On 13 July 1947 in Kraków, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, District Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, acting upon written request of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, this dated 25 April 1947 (file no. NTN 719/47), and in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), in connection with Article 254, 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the inmate of the Auschwitz concentration camp named below as a witness, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Dr. Władysław Tondos |
| Age | 46 years old |
| Nationality and citizenship | Polish |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | doctor |
| Place of residence | Zakopane Chramcówki Street, Sanatorium of the Polish Red Cross |
I was in the concentration camp in Auschwitz from 29 July 1941 to 25 August 1944 as Polish political prisoner no. 18 871. I was arrested in Zakopane. Since 1932 I had worked there as head of the "Odrodzenie" sanatorium for people suffering from tuberculosis.
Once in the camp I was employed in the camp hospital for prisoners (Häftlingskrankenbau, HKB). Initially I served as Pfleger [nurse], and then I was allowed to work as a doctor. Due to my experience and professional qualifications, I was put in charge of the tuberculosis ward which was set up in block 20.
Initially, that is, in 1941, all the people who were diagnosed with tuberculosis were killed by phenol injections, which were first given to the vein and then – to "improve" the killing process – to the heart. The decision of which prisoners from among those who were ill with tuberculosis were to be killed was made by German doctors, most often Entress and for some time Jung, both of whom were SS members, and in some cases also by SS nurses (Sanitätsdienstgehilfe, SDG), for example Klehr, a shoemaker by profession.
During the first three months of 1942, on Entress’ order, about one hundred people suffering from tuberculosis were put in two rooms in block 20. I was given the task of treating them. After some time, I reported to Entress that their condition was improving and that there was hope of curing them provided they were given better nourishment. Entress gave permission to provide the sick with double food rations. He openly declared that he wanted to learn more about the way in which tuberculosis is treated and tried to subject the sick to pneumothorax. Apart from Doctor Entress, Doctor Jäger and Doctor Vetter also relied on this group of patients for gaining knowledge of how to treat tuberculosis. This situation continued for three months. After three months, during one night, all the sick were removed from both rooms and killed by phenol injections. When I came to work in the morning, I found both rooms empty.
From March 1942 to the end of 1942, tuberculosis was again ruthlessly obliterated. Those who were sick were gassed to death or killed by phenol injections. In the first months of 1943, SS doctors officially gave their consent to treat prisoners suffering from tuberculosis. A special room in block 20 was set aside for them. The treatment of the disease continued for the rest of the existence of the camp, but severe cases and those who were seriously ill were still killed. Entress kept repeating that there were too many people in these "tuberculosis rooms" and in order to reduce their number he selected those who were, as he called it, to be transported. The word "transport" was a code-name used by the Germans to refer to the practice of gassing people to death or killing them by phenol injections. Those destined to be killed were still alive when we prisoners, acting on orders from Entress and closely following his instructions, filled out their medical records. We would write that their condition was gradually deteriorating, recording their decease on the day of their "transport".
Entress was ruthless in carrying out the selections. I once heard him state explicitly to the patient who was complaining about his heart ailments: "I am not a doctor here". Other doctors and nurses behaved in the same way. Some of the sick were sent to death by chance. I recall that SDG Klehr couldn’t once decide whether he should leave a sick Jew whom he was examining and who was a tall and strong man in the hospital or whether he should send him to death. In a quandary, he asked the sick what his profession was. The Jew replied that he was a rabbi. To this, Klehr smiled and sent the man to death.
In 1942, Helmut Vetter, another SS doctor, arrived in the camp. My fellow prisoners, who were also doctors, had met him before the outbreak of the war. Acting as a representative of the Bayer company, he travelled around Poland advertising various medicaments produced by the company for which he worked. After his arrival, hitherto unknown drugs such as Rutenol and others whose names I don’t remember began to be used in the treatment of typhus. In order to test the new medicaments, prisoners were infected with the blood of those who were suffering from typhus. They had 5 ccm of the infected blood injected intravenously. Those who were artificially infected were then treated with these new drugs, all of which were produced by the Bayer company. Our observations indicated that the drugs didn’t work and most of those to whom they were administered died. I don’t know the doses of the drugs the sick were given. Nor do I know the course of their illness. I was never given an opportunity to become familiar with the way these new drugs were used. Former prisoners Doctors Fejkiel and Kłodziński, both from Kraków, have detailed knowledge of the matter.
I witnessed healthy prisoners in block 20 being injected, on Vetter’s orders and under his supervision, with the blood of those who were suffering from typhus. These prisoners were then administered the new drugs which, tested by Vetter, were produced by the Bayer Company. In July 1943, the then Lagerarts Entress ordered me to select 20 people suffering from tuberculosis and to put them in a separate room in block 20. I was instructed to treat them with Rutenol. Following Entress’ instructions, the drug was initially administered in powder form, but because patients experienced nausea and vomiting, it began to be administered in granules. The sick were given three spoonfuls of Rutenol a day for five days. This five-day period was followed by a seven-day interval during which the drug wasn’t administered. Entress ordered us to carry out thorough check-ups of those who received the drug. Every few days they were to be given X-ray and lab examinations (sputum and urine) and we were required to record in detail the course of their illness. Those who died were subjected to a thorough autopsy carried out, according to Entress’ instructions, by the former prisoner, Prof. Olbrycht. Both clinical observations and autopsy reports proved that Rutenol was without significance as a drug used to cure tuberculosis. This was also confirmed by the practical outcome of the use of the drug in the treatment of the disease in the camp. In the August of 1944, out of twenty people treated for tuberculosis, only three or four were still alive.
In the spring of 1944, Entress ordered me to prepare a detailed report regarding the use of Rutenol in the treatment of tuberculosis. He said that the report was for Vetter who was to come to collect it. Vetter had earlier left Auschwitz and went to serve in other camps. I prepared a detailed report as I was told. Vetter arrived in Auschwitz in June or July 1944. Following my orders, I presented him with the document I had prepared. After reading the report, in which I stressed that the drug didn’t cure tuberculosis, Vetter was very dissatisfied. He told me that Rutenol was used with good results in other camps (he didn’t specify these camps) because the sick put on 20 kilos in weight. I asked Vetter if those who had been administered the drug in the other camps were also given some special food or packages. To this he replied that they had been given normal camp rations and no packages. I wish to note that in Auschwitz the sick on whom the Germans used to test Rutenol were also given camp food (some of them also received packages from home).
During his service in Auschwitz, Vetter would leave from time to time. It was said that he went to the company for which he tested new drugs. Rutenol, which I gave prisoners, came from the camp’s drugstore. I don’t know how the drugstore was supplied with Rutenol. I believe that Prof. Olbrycht, who was employed there, may have some information about this matter.
As SS doctors, neither Vetter nor Entress got involved in conversations with prisoners. It was only through the interest they took in the use of Rutenol and other untested medicaments produced by the Bayer company that we knew they were involved in carrying out experiments on humans, testing the efficiency of these new drugs. That this was the case could also be seen in Vetter’s reaction to my report regarding Rutenol and its use in the treatment of prisoners I have already mentioned.
As far as Prof. Hörlein and Lautenschläger and Doctors Mertens, Julius Weber and Fußgänger are concerned, I have never met them and I don’t know whether they were in Auschwitz.
Following Entress’ orders, detailed case histories were prepared of all these 20 prisoners who were treated for tuberculosis with Rutenol. These medical reports were written at my dictation by my fellow prisoner Wołkowicz (I don’t remember his name. He was a lawyer from Warsaw). Seriously ill, he wasn’t taken out of the camp in a transport and remained there after the Germans’ flight. He took 10 out of 20 case history files regarding prisoners treated with Rutenol from the hospital record office. These documents found their way into the hands of Prof. Olbrycht who then passed them on to me. These are the documents I am submitting here. (The witness is submitting case history files – loose handwritten sheets of paper with temperature and pulse curves and typed autopsy reports regarding the following prisoners: Lejzor Weinblum, Mikołaj Dunda, Benjamin Beresi, Izaak Atlas, Michael Awerbuch, Antoni Hanusk, Wit Wieruchowski, Antoni Szuszwalak, Józef Pietrzak and Czesław Łacny). A red cross written in pencil on the first page of case history file means that the patient died. This fact is also apparent from the content of a particular case history file.
The report was read out. At this the interview and the report were concluded.