On 9 September 1947 in Kraków, trainee judge Franciszek Wesely as acting judge, delegated to the Kraków District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, 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) on the Main and District Commissions for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, in connection with articles 254, 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, heard the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Marian Prząda |
| Date and place of birth | 12 September 1920 in Kraków |
| Parents’ names | Wojciech and Jadwiga, née Radosz |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | building student |
| Marital status | single |
| Place of residence | Kraków, Krupnicza Street 24 |
| Criminal record | none |
On 19 July 1940, I was transported from Montelupich Street to Auschwitz as a political prisoner and I received camp number 1361. I was sent to quarantine, whose commander was the defendant Ludwig Plagge – I recognize him clearly from the photograph presented to me (the witness was shown a photograph of the defendant Ludwig Plagge).
Plagge was the nemesis of all the prisoners, whom he beat and kicked for no reason. He was particularly irksome when it came to the so-called sport and singing. This consisted in him ordering songs to be sung in German by prisoners generally not familiar with the German language. When he didn’t like the singing, he organized some "sport", which mainly involved forcing the prisoners to do squats, and when they didn’t have the strength to perform them, he beat them with a stick on their head and entire body. Personally, I was severely beaten by Plagge more than once with a stick on the head and all over the body. Often, when the prisoner could no longer do the squats and fell to the ground from exhaustion, Plagge pulled out his revolver and shot him around the ear. I myself saw prisoners shot in the ear twice.
Later, after leaving quarantine, I came across Plagge in 1942 on the grounds of the Birkenau camp where he was Rapportführer. During this time, I saw him in the men’s camp on block 7, the block of death (Himmelkommando), as he selected the prisoners to be gassed.
Plagge was also involved in gassing prisoners, both those from selections and those from transports freshly arrived at the ramp. At that time the gassing took place in Birkenau in two houses, about two kilometers from the camp, converted from cottages into gas chambers. I had the opportunity to observe this because I was employed in the Rollkommando [freight kommando] and I drove car no. 2, characterized by its rubber wheels. As a result, I used to go to the gas chambers mentioned above, bringing, for example, chlorine in barrels and Cyclone tins. I saw Plagge beat the prisoners in these gas chambers, forcing them to undress and enter the chambers.
I met the defendant Hans Aumeier in Auschwitz I. I recognize him on the photograph presented to me. He was the deputy of Lagerführer [head of the camp] Fritzsch, and because of his small stature, the prisoners called him "Łokietek" ["Elbow"]. He was extremely vicious towards the prisoners and would constantly beat and kick them. Aumeier had the cottages in Birkenau built or rather rebuilt for the gas chambers and on his command I would bring construction materials at the time of the reconstruction, and even once on this occasion, Aumeier punched me and whipped me around the head for driving through a boggy area where the vehicle got stuck in the mud.
I worked in the Rollkommando from September 1940 until June 1942 and was designated to the service of the Auschwitz I crematorium. As a result, I was charged with carrying the prisoners’ corpses from the Revier [camp hospital] to the crematorium. I loaded bodies from the morgue on block 28. The corpses of the prisoners were already naked, and any gold teeth had already been removed. Because initially the Auschwitz crematorium could not keep up with the sheer quantity of cremations, I transported the excess corpses at night to the mass graves in Birkenau. In addition, I transported clothes and other personal belongings of the prisoners gassed in Birkenau to so-called Canada in Auschwitz I, whose commander was SS-Oberscharführer Wiegleb. Furthermore, after sorting out the valuables in "Canada", I drove them in packed cases to the Häftlingsgeldverwaltung [administration of prisoners’ assets], where they were picked up by SS-Unterscharführer Theo Gehri, whom I recognize in the photograph. How this Gehri treated the prisoners, I don’t know, but with me he was ok.
On 17 September 1941, when I was in typhus quarantine in the Auschwitz camp hospital (block no. 19), the prisoner, Dr. Suliborski, came in and said that whoever wanted to earn half a loaf of bread and two servings of sausage, let him sign up. Because this was an extremely attractive proposition, I signed myself up. Those who volunteered were ordered to transport in two cars the corpses of gassed Russian prisoners of war from the bunkers in block 11. We drove them from 11.00 p.m. till 4.00 in the morning. When I entered the bunker in block 11, it had already been ventilated and I saw the corpses of the Russian prisoners, mostly in a seated position, and it looked as though death had come upon them suddenly, as the position of their bodies indicated. For example, some of them were holding newspapers, others playing cards. There were about 700 of these gassed Russians, dressed in high boots, trousers and leather jackets, and beaked caps with a red star. At the time it was said that they were political commissars.
Who gave the order to gas these Russian prisoners, I don’t know, but anyway, this must have happened with the knowledge and authority of the defendant Grabner, who was then the head of the Political Department and worked in block 11. I recognize the defendant Grabner from the photograph presented to me. In June 1942, I was reported by Wiegleb for "organizing" food, and was called to the political office in the Blockführerstube [guardroom]. Grabner, as soon as I walked in, punched me in the face, then asked for whom I "organized" the food and ordered me to be put in a bunker in block 11. On the second day I was called to the Schreibstube [administrative office] and Rapportführer – I can’t recall his surname – (he substituted for Palitzsch) – and he read me Grabner’s sentence of six months in Strafkompanie [punitive unit]. I was in the Strafkompanie in Birkenau for only four months, because on 4 November Palitzsch became the commander of Strafkompanie, or rather the Rapportführer in Birkenau, and he released me early, and that was because at the time when I had been working in the Rollkommando, I used to select and bring him – on his orders – various objects of value such as eau de Cologne, soap, fresh underwear, items of value: rings, bracelets, wine, sardines etc. Wiegleb "shared" these things with Palitzsch, because it was known that the SS men would share amongst themselves the items belonging to the Jews from the gas transports.
After being released from the Strafkompanie I became an assistant in the SS canteen. My superior was SS-Unterscharführer Theodor Knietsch. He was one of the few SS men who treated the prisoners kindly. He helped them in this way – he would get money from the prisoners and then buy them medicine. He also assisted in the delivery of correspondence. I never saw Knietsch hit any of the prisoners. In fact, he had nothing to do with the camp, as the SS-canteen was outside the so-called large Postenkette [cordon, guard chain].
Among the photographs of accused SS men shown to me, I also recognize Paul Szczurek, who in Auschwitz I was a Blockführer of the Terpfleger [animal care], and I often saw him beat the prisoners. Then there’s Kurt Müller, Blockführer, a tall and strong man who treated the prisoners cruelly, beating and kicking them, and the defendant Richard Schröder. Schröder was a Blockführer in the Birkenau men’s camp. Many times I saw him – especially during inspections at the gate – punch prisoners or kick them. He was a very young SS man and, therefore, performed his duties zealously. It isn’t true that Schröder was a writer at the Standortverwaltung, at least at the time when I was in Birkenau – that is, from 4 June 4 1942 till 12 March 12 1943. If that’s what Schröder is saying, then he is lying.
On 12 March 1943 I was transferred to the Neuengamme camp near Hamburg.
I have testified all that I know about the SS men mentioned in the list.
At this the report was concluded, read out and signed.