STEFAN BORATYŃSKI

On 19 June 1947 in Kraków, Municipal Judge Dr. Henryk Gawacki, Acting Deputy Prosecutor of the District Court in Kraków, with the participation of reporter Aniela Bereźnicka, Senior Reporter of the Prosecutor’s Office at the District Court in Kraków, pursuant to art. 20 of the provisions enacting the Code of Criminal Procedure, in relation to art. 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness the person specified below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Stefan Kluska
Date and place of birth 13 June 1917, Kraków
Parents’ names Jan and Antonina, née Tworzewska
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation office clerk
Place of residence Kraków, Dajwór Street 25/12
Relationship to the parties none
Criminal record none

I was interned at the Auschwitz camp from 8 October 1940 until I was transferred to Buchenwald, which was in the first half of March 1943. From 7 December 1942 to 9 March 1943, I was at block 11, in camp I, on charges of membership of a clandestine military organization at the camp. I was kept in the hole for the final two months of this period. I was earmarked for execution and at the last moment I was reprieved, because they had executed 36 prisoners and this number of prisoners had already been prepared for the so-called Totenmeldunek [death toll report].

I identify beyond all reasonable doubt Kurt Müller, who has been just presented to me, as the person who was one of the three Blockführers on my arrival at block 11, and who discharged this function until the end of my time at this block.

It was customary for the Blockführers to treat prisoners cruelly and abuse them in such a way so as to liquidate them as soon as possible. Among other things, they put limits on food allotted per prisoner, which was scant anyway, and this applied to prisoners marked with the letter “G” (gefärlich) [dangerous], myself being one of them.

When I was in the hole, suspect Kurt Müller once told me – I understand German and I speak it a little – that I was dangerous and due to that I would not be getting the package which had been sent to me from home. Staying in the hole, I heard the sounds of beating and screaming, as well the voice of suspect Kurt Müller coming from the adjacent cells, from which I inferred (and still do) that the suspect was beating the prisoners. Standing in the yard near the executions wall, I saw suspect Kurt Müller finish off the prisoners, who fell to the ground after the first shot, having been shot at the back of the skull. Gestwiński from Bydgoszcz and Eugeniusz Obojski from Warsaw, both of whom had been staying at block 11 and today are deceased, as well as Ferdynand Stessel from Poznań, also deceased, told me that suspect Kurt Müller participated in the hanging of 37 women – Polish and Jewish – sent by the Political Department for burning a broken table in wintertime; he tortured these victims in that he smacked them in the face as they stepped onto the stool, and he dragged one elderly female prisoner from the washroom. He also personally executed small children.

Among the prisoners of this block, suspect Kurt Müller had the reputation of – as the witness puts it – a degenerate reverend, because his behavior as well as the look on his face suggested benevolence and innocence, while in reality he treated prisoners – as I have stated – with extreme brutality.

I myself was never hit by suspect Kurt Müller, but the package which had been sent from my home he didn’t deliver to me, and to torment me mentally, he announced it to me at the time when I would only get food twice or three times a week.

The report was concluded and it was signed after it was read out.