Warsaw, 27 August 1947. A member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, Acting Judge Halina Wereńko, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the obligation to tell the truth, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Jerzy Julian Lang, former prisoner no. 46 of the concentration camp in Majdanek |
| Parents’ names | Mieczysław and Emilia, née Borowska |
| Date of birth | 15 October 1897, in Warsaw |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Aleje Jerozolimskie 6 |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Education | School of Economics |
| Occupation | tenant of the bar “Marlena” at Aleje Jerozolimskie |
I’m in the process of completing the paperwork required to change my name from Lang to Jaworski.
From December 1941 until 2 July 1944, I was a prisoner of the concentration camp in Majdanek. During my entire stay, I was employed as a translator in the field. In March 1942 (I don’t remember the exact date), Unterscharführer SS Muhsfeldt arrived at the camp in order to organize a crematorium in Majdanek. There had not been a crematorium there yet.
I recognize Muhsfeldt in the photograph shown to me (captioned “Muhsfeldt Erich,” sent with the letter from 7 August 1947, no. 779/47 from the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Kraków).
During my stay at the camp, I saw it spelled Mussfeldt and not Muhsfeldt, as seen on the photograph.
When Muhsfeldt arrived at the camp there was only one field with a small wooden hut in which prisoners were hanged. Prior to my arrival at the camp in Majdanek, in the middle of 1941, Soviet prisoners were brought from the front camps.
When I arrived at the camp, there were only about 150 of them. Many prisoners among them were exhausted, and these were to be exterminated by the order of the German authorities. I was a newcomer then and I wasn’t well versed in the relations at the camp, so I’m not completely sure as to who issued the order. It seems that the order to exterminate the weak prisoners came from the authorities from outside the camp, but the execution was left to the camp authorities. During the roll calls, Rapportführer Hauptscharführer SS Kurt Kirchner, accompanied by Muhsfeldt, picked some weak prisoners at random and then, by the order of Muhsfeldt, two Soviet prisoners hanged their comrades who had been selected.
50 to 60 prisoners were hanged in this way since I arrived. Some of those who remained were captured escaping and shot.
At the end of 1942, the first crematorium was organized between the first and the second field, which was in the process of expansion. A crematorium kommando was formed from amongst the prisoners, whose task was to burn the corpses. Initially, the Soviet prisoners were assigned to the crematorium kommando. After a general extermination of prisoners for an attempted escape, it was the Jews from the Czech transport. Muhsfeldt was the Kommandoführer. There were twelve hooks, used by Muhsfeldt and the members of his commando for hanging the prisoners.
After the arrival of the new Jewish transport, the SS men of a higher rank, always accompanied by Muhsfeldt, would receive transports at the roll call square. The weaker prisoners were placed at Muhsfeldt’s disposition, and they were the ones he hanged on the hooks in the crematorium.
During the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, transports arrived every day. The old crematorium was situated opposite the windows of block 1, to which I was assigned. When the Jewish transports were arriving from Warsaw, through the window I often saw Muhsfeldt bring two Jewish children in each hand. He would enter the crematorium and I would hear revolver shots. In order to drown out the cries during such executions, they would start the engine of the truck used for taking out the corpses, which was always next to the crematorium. At that time, corpses were transported by car to the forest, where they were burned, as the old crematorium couldn’t keep up.
Through the window of my block, I saw a bus bring batches of people several times. They were most often men, brought to the crematorium. The bus stopped at the entrance to the basement, so I didn’t see the people who were brought out. The people must have been led to the basement after the bus had stopped, because I would soon hear shots and naked bodies were thrown out of the basement window. 10 to 12 bodies were thrown out at once and then the bus would leave.
In the middle of 1943, when the new crematorium had been built, I didn’t see the executions themselves, but I saw such buses arrive at the camp two to three times a week.
Muhsfeldt’s favorite saying, when he would come to our block, was this: “I’m going to get you soon and, I’m warning you, I’m going to burn you alive.”
Muhsfeldt was promoted twice for his diligence: to the rank of Scharführer and then to Oberscharführer at the beginning of 1944.
At this the report was concluded and read out.