On 13 September 1947 in Kraków, Municipal Judge Dr. Henryk Gawadzki, a member of the Kraków District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, on the written motion of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, dated 25 April 1947 (file 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), in relation to 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 | Adam Stapf |
| Age | 40 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Occupation | merchant |
| Place of residence | Kraków, Szymanowskiego Street 2, flat 10 |
| Testifies freely. |
At the end of 14 July 1940, I was arrested in Kraków and interned at the Montelupich Prison. After two days, I was transported to the Tarnów prison and was then interned at the Auschwitz camp, where I remained from 28 August 1940 until 30 July 1944. Then, I was transferred to the Ravensbrück camp and I remained there until the liberation.
My prison number at Auschwitz was 3704. At first, I was put in a three-week quarantine and later worked with various kommandos: building the road to Birkenau, applying finishing works to crematorium I. After the quarantine I stayed at a makeshift hospital for two weeks because the skin on my feet was completely peeled off from the gravel and marbles and I could not walk. In December 1940, I was assigned to the Effektenkammer [property storeroom], first to clean and later to help with the inventory. I worked there until September 1941 and then I was moved to “Buna” in Monowice-Dwory, where I worked until mid-December 1941.
After a six-week bout of sickness from exhaustion I was again assigned to the Effektenkammer and I remained there until the end of my internment at the Auschwitz camp, with a short interval from January 1942 until April 1942, when I was posted to the “Kanada” and with further time off duty due to typhus, which lasted about six weeks.
When in quarantine, I came across Plagge, who at that time still served at the rank of Unterscharführer. Plagge was known to every prisoner as he was in charge of the so-called “sport”, i.e. gymnastics and singing drills. The uncommon brutality and the ruthlessness with which these routines were carried out suggested they were designed, on one hand, to terrorize prisoners completely, and on the other, to kill off the weaker of them. Plagge had it in for the intelligentsia, Jews and priests in particular and held some specific grudge against judges. During exercises, prisoners, when asked about their profession, were asked by Plagge himself if they were judges.
He asked me the same question. As he was watching prisoners running and exercising, he shouted to me, “ Bist du Richter?” [Are you a judge?], and when I replied that I was an electrical engineer, Plagge, still shouting, which he did all the time, called me “ ein alter Lügner ” [an old liar] and added, “Go hang yourself”. I broke off the row and blended into the crowd of other prisoners. Meanwhile, Plagge shortly after that called out to another prisoner, a stocky man who was moving too slowly, asking him about his job, and when the man said he was a teacher, Plagge, as if with contentment, repeated, “ Ah, Lehrer”, kicked that prisoner, ordered him out of the row, and got him to squat by the wall, his hands in the air. The prisoner remained in this position for a few minutes. When Plagge had in the meantime dealt with other prisoners in a similar fashion, having again spotted the said teacher, shouted to him, “ Bist du noch da, du ausgefressne Schweine? Geh oben sich anhängen sofort” [You’re still there, you fat pig? Go hang yourself at once]. The teacher ran to the block and it turned out he hanged himself in the attic by his own suspenders. The block elder then announced to all prisoners that if anyone dared to cut down a prisoner who had hanged himself, he would face the same punishment.
Later in 1940, I saw that Plagge was serving at the block later designated as 11 and which housed the penal company (SK, Strafkompanie). I do not know what functions Plagge fulfilled there. I used to see prisoners from this company marching out to labor and then returning to the camp. These prisoners looked maltreated and emaciated.
One day, towards the end of 1940, after the penal company went to work from what was then block 13 under Plagge’s command, the story broke out among SS men and German kapos that this was the last day for the Jews of the Strafkompanie. I saw, after the company left the camp, that the Jews were detached from the group and sent outside the wired perimeter fence, to where the admissions building (Aufnahmegebäude) now stands and where there used to be a sand and gravel pit. This group of Jews was accompanied by Plagge himself. Shortly after I heard gunshots from that direction, and, out of curiosity, I watched from the attic of the Effektenkammer building as SS men and kapos beat and massacred the Jews with batons and spades and then shot at the agonizing prisoners. In the evening, I saw the Strafkompanie return from work. This was a harrowing sight. The prisoners carried, or rather dragged, the corpses of the murdered and executed Jews. One massacred Jew, covered in blood but still alive, was carried on a stretcher, normally used for carrying lime. This Jew had the rim of a tin vessel around his head and was holding a shovel handle and had a blanket on his back. I could only guess that the figure of this massacred man, the only Jew still alive, was to symbolize Christ.
Working at the Effektenkammer, I also came across Gustav Kuny, who in 1941 supervised prisoners working at the inventory. Kuny came across to me as a dumb individual, who blindly followed orders from his superiors. His treatment of prisoners was decent, or at least I did not notice any abusive behavior on his part. He told me that he took part, as all SS men did, in the so- called Sonderaktionen [special actions] and received Sonderverpflegung [special food rations] in return. He then told me that after Liebehenschel took over at the camp, all members of the crew had signed – as he put it – their own death warrants, meaning that they were obliged, under death penalty, to keep in the strictest confidence everything that was went on at the camp, with special emphasis on issues related to gassing and incinerating prisoners; additionally, also under threat of the death penalty, everybody was prohibited from appropriating any items belonging to prisoners.
I also know, in person and by name, SS-Obersturmführer Kremer, a doctor, and from stories told by other prisoners I know that he was a party to gassing and selecting prisoners to be gassed. I myself once witnessed as Kremer carried out a selection.
Towards either the end of 1942 or the beginning of 1943 (I do not remember exactly), a group of male Jews was brought in from Birkenau to the main camp for work. These Jews, after giving up their clothes, stood waiting at the yard between blocks 26 and 27 for the doctors’ panel. Kremer carried out their examination and asked them if they could, or would, work. The Jews, still unaware of what was happening and fearing hard toil, replied that they could not work; these were sent by Kremer to the left, which meant they were to be gassed. The group, with no trace in the records, was taken back to Birkenau. This solidified my conviction that they were designated for extermination.
Lagerführer [camp leader] Aumeier surpassed his predecessor in terms of cruelty and sadism. He implemented harsher discipline and he personally, for the slightest offenses (an undone button, improper removing of a cap, improper position in a row, a sock missing etc.), not only beat and kicked the prisoner, but also sentenced him to whipping – a penalty introduced by Aumeier himself, up to 150 blows – or sent him to the bunker, or assigned him to the penal company. Aumeier also introduced the “pole” penalty (hanging the prisoner by his arms twisted backward). He also carried out inspections, especially in wintertime, and he liked to catch prisoners who put paper bags, formerly containing cement, under their striped uniforms to protect themselves from the cold.
Aumeier further specialized in holding roll calls, which he very often attended and extended them by many hours. Whenever a prisoner escaped, these roll calls lasted even 10 or 12 hours. Aumeier, as if on purpose, picked the most grievous conditions for the extended roll calls: scorching heat and rain in the summer and blizzards in the winter. After roll calls, prisoners were further harassed by Blockführers [block leaders] and block elders, everything according to the rules established by Aumeier. Prisoners were discharged back to the blocks individually, with sometimes even two-hour singing or exercises held by the block, or alternatively a so-called Läuse-Appel, during which prisoners had to strip naked. In wintertime, Aumeier’s extended roll calls and the following harassment at the blocks meant that the supper would freeze.
Another type of harassment perpetrated by block elders and Stubediensts [prisoner functionaries], on the orders from Blockführers, was ransacking the quarters where prisoners slept, which included e.g. throwing blankets or bed ticks off pallets and often ripping the straw off the bed ticks and throwing it on the floor. Prisoners, tired and hungry, were often forced to do the additional cleaning work.
Under Aumeier, the network of denunciation and filing reports expanded massively.
The issuing of underwear and winter clothing was considerably delayed, as if on purpose, so that prisoners would get colds and other diseases. Similarly, the change from winter to summer apparel would take place too early.
Under Aumeier, the mortality rate among prisoners increased, often reaching two hundred a day, as did the volume of diseases, epidemics and the level of hospital overcrowding. Similarly, there were increased numbers of prisoners picked up during selections and selections themselves were more frequent. When the prisoners’ medical personnel got a whiff of when a selection might be carried out, Aumeier, as a ruse and to catch the prison doctors off guard, ordered e.g. that a list of people for the so-called nourishment treatment be compiled and sent to him. This list would automatically become a list of prisoners to be exterminated.
Aumeier, similarly to Höß, personally carried out the so-called decimation of prisoners, in retaliation for a prisoner’s escape. He also personally, as a form of punishment, assigned prisoners to the penal company.
In the winter of 1941/1942, Aumeier ordered a large-scale degasification of the main camp. Part of the camp was degasified, after which naked prisoners from the dirty sections of the camp, yet to be degasified, were pushed to the blocks which had been cleaned. There, the prisoners had to clean up and, naked, go to unprepared rooms, i.e. those yet to be equipped with bed ticks and blankets. On that occasion, Aumeier gave a speech to prisoners, in which he emphasized that this was happening because “we do not need your death, but we need your life and the work you put in”.
In May 1942, the arrests were ordered of Polish prisoners, mostly officers and non- commissioned officers, and also others. Around 350 of them were assigned to the penal company and sent to the Birkenau camp for work and it was publicly announced that they had been sentenced to death, but that the Führer had pardoned them and changed the sentence to life with the Strafkompanie. Serving with the company was Dr. Chodorkowski, my brother-in-law, who via secret messages informed me about the harassment and maltreatment of these people. On 13 June 1942, the entire company, on charges of mutiny, was rounded up from their labor site and Aumeier personally shot 20 of them with his pistol, the remaining members of the company – as the story had it – being executed on his orders. At the same time, it was ordered that the Birkenau hospital be emptied and the prisoners all be gassed. Independent of these events, on 14 and 15 June 1942, at block 11, around 450 people, that is an entire two transports of prisoners from Kraków (Kalwaria Plastyków), were executed.
I came across Maximilian Grabner, head of the political department, only once, in January 1943. At that time I was working at the Effektenkammer and one day all prisoners working at the Effektenkammer, Bekleidungskammer [clothing storeroom] and Entwesungskammer [disinfection chamber], around 175 people overall, were pulled off their duties. We were all isolated and then stood by the wall at block 24, where the Schreibstube [administrative office] was located. Because usually the prisoners isolated at block 24 were then taken away to be executed, we all expected the same fate. Late in the evening of the same day, after imposing a Blocksperre [curfew], we were taken to the basement rooms of block 7, where we were strictly isolated from other prisoners. Next morning, all prisoners were called out, individually, their names read out from a list according to prison numbers and names, and again stood by block 24. Late in the evening, a Blocksperre was imposed again, and then Grabner came, surrounded by his aides: Lachman, Palitzsch, Boger, and Stibitz. Earlier that day, both Grabner and his aides walked past us a few times and, insulting us, threatened that at a moment we would see what was to happen to us. They were moving between the camp headquarters building and block 11, where the police court was in session and the executions were taking place. We heard gunshots all the time and saw the corpses of the killed moved out.
In the evening, Grabner proceeded to select prisoners to be exterminated. Judging by the way in which the selection was carried out, I figured that he was mainly targeting the intelligentsia and military personnel. He asked each prisoner about his profession and, depending on the answer, using the word “ab”, he would send the prisoner to the left, if he was a member of the intelligentsia or the military, to the right, if he was a skilled worker. Because all the prisoners were sure that Grabner had thoroughly gone through the prison files of each of them, they mostly stated their actual occupation. Although, taking a risk, I said I was an electrical engineer, Grabner shouted, “ Links”, and at the same time one of his aides kicked me and I went to the ground. Shortly afterward, when I was still down, I heard, “ Auf – rechts ”, which meant I was to step back and move to the right side. I do not know who shouted the order.
Around 95 prisoners were selected for execution and the rest was sent to labor at the so- called Kiesgrube-Palitzsch [Palitzsch’s gravel pit]. The 95 prisoners selected were executed after two days at block 11. I had been working at the Kiesgrube for about a week, and then, having feigned sickness, I contrived, via the hospital, to return to the Effektenkammer. Some time afterward, Grabner and Boger came to the Effektenkammer and Bekleidungskammer and told the prisoners there that if they were ever again to catch a fleeing prisoner dressed in civilian clothes off prisoners or to find on a prisoner fake documents deposited at the Effektenkammer, then every prisoner working there would be executed in retaliation; consequently, I assumed that the selection described above, carried out by Grabner, was related to some attempted prisoner escape.
The entire camp dreaded Grabner, to the extent that whenever he was approaching, prisoners tried to hide anywhere, since even coming across him accidentally on one’s way somewhere involved the risk of death or being sent to the bunker. Grabner alone made decisions about death sentences and, in consultation with each subsequent Lagerführer [camp leader], he was the person who ordered the emptying of the bunkers and mostly sent prisoners to be killed. Additionally, he set up an extensive network of denunciation at the camp and also conducted investigations, in the course of which interrogated persons were subject to the most cruel tortures of various kinds, or were even liquidated on the spot.
Liebehenschel, Höß’s successor as camp commandant, should be seen as continuing such an extermination regime, the only difference being that Liebehenschel, an intelligent man, did it in a manner which did not attract attention, discretely, and free of brutality. Even before he took over, rumors spread around the camp that following the change of camp commandant discipline would be relaxed. In reality, Liebehenschel loosened the grip in some respects and with a certain degree of ostensibility – for instance, he exempted prisoners from the obligation of removing their caps when they were passing through the camp’s main gate. He scrapped whipping for minor offenses and even in cases whereby a prisoner was caught in the act of stealing bread out of hunger, he ordered that this prisoner be issued with two loaves of bread. He issued an order which prohibited the beating of prisoners. He changed the fire pool into a bathing pool for prisoners by constructing stairs and handrails and prisoners even washed in this pool. He ordered the setting up of a brothel at block 24, which could be accessed by prisoners who had conducted themselves well.
Before Liebehenschel took over, SS men would say that, starting now, there would be no more executions or gassings without an order from Berlin, since, according to the Führer, “each prisoner, like each free man, is of value to the Reich and to its potential as a labor force”. Liebehenschel ordered the release of prisoners held at the bunker for months and ordered that the investigations into these prisoners’ cases be conducted and concluded, and also abolished the denunciation network, which had attracted too much attention, since all informers were well-known across the camp.
Despite all these orders, the system was not changed at all. There were still executions at block 11, but they only took place at night, and the bodies of the murdered were also moved out at night. Also at night, prisoners designated to be gassed were transported to Birkenau. Later, this latter activity was abandoned and after the so-called Erholungslager [recuperation camp] was set up at two blocks, doctors were ordered to compile lists of those who had recovered but were still unfit for work. Next, these prisoners were clothed in new striped uniforms and transported to Birkenau, from where they would never return. Under Liebehenschel, gassings at Birkenau intensified, only that Liebehenschel would leave the camp during gassings and then the rumor was circulated around the camp that this was happening behind his back and in his absence.
As I said, Liebehenschel pulled out all informers known to prisoners and in their place set up an underground intelligence cell subordinated to the Erkennungsdienst [police records department] head at the political department. Under Liebehenschel, the following known informers were active: Malorny and Ołpiński. Liebehenschel brought in with himself from Berlin a larger group of uniformed functionaries, with SD badges, who operated outside the camp and whose task was to sever and make impossible any contacts between prisoners and SS men. Additionally, Liebehenschel, under the pain of death penalty, obliged all SS personnel to maintain the strictest confidence, a fact I mentioned in the paragraph concerning the actions of Gustav Kuny.
At this the report was concluded and signed after it was read out.