Warsaw, 5 November 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 | Edmund Feliks Janiszewski, former prisoner no. 3,839 of the Auschwitz concentration camp |
| Parents’ names | Jakub and Bronisława, née Okoniewicz |
| Date of birth | 11 November 1907 in Warsaw |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, Stalowa Street 7, flat 13 |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Education | 4 semesters at a school of economics |
| Occupation | clerk at MZK [Municipal Transport Company] |
From 21 September 1940 until 25 October 1944, I was a prisoner of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. My number was 3,839.
In 1942, Hans Aumeier became the camp commandant. Not long after his arrival, at the roll call square, Aumeier, in the presence of a prisoner hanged on the gallows, made a speech about how he didn’t want our deaths, but instead, he demanded efficient work. Not long after that (I don’t remember the date), having noticed that several prisoners had their shirts unbuttoned, he pointed them out to the block leader. On the following day, these several prisoners went to the SK [Strafkompanie], from where they never returned.
I don’t remember the date of the incident, it may have been in the fall. One of them was a dentist from Kraków. Walking around the camp, Aumeier would beat and kick the prisoners when he was in a bad mood.
I don’t remember the exact date; in the spring of 1943, a group of about 60 men was sent from the main camp to Birkenau. The group had been planning an escape. The escape failed. Some part of the group was shot by the police, the rest of the arrestees were told to kneel on the SK premises in Birkenau, and they were shot by Aumeier himself. I learned about that from an eyewitness, former prisoner Ryszard Gibs. I don’t know if he has survived or where he is at present.
Max Grabner was the head of the Political Department during my stay at the camp, up until the fall of 1943. It was commonly known around the camp that Grabner murdered prisoners during interrogations. I don’t remember any concrete facts.
Arthur Liebenhenschel became the deputy of commandant Aumeier. He significantly eased the discipline at the camp. After his arrival, he held a briefing with the SS men, during which he supposedly said that he didn’t want to hear about prisoners being murdered in the camp. He released some of the prisoners from the bunker.
That was common knowledge in the camp.
Tauber, with the rank of a Hauptsturmführer, was the commandant of the dental facility. He was at the camp for a short period of time, from December 1942 until the spring of 1943. After two years at the camp, I was assigned to a kommando under Tauber’s command. I don’t remember the date, but I worked in that kommando throughout Tauber’s entire stay.
Tauber would defend the prisoners. He pushed for better equipment at work and facilitated the work. He let the prisoners wash and shave during work. He let them cook and eat during work. That’s why he fell into the disfavor of his superiors, the chief doctors (I don’t remember their names). As he was telling us, that’s why he was moved to the front.
In the summer of 1942 on a Saturday (I don’t remember the date), a prisoner from that kommando, Feliks (I don’t remember the surname), a dental technician, was to be sent to the SK for drinking contaminated alcohol from a spirit lamp. It was only thanks to Tauber’s intervention with the commandant that he was released.
At this the report was concluded and read out.