On 8 May 1945 in Oświęcim, Regional Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, member of the Commission for the Investigation of German-Nazi Crimes in Oświęcim, at the request, in the presence and with the participation of Deputy Prosecutor of the Regional Court Dr Wincenty Jarosiński, pursuant to Articles 254 and 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed Józef Setner as a witness, former prisoner no. 63016 of the Auschwitz concentration camp, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Józef Setner |
| Date and place of birth | 25 November 1908 in Niepołomice, Kraków District |
| Parents’ names | Józef and Anna, née Oleksowicz |
| Occupation | molder |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Citizenship | Polish |
| Place of residence before the arrest | Kraków, Płaszów, Gromadzka Street 31 |
| Current place of residence | Oświęcim |
On 20 September 1939, I was detained by the German police during a roundup and transported to the Montelupich Prison. I was kept there until 29 October 1939 and then, without any interrogation, I was transferred together with 39 other prisoners to the Dachau concentration camp. I stayed there until 17 December 1941, when I was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp.
On 21 April 1942, I was transported to the Auschwitz I camp. I worked there in the Strassenbaukommando [road construction unit] until December 1942, when I was transferred along with other prisoners to the Birkenau camp, which was still under construction at that time. I was assigned to a detail called Brandt-Kommando, and my job there also consisted in building roads. The Kapo of that work unit was a Dutch Jew. He was a relatively good man, because he did not beat anyone without a reason. I worked as a Vorarbeiter [foreman] with a group of 20 prisoners. I became the Vorarbeiter because I spoke German. Apart from that, when I received a package from home, I bribed the Kapo and managed to keep that position, so I did not have to work as hard as the others.
One day in January or February 1943, when it was freezing cold outside, the prisoners employed in my unit were so cold that they were not able to work. I took them to an empty barrack so that they could warm themselves up. We did not notice it when Obercharführer Miller came inside. He saw us there sitting idle and ordered our Kapo to call me over, since I was the Vorarbeiter. When I came there, Miller order the Kapo to punish me with 25 blows in the buttocks. After receiving that punishment, I decided to escape from the camp. I implemented my plan a few days later. I escaped before the evening roll call through the holes intended for sewage pipes, and I went as far as the last Postenkette [cordon of guards]. I waited there until the guard change, when I was planning to cross the Postenkette line. While the guards were changing, I started running, but as I was crossing the Postenkette line, a dog sniffed me out and knocked me over. An SS man, who had heard the dog barking, came running, hit me in the back with a bayonet, and kicked me in the face several times. The scars he left under both my eyes are still visible. Due to the blood loss, one of my legs became completely stiff. I lay on the ground till the following morning, without any medical assistance, guarded by the dog and the SS man who was walking around. In the morning, my fellow prisoners took me to the infirmary. I was admitted by Dr. Zenkteler. He was an absolutely ruthless person, towards the sick, other workers, and the hospital personnel. Zenkteler did not take care of me either, but only said, “You wanted to escape, so die, you motherf***er.” Then, he put a plaster on my wound and sent me straight to the Strafkommando block, where I stayed for three days. After that period, the wound started festering a lot, so I went back to Dr. Zenkteler’s infirmary. He sent me to the hospital, where I was treated by a surgeon from Warsaw, Dr. Herman. After 18 days, although I was not fully cured yet, I was released from the hospital on Dr. Zenkteler’s command and returned to the camp to work.
I was assigned to the DAW [Deutsche Ausrüstungswerke] work detail, where I worked for two weeks. During that period, I fell sick with typhus and, at the same time, the great toe of my left foot began to rot due to frostbite. I stayed in the hospital in block 18 for six week as a patient with typhus. After that period, when I could move again and had problems only with one leg, block senior Juliusz Ganszer appointed me the infirmary clerk. Ganszer was a good man, “the best Polish block senior in Birkenau.”
I stayed in Birkenau until the SS men left and the Soviet troops entered the camp. I occupied various functions at that time: block senior, warehouseman and cook, because the only people who stayed in the camp were those who were sick and unable to work. When the Birkenau camp was liquidated, I was transferred to Auschwitz I, where I have worked as a cook to this day. I know that we were ordered to add some substances impairing sexual potency to soups. Those powders prevented women from menstruating. Apart from that, the kitchen staff also added raw, ground potatoes to soups, beets, or any other dishes. The food was not cooked afterwards, so the prisoners got sick with various diseases, such as dysentery, Durchfall [diarrhea], etc. The powders and grinders that were used to grind raw potatoes are still in the kitchen. I will provide samples.
During my stay in the camp, those who treated the prisoners the worst were German functionaries. I personally think that the biggest criminal was Dr. Zenkteler from Poznań. I can also mention Hans Koch from Hamburg who was the leader of block 18 for some time, and Läufer [runner] Franciszek Nowak, a teacher by profession, prisoner no. 150208, a Pole. They harassed other prisoners on purpose. Nowak held the position of warehouse keeper, and then he was a Läufer in the main Schreibstube. His task as a Läufer was to bring packages, which had been sent to us by our families, to the block from the post office. We saw with our own eyes that Nowak stole food and other items from those packages, which was harmful to others. He came from Tomaszów Mazowiecki. I do not remember any other names of inmates who treated other prisoners brutally and inhumanely, but there were many of them.
At this point, the report was concluded, read out and signed by witness Józef Setner as consistent with his testimony.