On 20 September 1947 in Sieradz, the Municipal Court in Sieradz, Criminal Section, with Judge P. Obertyński (MA) presiding and with the participation of court reporter J. Kwapisz, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Proceudre, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Jan Krawiec |
| Age | 37 |
| Parents’ names | Paweł and Maria |
| Place of residence | Sieradz, Rynek 9 |
| Occupation | electrician |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
From 28 January 1943 to 28 October 1944, I was a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. From the list of former members of the armed crew of the former concentration camp at Auschwitz, I personally knew Hans Aumeier and Max Grabner.
The former was the so-called Lagerführer [camp leader] in Auschwitz. I worked in the electricians’ Bauleitung [building authority] kommando. In May 1943, the personal inspection of prisoners was ordered after their work. Hans Aumeier personally supervised it with the help of some other crew members. He personally inspected me and found a penknife in my shoe. I was taken away to the so-called Blockführerstube [guardroom], where Aumeier personally beat me, striking me 40 times on my lower body, with me having to count up to forty.
In May 1943, in the Auschwitz I camp I witnessed the execution of one prisoner by hanging – a Pole whose name I didn’t know. The execution was performed by members of the SS crew (Department III) whose names I don’t know except for Leiman, Schulz and Kaduk. The crew were headed by Hans Aumeier, issuing the relevant orders to the crew members, and he was doing so with the utmost satisfaction, which could be recognized from the expression on his face and his behavior.
For some time in the summer of 1943 I worked on electrical equipment in the slaughterhouse. As far as I remember, in August 1943, upon leaving the slaughterhouse, I was inspected and they found two sausages on me. I was detained and escorted to the Political Department. After bringing me in there, the head of this Department, Max Grabner, came in – I think completely by chance. He took an interest in me, and after learning that I had been discovered with a sausage, he punished me personally by laying me over the so-called “vaulting-horse” and repeatedly hitting me with a thick stick on the back of the body. I was glad that I got off with just this punishment, because among the prisoners there was the opinion that a meeting with the head of the Political Department, Grabner, meant the death sentence.
In the summer of 1943 I came across Max Grabner again in the following circumstances: I had a team of seven electrician-prisoners to do the installation work in the treatment plant. A pass, which allowed me to move around the streets of the camp, was put on my number. One of the team members – a Greek Jew (I don’t know his surname) – left the workshop in his overalls, disregarding the regulations about wearing a red stripe on the overalls as a form of identification. Max Grabner was on the street that we passed. He noticed that this stripe was missing and he called me over, punched me in the face and instructed me to return immediately along with the team to the workshop and put on this missing red stripe.
I have no more information about the case presented to me, but I would like to suggest the former Auschwitz prisoner Józef Paczyński as a witness, who currently works in Sieradz at the state-owned alcohol factory – Państwowy Monopol Spirytusowy.
The report was read out and thereby concluded.