On 28 August 1947 in Kraków, Municipal Judge Dr. Stanisław Żmuda, member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, on the written motion of the First Prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, dated 25 April 1947 (Ref. no. NTN 719/47), in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), in connection with art. 254, 107, and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness a former prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the person specified below, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Ludwik Bas |
| Date and place of birth | 18 December 1912, Kraków |
| Parents’ names | Grzegorz and Anna, née Synowiec |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Nationality and citizenship | Polish |
| Occupation | clerk in a state enterprise |
| Place of residence | Kraków, św. Jana Street 16/7a |
I was arrested by the Gestapo on 29 March 1940, in the Sanok area, in connection with my activities for the Union for Armed Struggle, and I was interned in Sanok prison, where I remained until the beginning of August 1940. Then, I was transported to Tarnów prison, and after six weeks, I was moved on a larger transport to Auschwitz, to the concentration camp. I arrived there on 29 August 1940 and was assigned number 3450. I remained at the Auschwitz camp until 18 January 1945, after which date, in the course of the evacuation, I was moved first to the Mauthausen and then Gusen camp, where I was freed by American troops.
At the Auschwitz camp, for three weeks, I had been going through the so-called sport, which was supervised, among others, by the SS man named Plagge. As a result of this “sport”, both my feet were completely bruised and scarred, in light of which I was earmarked for a hospital stay. Rather, I managed to get to the hospital, where, after I recovered, I was, thanks to connections, assigned to work in the capacity of the so-called pfleger [prisoner medical orderly]. I worked there until November 1941, after which I got an assignment at the SS camp hospital, also as an orderly, and worked at the so-called Bestrahlungskammer [radiation chamber] until the evacuation of the camp.
During the first days of my internment at the Auschwitz camp, I came across SS man Plagge, then, I believe, serving in the rank of Scharführer. He was in charge of the so-called sport and went by the nickname “Fajeczka” [little pipe] at the camp. Plagge stood out for particular cruelty, the maltreatment of, and sadism toward prisoners, as he beat them and kicked them daily, without the slightest reason, and encouraged his fellow SS men to do likewise. He was assisted by German prisoners, all of them criminals, the so-called kapos, whom he lectured as to how to abuse prisoners and whom he forced to “zealously” follow his example. One day before my arrival at the camp, a transport of one hundred kapos came in from Sachsenhausen, as a result of which the overall number of kapos was 130, and all of them had an opportunity to show off their skills precisely in the course of “sport”, practiced with the transport of new prisoners on which I arrived. Jews and priests were particularly abused during this “sport”. Plagge’s favorite exercises included: jumping in a squatted position, running, falling to the ground, wallowing on the ground, individually or in pairs, the so-called duck walk, exchanging facial blows in squatted position, doing rounds around a pole for a few hours with one’s hands up, or doing laps around a kapo, who, standing in the middle, hit the prisoners with a stick indiscriminately.
These exercises took place from early morning until late evening, with a short lunch break, with some prisoners managing to get some coffee, issued at “tempos”, in the morning. The “sport” area was covered with sharp gravel and slag, and all prisoners had their shoes taken away, so during marching, and especially running, it hurt their feet. My feet, for instance, already after a couple of days, were scarred and swollen, and the skin on my feet was completely peeled off. However, I had to endure the “sport” period in such a condition.
Plagge, a pipe in his mouth, was busy among the prisoners and motivated them to more intensive effort with beating. Every day, a dozen, sometimes even a couple dozen prisoners lost their lives as a result of these exercises. I do not remember the names of those who were murdered that way, all the more that during the initial spell of my internment we never got to know each other, and also, a fellow prisoner was not allowed to assist a prisoner lying on the ground, sometimes even for a few hours, since the aim of this “sport” was precisely to “drain” a maximum number of people. Plagge, as the supervisor of these exercises, is without doubt responsible for the deaths of tens or even hundreds of thousands of prisoners, especially given that his criminal activity was known at the entire camp long afterward, when I was already working at the hospital, and where I would come across his victims, dead or alive, all the time. In the course of this “sport”, Plagge beat me with his stick and kicked me a few times as well, even though I was already completely drained. He told me to jump then, and I could not even lift my hurt legs.
Plagge was later promoted to the rank of Oberscharführer and fulfilled various functions, including Blockführer [block leader] and even Rapportführer [report leader]. However, I have no direct information concerning his activities over that period. In any case, prisoners dreaded Plagge, who was a member of the SS elite of the camp.
I know Teuber, a dentist, from my time at the Auschwitz camp. He was head of the dental facility for the prisoners and SS staff for around a year, approximately until the end of 1942, maybe summer 1943. I saw him almost daily, since he worked in the same building where I worked, the SS hospital. At that time, I worked in the same corridor, opposite Teuber’s office, with the SS crew doctor (Truppenartz). I noticed two elongated scars on Teuber’s cheek, which were characteristic of Prussian Junkers. At that time, Teuber served in the rank of staff doctor – SS-Hauptsturmführer. I know that in the field of dentistry, Teuber was the most senior figure at the camp. The SS dental facility was well-equipped. Teuber took very good care of both the facility and SS patients. On the other hand, the prisoners’ dental facility was run in a primitive fashion and did not serve its purpose. As a doctor, Teuber worked shifts with transports designated for gas chambers: on many occasions, I examined a list of doctors on duty in the office of the SS garrison doctor, and Dr. Teuber’s name also featured. From my own observations, I know that he was in charge of the operation of pulling out the gold and platinum teeth of the gassed or executed prisoners, alternatively of those who had died of natural causes. These teeth were passed to the SS dental station, where they were recast into plates and then passed to the office of the garrison doctor, which was run by Obersturmbannführer Möckel.
More information about Teuber can be provided by the prisoners who worked at the dental station: Bohusiewicz, a dentist in Maków Podhalański; Stanisław Szczęsnowicz, resident of Jelenia Góra, Kolejowa Street, number 56, I believe, a dentist by trade; Józef Nowacki, resident of Pruszków, I do not know the exact address.
Because of the nature of my duties at the camp, I came across many other SS men, who came to the SS hospital as patients, but their particular activities at the camp are known to me from stories told by my comrades, and partly from my own observations, made for example in the course of the obligatory attendance of every prisoner at public executions or at public punishments.
The report was read out, concluded and signed.