The twelfth day of the hearing, 6 December 1947
After the break
Chief judge: The next witness, Henryk Haber.
The witness Henryk Haber, aged 33, merchant, religious affiliation – Roman Catholic, relationship to the accused – none.
Chief judge: I must warn the witness of the obligation to speak the truth. The submission of false testimony is punishable by imprisonment of up to five years. Do the parties submit any requests regarding how the witnesses should be interviewed?
Prosecutors and the defense: We would like the witness to be heard without oath.
Chief judge: May the witness please state what he knows about the case, and in particular his relationship to the accused. Does he recognize them and can he say something specific about their behavior? The witness was summoned specifically in order to testify against the defendant Bülow. Would the defendant Bülow please rise (Bülow rises)?
The witness: This is Bülow, who was a guard [sentry] in Budy, but there was also another Bülow, who was a Kommandoführer.
Chief judge: So does the witness not recognize the defendant?
The witness: I know him, but not my testimony doesn’t concern him. This man wasn’t the Kommandoführer.
Chief judge: Does the witness recognize any other defendants?
The witness: I recognize Lagerführer [head of the camp] Aumeier and Ludwig.
Chief judge: What can the witness say with regard to those defendants whom he recognizes?
The witness: As for Aumeier, I would like to state that he was just as much of a terror in the camp as his predecessor Lagerführer Fritzsch. However, with Fritzsch I hung on the post for an hour, but with Aumeier it was two. I was reported by some SS men and the Lagerführer gave me two hours on the post. He just asked me where I worked and said that I was looking too well. He was surprised that I was still alive, because this was one year after my arrival at the camp, and then he gave me two hours of hanging. The punishment was carried out at block 11 and then I was transferred to another kommando.
Chief judge: Where did the witness work?
The witness: In various kommandos. I came to Auschwitz on 2 January 1941. Then the Lagerführer was Fritzsch. At that time there were no permanent kommandos. Then I worked in the Landwirstchaft [farm] in Budy, with the horses. The defendant Ludwig was employed there as Stallmeister [master of the stable]; he was very strict with the prisoners. Then he got promoted and was transferred to the women’s camp, where he worked with a women’s kommando of mostly Jewish women. I remember a scene when I was riding some horses in the field, and the defendant Ludwig was working with the Jewish women’s kommando in the so-called Weissenhof. He was a Kommandoführer, and the sentries were with dogs. He was responsible for how the sentries behaved. Then I saw a guard set a dog on a Jewish woman.
Chief judge: Did Ludwig set that dog on her?
The witness: No, it was a guard, but Ludwig should have kept him in check because he was the Kommandoführer. Those Jewish women were digging ditches, and then with my own eyes I saw Ludwig watching and laughing at the fact that the guard had set a dog on this Jewish woman and wanted her to have intercourse with that dog. She didn’t want to, so the guard took the bayonet from his rifle and slashed her trousers (because they were wearing trousers taken from the Russians). At the end of the work, four of these Jewish women were dead.
Chief judge: Could the witness clarify what happened with that dog.
The witness: He told the woman to have intercourse with the dog.
Chief judge: Ludwig?
The witness: No, the guard, but Ludwig was standing there laughing at this.
Chief judge: Are there any questions for the witness?
Prosecutor Brandys: The witness stated that he also knows the defendant Bülow, who was just a guard. Does the witness know of some specific facts regarding how Bülow behaved towards the prisoners?
The witness: I don’t know about how this Bülow behaved.
Defense attorney Rymar: The witness testified that he worked under Ludwig. Did the witness himself suffer any harm from Ludwig?
The witness: At the time when I was working in the Landwirtschaft and he was a Stallmeister, when someone didn’t hurry up …
Defense attorney Rymar: I didn’t mean someone else, but was the witness personally harmed by him.
The witness: He kicked me a few times when I didn’t get a move on at work.
Chief judge: Are there any more questions?
Defendant Aumeier: I would like to ask the witness where and by whom he was tied up.
The witness: Where I was hanging? In block 11 in the attic.
Defendant Aumeier: But who strung the witness up?
The witness: There were two kapos and SS men.
Defendant Aumeier: Was I there at that time?
The witness: No.
Defendant Aumeier: I can once again state that during my stay in Auschwitz I have never heard of such a punishment involving a post. Personally, I never saw such a thing myself.
Defendant Ludwig: I would like the Tribunal’s permission to ask a question. Where was the women’s kommando?
The witness: In Weissenhof, where the women worked.
Defendant Ludwig: In Weissenhof I didn’t have any women’s kommando.
The witness: But a women’s kommando worked there in the field.
Defendant Ludwig: Did the witness see four killed Jewish women brought out along with the kommando?
The witness: I carted them myself.
Defendant Ludwig: I would like to know whether these four killed Jewish women were brought to the camp.
The witness: They were not killed, but exhausted and I carted them to that building and they were gassed there. There where they used to burn pyres before the crematorium was ready.
Chief judge: Are there any more questions?
Defendant Lorenz: In my kommando I never had any women who were killed or who died.
The witness: I carted them myself.
Accused Lorenz: Where was the witness working at that time?
The witness: In the stables.
Defendant: If the witness was working in a stable, he couldn’t have seen the kommando working in Weissenhof or if there were any half-alive women. In which year was this?
The witness: It was in 1942, I was working in a stable, but I went every day to work in a field where some women’s kommandos were leveling the ground.
Chief judge: Are there any further questions?
Prosecutor: No.
Defense: No.