On 11 September 1946 in Katowice, Regional Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, at the spoken request and in the presence of a member of that Commission, Deputy Prosecutor Edward Pęchalski, pursuant to and in accordance with Article 4 of the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), in connection with Articles 254, 107, 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the former prisoner of the concentration camp in Auschwitz specified below, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Ludwik Antoni Mayer |
| Date and place of birth | 19 September 1899, Vienna |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | mechanical engineer |
| Place of residence | Chorzów-Batory, Armii Czerwonej Street 39 |
I was in the Auschwitz concentration camp from January 1943 to 12 December 1944, as prisoner no. 95872. After completing the quarantine in section BIb of the Birkenau camp, I fell ill and was placed in block 8 of that section. From there, I was transferred to section BIIf of the Birkenau camp, along with the whole Krankenbau [hospital].
When I had recuperated, I worked in the prison canteen in a block in section F. At the beginning, paying with vouchers and later on with bonus cards, inmates could buy soups and other products in the canteen, bought for that purpose from a camp enterprise, Deutsche Lebensmittel GmbH.
When I was in the hospital in section F, I witnessed selections of the sick. The selections were performed by a camp doctor, SS-Obersturmführer Dr. Thilo, who was assisted by the camp leader, and [illegible] the selected patients were gathered in a part of block 14 which was still empty and in the washroom in block 16. The selections were carried out at random; the patients were not examined. All the selected prisoners were gathered in one block. From there, they were transported by trucks to the gas chambers and crematoria after several hours, usually at night.
In the autumn of 1943, over 600 Greek Jews from Thessaloniki were selected. I remember this number very well because after the selected prisoners were taken to the gas chambers, SD Schulz ordered me to write down a list of their names. I do not remember the exact heading of the list, but I remember that it included the abbreviation SB [Sonderbehandlung – special treatment]. As far as I can remember, the headline was more or less the following: “Liste der am... zur SB überstellten Häftlinge” [the list of prisoners transferred for SB]. At that time, I did not understand the meaning of this abbreviation. I knew, however, that everyone on the list went to a gas chamber.
I remember that when I stayed in section F of the Birkenau camp, hundreds or thousands of people arrived at the camp and marched along section F from the railway ramp to the crematoria. Such transports were most frequent in May and June 1944, when masses of Hungarian Jews were gassed. In the autumn of 1944, a large group of Hungarian women stayed in section III of the Birkenau camp in the so-called Mexico. They were completely naked, lived in empty blocks with no furniture, most of them suffered from typhus and Durchfall [diarrhea]. By day, many of them walked naked in the open air. I suppose it was a hospital branch and the sick women were destined for extermination, so the camp’s management decided it was inefficient to give them clothes. Most of those Hungarian women from Mexico (I do not know the number) were exterminated in the gas chambers.
I would like to add that until April 1943, the selections were also performed among Aryan patients. All prisoners who were diagnosed with typhus were selected. In this way, the camp management wanted to eradicate the disease. In hospitals, nothing was done to prevent the spread of typhus. People suffering from typhus, influenza, tuberculosis and other illnesses were kept together, eight people in one bed, which of course, due to lack of any medication, contributed to the spread of the epidemic.
The report was read out. At this point, the interview of the witness and the present report were concluded.