Report on the hearing of a witness, drafted on 27 November 1945, in Wiesbaden, pursuant to the decree of the President of the Republic of Poland of 29 April 1940 (Journal of Laws No. 9, item 23) and authorization granted on the basis of art. 1 of the above-mentioned decree.
Present:
Judge: major audytor [Military Judge] W. Szuldrzyński
Court clerk: Sergeant J. Kulczycki.
The witness takes the stand: Marian Dębkowski who, having been warned about the criminal liability for false testimony, states:
| Name and surname | Marian Dębkowski |
| Date and place of birth | 8 December 1912, Warsaw |
| Parents’ names | Jan and Marianna née Okolska |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Occupation | mechanic |
| Place of residence in Poland | Józefów, Błonie County, Warsaw voivodeship |
| Current place of residence | Wiesbaden |
| He testifies without hindrance |
The witness testifies the following under legal oath:
Before the war I worked in the Cebulak company in Warsaw, at 29 Koszykowa Street, in the technical and installation office. I participated in the defense of Warsaw until its capitulation, and then I joined the underground army. My company commander was Lt. ‘Orzeł’ [Eagle], and the liaison between Lt. ‘Orzeł’ and myself, as the platoon commander, was Officer Cadet Jan Sitkowski. A few days after Christmas in 1940, I was arrested and detained in the prison on al. Szucha. Around mid-January 1941, I was detained in Pawiak prison. During my interrogation, I was accused of belonging to an underground organization, of being a sergeant—a military engineer—from Modlin, and they said that Władysław Frączkowiak had given up my name as a member of the underground army. Two officers and two non-commissioned SS officers interrogated me, with the help of an interpreter who was a German but also a Polish citizen. I think he was called Beutler, and he lived on the Wolica estate, which belonged to Mr. Janasz. Before the war, he had lived with his cousin, who was first a teacher and then managed the Wolica and Błochocim estates. In Pawiak prison I met Władysław Frączkowiak, who admitted to me that during the interrogation he had given my name. I was called out from Pawiak three times for interrogation in Szucha, but I didn’t give anything away. During the interrogation, I was beaten with a rubber truncheon and kicked, but no other method of torture was used.
On the last day of April 1941, along with a transport of about 750 people, I was taken to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where I arrived on 2 May 1941. I can’t provide the surnames of the Poles from my transport, except for Stanisław Rozewicz, a medical student, and Platoon Cadet Stefan Jakubowski. A lot of priests went on that transport, including some monks from Szymanów who published the monthly ‘Rycerz Niepokalanej’ [Knight of The Immaculate]. There were also about a hundred Jews with us. We traveled in freight cars with 90-100 people packed into each one: for the journey, we received 250 g of bread and a little sugar, which had to last almost three days. After arriving in Auschwitz, there were some corpses in some of the wagons. After unloading, we had to run to the camp area, where we were lined up in fives near the camp kitchen. Translator Kalus, a prisoner from Silesia, read out the names of the newcomers who then had to run about 150m along a row of SS men to the Effektenkammer. Those who couldn’t run fast, the SS men beat. We were regrouped in front of the Effektenkammer, counted and taken to the baths where we spent the whole night. In the morning we were ordered to undress, then bathed, dressed in striped uniforms and taken to block 17, where we were entered into the records. Numbers and triangles were issued —red with the letter ‘P’. I got number 16,810. This number wasn’t tattooed on me, because it wasn’t until the end of 1942 that the tattooing started on the order of Lagerführer SS-Untersturmführer Aufmayer [Aumeier]. While we were being entered into the records, all the Jews were separated from us, and in my presence a dozen or so of them were beaten and kicked to death. In May 1941, SS-Obersturmführer Frycz (phonetically) [Fritzsch] was the Lagerführer, and he was later the Lagerführer in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg. His successor from December 1941 was SS-Untersturmführer Aumeier, who was in Auschwitz I until April 1943. At the same time there was also a second Lagerführer SS-Obersturmführer, Hubert Schwartz [Heinrich Schwarz], and a third Lagerführer—SS-Obersturmführer Seydler [Seidler]. Aumeier was later transferred to Riga, Seidler came to us from the Mauthausen concentration camp. The last Lagerführer in Auschwitz I was SS-Obersturmführer Hessler [Hößler], who was already in Auschwitz I in 1941. At that time he was Arbeitsdienstführer and SS-Unterscharführer. In 1943 he became the deputy Lagerführer of Auschwitz I, and in early 1944 he was the Lagerführer of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp, and in the summer of 1944 he returned from there to the position of Lagerführer of Auschwitz I.
SS-Obersturmführer Fritzsch, approx. 40 years old, height - 1.85 m, blond hair, hazel eyes, long face, slim build, bushy eyebrows.
SS-Lagerführer Aumeier, approx. 40 years old, short, height - 1.58 m, dark blond hair, slim build, long face, bowlegged, very high-pitched voice, nicknamed ‘Napoleon’ by all the prisoners.
SS-Obersturmführer Schwarz, approx. 40 years old, height - 1.74 m, stocky build (athletic build), black hair, slightly bald, oval face, black eyes, wrinkled forehead. SS-Obersturmführer Seidler, approx. 38-40 years old, above average height - 1.72 m, black hair, bulging eyes, black hair, oval face.
SS-Obersturmführer Hößler, approx. 42-45 years old, average height - 1.71 m, dark blonde hair, blue eyes, long face, wrinkled, large slightly upturned nose, bearded.
After the introductory formalities, I was placed in block 17a. and assigned to the ‘Sola’ Arbeitskommando, which worked on the regulation of the Soła River. I don’t remember the names of the Kommandoführer or Blockführer because I was a newcomer and they changed a lot. Wake up was at 4.00 a.m., then the roll call at 5.00 and the march out to work at 6.00. We worked until 8.00 p.m., with an hour for lunch break. We returned to the camp after a roll call, and the only time we were counted was at the gate. In the winter, the wake-up call was at 5.00 a.m., the roll call at 6.00, and the march out to work at about 6.30. We worked until 4.00 p.m. with a half-hour lunch break. These times varied depending on the commandant and on whether everyone could be counted at the roll call. We worked on regulating the river, doing earthworks, often up to our knees in water, and the conditions were tough. The SS men, kapos and Vorarbeiters, were there and made sure that everyone worked on the double and that nobody could get a moment’s rest. There were a hundred people working in our detail. The daily losses ranged from eight to ten people who died first of all from exhaustion, or because they were beaten. During the four-week period when I was working in the ‘Sola’ detail, there were two incidents when an SS man shot a prisoner. This happened as follows: the area where the detail worked was surrounded by guards, and if a prisoner crossed the line of guards, they shot at him on the pretext that he was trying to escape. In early June 1941, I was eyewitness to an incident where an SS guard ordered a prisoner to cross the line and then shot him on the pretext that he was escaping. The second incident happened later. He was an elderly man, I think he was Colonel Malinowski from the Zamość area, who was feverish and, without realizing it, crossed the line of guards. In mid-June 1941, I was transferred to the Krott—the tree-felling detail—where I worked until the harvest began. At first 100 people worked in the detail, then 200. Stanisław Rozewicz and Stefan Jakubowski, whom I mentioned earlier, worked with me as well as Sgt. Sikorski from Rembertów. The conditions were even worse, with losses ranging from two to eight people a day from exhaustion or ill treatment. There were also incidents of prisoners being shot, which I didn’t see, but I could only infer after returning from work. Once during a roll call, before returning to the camp, I witnessed kapo Krott kill one prisoner by punching him in the head and kicking his stomach—he had a black triangle— he was later released and went with an SS unit to the front. He was nicknamed ‘Monkey’ because he had very big hands and looked like an ape. He was 27 years old, short, stocky, bow-legged, with black hair, black eyes, a dark complexion, thick black hair; he was a German. The black triangle indicated someone who had avoided work or who was a saboteur. In July 1941, I was transferred to the Landwirtschaft detail. We worked on the harvest, and everything there had to be done on the double as well, which exhausted the prisoners and caused deaths almost every day. In early November, I started working in the Abruch detail, and that [lasted] until mid-December 1941, when I came down with typhus. I was then placed in isolation block no. 22, where Czesław Ostankiewicz, an editor, and Col. Dziama – who were the nurses – took care of me. My illness was linked with the arrival of 12,000 Russian prisoners of war who were placed in separate blocks, but even so the typhoid fever that broke out among them quickly spread to the entire camp. [Information] on the losses caused by the typhoid epidemic can be provided by
SS-Hauptscharführer Klehr, approx. 40-44 years old, height approx. 1.74 m, slim face, dark blond hair, with a gloomy, miserable disposition.
SS-Hauptscharführer Palitzsch, approx. 26-28 years, height approx. 1.80 m, blond hair, round face, a very handsome man, with a long, ambling gait.
At the end of February 1942, I left the hospital and was assigned to the Strassenbau Korlin detail, which worked on the construction of the road from Auschwitz I to Auschwitz II. The work was so hard, especially the pace of the work, that a lot of the Russian prisoners of war were worked to death there, along with some Belgian, French and Dutch Jews. I worked there until the end of March 1942. There were incidents of SS men shooting prisoners, but I can’t give any surnames. The following event sticks in my mind: we were working on a Sunday, at the end of February or early March 1942, in such severe cold and wind that the prisoners were freezing on the spot. The roll call lasted until 11.00 p.m., and the corpses were then transported on wagons, which could be loaded with up to 30-40 bodies, until 12.00 midnight. About 3,000 people worked on that day. I only managed to stay alive thanks to the fact that I and a friend were rubbing ourselves to keep warm and running without any coercion, because we could feel that we would freeze otherwise. The SS men stood beside their bonfires and didn’t even bother to supervise the work, because it wasn’t even possible to work.
In March 1942, I was assigned to the installers’ detail, where I worked under engineer Sławomir Lachecki from Mościce and engineer Władysław Plaskura, also from Mościce, both of whom were kapos. Thanks to them, while I was working as a professional under a roof, I started to come back to life. Our SS Kommandoführer was SS-Unterscharführer Schmidt, who treated the prisoners very well, especially the Poles. At the time of my arrival in the camp there were about 12,000 prisoners. In March 1942, despite the high mortality rate, there were already 22,000 prisoners. Minor transports came in daily. The first major transport, with Jewish women from Slovakia, came shortly after Christmas in 1942. The next mass transports began to arrive in June, July, August, September and October 1943. These were Jewish transports from all over Europe—Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Norway, and also from Poland. In June or July 1943, there was also a large Aryan transport from France—about 2,000 people. Later, there were smaller Aryan transports from France with around 200 or 400 people. Some of them went to the camp, while the weaker ones and the cripples were sent to the gas chambers and burnt in crematorium no I, Auschwitz II-Birkenau.
From June to October 1943, three more crematoria in Birkenau were being completed, the second and third of which were finished in October 1943 and the fourth in early 1944. I know that because as part of the installers’ detail I had the opportunity to move between Auschwitz I and II. At the head of the Politische Abteilung stood SS-Untersturmführer Grabner.
SS-Untersturmführer Grabner, approx. 36-38 years old, height approx. 170 cm, dark blond hair, long face—slim, pale complexion.
The Politische Abteilung was located outside the camp, and all the executions were carried out in block 11, which was surrounded by a high fence. Grabner terrorized the entire camp, because he carried out investigations, as a result of which a lot of people were shot in block 11—hundreds of people were killed in this way. Palitzsch directed the executions himself with the help of various SS men. In 1943, I saw dozens of wagons with corpses being carted out from block 11. There were usually up to 80 corpses piled up on the wagons. The block senior—a prisoner in block 11—was Emil Bednarek, who came from Upper Silesia and spoke good Polish but didn’t wear the letter ‘P’.
Blockaltester Emil Bednarek, approx. 36 years old, height approx. 170 cm, black hair combed back, big black eyes, round face, dark complexion.
At the beginning of 1943, in my presence, some public executions by hanging were carried out on two Poles and one Russian for an alleged escape attempt. The execution was carried out on the orders of SS-Obersturmführer Aumeier, assisted by Lageraltester Bruno Brodniewicz, who came from Poznan, the brother of a Polish police officer—I should note that I don’t know that for sure, but I was told so by some of my fellow prisoners. In addition, there were two German executioners present. More or less around October 1943, I was transferred to KZ [Konzentrationslager] Auschwitz II-Birkenau, specifically to camp A—the women’s wing—to service the water pumps. Due to the fact that my job was to connect up the water supply, I was free to move around camps A and B on the south side of the railway tracks and camps C, D, E and F, which were located on the north side of the tracks. The women were in camps A and B. At this point, I should explain that on the south side of the tracks there was the so-called old women’s camp with letters A and B, and on the north side there were camps A through F, where A was the men’s quarantine. B was for transports from Theresienstadt; C, the Hungarians; D, the Poles, Russians, French and Jews; E, the gypsies; and F was the camp hospital. At the end of 1943 and at the beginning of 1944, Hößler was the Lagerführer for the camps on the south side of the tracks, and his deputy was Mandl. Besides these, there were Drexler [Drechsel] and Hasse, and for the men there was Rapportführer Anton [Adolf] Taube. He was around 36 years old, about 1.75 m in height, with blond hair, light-colored eyes, a long, slim face, dark complexion, characterized by a slow gait with bent knees.
SS-Rapportführer Weniger (female), approx. 26 years old, height 1.73 m, dark blond hair, long face, wrinkled skin, slim.
SS-Unterscharführer Schulz approx. 27 years old, height approx. 1.74 m, blond hair light, light-colored eyes, stocky body, round face, clear skin, healthy.
SS-Rottenführer Perschel, approx. 21 years old, height around 1.72 m, blond hair, blue eyes, slim face, slim build, from Silesia (Mała Dąbrowa).
The last Rapportführerin was Brandl: she was about 32 years old, about 1.68 m in height, with dark blond hair, dark eyes, a long face, thin, dark complexion, fierce looking. At this point, I should explain that Taube was the Rapportführer, his name was Anton [Adolf], and he left in 1944 to take the position of Lagerführer at a branch of Birkenau-Bendsburg [Będzin]. After him, the Rapportfuhrer was the Weniger woman.
In the years 1942-1944, I used to see SS-Unterscharführer Moll in the Birkenau camp. He was about 38 years old, 166 cm in height, with dark blond hair, a round, red face, stocky, with a strong physique. He always walked around with a wolf dog. Whenever he saw any female prisoners who were particularly emaciated, he would set his dog on them to jump at them, knock them over and bite them. Initially, the victims would shout, then the screams stopped—when Moll was happy with what he saw, he called the dog off. In my opinion, few of the victims were left alive. I personally saw such scenes quite often, as did my colleague Mieczysław Pronobis, who is ill with a lung condition and is lying in the Königstein clinic. In addition, Kaminski, who was a kapo for the Sonderkommando in crematorium I and II, told me that he saw Moll with his own eyes throw small children and women alive onto the burning pyres—these pyres were located in the crematorium near a grove popularly known as Brzezinka. In the Birkenau camp in branch A, in the area of the camp hospital there was an experimental block, where from the beginning of 1943 to July 1944 Dr. Schumann carried out experiments with the X-ray equipment. Men were brought in there who were sterilized by having their testicles exposed to the rays. I know from Wiktor Mordarski, a prosecutor from Małopolska [Lesser Poland], who was a hospital block senior at the Birkenau D camp, that there were many fatalities among the victims of these experiments. Schumann was a Luftwaffe officer and was shot down over England, then returned to Germany, and although he was in air-force uniform with two stars, he worked on the experiments.
Dr. Schumann was about 36-38 years old, about 170 cm tall, with dark blond hair, a long, intelligent face and pale complexion. He was a professor and it was said he had acquaintances among high-ranking Nazis. More information about him could be provided by Michał Kula who, before his arrest, worked as a mechanic in the Lilpop, Rau and Loewenstein factory in Warsaw.
All the selections, from the end of 1942 until the end of 1944, were conducted by Dr. Mengele and Dr. Thilo in Birkenau. These consisted in selecting sick and weak prisoners to be poisoned in the gas chambers and subsequently burnt in the crematoria. They conducted selections in the women’s A and B camps, in the camps on the northern side of the railway tracks, as well as on the incoming transports, which went straight to the gas chambers. I personally saw them make these selections, especially in 1944.
SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr. Mengele, about 38 years old, very tall—1.80 m in height, slim, with a stoop, with a long, intelligent face, wearing glasses, light blond hair, slightly balding.
SS-Untersturmführer Dr. Thilo, approx. 30 years old, height—1.74 m, black hair, black eyes, round face, pale complexion.
In 1943, there were constant transports from various directions—from Poland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece. These were mostly Jewish transports. They peaked around June 1944 until September 1944. There were days in which five or six transports came in. They were mostly Hungarian, Slovakian and Polish Jews. They went straight to the gas chambers. They were met by SS-Obersturmführer Höß. He was about 46 years old, about 1.75 m tall, stocky, with an oval face and large, bulging eyes, dark blond, balding. He drove a car painted with a skull and crossbones. In my opinion, he was the man in charge of the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II camps, besides Kramer and Dr. Mengele and Dr. Thilo. Aside from him, some other people also met the transports: the head of the Politische Abteilung of the women’s section of Birkenau and of crematoria Nos. I and II SS-Oberscharführer Chrustek [Houstek]. He was about 46 years old, about 170 cm in height, with dark hair, deep set eyes, bearded, slightly bow-legged, [walked] with a stoop, with a reddish beard. He also shared responsibility for sending women to the gas chambers.
SS-Unterscharführer Hoffer, about 35 years old, about 1.75 m tall, with blond hair, a round face, blue eyes, a pale complexion, with red blotches. He worked in the Politische Abteilung, met the transports arriving at the camp and sent prisoners to branches or sections of the camp.
At this point, I should add that Moll, at the end of 1944, became the head of the so-called Mollowic. This was an old brickyard converted into gas chambers and a crematorium, where the prisoners who had worked in the crematoria in Birkenau were burnt. This place was supposed to be near the Birkenau camp. Temporarily, the Lagerführer of Auschwitz I and II – and finally at Majdanek – was Thumann, I know that he was of Ukrainian descent, who had become a permanent resident of Germany from 1938. On 18 December 1944 I was sent by train to Breslau-Liss, and in January 1945 we marched for three days to Groß- Rosen. On the way we encountered a lot of dead prisoners from previous transports. No one from our transport was killed, but we loaded the more emaciated ones onto carts, which we had to pull ourselves because we didn’t have any horses. After 14 days, 4,000 prisoners were loaded onto open wagons and our journey to Buchenwald lasted four days. During the transport, many prisoners died from cold and hunger, since we were only given 500 g of bread. The corpses were left at the stations. After arriving in Buchenwald, we were detained for two days in front of the crematorium. Sleet was falling at the time. Of this transport, only 2,500 prisoners were left alive. I was accompanied by Kraków governor Gnoinski, reserve officer Teodor Schneider, Dr Janusz Jachna, and Sylwester Dobrowolski from Gdynia. I don’t know who the transport leaders were because they were all from Groß-Rosen. On 10 April 1945, we were evacuated from Buchenwald. In Weimar, we were loaded onto a train, which on the 11th [of April] was stopped in the morning because American planes had damaged the locomotive. Then we were unloaded and marched towards the city of Jena. On the night of 11/12 April 1945, about three kilometers from Jena I escaped and on 14 April I was liberated by American troops.
The witness undertakes to provide a sketch of the Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration camp and submit it to the file as an annex to this report.