On 29 September 1947 in Kraków, the deputy prosecutor of the Court of Appeal in Kraków, Edward Pęchalski, member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, 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), with the participation of court reporter and legal apprentice Krystyna Turowicz, in conjunction with article 254, 107, 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, heard the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisław Koczanowicz |
| Date and place of birth | 5 May 1921 in Tarnów |
| Parents’ names | Władysław and Maria, née Tyszarska |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | student at the University of Technology |
| Marital status | married |
| Place of residence | Kraków, Szopena Street 37, flat 4 |
| Criminal record | none |
On 7 November 1942 I was arrested in Nowy Sącz on the accusation of belonging to the Union for Armed Struggle. I was arrested by the local Gestapo. I was immediately imprisoned in Nowy Sącz, and then in Tarnów. On 23 January 1943, I was transported to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where I stayed until mid-February 1944 in the Stammlager [parent camp]. Then I was transferred to the sub-camp in Monowitz, where I stayed until 1 August 1944 and was later transferred to the Gliwice III sub-camp, from where in December 1944 I was sent back to the camp in Monowitz [where] I stayed until it was liquidated in January 1945.
In the Auschwitz camp, I worked in various working kommandos and, from the beginning of autumn 1943, in the Reiniger-Kommandantur. This kommando was employed to clean and maintain order in the building of the camp authorities, the camp administration and in the residential barracks of the SS men employed in the headquarters and in the administration.
Among the many SS men from the Auschwitz camp, I met and remembered the ones whom I recognized during the confrontation on the 25th of this month in the Central Prison in Kraków – Oberscharführer Ehm Wenzel, Unterscharführer Arthur Johann Breitwieser and SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Aumeier.
The first I know from the period when I used to clean the SS barracks in the Auschwitz camp. In relation to our work kommando, he behaved well and didn’t engage in any acts of brutality or abuse. I also didn’t hear of any other wrongdoing or violation with regard to the other prisoners.
Breitwieser was employed for some time as the head or deputy head of the Unterkunft next to “Canada”, where the prisoners sorted out the things that had been stolen from the freshly arrived prisoners to the camp. He was extremely harsh towards prisoners and imposed severe punishments on them for any transgression. I always saw him with a stick in his hand. Then I got to know him a bit better during my second stint in Monowitz, that is in the period from December 1944 to mid-January 1945. At that time in Monowitz, I was a member of the kommando employed in segregating things stolen from prisoners by the camp authorities. This took place in the local Unterkunft, where Breitwieser was the boss. The prisoners were petrified of Breitwieser because in Monowitz he was even harsher than in the Auschwitz camp. It was enough for him to smell smoke on a prisoner, and then he would beat or kick this prisoner. My fellow prisoners who were in Monowitz earlier than me told me that [Breitwieser] was known for his exceptional brutality towards the prisoners and at the drop of a hat he used to beat them or mistreat them in various ways. I know Breitwieser came from Lwów, where he was born. It seems that before the war he was a student at the Lwów University of Technology. During the war he became Volksdeutscher. He tried to be more German than the Germans in the camp and meted out strict penalties for anyone addressing him in Polish.
Hans Aumeier was the Lagerführer [head of the camp]. He had the worst reputation in the camp among the prisoners. Because of his short height, he was called “Łokietek” [Elbow-high]. He abused the prisoners whenever he could. He would mete out severe punishments, often without the slightest reason, including the bunker. Personally, I saw him shoot at the prisoners once without any reason. It was around the spring of 1943. In the camp, the fire brigade was alerted and as a result, several dozen prisoners who had a day off work that day gathered between blocks 14 and 15, opposite the main entrance gate, to see what was happening. I was in that group of prisoners. When Aumeier saw us, he approached us and from a distance of some 40 m he started to shoot at us with a pistol. As a result of this shooting, the prisoners fled, and several were wounded by Aumeier.
At this the report was concluded, read out and signed.