Warsaw, 10 May 1947. A member of District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Warsaw, Acting Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed as a witness Władysław Antoni Sikorski, former prisoner of concentration camps in Auschwitz, no. 18,612, Gross Rosen, no. 2,639, and Dachau, no. 62,323, regarding the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, without an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and the obligation to speak the truth, the witness testified as follows:
My name is Władysław Antoni Sikorski, son of Tomasz and Zuzanna née Kołodziejczyk,
born 24 March 1911 in Skawin, Kraków district, Roman Catholic, a house painter by profession, finished five classes of primary school, residing in Warsaw, Grochów, Mniszewska Street 23, flat 6.
On the night from 30 May to 31 May 1941, I was taken by the Gestapo from my house on Gibalskiego Street 11 in Warsaw, based on a list. On suspicion of being a member of an underground organization, I was kept in Pawiak from 30 May 1941 to 23 July 1941, and then, in a transport of 364 people (including Adam Kuryłowicz, among others), I was taken to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where I received the number 19,612. On 3 June 1942, in a transport consisting of five hundred healthy men selected from the best komandos of Auschwitz, I was deported to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Several prisoners from the initial Warsaw transport, such as Adam Kuryłowicz, Jan Zapustowski, and Jan Klimczak, are still alive.
I stayed in Gross-Rosen until 18 January 1944, and then I was in Dachau, where we were freed by the US Army on 29 April 1945.
The transport from Auschwitz to Gross-Rosen took place in contaminated cattle wagons; the wagon I was in was previously used for cement. Several dozen people were crammed into a single wagon, with a locked door, in scorching weather, without water or a bucket [for bodily needs], under an SS escort. The journey from Auschwitz lasted 24 hours. We arrived at the Gross-Rosen station on 4 June 1942. The unloading of the wagons was accompanied by pushing and beating, we were lined up in fives and taken into the camp, where we were placed in block 7 at first. Having been informed of the camp’s regulations, we were rushed to the bathhouses.
Up until the year 1943, prisoners were rushed to the bathhouses naked, without a towel, no matter what the season. They had to wait outside for 15-20 minutes. While washing in the hot, dirty water they would always be given stone soap. During bathing, we were beaten by the Badendiensts, Blockaltersters, Stubediensts and kapos. After returning from the bathhouses, the block senior would inspect the prisoners’ cleanliness individually. Bathing in winter was a great distress for inmates, always with some dying or falling ill as a result. Upon my arrival in the camp, it was warm. After bathing, they recorded our personal data, took our clothes and gave us striped uniforms and numbers. I was assigned no. 2,639. Next, we were served Knorr’s soup. Three days in, our transport was moved to block 9, the so-called zugang block, from which we were appointed to specific blocks permanently. That’s how I got into block 6. Our transport received numbers up to 3,000, but in reality there were nowhere near as many prisoners. Besides, the so-called internowani [internees] – soviet POWs – weren’t included in the numeration. I heard from my colleagues that 2.5 thousand of them came to the camp at the end of 1942 or the beginning of 1942, and by the end of my stay in the camp, eight were alive.
At the beginning of the year 1943, three or four Soviet officers from that group were executed in the crematory. Initially they lived in the so-called lager, but when their number had gone down, they were moved to the first wing of block 6. They worked in the quarries and in other komandos, like other prisoners.
Having arrived in Gross-Rosen I noted the camp was harsher than the Auschwitz camp. The Lagerführer of the Gross-Rosen camp was Untersturmführer Anton Thumann, who had founded the camp. He had a way of beating prisoners with a whip; when one fell on the ground, he would set a wolfhound that he always walked with on them. Many times I saw Thumann strike prisoners with a crowbar or a stick and set the dog upon them during work or while they were carrying earth in carts. He was also cruel during the roll calls; the inmates punched by him were obediently finished off by kapos. It would often happen that Thumann sent prisoners to the SK [Strafkompanie - penal block]. Thumann left the camp in March or April 1943.
I do not recall the surname of the first commandant of the camp. In 1943, Rosenbrock took up the post. He rarely showed up in the camp, [only] regarding the most important matters, for example when prisoners were being hanged. Ernstberger was his successor. He took part in the executions. In summer 1943, after an evening roll call, 68 men and 3 women were brought from the vicinity of Wrocław, dressed in civilian clothes, and taken straight to the crematorium. While being driven through the camp, those people waved at us and called out to us in Polish. Who they were, we didn’t manage to learn. They were shot at night, their bodies burnt in the crematorium the next day. Ernstberger and Rapportführer Eschner took part in the execution. At first, Ernstberger relaxed the policies towards prisoners. A sports field, boxing ring and a canteen were set up. He became cruel after drinking alcohol, when he came to blocks and murdered people. I don’t recall the date, but during the time of my stay in block 8, Ernstberger came at night and told the prisoners to do “sport”, that is, get under the beds and back up onto them following quick commands. On another night, he ordered us to carry a couple of prisoners around in a bread box and sing.
One autumn evening in 1941, our komando Industriehof was doing “sport” for two hours in the mud under the command of the remorseless Blockführer Gallasch. Scharführer Helmut Eschner was the Rapportführer, an exceptionally cruel man. I saw many times when he kicked to death prisoners who were waiting in front of the rewir to get a sick leave, and when he tortured and murdered the weak who couldn’t stand straight and would collapse on the roll-call square. Among blockführers, I especially remember Unterscharführer Schrammel, a fierce Hitler enthusiast, who often replaced the Rapportführer. I witnessed more than once when he choked prisoners who had fallen to the ground on the roll-call square, stepping on their throat or stomach. He would usually make the zugangs run into the bathhouses, hustling them and throwing rocks at them. He walked around komandos and found excuses to torture prisoners. Also known for his cruelty was Blockführer Gallasch, who was promoted to Unterscharführer in the camp. Gallasch, accompanied by Rotenführer Drozdowski, led people to the Strafkompanie [penal block] in such a way that they had to sprint for the first 100 meters and do the “ rollen” (rolls) by block 22 near the Zellenbau (a penal block for craftsmen), where they would later work, and where there were stairs and a slope. Those who came last were kicked till they bled or died. I’d seen such marches through a window several times. From my colleagues’ accounts I know that Gallasch would shoot the weaker prisoners during the evacuation to Dachau.
Blockführer Juchelek got promoted to Unterscharführer in 1942; he was the block senior of block 10 and the Strafkompanie, which was situated in the first room of the block. He knew Polish. During a roll call, block 8 – which I was in – faced block 10, and due to that I saw many times how Juchelek knocked down and murdered a prisoner by stepping on them, often accompanied by Georg Prill.
In January 1943, while we were grounding window frames in the Häftlings-Köche, I was warming myself by striking my chest with my hands, as it was frosty. Juchelek punished me with 25 whips, he broke a stick on me, kicked me and then, covered in blood, I had to keep working. Blockführer Jeżak, a Pole from near Katowice (he got promoted to Unterscharführer in the camp), tortured the prisoners during work. Blockführer Schneider, a Romanian Gypsy, punched and kicked inmates in the stomach, struck blows on the head, and drowned them in a pool of water when they were on their way to apply for a sick leave and when the komandos were setting out to work between blocks 5 and 8.
I witnessed such scenes many times. I don’t recall the surnames of the drowned nor the dates of the murders.
Blockführer Hanke (he got promoted to Unterscharführer in the camp) murdered many prisoners, especially when he went into a frenzy. I don’t recall the numbers and the surnames of the murdered.
Blockführer Musner, an artistic painter by profession (he got promoted to Unterscharführer), was the head of an SS crew in the old crematorium. Colleagues who had been in the camp longer told me that he ripped the hearts out of the dying people after they were shot. While he was painting, he would walk around the camp and often beat the prisoners to death. By the time I arrived, he had settled down a bit. I can’t recall the names of his victims or the number of them.
The verwaltungführer in the years 1942-1943 was Obersturmführer Henneberg, who always tried to catch a prisoner out on the slightest of offences and then beat them ruthlessly. I didn’t see him commit any murders, however. His wife was good to inmates.
The following German prisoner functionaries were notably cruel:
Karl Kirschman, no. 513, a boxer by profession, initially a Blockältester, then a Lageraltester,
released to join the army in 1943. He murdered numerous prisoners. He killed people by
punching them, finishing them off by kicking.
Peter Wilms, Blockal, I don’t recall his number: a pervert, he used to kill prisoners with a stick or a stool. He battered me by punching me in the head and stomach and by kicking.
Kurt Vogel, a block senior of block 19 (SK), murdered numerous prisoners. He distinguished himself with especially sophisticated cruelty. I’d heard a rumor that after being freed by the American army, the prisoners hanged him.
Oswal Necks, no. 2,080, a block senior, was a well-known international blackmailer. I spent 19 months in his block, no. 8. I saw how he murdered prisoners with a stick or a stool and forced food from them, from the parcels sent by their families. Most often, he finished off the exhausted and the sick. He killed a couple dozen prisoners every week. Trachoma spread around the camp starting from his block, because he had made over 300 people wash themselves in a trough with foul water. He watched us closely while we were washing, and he would beat senseless anybody who didn’t wash their whole body with the dirty water. Many of the prisoners from his block committed suicide by hanging themselves, flinging themselves onto the electrified barbed wire, or by a guard’s bullet.
I’m not able to recall the surnames or the number of victims.
Many prisoners decided to commit suicide by flinging themselves onto the barbed wire and then get shot dead by a guard. Among others, Stefan Żukowski did this in November 1942 – a painter, my friend, who at that point was terribly weak, his legs were swollen.
Also known for his cruelty was Herman Lasche, a German, rewir kapo, who left for another camp in autumn 1943 as an award. Colleagues from the rewir were saying that Lasche robbed and murdered sick patients and gave them lethal injections.
Harry Lipiński was a kapo from squad I or III of the earthworks; he was a sexual pervert who murdered several prisoners a day from his crew with a pickaxe handle in 1942. I don’t recall the number nor the surnames of his victims.
Franz Gajko, a German speaking Pole with a Silesian accent, kapo of an earthworks squad, murdered many of the hard-working prisoners with a pickaxe handle. I don’t recall the number nor the surnames of his victims.
Scholi Bikiel, the senior of block 10, and later block 14, murdered many prisoners. A couple of times I saw him do this, while I was painting in the block. I don’t recall the number nor the surnames of his victims.
Kaczyska, no. 1,445, was a block senior, whose block I was in at the end of my stay in the camp. I saw a couple of times when he murdered inmates, whose surnames I don’t recall. Very often, I saw him beating and torturing the prisoners.
Walter Gerhard, Stubaltester of block 8, beat and robbed prisoners, forcing the juveniles to sexual perversion. He severely beat Jan Jasiński, prisoner no. 2,609 (residing in Łódź, Stefana Jaracza Street 37, flat 30), who wasn’t well for a long time as a result. Gerhard left for Dachau along with me, to oversee a Messerschmitt komando, where he was a block senior and treated prisoners with the same cruelty.
August Schneider, Oberkapo in a work komando, used to beat prisoners ruthlessly and murdered many. I don’t recall the number nor the surnames of his victims. I myself was badly beaten up by him more than once.
Hans Wessel, the canteen chief, an orchestra leader and finally a block senior, used to beat and torture prisoners, which I personally witnessed.
Georg Prill, Rewirkapo, a sadist and a murderer of many prisoners, was killed by the captives after the camp was freed, rumor has it.
Upon my arrival, the accommodation conditions in the camp were relatively good. Beds were individual. In 1942 there was no water in our block, we washed ourselves in a wooden trough, where the water had to be brought from the kitchen or block 8. The WC was a latrine close to the barbed wires. At night, there were two barrels in front of the block, which the prisoners took to the latrine in the morning.
In the years 1942-1943 the bathhouses were located in block 9 in the form of a small pool. Half of a block would go there, naked, without shoes and towels. Often, we had to wait for more than a dozen minutes for our turn. A couple of times we were ordered to bath in the middle of the night. Several times block senior Wecks kept us naked and wet for more than a dozen minutes, in winter, to inspect the cleanliness of each prisoner. Throughout 1942, the camp faced starvation, as the parcels from families didn’t start coming in until the end of November. The prisoners would swell from the hard work and hunger and were then finished off. For breakfast [handwritten note: Brot zeit], a prisoner would receive half a liter of a watery, thin vegetable soup. For dinner, we’d get ¾ liter of a soup usually made from rutabaga, sometimes from spinach, beetroot leaves or “Grinkol”, or, very rarely, from peas, cabbage, beetroots or carrot. For supper, a quarter of a loaf of bread (I don’t know the weight); three times a week, half a kilogram of margarine for every 25 people; twice a week, a spoon of syrup; once a week, a scoop of cottage cheese. On Sundays, a small piece of horse sausage. Those who worked until nine o’clock were given two thin slices of bread with a thin layer of margarine and a slice of a raw horse sausage at the worksite. In the summer, it was split into two meals. They would often give a couple of potatoes whenever there was less soup for dinner or supper. Prisoner functionaries insolently took advantage of the situation when the food was being given out, without any consequences. In 1943, thanks to parcels coming from our families, we weren’t as hungry as before. The parcels were robbed by Ernstberger and the blockführers. Blockführer Gallasch took 190 cigarettes out of 200 from a colleague of mine (I don’t recall his surname).
In 1942, the conditions in the quarries, earthworks, and at the lager construction site were extremely hard. We were beaten and hustled at work. We were shaved with blunt razors, in the summer they took our clogs so we walked barefoot, wounding our feet. During roll calls they took our caps from us and they were returned only after cases of sunstroke occurred.
In 1943, in connection with the new Lagerführer taking up his post, the policies were softened. They started to provide entertainment: a sports field, three Polish football teams, two German, one Czech, a boxing ring, a swimming pool and a canteen, where sometimes you could buy food or cigarettes.
The blocks were equipped with running water and a sewage system. In 1942, health assistance was highly limited. After the morning roll call, the so-called Arztmeldung took place, when the ill with high fever or swelling were reporting to be admitted into the rewir Those waiting for admittance were often beaten to death by Prill, Schrammel, Juchowiak, Schneider, Hanke and Gallasch.
In the rewir, due to lack of medicines and care, the patients died in masses. I don’t recall the date, but in 1942, in block 6 of the rewir in wing B, when I was doing some painting job along with Franciszek Kol from Tomaszów Mazowiecki (prisoner no. 205), I saw two prisoner functionaries from the rewir, whose surnames I don’t know (both were speaking in Polish, with a Silesian accent), murder over twenty patients by throwing them out of their beds in such a way that they would grab the person together, by their feet and head, and fling them a couple of meters distance. Later, they took the corpses to the crematorium. I also witnessed when the ill were beaten with a pickaxe handle at the time Lesche was the rewir kapo. In 1943 the Arztmeldung took place in the evening. Those mildly ill were directed to work in the workshops (Schusterei), where the work wasn’t as heavy, but the dust was deadly dangerous. Block 14 was reserved for the mildly ill, who would go to take up lighter work separately. In the years 1943 and 1942 trachoma was a real plague, fought by the doctor prisoners. As Dr. Józef Żagleń told me, more than a dozen prisoners became blind, about thirty lost an eye. In the late autumn of 1943, after Desche left, Willi Melone became the rewir kapo. He also killed many prisoners.
Since there were many Germans incarcerated for sexual perversion, moral corruption was widespread among the youths. For detecting [homosexual practices] a German would get two to four weeks of SK, his victim – three months. In 1943 the young boys were sent to block 22, where the block senior was Edward Sznajder, a Pole.
When escape attempts occurred, we stood in the roll-call square until the escapee was captured. In 1942, Jaworski ran away from the Maurers (bricklayers) komando. The prisoners who got caught were dragged back into the camp with a plaque on their chest saying: Ich bin wieder da, wearing a peaked, colorful hat. Having received 50 strokes with a whip, he was then tied to a post between block 1 and block 2, where the passing SS men would beat him, and he would give up the ghost the same night. Throughout 1943, after getting a whipping the captured prisoner was sent to SK to be finished off. In autumn 1942, when two German kapos escaped, Georg Pill and prisoner Jan Dymitrowski killed prisoner Lewandowski, who was standing next to me, while we were standing at the roll call.
While staying in Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen, I was frequently beaten. In 1941 I was suffering from pneumonia. Dr. Diem, presently Chief Doctor in the Social Insurance in Warsaw, saved me – I got into the rewir thanks to him. When I was working at a construction site, in winter, my clothes were completely wet all the time. In Gross-Rosen, I initially did earthworks, where approximately four hundred prisoners died within the first month of work. Extremely weak, with my legs swollen, I got into the painters’ komando, where the work was lighter, but often performed at night. The painters’ komando, by Thumann’s orders, was led by Eschner. Stohl was the kapo – he took any decent food we got that had been assigned for the night shift. In 1943, for voluntary nigh shifts I received extra food rations and I was even able to help out my colleagues.
On 19 March 1945, during an air raid by the US aircraft and the bombing of the werk in Baumenheim, I was buried under debris.
After being freed by the American army, I was severely ill. I was so thin, that I was just skin and bones. I’m deaf in my left ear, I have a serious pulmonary disease (multifocal), a knocked-out tooth, the back of my head is smashed, and I still suffer from recurring pains there, I have scars on my face. For the past 3 years I’ve been suffering from joint problems and I couldn’t walk, now I’m not able to walk only during weather changes. I was treated.
I came back to the country on 12 October 1946 and I still feel unwell.
The report was hereby ended and read out.