On 28 August 1947 in Warsaw, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, Acting Judge Halina Wereńko, acting under the Decree of 10 November 1945 on the Main and the District Commissions for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), heard the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the provisions of Article 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Hieronim Franaszewski |
Parents’ names | Józef and Franciszka, née Matczak |
Date and place of birth | 30 September 1904, Warsaw |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Education | four classes of trade school |
Occupation | dyer |
Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
Place of residence | Warsaw, Saska Kępa, Finlandzka Street 4, flat 6 |
From January 1943 to April 1944 I was incarcerated in the concentration camp in Majdanek. Muhsfeldt, whom I recognize in the photograph presented to me, was a Kommandoführer of the crematorium. (The witness was presented with a photograph with the following inscription: “Erich Muhsfeldt”, sent in by the Kraków District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, dated 7 August 1947, no. 779/47). Muhsfeldt took part in selections of the sick in the Revier [camp hospital] who were then sent to a gas chamber. I heard from my friends from the Revier that a dozen or so selections were carried out. I am unable to provide the dates of selections, the surnames of selected persons or their numbers. In April or May of 1943 (I don’t remember the exact date), at the time when I was in block 19, the first and only selection of prisoners from that block was carried out. The prisoners were selected by Muhsfeldt and a few SS officers whose surnames I don’t remember. Some 200 people were selected, including me and Eugeniusz Malanowski. On the following day, thanks to the help of block leader Olczyk, both Malanowski and I hid, whereas other selected prisoners were transported in a car, naked, to a gas chamber; on the next day, the surnames of the selected people were crossed out from the list of inmates kept in block 19. We all knew that they had been gassed.
At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.