Presiding Judge: The Court calls the next witness, Jakub Kleiner.
Witness: Jakub Kleiner, 20 years old, clerk, Jewish, no relationship to the defendants.
Presiding Judge: I advise the witness to speak the truth and remind him of the consequences of making false declarations. Do the parties wish to submit any requests regarding the mode of hearing of the witness?
Prosecution: We exempt the witness from taking the oath.
Defense: We exempt the witness from taking the oath.
Presiding Judge: The witness has been summoned at the request of the prosecutor. Will the prosecutor please ask his questions?
Prosecutor Brandys: Does the witness know defendant Dinges? Maybe the defendant could show himself to the witness so that there are no doubts? (The defendant stands up, the witness recognizes him.) What can the witness say about defendant Dinges’ behavior towards the prisoners?
Witness: I came to the Auschwitz camp in 1944. We arrived at about 2.00 a.m., so we were kept in the train cars until 5.00 a.m., when six or seven cars drove up. The selection started immediately. Women and children were taken to gas chambers, some of them stayed at the ramp, while men were taken to the camp. I did not know where I was, so I asked a friend where we were. Dinges was standing by the cab. I was slowly approaching the car, when he asked me why I was so slow. Dinges was holding a reed in his hand. He hit me with it and kicked me in the leg so hard that I still have a mark.
Presiding Judge: Are there any more questions?
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Has the witness ever been in Płaszów?
Witness: Yes, I have.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Can the witness say how the barracks were built, of what material and in what way?
Witness: The residential barracks were wooden. The outbuildings were made of brick, but all the rest was wooden. In the garages, the so-called Gemeinschafts, there were concrete walls – it was the so-called paper concrete – while all the stairs were concrete and brick.
Prosecutor: In the common barracks, the Gemeinschafts, were the stairs concrete?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: Does the witness remember Orlowski from those times?
Witness: She wasn’t there during my stay.
Presiding Judge: Does the defense have any questions?
Defense Attorney Rappaport: I would like defendant Dinges to comment on this testimony.
Presiding Judge: Go ahead.
Defendant Dinges: The witness said that he arrived with a transport in 1944. I already pointed out several times that I left the motor service in 1941, I was never at the ramp, I never received transports, and I never had anything to do in “Canada” [warehouses with prisoners’ belongings]. I cannot comprehend how the witness can claim that he got into my truck at the ramp. I cannot comprehend what the transport from the ramp was doing at the yard of the building department if the witness says that he got out next to the garage.
Witness: I never said I had got out next to the garage.
Defendant: Your Honor! Let me make the following statement in the face of those incomprehensible accusations. In May 1941, after I was drafted into the SS, I was sent by Berlin to the Central Construction Management in Auschwitz. I was deeply terrified when I arrived at my new posting and found out that I was going to serve in a construction company within a concentration camp. All my struggle and the blows I inflicted on myself, on my body, can testify that I was a Rottenführer without any military distinction. Do Your Honor, the whole Polish Nation, and the former prisoners oppressed in the Auschwitz camp wish me to become a victim of hatred and revenge, as a person who would sabotage every order and would mock all reprimands from my superiors? Despite all the danger resulting from my behavior towards the SS and from my attitude towards the prisoners, I always looked them in the eyes.
There was one notion for which I was ready to die, and one wish: equal rights for everyone, regardless of race or nationality. For all those years, I was always a friend to the prisoners. It is the plain truth. I hope Your Honor will cast a just verdict. May God help me in this difficult struggle against hatred and revenge.
| Defense Attorney Rappaport: | Did the witness meet Dinges only once? |
| Witness: | I saw him again near the bathhouse, but I cannot say anything specific. |
| Defense Attorney: | How did the witness know that his name was Dinges? |
| Witness: | I talked to my cousin, who told me that Dinges would give bread to one person and |
kill another.
Defense Attorney: Does the witness recognize Dinges?
Witness: Yes.
Defense Attorney: Thank you.
Defendant Dinges: Did I wear glasses in Auschwitz?
Witness: I think you didn’t.
Defense Attorney Walas: Who frequented the concrete Gemeinschaft barracks in Płaszów?
Witness: Nobody lived in the concrete barracks, because garages were situated there.
Defense Attorney: Thank you.
Witness: I would also like to testify regarding defendant Hoffman. In 1944, I lived in the Gypsy camp after its liquidation. It was in September and I lived at block 8. One day, defendant Hoffman came to the block and ordered an immediate roll call. All prisoners who had no profession were to be transported to do the donkey work that is to a mine. My uncle and cousin were taken there, but I was too young. Two days later, we found out that all those people from that transport, 250 prisoners, had been burnt in a gas chamber.
Prosecutor Brandys: Does the witness recognize defendant Hoffman?
Witness: I recognize him perfectly.
Presiding Judge: Does it mean that it was defendant Hoffman who came to the block and ordered that roll call?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor Brandys: Did the witness know Hoffman before that? What was his function?
Witness: I often saw him in the Gypsy camp, and later on I found out that he had been hired in the political department.
Presiding Judge: The witness is excused.