my photograph taken, etc.
Witness: I have nothing more to add.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: I would like to underline that witness Stapf’s testimony is concordant with information provided by the accused during the investigation about his selection- related activities. In the course of the investigation held on 30 July, the accused testified, and this is written down in volume 59, on card 26, that initial examinations were carried out by the camp doctors, and that during these examinations a certain group was set aside, which due to its degree of emaciation was killed with phenol injections. And thus declarations presently made by the accused to the Supreme Tribunal must be considered as inconsistent with the truth.
In light of the witness’ testimony, I hereby certify conformity with what the accused had himself stated in the course of the investigation. And if the Supreme Tribunal shall deem it proper, [I would] request that the testimony given by the accused during the said investigation be read out.
(At this point the testimony in question was read out, worded as follows:)
"On numerous occasions, always when standing in for one of the camp SS doctors, I conducted examinations of prisoners reporting to the doctor in the parent camp. These examinations were conducted with the participation of the SS doctor, in such cases myself, and other doctors (prisoners) and male SS nurses.
Also in the course of these examinations of patients, which I myself performed, a certain number would always be set aside. These were persons who due to the degree of bodily cachexia (Allg. Körperschwäche) were killed using phenol injections. In many such instances, when I, guided by the principles of medical ethics, wanted to refer a given patient for treatment, nurse Klehr, standing next to me, would nudge me in the back, thus signaling that the patient in question should be sent to group of those who were condemned to die".