On 20 September 1947 in Katowice, the deputy prosecutor of the Court of Appeal in Katowice with its seat in Katowice, Karol Jarzębiński, member of the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Katowice, with the participation of court reporter Władysław Giemza, pursuant to Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, heard the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Józef Koczorowski |
| Age | 28 lat |
| Parents’ names | Karol and Helena |
| Place of residence | Prudnik, Staszica Street 1 |
| Occupation | surveyor |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
On 9 May 1940, I was arrested in Kraków by the Gestapo on the suspicion of belonging to underground organizations and being involved in activities against the German state. Initially, I was imprisoned in Tarnów, and from there on 14 June 1940, I was transported to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where I stayed until 1 November 1944.
From the list of suspects shown to me, I know the following people: 1. Hans Aumeier, 2. Max Grabner, 3. Heinrich Josten, 4. Arthur Liebehenschel, 5. Ludwig Plagge and 6. Kurt Müller.
1. At the end of 1941 or at the beginning of 1942, Hans Aumeier arrived in the Auschwitz camp as Lagerführer [head of the camp], replacing Fritzsch. Aumeier was very harsh in relation to the prisoners. From what people told me, I know that in 1942 he shot prisoners who tried to escape during the construction of crematorium II in Birkenau. Also in 1942, on Aumeier’s order, about 200 people were shot from the so-called punitive unit. I would like to mention that all repressions against prisoners were carried out on the orders of Aumeier, who as the Lagerführer had the deciding voice.
In Aumeier’s time, the harshest possible repressions were used against the prisoners, such as hanging on a post, beating prisoners across a vaulting horse, hanging for an attempted escape. Aumeier often beat the prisoners personally and was known for his cruelty. [He served], I think, until spring 1943.
If I am not mistaken as to the time, in the summer of 1942, for the escape of four prisoners from the main economic camp who escaped by car and disguised as German SS officers, the prisoners employed in the garages were sentenced to a two-hour punishment on the post, and the kapo was starved to death.
Aumeier made short work of it, because in four months, out of 14,000 Russian prisoners of war only 142 remained. These prisoners were forced to work excessively with minimal food rations that were smaller than ours.
For smoking a cigarette at work, Aumeier sentenced the prisoners to work in the punitive unit, where these people would die after a few weeks. He [also] took part in all the executions, as well as in gassing the prisoners.
2. I knew Max Grabner since the beginning of the camp as the head of the Political Department. In July 1940, on Grabner’s orders, we all stood at the roll call from 6.00 p.m. until 3.00 p.m. [as punishment] for the escape of one of the prisoners. During the roll call, the prisoners were beaten, especially priests and Jews. One of the prisoners got 114 lashes.
From what prisoner Jarzębowski told me, I know that Grabner was present at the interrogations in the Political Department, during which the prisoners were treated inhumanly, beaten, starved or put on the so-called “swing”. This involved the right hand being manacled to the right leg, the left to the left, and then the pole was moved, pulled up towards the ceiling and the prisoner was swung and beaten.
Grabner gave death sentences for prisoners for offenses [such as] obtaining food and clothing [or] writing letters to their family, bypassing the camp authorities. He even had such authority that when the time was approaching for a death sentence to be executed on one of the prisoners, he had the power not to carry it out, as it was with Kwiatkowski and Dubiel, Höß’s gardeners. Grabner chose 13 prisoners from a group including the following escapees: Kazimierz Jarzębowski (now deceased), Józef Rotter (deceased) and Stanisław Chybiński (I think he’s alive), and 14 [more] prisoners from that group who were later shot or hanged. I should explain that these 13 were sentenced to death by Grabner, and 14, as Höß announced, were executed on Himmler’s orders. Grabner took part in the shooting of prisoners who rebelled during the construction of the crematorium, as I testified in relation to Aumeier.
Grabner’s activity could be further explored by the exhaustive testimony of Feliks Myłek, who resides in Gliwice.
3. Heinrich Josten – he was the second or third Lagerführer in 1943–1944, but I can’t say much about his activity. I only saw him at the crematoria in Birkenau and I know that he was involved in the inspections.
4. Arthur Liebehenschel – he arrived after Höß as the commandant of the camp at the end of 1943. During the time of his command, the camp regulations were relaxed, namely we didn’t have to doff our caps to the SS men, the inspections at the gates were discontinued, the death penalty for escaping was abolished. Liebehenschel didn’t allow the prisoners to be beaten and I know that he ordered the camp officials to make a commitment that they would not beat the prisoners. Failure to comply with this commitment would be punished with imprisonment. Liebehenschel was, I think, there only three months.
5. Kurt Müller – from October 1940 [he served as] Blockführer in various blocks around the Auschwitz camp. Müller took part in inspections at the gates, beat and kicked prisoners. As blockführer in block 11 he participated in the shooting of prisoners. Block 11 was [the so- called] death block.
6. Ludwig Plagge – from the beginning of [the existence of] the camp in Auschwitz [he served as] Blockführer. I know him as one of the worst and harshest of all the officers in the camp. He beat prisoners with a bullwhip during “sport”, he punished them by making them do squats while holding bricks in the sun. Plagge, immediately after [our] arrival to the camp, forced me personally, along with other prisoners, to run so that the grass after three days was completely worn out and destroyed. Plagge tormented us in various ways, such as, for example, by making us sing after the roll call in a squat position with our hands behind our necks.
I know nothing more. The report was read out.