On 15 September 1947, the Municipal Court in Sosnowiec, Criminal Section, with Associate Judge J. Falkowski presiding and with the participation of court reporter A. Wącławski, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
Name and surname | Wacław Szparadziński |
Age | 42 |
Parents’ names | Franciszek and Helena, n ée Bystrońska |
Place of residence | Sosnowiec, Kuźnica Street 6 |
Occupation | clerk |
Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
Criminal record | none |
Relationship to the parties | none |
From 18 March 1941, I | was a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. From August |
1942, I | was transferred to the Birkenau camp. At the end of 1942, I met a Blockf ü hrer [block |
leader] with the rank of | SS-Rottenf ü rer, a man named Fritz Wilhelm Buntrock. He’s etched in |
my memory as one of those who took the roll calls and inspected the blocks. It seems that at the end of 1943 Buntrock was moved to lager B, the so-called Czech section, and served there as Rapportführer [report leader], and then he was promoted to Unterscharführer.
Buntrock had a hostile approach towards the prisoners and participated in almost all the executions. Just the mere sight of Buntrock, who was a man with a strong build, aroused fear among the prisoners. In particular, he distinguished himself during the liquidation of the camp [lager B]. In order to confuse the prisoners, they were moved to A camp “for quarantine”, supposedly to be sent on a “transport”. In fact, the same day they were all herded into trucks with sticks and sent to the crematorium. This transport consisted mostly of Jews from Theresienstadt.
Besides this, he took an active part in receiving the transports on the ramp, and after there was a selection some people would be directed to the camps and others to the crematorium. These were mainly Jewish transports from other countries as well as from Poland.
Information about Buntrock’s activity can be provided by Władysław Urbański, residing in Katowice, 3 Maja Street 11 (in the outbuilding) and Roman Mucha residing in Sosnowiec, Dęblińska Street (a restaurant).
The report was read out.