Presiding Judge: Next witness, Julian Lang.
(Witness Julian Lang appears.)
Presiding Judge: I am advising the witness in accordance with art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the obligation to speak the truth. Making false declarations is punishable by conviction with a maximum penalty of 5-year imprisonment. Do the parties wish to file motions as regards the procedure of interviewing the witness?
Prosecution: No.
Defense: No.
Presiding Judge: Then the witness is exempt from taking an oath. Please state your personal details.
Witness: Julian Lang, 50 years of age, industrialist, Roman Catholic, no relationship to the parties.
Presiding Judge: Please tell us what you know concerning the case, in particular as regards those defendants who are known to you. Please take a look at the defendants and tell us what you know about them.
Witness: I recognize defendant Mussfeldt .
Presiding Judge: Under what circumstances did you meet him?
Witness: I arrived at Majdanek as a prisoner from Dachau in 1940. There was only one provisional field there because the camp was just being established. At that time, defendant Mussfeldt was not yet there. He arrived at Majdanek in February 1942. As far as I know, he was appointed head of the crematorium straight away, but since the crematorium did not yet exist, a building made of wooden boards was raised, located next to the field where Soviet captives were hanged. At that time, there were no prisoners yet at Majdanek, just a sizeable group of captives, some 1,500 people, and when we arrived, only 150 of them remained. This is because there were selections every day and a few Soviet captives were hanged. That function was first fulfilled by Mussfeldt. I do not know who designated prisoners to be hanged, but I know very well that the persons performing the hangings were appointed by defendant Mussfeldt, since he was on the Majdanek crew. I was part of a group which moved the bodies a few kilometers outside the camps, to huge pits where we dumped them. The first transport to arrive at Majdanek were Jews from Lublin.
Around 300 of them arrived. Overnight they were placed in an open-roofed shed and next morning they were moved out of Majdanek, executed and buried.
The next operation at Majdanek was an incoming transport of several thousand Czech Jews. This is actually where Mussfeldt’s operation began. There was one crematorium at Majdanek, located between fields 1 and 2. Because I was at field 1, I could clearly observe what was going on in the crematorium, located a few meters away. Once, I had an opportunity to visit the crematorium and the first thing that caught my attention was hooks suspended from the ceiling. As I later learned, some of the wretched victims brought into the crematorium were hanged on these hooks and later incinerated. At that time, there were only two furnaces there. Because larger transports started to arrive at Majdanek and the furnaces could not handle the incineration of the bodies, these were moved some 18 kilometers outside Majdanek and buried there. Since, as I have already said, the existing furnaces did not suffice, the Majdanek authorities decided to build modern crematoria, that is with many more furnaces. The operation of these crematoria was designed to enable the incineration of subsequent larger transports, including the transport of the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. It is with these transports that Muhsfedt’s most intensive activities commenced. Transports arriving at Majdanek underwent selections, meaning that people were sorted into those for labor on one hand, and the elderly, sick, women and children on the other. Muhfeldt derived particular pleasure from holding these children in his arms and shooting them. I saw this myself as he held children in his arms and two shots were fired shortly afterward. At that time, I witnessed first-hand what was happening at the crematorium. But I could not see what was happening at the crematorium next to block 5. I could only see buses arriving, which carried the wretched victims sentenced to death. If Mussfeldt laid his hands on these victims, they were hanged or shot, and later incinerated. During his entire spell at Majdanek, Mussfeldt stood out for dishing out the greatest cruelty, so that we did not call him a man or a beast, but a monster. “He loved burning prisoners”.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: How long did you remain at Majdanek?
Witness: Between 9 December 1941 and 2 July 1944.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Do you remember the mass execution of more than 17,000 Jews at Majdanek?
Witness: I do, that was on 3 November 1943.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: How many Jews were exterminated then and over what period?
Witness: They were rounded up from early morning and there were around 18,000 of them.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Where did this happen and how?
Witness: I was at field 1 and the execution took place at field 5. But I know what it looked like from stories told by eyewitnesses. People were stripped naked and taken away in groups of 50, in 10 rows of 5, their hands in the air. The pits had already been prepared and these people lay there and were shot dead. Layers lay on one another, so each subsequent group of five lay on the corpses.
Prosecutor: How long did the killing of these 18,000 people last?
Witness: From early in the morning until late in the evening.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Was the Majdanek crew the only one to participate, or were others brought in from other towns?
Witness: Other units were also brought in.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: From which towns?
Witness: I do not know that, but I saw complete strangers at the camp.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Was music playing across the entire camp during the execution?
Witness: Only at the execution site.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: What was being played?
Witness: They were upbeat tangos, Strauss’ waltzes.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: And were they shot during this?
Witness: That is correct.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Did defendant Mussfeldt take part, at that moment, in this operation?
Witness: This is a difficult question because I was at field 1 then. It is only known to me that Mussfeldt took part in all executions.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Did you look inside crematoria I and II?
Witness: I only once looked inside crematorium I, which was located just next to field 1.
Prosecutor: You mean the old one?
Witness: Correct.
Prosecutor: Was there an operating table on which corpses were disemboweled in search of cut diamonds etc.?
Witness: I did not see it, but a basement was built at crematorium I, where convicts were taken, and after a few minutes, I saw corpses carried to the crematorium.
Prosecutor: This was at the crematorium which Mussfeldt was in charge of?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney Czerny: Can you please tell us why you ended up at the camp?
Witness: I was sent to the camp as a political prisoner in 1940, first to Sachsenhausen, then I was moved to Dachau, and finally to Majdanek.
Defense attorney: On which transport did you arrive?
Witness: There were seven of us, including a few doctors.
Defense attorney: What was your occupation at the camp?
Witness: I worked as an interpreter.
Defense attorney: You said you had an opportunity to enter the crematorium.
Witness: As an interpreter I had an opportunity to stay at different fields, and one day, when there was nobody at the crematorium, I entered the building out of curiosity, to find out if what I had heard from fellow prisoners was true.
Defense attorney: Whose interpreter were you?
Witness: I was the camp interpreter.
| Defense attorney: | So that includes Mussfeldt? |
| Witness: | No, Mussfeldt had nothing to do with me. |
| Presiding Judge: | Has the defendant heard the witness’s statement? Does the defendant |
admit that what the witness has stated is true?
Defendant Mussfeldt: Not everything.
Defense attorney Minasowicz: I am asking for permission to question the witness.
Presiding Judge: Please.
Defense attorney: What badge did you wear at the camp?
Witness: Obviously one signifying a Pole.
Defense attorney: Meaning a red triangle with the letter “P”?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney: Were you a Lagerkapo?
Witness: I filled in for one for a while.
Defense attorney: What were your responsibilities?
Witness: To send kommandos to work.
Defense attorney: Were you under investigation in connection with fulfilling this function?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney: How did the case conclude?
Witness: It was discontinued after three days.
Defense attorney: Was the investigation conducted by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Special Court?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney: What is your current occupation?
Witness: I run a business.
Defense attorney: Have you ever run a racing stable?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney: Before the war?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney: Is the business you now run also a racing stable?
Witness: Correct.
Defense attorney: Are you presently in the clear with the authorities?
Witness: Correct.