JERZY WOŁĄSEWICZ

On 23 August 1947 in Bytom, the Municipal Court in Bytom, Fourth Criminal Division, with Judge A. Strażyc presiding and with the participation of reporter K. Lewandowicz, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Jerzy Wołąsewicz
Age 31
Parents’ names Kazimierz and Maria
Place of residence Bytom, Piastowska Street 11
Occupation office worker
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

I met Hans Schumacher in Auschwitz when he was assistant to the head of the food warehouse, that is Häftlingsmagazin. As the camp kitchen worker, I did not answer directly to the accused, because the above-mentioned warehouse had its own crew supervised by Schumacher and other SS functionaries. While his approach to the kitchen workers was rather indifferent, I do not know how he treated the food warehouse workers, since the cooks were not allowed there.

I saw the accused almost every day. When he was on duty during distribution of bread among individual blocks, to the so-called Stubendienst [prisoners acting as room orderlies], he demanded that distributing and counting loaves of bread be carried out fast. He was infuriated when there were any obstructions. He pushed people, kicked and beat them with a stick or a thick rubber hose. The same occurred during the unloading of bread from a truck.

When bread was being transported to the warehouse, many loaves were damaged and a lot of crumbs fell on the ground. Starving colleagues were waiting for that and hoping to collect the useless pieces of bread laying in the sand. It is worth noting that collecting these crumbs did not take away from the supplies in the warehouse or rations distributed among prisoners. Schumacher was always against prisoners having this extra food and beat them hard, often causing them to bleed heavily from the nose and mouth, as I frequently witnessed. He also often reported these "criminals" to the camp authorities, which lead to the prisoners’ deaths in the SK [Strafkompanie, penal company].

I had no first-hand contact with the accused. I cannot provide specific facts about how he abused his position at the department of provisioning, but I did hear about it. A possible witness who worked at the food warehouse and answered to Schumacher is my colleague, Adolf Maciejowski, residing in Chorzów (owner of the bar "Zagłoba").

The report was read out and signed.