STANISŁAW GOŁĘBIOWSKI

On 10 July 1947 in Kraków, District Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, acting at the written request of the First Prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, this dated 25 April 1947 (Ref. no. NTN 719/47), 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), and in connection with art. 254, 107, and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness the person specified below, a former prisoner of the Auschwitz concentration camp, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Stanisław Gołębiowski
Date of birth 22 August 1918
Religious affiliation none
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Occupation office clerk
Place of residence Kielce, [...]

I was at the Auschwitz concentration camp between May 1942 and September 1944 as political prisoner number 37888. In September 1944, I was deported to the Stutthof concentration camp. At the Auschwitz concentration camp, I stayed at the Stammlager [main camp] (until the end of 1942), then at the gypsy camp, that is in the so-called section B II e at Birkenau (1943), and finally in section B II d (1944).

During my time in section B II d, I worked at the Bekleidungskammer [clothing storeroom] and because of my work I would visit the Czech family camp, located in section B II b. Suspect Buntrock, whom I already knew by his name at that time, and whom I now clearly recognize in the photograph, used to carry out the duties of Rapportführer [report leader] in the rank of SS-Unterscharführer at said Czech family camp, where Jews deported from Theresienstadt were staying. Buntrock, for no reason whatsoever, beat, kicked, and tortured unconscious all the prisoners who came within his arm’s reach. On the day of the extermination of the first batch of Czech Jews from the family camp – it was, if I am not mistaken, in March 1944 – I watched as Rapportführer Buntrock, who stood out with his posture (tall, stout, broad-shouldered, big head), together with other SS men and function prisoners (block elders, kapos) forced to do it, thrust the Jews onto the vans, in which they were taken straight to the gas chambers of crematoria I and III at Birkenau, where all of them were gassed. Next morning, the clothes of the murdered were brought to be deposited at the Bekleidungskammer, where we sorted them. I was personally assigned to this task.

Buntrock also personally participated in the extermination of the second batch of the Theresienstadt Jews. As far as I remember, it was in May 1944. While all those from the first Theresienstadt group were gassed without any exceptions, the second group underwent a selection process. Buntrock personally participated in this selection, in the course of which some fit men were chosen and sent to Schwartzheide, some women went to Stutthof and Ravensbrück, a few pretty children were earmarked for Dr. Mengele’s experiments, and the remaining children and all those who were unfit for work were gassed in the chambers.

Buntrock was well-known at the camp. Prisoners trembled and froze at the very sound of his name.

From my time at the main camp, which was in 1942, I remember the names of, and presently clearly recognize in the photographs, SS man Kurt Müller, who then fulfilled the function of Blockführer at block 15, where I was housed at that time. During roll-calls, he beat prisoners unconscious for the slightest misdemeanors, such as leaning sideways. All the prisoners at the block were afraid of Müller.

In summer 1942, I worked at the so-called “Canada” at the Auschwitz main camp, near the grounds of DAW [Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke] [armaments factories]. The prisoner unit working there was officially called the Aufräumungskommando. An aufseher [supervisor] of this commando was at that time, among others, SS man Włodzimierz Bilan, a Romanian by descent. I knew him by his name already at that time, and presently, I clearly recognize him in the photographs. He beat the prisoners of the kommando subordinate to him. He beat me severely because I was eating a piece of dry bread during work. Let me emphasize that I had just recovered from typhus, I felt extreme hunger, and at the same time I was assigned to sorting quality snacks looted off the gassed victims. At that time, Bilan was a martinet, a stickler for form, and he treated prisoners harshly. I heard that later, when he fulfilled other functions – he worked, among other places, at the admission office of the Political Department – he changed his behavior toward prisoners.

The report was read out. At this point the procedure and the report were concluded.