On 14 April 1948 in Piotrków, the Investigating Judge from the region of the District Court in Piotrków, with its seat in Piotrków, in the person of the Judge P. Królikowski, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the significance of the oath, the witness was sworn in accordance with Article 104 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Aron Horawia |
| Age | 46 years old |
| Place of residence | aleja Stalina 54, Piotrków |
| Occupation | stonemason |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I met Dr. Herbert Böttcher in October 1942 during the deportation of Jews from Piotrków to Treblinka. Böttcher and Fojobt [?] supervised this action. My wife and daughter were then deported; they have never returned. In February 1943, Böttcher came to Piotrków for an inspection and also visited the block where the remaining Jews were employed at [illegible]. I worked as a bricklayer then. I happened to be in the block’s kitchen when Böttcher came in. When he saw the women peeling potatoes, he shouted to the head of the kitchen, engineer Morgenstern, that Jews could eat unpeeled potatoes. When the head remarked that the vegetables were rotten, Böttcher said that they were too good the way they were. He also said – in the presence of working women – that “this shit” had to disappear. A few days later, Böttcher sent an order to deport 25 Jewesses from Piotrków to Skarżysko. My daughter told me later that some of these women who were unfit for work were shot there. The executions were carried out by Kinymann, who killed Jews at every opportunity.
In August 1943, a decree signed by Dr. Böttcher arrived, with the order that the camp in Piotrków be liquidated. People who worked in the factories were barracked by the factories, and the rest were sent to Bliżyn and Pionki. Some 19 Jewish children and three women – mothers who didn’t want to abandon their babies – were stopped at the station in Pionki. The German gendarmes said themselves that the order to exterminate everyone had been issued by Böttcher.
In November 1942, all the Jews who had been hiding were kept in the synagogue. All (160 people) were murdered – they were shot in the Rakowski Forest on the order of the German authorities from Radom. This order was issued by Böttcher.
In December 1942, 500 Jews were pulled out from their hiding places and shot in the Rakowski Forest in the vicinity of the powder mill. It was an order from Radom, so either Böttcher or Fojobt [?] must have given it.
In November 1944, Böttcher came to the Bugaj factory, where approximately 1,000 Jews worked. He ordered that all men be deported to Buchenwald and all women to Ravensbrück. All Jews from Piotrków were deported on that day. There were a thousand of them and about 200 returned.
I confirm that the above is my testimony.
The report was read out.