On 29 September 1947 in Kraków, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Municipal Judge Dr. Stanisław Żmuda, upon written request of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, this 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 connection with Art. 254, 107, 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person specified below, the former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner as a witness, who testified as follows:
Name and surname Ludwik Bas (known in the case)
As I have already testified, from the time of my detention at Auschwitz I know by sight and by name the following SS men, whom I also recognized upon confrontation on 25 September 1947 in the Central Prison in Kraków:
1) Detleff Nebbe, SS-Hauptscharführer, whom I met around 1943, when he was the Stabsscharführer of the camp command, living and working in the barrack of the camp command. He held this post as the most trusted man of all the non-commissioned officers who worked in the camp administration. He was entrusted with the hardest tasks connected with supervising the SS men who belonged to the camp staff and with maintaining the discipline and strict regime in the camp. At this post, Nebbe was the terror of prisoners and SS men alike. Knowing his sadistic approach, SS men would make an effort to demonstrate their skills in abusing prisoners in his presence. Nebbe appeared daily everywhere in the camp, riding around on a motorcycle and conducting unannounced inspections and searches of prisoners and SS men alike. SS men shivered whenever they saw him. Nebbe had direct contact with and unlimited access to the camp commandant. At the same time, the SS men who were part of the Auschwitz crew depended on his influence, since the commandant relied on whatever opinion Nebbe had with regards to them. An SS man whom Nebbe presented to the commandant as indolent or too lenient toward prisoners faced the possibility of being passed over for promotion, being transferred somewhere else, or even being punished. Nebbe would also drive to Birkenau for the purposes of inspecting the efficiency of the SS crew who unloaded the mass transports at the railway ramp and gassed the transports. I was told about this by the SS men who came to me as patients. Thanks to his services to the camp command, Nebbe quickly got promoted and gained complete trust of the camp command.
2) August Bogusch, SS-Scharführer – I know him from the time of my work at Schreibstube des Schutzhaftlagerführers [administrative office of the camp leader], which was located next to the main gate to the camp. He was also my patient in the SS Revier [hospital], and I often talked to him about various things. I learned from these conversations that Bogusch was a fervent supporter of the Nazi regime, and that he thought the mass extermination of the prisoners to be right and appropriate, because the prisoners were the enemies of the regime which he supported, and every enemy must die. He was an authoritarian type of an SS man, very hostile toward prisoners.
3) I knew Wilhelm Gehring as SS-Oberscharführer at the time when he was the head of block 11. He was also my patient in the SS Revier. On his orders I frequently visited his office in block 11 to give him a massage recommended by a Truppenarzt [medical officer]. Visiting block 11 gave me the opportunity to talk to the prisoner functionaries in this block. They complained about Gehring’s conduct. He was a trusted SS man, as evident from the fact that he was given the post of the head of block 11. A prisoner named Zdzisław Pałasiński told me that he was brutally beaten by Gehring in block 11.
4) I know Herbert Ludwig, SS-Unterscharführer, from the time when he held the function of Blockführer [block leader] in the camp. He was my patient in the SS Revier as well, and for this reason I had the opportunity to talk to him about various subjects. I gathered from these conversations that Ludwig was a fervent supporter of the regime and that he believed in its victory to the very end. His behavior weakened the prisoners’ spirits and hope for survival. He frequently said that the prisoners were going to be slaves for the rest of their lives and that in time all Polish people would experience the concentration camps.
5) I know Max Göppel, SS-Unterscharführer, as a patient in the SS Revier and as one of the heads of the SS-Küche [kitchen for the SS], where I often went to collect meals for the sick SS men who were hospitalized in the SS Revier. I did not notice any harmful conduct of Göppel’s and never heard about such conduct from other prisoners. Quite the opposite, I know that Göppel accommodated prisoners, frequently warned them about potential danger, allowed them to secure food for themselves in the SS-Küche, never reported them, and as for me personally – he often gave me food.
At this the hearing and the report were concluded. The report was read out and signed.