On 27 August 1947 in Kraków, acting judge, Associate Judge Franciszek Wesely, delegated to the Kraków District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, acting upon written request of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, this dated 25 April 1947 (file no. NTN 719/47), and 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 Articles 254, 106, 107, 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person specified below as a witness, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Waldemar Nowakowski |
| Date and place of birth | 10 November 1917, Białogródek |
| Parents’ names | Feliks and Janina, née Kozińska |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Marital status | married |
| Occupation | art school student |
| Place of residence | Kraków, Krowoderska Street 29 |
| Criminal record | none |
On 14 August 1940 I was transported from Pawiak prison in Warsaw to Auschwitz as a political prisoner. I was given the number 2805. This was the first transport of prisoners from Warsaw to Auschwitz.
At first I was assigned to various sorts of labor, then I worked in a stable at a stud farm. Working at the stud farm was very hard because I had to be at the stable as early as an hour before the regular reveille in the camp and return from work to the camp at 10.00 p.m. The only advantage in working there was that from time to time one had an opportunity to secure for himself a meal consisting of some horse feed. I would like to stress that at the time, beside the regular feed, each horse was given a kilogram of sugar and each stallion – 25 liters of milk a day.
Hauptsturmführer Hans Aumeier who held the post of Schutzhaftlagerführer [protective custody camp leader] would often burst into the stable to conduct an inspection. Because he was short, prisoners nicknamed him “Łokietek” [elbow-high]. He was exceptionally cruel. For no apparent reason he would kick prisoners, beat them with his hands or with whatever was within reach, and administer various punishments while yelling in his squeaky voice. I often saw scenes like that with my own eyes.
Once when we were coming back from work in two carts, escorted by SS men, the SS man in command ordered us to drive by the station, which was forbidden. We pointed this out, but he said that he would account for it. As we were passing the railway building, Aumeier showed up. He kicked up a tremendous row, despite our efforts to explain that we were only carrying out an order. He wrote down our numbers and then punished the two prisoners who were driving with two hours on the “post”. This was one of the worst punishments because the prisoner would hang by his hands on a chain, with arms twisted behind his back. The “post” would cause the prisoner to lose the use of his hands for several months.
In September 1942 I was caught stealing food and for that I got transferred to the penal company (Strafkolonne) in Birkenau. I worked there digging ditches, even on Sundays. On top of that, we received worse treatment than the other prisoners, as we were not allowed to send letters or maintain contact with the rest of the camp. I stayed in this penal company for only a few days, because I came down with typhus fever which was rampant in Auschwitz at that time. I was placed in the Revier [hospital] located at the time in the area which later belonged to the camp for women. I survived because a prisoner, Dr. Zenkteller who was a Polish physician from Poznań, declared that I had influenza. He did so in order to save me, for all prisoners with typhoid fever were sent to gas chambers.
When I recovered, I was assigned to help out in the Revier and did not return to the Strafkompanie [punitive unit]. At first I worked as a clerk (Schreiber) and later, when the Revier got relocated to section F, I became a block elder there at the end of 1943.
As for the doctors who worked in the Revier, I remember Dr. Thilo, Dr. Mengele and Dr. von Helmersohn. I do not know suspects Dr. Krämer and Dr. Münch. German doctors were obedient to the camp authorities and utterly ruthless. I know that they gave the prisoners phenol injections or instructed SS men from the SDG [Sanitätsdienstgrade – auxiliary sanitary personnel] to do so. I never saw this happen, but I did see a group of 50 Jews – from Greece, it seems – being brought in and marched to the clinic in turns. They never came back. Later, I saw a pile of their corpses in a room next to the clinic. They lay naked and on their chests, near the heart, I noticed tiny cuts left by the syringes from phenol injections.
Selections in the Revier always took place in the presence of a German doctor who had the final say. The sick were presented by a prisoner, Dr. Zenkteller. During one such selection, 500–1,000 prisoners would be chosen to be killed. The selected prisoners were placed in block 7 at the time when the Revier was located in the area which later belonged to the camp for women, and in block 12 when the Revier was in section F. Almost all prisoners who took part in selections were so-called “Muslims” – people who were completely exhausted physically and psychologically and whose senses became totally numb. SS men would then proceed to transport the “Muslims” from these barracks to the crematorium.
I was never inside a crematorium but I went inside the gas chambers, before the crematorium was built. They were located approximately 0.5 kilometers to the north-east of the camp in Birkenau. This was in 1942, when I worked at a stud farm in Auschwitz. The gas chambers were set up in three country houses, where we would bring sawdust used for covering the floors. In these chambers, I saw three trunks filled with gold and gold teeth – all that remained of the victims. I even looked at the gold and held it, obviously with an SS man present. I did not see the process of burning the victims.
During my stay at Auschwitz, I met many SS men and took several beatings, but I no longer remember their names at this point. With the exception of Aumeier, I also cannot recognize any of the SS men whose photographs had been placed on a board at the Main Square in Kraków. Władysław Marzec, residing in Kraków (I do not know the exact address) could provide more specific information about the execution in the SK [Strafkompanie] at Birkenau. Former prisoner Wiesław Kielar, residing in Rzeszów (I do not know his exact address either) could do the same with regards to transports of the corpses of the Russians who had been gassed in block 11 at Auschwitz.
At this the report was concluded and read out.