27 November 1947
Tadeusz Paczuła
former Auschwitz prisoner no. 7725
Pocztowa Street 21, flat 1
Świętochłowice
To complement the testimony made up to now by defendant Untersturmführer Max Grabner, I would like to share my own observations from the four years I spent in the Auschwitz camp.
1. With regard to the fact that defendant Grabner rejects the accusation that he belonged to the SS, I inform that Grabner signed every document issued by the Political Department (Abteilung II or Politische Abteilung) with his full SS rank and position held in the criminal police, e.g.: SS-Untersturmführer u. Krim. Ass. [SS-Untersturmführer und Kriminalassistent], or SS-Untersturmführer u. Krim. Sekr. [SS-Untersturmführer und Kriminalsekretär], or SS-Untersturmführer u. Krim. Obersekr. [SS-Untersturmführer und Kriminalobersekretär], when he was promoted in the criminal police.
2. Defendant Grabner did not justify the mortality with phlegmon and typhoid fever, as he evasively claims in the court proceedings, but quite the opposite – it was Grabner who gave an order to classify prisoners’ deaths as natural in post-mortem reports and documents, while phlegmon and typhoid fever were used as a camouflage. The following facts can serve as evidence:
On the order of the Political Department (Grabner), the Rapportführer [report leader] or an official from the Political Department (Oberscharführer Boger, Unterscharführer Lachmann, Sturmmann Florschütz – who personally carried out executions), brought the numbers of executed prisoners to the Krankenbau [prisoners’ hospital] office, with the following note or oral announcement: “Vom Krankenbau als normal verstorbene absetzen!” [dismissed from hospital as dead of natural causes]. In practice it meant that post-mortem reports and documents had to be issued indicating that the prisoners executed by firing squad had died not from a bullet, but of phlegmon or typhoid fever.
That dirty practice started in the first days of June 1942 – on the 6th or 7th day (I mean only the executions followed by the “Vom Krankenbau absetzen!” notice) – and lasted continuously almost until the end of the camp’s existence, although the number of prisoners executed by firing squad dropped significantly after Grabner left.
On the initiative of prisoners (no. 808 Jan Pilecki and no. 7725 Tadeusz Paczuła), an idea was born to change that situation. In 1943 when I worked in the Krankenbau office, I drew the attention of the then Lagerarzt [camp doctor], Obersturmführer Dr. Friedrich Entress, to the fact that he signed false documents, diagnosing executed prisoners as dead of natural causes.
Dr. Entress ordered the prisoners who issued those documents to stop filling them in, claiming that first he had to consult Untersturmführer Grabner, the chief of the Political Department. Dr. Entress returned from that “conference” abashed, and gave an order to immediately continue the interrupted work.
3. Only Grabner knows how many prisoners were executed by firing squad, because he himself fervently executed the verdicts “from above” – and if there were too few of them, he would add execution sentences “out of his own pocket” (e.g. 12 June 1942, 29 July 1942, 28 October 1942, 19 January 1943, etc.). If there was no suitable material in the files of the Political Department, he himself made prisoners believe that they were forming secret associations in the camp, and he organized “pogroms” ending with executions (e.g. pogrom of the potato warehouse – executed by Boger; pogrom of the Effektenkammer [prisoners’ effects storeroom] – executed personally by Grabner; pogrom of the Bekleidungskammer [clothing storeroom] – personally by Grabner, etc.).
4. Grabner was present both during executions of prisoners and during executions ordered by the Sondergericht [special court] and Standgericht [court martial] carried out in block 11. I must say that Grabner would never miss an execution ordered by the Sondergericht or Standgericht.
Another of Grabner’s tasks was to carry out selections of prisoners gathered in the “bunker” in block 11. Grabner would often make a decision based on a glance at a prisoner or his answer to Grabner’s question. For example, Grabner asked prisoner Sokołowski from block 9 (prisoner no. over 13000), “Was bist du von Beruf?” [What is your profession?]. Sokołowski answered, “professional soldier”, which qualified him into the group destined to end up “by the wall”. Such scenes always accompanied selections preceding an execution. Polish intelligentsia was always given priority to stand “by the wall”.
5. The number of Soviet prisoners of war held in the KG (Kriegsgefangenenlager – POW camp) in Auschwitz mentioned in the court proceedings is incorrect. It for sure exceeded 12,600, or maybe it was even higher than 13,000 (numbered Soviet POWs), from whom only 96 stayed alive.
In addition to those POWs, hundreds of Soviet prisoners of war were brought to Auschwitz (November – December 1941, January – March 1942). They were not numbered at all, but stripped naked at the ramp near Birkenau (if transported by train) and rushed off naked in the snow to block 11, where they were shot dead. When there were too many of them, they were often forced to wait several days, naked and hungry, for their turn. Fitze and Stark were specialists in executions of Soviet prisoners of war. Stark, the then deputy of Grabner, executed the highest number of Soviet POWs. I even suspect that he was recommended by Grabner, because otherwise the executions would have been performed by the authorities of Abteilung III – Schutzhaftlagerführung, full of sadists such as Palitzsch, Stiewitz, Polotzek, Plagge, and others.
6. Grabner decided about executions and he knew very well whose turn it was. For example, prisoner no. 1180 Józef Maroń and others heard from Grabner, often a few weeks or even months in advance, that they would be executed by firing squad, which many witnesses who are still alive can confirm today.
The above statements represent the truth and are in line with my conscience. At the same time, I hereby declare that, if necessary, I am ready to testify as a witness in the trial of 40 Auschwitz criminals, the majority of whom I know very well.