Sent to the Military Auditor and his substitute, Wauters, overseeing cases pertaining to war crimes
Liège, 17 September 1945
Main Commissioner for State Security,
head of the BT in Liège, Louis Raques
Kingdom of Belgium
State Security
Judiciary police, BT station Liège, Section 2
Interview report no. 9636
Accused:
– Wirths, Clauberg, Goebel, Schumann, Rohde, Weber – doctors at Auschwitz, – Danz – from the female SS guard
And other unknown individuals accused of war crimes.
Ex officio count and complaint filed by Jermie Adler, husband of Chaja Isakovic, Czechoslovak, born 21 March 1902 in Selo-Solotvina, residing in Liège, rue des Récollets 17.
Subject: information about concentration camps.
PRO JUSTITIA
On 6 September 1945 at 11.45 a.m., I, Wilhelm Staffe, Main Commissioner for State Security, officer of the judiciary police, assistant to the Auditor General, am interviewing our inspector René Kinet, who reports as follows:
On 6 September 1945 at 11.00 a.m., Jermie Adler, husband of Chaja Isakovic, Czechoslovak, tailor, born 21 March 1902 in Selo-Solotvina (Czechoslovakia), residing in Liège at rue des Récollets 17, made the following voluntary deposition before me: In May 1940 I was living in Liège at rue Fosse-aux-Raines 2 with my wife and three children: Frida, born in Selo-Solotvina on 14 September 1926; Berta, born in Selo-Solotvina on 20 June 1928; and Nelly, born in Liège on 24 February 1930.
In 1942, I took in the son of my sister Regina, who had died in 1937. The child’s name was Zygmunt Adler, born in Ougrée on 15 July 1936.
Being pursued by the Germans on account of our Jewish religion, in 1942, with my wife and the four children, we took refuge in Sprimont at the Maison des Gardes, belonging to Dr. Bonhomme from Liège. We lived there until 1944; throughout this time I worked as a tailor.
On 3 March 1944 I was admitted to Bavière hospital in Liège under a false surname as Jérôme Albert for eye surgery.
On 5 March I got news from watchman Lejace from Gomzé-Andoumont and a certain doctor from Beaufays whose surname I don’t know, that my wife and three children – Berta, Zygmunt and Nelly – had been arrested. I therefore left the hospital covertly and went into hiding until 30 March 1944, on which day I presented myself to the judiciary police in Liège to file a complaint against theft at my house in Sprimont after the arrest of my wife. For security reasons, I was imprisoned in Saint-Léonard in Liège until liberation.
On 4 September 1945 one Blumenfeld, residing in Liège at rue St Paul 26, told me the following: On 21 May 1944, while in Birkano (Birkenau) in Silesia, Blumenfeld, who had also been arrested by the Germans, saw my wife and three children arrive at the local concentration camp. He gave me assurances that within an hour of arrival at the camp my wife and children Zygmunt and Nelly were sent to the gas chamber and murdered. Blumenfeld assured me that he had seen their bodies because the Germans forced him to collect the corpses after these terrible executions.
As regards my daughter Berta, Blumenfeld told me that he had seen her two days later working as a forced laborer. In spite of this, I have had no news of her so far, and all the evidence seems to indicate that she has also shared the fate of her mother.
The report was read out and signed.