On 27 June 1945 in Trzebionka near Trzebinia in the Chrzanów district, Investigating Judge Jan Sehn, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, on the motion, in the presence, and with the cooperation of a member of the said Commission, Prosecutor Edward Pęchalski, heard Józef Woch as a witness, pursuant to Article 254 and Articles 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Józef Woch |
| Date and place of birth | 14 April 1908 in Trzebionka, Chrzanów district |
| Parents’ names | Józef and Helena, née Koryczan |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Marital status | married |
| Occupation | turner |
| Place of residence | Trzebionka 6 |
I have lived in Trzebionka in house no. 6 since 1941. As a result, I witnessed the establishment and development of a labor camp built by the Germans in Trzebionka in a yard situated next to my house. This yard belongs to the “Artur” mine from Siersza and is situated in a corner created by the intersection of the main road in Trzebionka, the Kraków–Katowice road, and a side road which leads from that road to the Trzebinia Refinery.
Preparatory construction at the camp site, that is, levelling the ground and bringing in the building materials, commenced at the beginning of 1942. It was carried out by various companies which used laborers from the refinery as well as others. I heard from laborers employed by various companies that the construction of the camp was financed from the revenue of the Refinery in Trzebinia.
In its present state, the labor camp in Trzebionka consists of six blocks made of metal sheet, one wooden building, one brick building with a crematorium furnace, separately placed wooden toilets and a wooden poultry pen. All these buildings are fenced with barbed wire. Outside the fence, on each of the four corners, there stands a wooden watchtower with a sentry box. The barracks made of metal sheets that are situated within the fence are marked with numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Apart from them there are five barracks made of the same material which are situated outside the barbed wire; they are marked with numbers 5, 7, 8, 9, and one is unmarked. In 1942, the blocks marked with numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, and 5A were erected; the remaining buildings, including the crematorium, the wooden building which houses the workshops, and the wooden poultry pen, were built in 1944.
Towards the end of 1942, the four barracks inside the fence marked with numbers 1, 2, 4, and 5A, which had already been completed at the time, were occupied by Belgian laborers. They lived in these barracks perfectly unrestrained, under no German supervision whatsoever. There wasn’t an SS garrison in the camp at the time. These laborers were employed in the Refinery in Trzebinia. This situation lasted more or less until the second half of 1943, when these workmen were moved to private flats in Chrzanów, and a dozen or so SS men arrived at the camp and took quarters in block no. 5, currently situated outside the fence. After the arrival of those SS men, two watchtowers were erected, and barracks no. 1, 2, 4, and 5A were fenced with barbed wire, so only barrack no. 5, occupied by the SS men, remained outside the fence.
Towards the end of 1943, some 150 English POWs were brought to the barracks situated within the fence. Then the SS garrison was increased to some 50 men. These POWs stayed in the camp until August 1944. I don’t know who commanded the SS garrison at the time. All the SS men did their duty in an unrelenting manner, so it was difficult to enter into any communication with them in order to come into any contact with the English prisoners from the camp. These prisoners had freedom of movement around the camp, and they could approach the wire, which at the time was not yet electrified, and try to make contact with residents of Trzebionka who happened to find themselves near the camp. However, the civilians were forbidden to come near the camp and try to establish communication with the prisoners or give them any packages. In that respect, the SS men were very strict and shot at the slightest perceived provocation.
The English POWs were tasked with various construction jobs on the premises of the refinery in Trzebionka. They set off for work at 7.00 a.m. and worked until noon. That’s when they had a dinner break until 1.00 p.m., during which they came back to the camp and had their dinner there. Then they returned to work at the refinery premises, for two to four hours of work in the afternoon. The POWs worked on Sundays and holidays as well, but not always, as they had some holidays off.
On the premises of the refinery, the prisoners could come into contact with the local civilian population more easily, as during work they were intermingled with the local laborers, and besides, the SS men did not prevent them from talking with the locals. The POWs took this opportunity to obtain various foodstuffs from the locals in exchange for articles of clothing, which the prisoners received from the Red Cross. Apart from clothes, they got – also through the Red Cross – food packages from their families back in England. I cannot say what kind of food rations the prisoners received from the camp authorities, because I don’t know any details concerning this matter. Anyway, I only know that they had meat every day.
The POWs spent their free time after work on the camp premises, engaging in various kinds of sports activities, in which they were not in any way obstructed by the SS men. I never noticed the prisoners being subjected to any punitive exercises or any other forms of harassment. As for the work performed by the prisoners on the refinery premises, I know from the locals who worked with the POWs that they were not in any special way persecuted there; on the contrary, they enjoyed greater freedom than other laborers. Of course I am speaking only of the English POWs working in the refinery, as there weren’t any POWs of other nationalities on the refinery premises at the time and I don’t know how the Germans behaved toward them. I heard that once during work in the refinery, one of the supervising SS men hit an English POW with a rifle butt. Then other English POWs who witnessed this threw themselves at that SS man, beat him and demanded that he be dismissed from the camp, and threatened that otherwise they would kill him. Indeed, that SS man was transferred from the camp in Trzebionka to some other place.
The English POWs, treated kindly by the Poles, also showed them much kindness. This can be illustrated by the fact that once during work on the refinery premises, a German civilian hit a Polish laborer, and the English POWs attacked that German and threw him into a pit filled with water in order to drown him there. Aware of the favorable attitude of the Polish populace, the English POWs took advantage of it for instance in such a way that they fled their workplace with the help of the locals and then hid in the neighboring houses. One of the English POWs hid in Trzebionka itself, constantly changing his place of stay, and in this way managed to evade the Germans for almost a year and wait for an opportunity to escape. He had stayed in Trzebionka until recently, and left it only some three weeks ago to return to his homeland. His personal details could be provided by, among others, Michał Stefański, resident of Trzebionka, at whose house this prisoner had also stayed.
In the summer of 1944, all English prisoners were deported from the camp, but I don’t know to where. They were replaced with some 800 Jews, all men. Among them there were young boys, men in the prime of life, and the elderly. As soon as they had come, the wire was electrified, and two more watchtowers were erected.
A special detachment of SS men, numbering approx. 70 men, arrived at the camp to watch the Jews. They took up quarters in barracks numbers 5, 7, and 8, situated on the outside of the fence. Kowol, a Volksdeutscher from the vicinity of Tarnowskie Góry and former platoon leader with the Polish Army, was appointed commandant of that camp, which was then renamed Arbeitslager [labor camp] Trzebinia. I don’t know the surnames of other SS men who held various functions in the camp. I only know that there was also a camp doctor who wore the SS man’s uniform as well. Moreover, there were also German prisoners in prison garb, who as so-called kapos supervised the Jews in the camp and during work.
The Jews performed various construction work on the refinery premises, and they were also used to build barracks on the camp premises. They were most often employed at building barracks no. 3 and 6 and the wooden workshop building and the wooden poultry pen within the fencing, and also the barrack outside the fence which did not bear any number. On the refinery premises, the Jews worked the same hours the English POWs had previously. On the camp premises, in turn, while building the barracks, the daily work schedule looked a bit different, because the Jews finished the day’s work at a later hour.
In regards to conditions in the camp in which the Jews lived, I gained some knowledge pertaining to them because I had the opportunity to talk both to Jews and SS men from the camp, as well as observe what was going on in the camp yard and on the barracks construction site. The Jews themselves told me that the conditions in this camp were better than in others, as they had been brought there not to be exterminated, but used as a workforce. Moreover, they tried to ingratiate themselves with the camp commandant, Kowol, whom they gave various bribes with that aim in mind. I myself bought a 10,000 Reichsmarks harmonica for the Jews, which they then presented to Kowol. In order for me to be able to buy it, the Jews gave me a diamond ring. Some other time I bought them a violin, which they also gave to Kowol as a gift. As a result, Kowol himself was not particularly intent on “finishing off” the Jews.
As for the other SS men, they were also corruptible, all the more so – as I could learn myself, since they used to drop in on me quite often – because they frequently complained about the Hitlerite regime themselves, which I found rather astonishing in those who wore SS uniforms. One of them told me that the majority of SS men from the garrison in the labor camp in Trzebionka were of the same mind, that they were anti-Nazi, and joined the party only because it provided them with the opportunity to hide and mask their true beliefs. There weren’t many of those who would go through fire and water for Hitler among the SS men in the labor camp in Trzebionka, and the rest steered clear of them.
The Jews received the worst treatment from the kapos, but attempted to bribe them as well. Very often, then, a kapo would buy food from the locals and bring it for the Jews to the camp. As a result, the Jews in the camp in Trzebionka were generally treated better than it happened in other camps, especially in the other labor camp in Trzebionka, which was located in the vicinity of the train station of Trzebinia, where the Jews had much worse conditions and where they were dying in great numbers. In Trzebionka itself, during the whole period of stay of those Jews in the camp, i.e. from August 1944 to 20 January 1945, with the number of inmates being some 800 people, only a several dozen died after having been beaten in the camp itself or at the site of work. I frequently witnessed myself how dead Jews were brought to the camp from their workplace in the refinery.
At first, the bodies of the Jews were sent to Auschwitz, but later, they were burned in the local crematorium, which was built on the camp premises in the autumn of 1944. I don’t know from where the various parts of the crematorium were brought in or which company fulfilled the order. I once had a chance to visit the camp premises, where I was taken at night by an SS man with whom I was on amicable terms; at the time the rest of the SS men were having a party in their block. Then this SS man showed me the outside of the crematorium and opened the upper iron door through which the bodies were placed in the furnace. I saw coke blazing in it. The SS man told me that in a moment a body would be incinerated in these flames. That, however, I did not see. I am presently unable to say whether there were grates in the furnace nor can I describe it in detail. Sometime around December 1944, one of the Jewish inmates who worked in the camp administrative office told me that some 20 corpses were incinerated in that crematory up to that day. I don’t know how many bodies were burned in the crematorium during the whole period of stay of the Jewish prisoners in the camp.
I didn’t hear about any instances of gassing individuals or groups of people on the camp premises. I didn’t see, either in the building with the crematorium furnace or in any other place, any gas chamber which might have served the purpose.
There was neither a bathhouse nor a washroom in the camp. The prisoners received their clean underwear from Auschwitz. All Jewish prisoners, as well as kapos, wore prison garb – striped uniforms.
In block no. 1 there was a shoemaker’s workshop and a dental room as well as flats of some SS men. Blocks nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6 were taken up by the Jewish inmates. Block no. 5A housed a camp hospital. Outside the fence, in block no. 3, there was Blockführerstube [guard room] and the camp commandant and the camp doctor had their quarters there. Blocks nos. 7 and 8 housed SS men, in block no. 9 there was a kitchen, food storeroom and a flat for the kitchen manager. In block no. 10 there was another storeroom and a peeling room.
The food in the camp was very meager and insufficient, so the Jews saved themselves in such a way that whenever they came into contact with the locals at the refinery, they bought foodstuffs from them and in this manner provided themselves with additional nourishment. In the morning, the Jews received coffee and, every two days, bread was distributed. I don’t know how much bread they received. I know, however, that they received bread only once every two days. In the beginning, for about two months, at noon or 1.00 p.m., they would all return to the camp for dinner. Later on, only a few would come and take soup for the rest to their workplace. This soup was made of swede, cabbage or potatoes. In the evenings, after returning from work, the Jews would receive coffee. Special ladles were used to distribute food. Each prisoners received one ladle of coffee or soup. I don’t know how much liquid one ladle contained.
The Jews were most often employed at earthworks carried out in connection with the expansion of the refinery. They set off for work at 7.00 a.m. In the summer, they came back from work at 5.00 p.m., and at about 3.00 p.m. in the winter. Sometimes, a kommando coming back from work to the camp would bring the bodies of those who had been killed during work. I don’t know the surnames of the kapos. Most often they were professional criminals, Reichsdeutschers. One evening, among a group of Jews coming back from work, I noticed a man of about 35 years of age who could barely walk; he stumbled and fell on the road directly in front of my house. An Oberkapo and a Reichsdeutscher, who bragged that he had already done 11 years in prison, punched and kicked the man, at the same time asking him whether he could go now. The poor man got up and tried to walk, but he made it only to the corner of the camp kitchen, where the Oberkapo struck him so hard that the prisoner fell down again. His fellow inmates carried him to the camp. The next morning I was in the vicinity of the camp. An SS man who kept roaming about the camp (I know neither his surname nor rank) called me and asked whether I wanted some pig meat. I didn’t stop to think what he meant, and believing that he really meant pork, I went with that SS man to block no. 1. He took me to the door of one of the rooms, ordered me to open them and have a look. When I complied, I saw a body on the floor; it was the Jew who had been tortured by the Oberkapo the previous evening. This Oberkapo was always harassing the prisoners, and was the most abusive from among the camp supervisors. He was a man of late middle age, as he had two sons in the army. He was short, fat, stout, chunky, and red in the face. He used to punch prisoners in the chest. After such a punch the prisoner would bleed from the nose and mouth and usually die. I remember that one day, two dead Jews were brought from the workplace in the refinery which was under his supervision.
After the evening roll call, sporting activities would be organized in the roll call square. The instructions were given by SS men, and the exercises were supervised by kapos. Such exercises would go on for hours.
I would like to emphasize that the local residents didn’t know for a long time that there was a crematorium on the camp premises. I learned about it pretty soon after the crematorium came into operation from the Jews and the SS men who, being engaged in trade with me, told me about it in secret. The SS men told me that the crematorium was erected because the transport of bodies from Trzebionka to the crematoria in Auschwitz was too expensive. The Jews told me that they didn’t care a bit about what was to happen with their corpses, that it didn’t matter once they were dead whether their bodies would be buried or incinerated. The crematorium was operated by the Jews under the supervision of an SS man. The SS man in charge of the crematorium was Juliusz Hampel from the Sudetes. He told me that it took about 20 minutes to burn a body in that crematorium. I don’t know how long it took to set the body on fire. Bodies were incinerated in the crematorium exclusively at night. I know of one instance of burning a body during the day, and it happened just before the Germans fled. On fleeing the camp, the SS men mined all barracks and the crematorium, but didn’t blow these buildings up. Retreating German units blew up only the crematorium. The blast, however, didn’t destroy the furnace, and the retreating troops tried to demolish it with acetylene burners, which they took for this purpose from the refinery.
All foodstuffs for the inmates and the SS men were brought to the camp from Auschwitz. I saw several times how the camp was inspected by higher-ranking SS men from Auschwitz. Before such an inspection, the camp would be put in order. During such an inspection, all Jews would be lined up at the roll call square where they would have a speech delivered to them and be beaten.
If memory serves me right, all prisoners were marched out of the camp on the morning of 18 January 1945. The healthy ones were driven by the SS men in the direction of Wodna village, and the sick toward the train station. I don’t know what happened to these prisoners afterwards. After the Germans had left the camp but before the refinery took care of it and set up a guard, the locals plundered the camp premises and all the camp facilities. Presently, a guard from the refinery guards the camp.
The report was read out. At this the hearing and the report were concluded.