On 8 May 1945 in Oświęcim, Regional Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, member of the Commission for the Investigation of German-Nazi Crimes in Oświęcim, at the request, in the presence and with the participation of Deputy Prosecutor of the Regional Court Dr. Wincenty Jarosiński, pursuant to Articles 254 and 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed Jan Sierżęga as a witness, former prisoner no. 159158 of the Auschwitz concentration camp, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Jan Sierżęga |
| Date and place of birth | 1 January 1912 in Horodence, Tarnopol District |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Anna, née Kubisiak |
| Occupation | bricklayer |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Citizenship | Polish |
| Place of residence before the arrest | Horodenka, Kostomorowa Street 5 |
| Current place of residence | Oświęcim |
On 23 August 1941 in Horodenka, I shot a Ukrainian police officer, as a result of which I was arrested the following day and put in prison. From there, I was transported on 26 October 1943 to the concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Our transport consisted of about 1500 people, including 500 women. After we had showered, had our hair cut and were registered, we were placed in quarantine blocks. We were treated very badly.
After a month, I was transferred to a work section called BIId. Together with other prisoners, I was placed in block 7. I worked as a bricklayer, filling in holes near crematorium I in Birkenau.
Since I worked about seven metres away from the crematorium, I could clearly see how people were transported from the camp to the gas chambers. Before it happened, the prisoners were first subjected to a selection. All blocks were ordered to stand in rows, just like during a roll call. Then, the block senior with the SS Blockführer went between the rows and, completely at random, wrote down the names of people chosen for gassing. The SS Blockführer pointed at a prisoner and told the block senior to write down his number. At that time, only Jewish prisoners were gassed. A different number of people, mostly the weakest, were chosen for the gas chambers from each block. For each block, that number amounted to about 150 prisoners. After the people selected for gassing were listed, they were instructed to go to block 28, where washrooms were located. They had to wait there until the arrival of trucks that were supposed to transport them to the crematorium. When the trucks arrived,
the prisoners were ordered to strip naked, were beaten and pushed into the trucks. The SS men, block seniors and [members of] the Sonderkommando [special unit] beat them all over their bodies, using everything they had in their hands. When they arrived at the crematorium, the prisoners were ordered to get off the trucks and were driven into the gas chambers. If someone did not want to get off the truck, they were pulled out by force and dragged into
the chamber. The gas chambers in crematorium I and II could fit a thousand people each.
In cases where transports were to be gassed immediately upon arrival, the prisoners were ordered to leave the train and their belongings were taken away by the Canada detail. Then, a doctor performed a selection. The healthiest people (a very small percentage) were sent to work in the camp. Those who were weaker, and especially children and the elderly, were transported straight to the chambers. I saw with my own eyes the behavior of the prisoners. After they were driven into the first room, they were told to undress quickly, because they were going to the bathhouse. They were given towels and soap and were told that they would go to the camp. When they undressed, they were rushed into the chamber, which looked like a shower room. There, they were instructed to stand as close to each other as possible, and if they did not do so quickly, the Germans set dogs on them. I have already said that the Aryans, even those who were sick, were not gassed at that time. However, I saw with my own eyes what was done to the seriously ill. A German doctor inspecting the infirmary ordered the chief physician to kill such patients by injection. I saw one of the Jewish doctors perform such a procedure in block 18. The procedure was carried out at 11.00 p.m., and by the following morning the sick were already dead. I do not know what kind of injection it was. The doctor who performed the procedure was Kochen. He was a Jew from Berlin.
The Oberkapo of the bricklayers’ detail, where I worked, was a German named Wieland, while the Kapo was Schmidt, a Pole, who then became a Volksdeutsch. They were cruel people. Already when the tools for work were being distributed, they were beating and kicking us for no reason. They beat us with shovels, pickaxes, hands and sticks, all over our bodies. They did not care whether someone was killed or injured. When we were returning from work with the detail, we often carried several men who could not walk anymore. The senior of block 9 – the quarantine block – behaved in a similar way. He would beat prisoners only because he did not like them, and if someone dared to say a word in his presence without his permission, he would punish them with 25 blows on the buttocks. His name was Rudy, and he was of German descent.
I stayed in Birkenau until 8 January 1945, that is, until the Soviet army entered the camp. Then, I was instructed to move to the camp in Auschwitz I, where I have stayed until this day.
At this point, the report was concluded, read out, and signed by witness Jan Sierżęga as consistent with his testimony.