Presiding Judge: I would ask the next witness, Dr. Grabczyński, to approach. Please provide your personal details.
Witness: Jan Grabczyński, 40 years old, a doctor of medicine, married, religion – Roman Catholic.
Presiding Judge: I hereby instruct the witness, pursuant to the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that you are required to speak the truth. The provision of false testimony is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years. Do the parties want to submit any motions as to the procedure according to which the witness is to be interviewed?
Prosecutors: We release the witness from the obligation to take an oath.
Defense attorneys: We also release the witness from the obligation.
Presiding Judge: What testimony can the witness provide?
Witness: I arrived in Auschwitz in December 1942. From my second day there I was employed at block 21, which was the surgical block of the camp hospital. The sanitary conditions and surgical tools were in a state beyond all criticism. The bunk beds for surgical patients were overcrowded and absolutely unsuited for people in such a condition. The same goes for drugs, anesthetics, soporifics and tools. These shortages were later made good thanks to our friends from the camp, who supplied the hospital with the requisite items from the so-called “Kanada” barracks.
On my third day there, the Germans carried out a selection which I witnessed. It was performed by Klehr. Some 180 people were led down from the upper hall of block 21. Until March 1943, participation in selections was obligatory for all prisoners with the exception of Reichsdeutschers and Volksdeutschers; from March 1943, only Jews were obligated to attend them. As regards these selections, I would like to state that in my opinion Unterscharführer Lukas and one of the camp doctors treated inmates the best. They told me that the selections were carried out in cooperation with the political depeartment.
Concerning the accused Liebehenschel, I saw him in our block in the spring of 1944. His visit was announced by the doctor, Wirths. Liebehenschel came to the block, looked at the operating theater, the hall for the Reichsdeutschers, and thereafter proceeded to the post-operational ward for Aryan prisoners. Instructed by Wirths, I was ordered to present an interesting post-operative case. There was a young boy in the ward. He had been shot and wounded while walking between the camp’s wire fences, and now suffered from pulmonary bleeding and paralysis of the shoulder. Since the operation had been carried out a dozen or so days ago, I presented him to Liebehenschel. He became interested in learning the circumstances in which the boy had been shot, and instructed Rapportführer [report leader] Klausen to conduct an investigation. I do not remember the conclusion of these investigations.
Apart from this incident, I practically did not encounter the accused.
I would now like to turn attention to Dr. Schuman’s so-called scientific work. This was no more than the simple castration of men carried out using X-rays. Patients in the camp in Birkenau were exposed to X-ray radiation, and in various periods before being irradiated they were subjected to one-sided or two-sided castration. Next, their organs were removed and diligently packed, preserved using the appropriate preparations, and sent outside the camp. These were initial tests, which were aimed at finding a method of castration that would be cheap, quick and practically unnoticeable, and could be carried out on the entire Czech and Polish nations. This would be all.
Presiding Judge: Are there any questions?
Prosecutor Szewczyk: What caused the exceptionally high mortality amongst prisoners? What sicknesses and what factors?
Witness: I can only respond to questions concerning the surgical block. A friend of mine, Dr. Fejkiel, will also be testifying here. As regards the surgical block, [the main] causative factors were the low [ambient] temperature, which resulted in the appearance of edemas, and lowered bodily resistance brought on by insufficient nourishment, which led to the formation of phlegmons in the event of even slight irritation. Others included frequent accidents at work, the inappropriate dressing of wounds, inappropriate methods of transport, and various complications that were never seen outside the camp.
Presiding Judge: Are there any further questions?
Prosecutor: The witness mentioned Schuman’s experiments ... does the witness know anything about the experiments of Dr. Clauberg?
Witness: I am aware that Dr. Clauberg conducted some experiments in block 10. A diagnostic device was installed there, and [some kinds of] substances were injected into the reproductive organs of women. The second group of tests was concerned with disclosing the initial stadia of cancer.
Prosecutor: Was the witness present during the selections?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: How did these proceed? And did Klehr take part in them too?
Witness: Klehr would usually come up for selections alone. All the patients, with the exception of the seriously ill, were obligated to stand in line with their case histories. Klehr determined the condition of patients on the basis of temperature data in their fever charts, while those who lay in hospital for longer than six weeks were earmarked for gassing. I must stress that these patients were reviewed by Entress, and he would reduce the number of those intended for gassing.
Prosecutor: Who decided about where prisoners would be placed, in which ward?
Witness: That would be determined in the admission room. Patients were initially checked by prisoners-doctors and then presented to the SS doctors, who decided about admission to the camp hospital, or marked them directly for gassing or phenol injections.
Prosecutor: Did Klehr intervene there?
Witness: Klehr was present during presentations to the camp doctor.
Presiding Judge: Does the defense have any questions?
Defense attorneys: No.
The accused Liebehenschel: May I ask the witness whether selections were carried out during my tenure at the camp?
Presiding Judge: Please do so.
The accused: Who conducted these selections, in what manner, and how often?
Witness: As far as I know, Liebehenschel was the commandant of the camp from October 1943 to May 1944. During this period selections were less frequent, but they were still carried out. They were conducted by the SS-Arzt [SS doctor], and once by Standortsarzt [garrison doctor] Wirths.
Presiding Judge: Was the witness incarcerated in camp I throughout?
Witness: Yes.
Presiding Judge: The witness may step down. I order a recess of 10 minutes.