On 22 August 1947 in Warsaw, the Investigating Judge of the First Region of the District Court in Warsaw with its seat in Warsaw, this in the person of acting judge K. I. Janowski, heard the person named below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and of the significance of an oath, the witness was sworn pursuant to article 111 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Władysław Łada |
| Age | 42 |
| Parents’ names | Kazimierz and Zofia |
| Place of residence | Warsaw, [...] |
| Education | engineer |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
On 19 September 1940, I was taken from my flat in Żoliborz and after four days I found myself in Auschwitz, from where I was released in May 1941. It was still a little-known camp. The commandant was Höß, and Hans Aumeier was, in our opinion, his deputy, because he received reports during Höß’s leave of absence. Fritzsch, in my opinion, stood above Höß in the hierarchy. We, ordinary prisoners, had relatively little contacted with the supreme authorities; we were more concerned with the instructions issued to lower [ranking] officers.
Aumeier carried out inspections of our work, and he instructed the SS men to drive us hard at work and was generally abusive. He always wandered around with his German Shepherd and a whip in his hand. He gave orders to us in a brutal form, he set his dog on us and would whip us for whatever reason. His specialty was to kick the prisoners in the stomach. In winter, our kommando cleared the snow from the streets inside the camp. One time we were working between blocks 10 and 13 (later block 11) – the so-called punishment block, where the executions took place. We heard some shots then and after a while Aumeier came out of the block with his dog. We all stood to attention with the exception of one guy who, because he had his ears covered, didn’t hear Aumeier approaching. Aumeier shouted at the prisoner, made him stand to attention and began to punch him in the face. At the same time, the dog lunged at the prisoner and bit his hands. The prisoner managed to defend himself instinctively and fend off the dog, but Aumeier beat him fiercely, making him stand still, [and] when the prisoner fell, he kicked him lying down. When Aumeier left, the prisoner had to get back to work, even though his hands were bloody. I don’t remember the name of the prisoner.
Another time, we were working on digging some gravel on the grounds of the Industriehof [industrial area]. At one point, we were directed along a different path than we used to go. We saw that the camp authorities had come to that [area], including Aumeier. We heard shots from a distance, and then two prisoners were carrying the corpse of a man dressed in civilian clothes. I didn’t hear anything about Aumeier killing anyone in person, but he usually assisted in the executions.
Sometime in November, one of the prisoners escaped from the camp – I think it was a professional criminal. It was announced then that if the prisoner wasn’t found, they would shoot some people from the commune from where the prisoner came from. After a few days, I saw two or three cars with people (including children and women) who were taken to the Industriehof. We were summoned to the square and kept on roll call from 5.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. We heard shots and then the prisoners carried the bodies to the crematorium. After so many hours of roll call in the cold and snow, about 300 people died, some at once in the square, and some during the night in the barracks. Aumeier must have been there as well, because he was not in the square at the time, and he was always at the roll calls with Höß.
Another time, when a prisoner had escaped from one block, Aumeier and Höß selected the prisoners who were to be taken in retaliation. What happened to them, we don’t know, they were probably shot.
Another time, I saw Aumeier and Höß tormenting a Jew. They put him over a dug-out hole and kicked him. When the Jew fell over and fell into a pit, they told him to get out of it and the fun started all over again. When the Jew lay completely helpless, Aumeier or Höß, because I don’t remember who it was, said, “Look, Poles, what these people who pushed you into war with us look like”.
I wish to clarify that when [this] first [as I mentioned] prisoner escaped, that day a long roll call was ordered, and when there was the retaliatory execution, we were just pulled out of work earlier and the roll call lasted only a few hours.
Apart from the chief camp authorities, we also got a good thrashing from lower ranking officers and SS men whose names I don’t remember. I remember only one surname – Rapportführer Palitzsch. I remember some of their features and I could probably recognize them from photographs.
I also remember that Aumeier often personally carried out inspections of prisoners returning from work outside the camp, [checking] whether they were bringing in with them any food they had found, and if he found anything, he dealt with it personally, regardless of the fact that he wrote his number and the prisoner was later flogged. Once Aumeier caught prisoners when they went into an abandoned house during work, where they were getting warm and boiling handkerchiefs after washing. He wrote down the owners of the handkerchiefs, and as a result they also received the flogging punishment. Aumeier was worse in the camp than Höß.
In this case, the following could also testify:
1) Tadeusz Konarski, residing in Warsaw [...],
2) Jan Majorowski, residing in Warsaw in Praga, I don’t know the exact address,
3) Kobierski, a store owner in Żoliborz,
4) Solicitor Tadeusz Bednarkiewicz, residing [...],
5) An architect named Jakimowicz, residing in Warsaw, [...].
Thus concluded, the report was read out.