Tenth day of the hearing, 4 December 1947
Presiding Judge: Please summon the next witness, Konstanty Misztal.
Witness Konstanty Misztal, 27 years old, a toolmaker and mechanic by occupation, religion – Roman Catholic, relationship to the accused – none.
Presiding Judge: I would like to remind the witness of the obligation to speak the truth. The provision of false testimony is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years. Do the parties want to submit any motions as to the procedure according to which the witness is to be interviewed?
Prosecutors and defense attorneys: We release the witness from the obligation to take an oath.
Presiding Judge: The witness shall be interviewed without taking an oath. I would ask the witness to provide some specific facts of prisoners being tormented or beaten. That is of the witness or other prisoners being so treated by the accused who are present here today.
Witness: I am the sole survivor from my kommando, the so-called Leichenträger [body carriers]. I know Aumeier, Grabner and Müller. I know them all from block 11.
Presiding Judge: What can the witness say as regards the accused Müller?
Witness: The kommando in which I worked was continuously called to the executions taking place in block 11. There were eight of us. I was an eyewitness when Müller executed people in block 11.
Presiding Judge: Müller?
Witness: Yes. The victims included not only men, but also women and children.
Presiding Judge: Did the witness see one such incident?
Witness: This occurred frequently. Müller’s teacher was Palitzsch.
Presiding Judge: How many people could Müller have killed on his own, since the witness says that he saw him do so frequently?
Witness: From what I saw myself, it could have been some 200 people. Women and children too. Once I witnessed a transport of civilians being led up, and it was immediately sent to block 11. The women were stripped naked and stood against the wall. They held the children by their hands and were executed along with them at the wall of death. All this happened very quickly.
I once fell into the ditch that ran through the middle of the block, into which the blood dripped. Aumeier then jumped up to me and kicked me terribly.
There was also another incident at block 11. There was a Russian with us who after returning from work would sing Russian songs in the camp, and thus earn himself a second portion of bread. Aumeier selected him for one of the transports. The Russian ran away, but when he was caught Aumeier had him locked up in the bunker; he did not return. On another occasion, when I was summoned to an execution in order to carry out the bodies, the said Mikołaj was led out. He would not allow the Germans to lead him to the “wall of death”, and he even got into a scuffle with them. When Müller started shooting at him, Mikołaj grabbed his rifle and there was a real tussle. One of the SS men jumped up – I do not know which one – and hit Mikołaj with a well-trained blow from his elbow, causing him to crumple to the ground. Aumeier then leaped towards him and, grabbing a spade that was propped up nearby (it was used to cover the blood with sand), started pounding Mikołaj on the head and finished him off. Later, a few shots were also fired at him.
Presiding Judge: I would request the witness to provide specific information about prisoners being tormented.
Witness: People would be beaten and tortured at the political department, but I did not see any of this as our only task was fetching the bodies.
Presiding Judge: And how many bodies would you collect from the political department?
Witness: We went there once or twice a week.
Presiding Judge: But approximately how many?
Witness: We would always go there to fetch one.
I once saw an elderly man – he was a Gypsy, and aged well over a hundred – being shot in block 11 and thrown onto the pile of corpses. But the escorts who were present at the execution walked up and noticed that he was still alive. Boger and Aumeier were also present, and the latter shouted: “ Aufstehen! ” [get up] Since the man had been shot through the head, he could only support himself to sit. They asked him some questions, but blood was pouring out of his mouth and he gave no reply. A few shots were fired at him, whereafter they brought a mirror up to his mouth, took some wire from block 11, and started ripping out his heart, in response to which the man died.
Presiding Judge: Did the witness observe any other facts?
Witness: More recently, in 1944, there was a great shooting. The victims were mainly representatives of the Polish intelligentsia.
Presiding Judge: Maybe Dubois was there?
Witness: There were people there who had university degrees, Müller shot at them. This was in the spring of 1944.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: For how long did you work in the Leichenkommando?
Witness: For a year.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Was the witness summoned to block 11 throughout this time?
Witness: All the time. And of who went there with me only a few have survived, however I have not met up with them lately.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Did people have their sentences read out there?
Witness: Aumeier would enter the bunker, call people out, and then order them to undress and go to the Waschraum [washroom].
Prosecutor Szewczyk: This indicates that Aumeier was in charge of the procedure. And was Grabner also present?
Witness: Grabner was also present at the execution, and he too walked down into the bunker. Grabner summoned all eight of us together with the wagoner and said, “If you tell anyone in the camp what goes on around here, you will meet the same fate as the others”.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: How many victims would be killed during an execution?
Witness: The most in 1942. In the autumn, on 28 October, there was a large execution [of people] from the Lublin region.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: What would be the death toll of an average execution?
Witness: 30–40, but there were also individual shootings.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Did executions of children occur frequently?
Witness: No, not frequently.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: What age were the executed children?
Witness: They would shoot children between two and eleven years of age, infants.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: A two-year-old child is not an infant. Was Aumeier present at these killings?
Witness: He was always there, for he was the Lagerführer [camp leader].
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Was Aumeier present at the shootings of children?
Witness: Yes, I saw him and I witnessed the execution.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Was the witness present at an execution by the lethal injection of phenol?
Witness: Yes. Such executions took place in block 21.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Were children also killed using fatal injections?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Where were these children from?
Witness: They were from the Zamość region.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: How many were there?
Witness: I cannot say exactly, around a hundred.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: The number of 120 has been mentioned.
Witness: Yes, that was their number, more or less.
Prosecutor Szewczyk: Who committed the murders? Klehr, or others as well?
Witness: Klehr himself committed the murders.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Does the witness remember Gehring? If yes, then in connection with what events?
Witness: I saw him during the hanging executions, which were carried out at block 11 in the evening of some day.
Prosecutor Pęchalski: Who was hanged there – a man or a woman? Did the witness see only one such incident?
Witness: A man was hanged. And I saw this only once.
Defense attorney Kruh: Did the witness go to block 11 after an execution, or before it took place, while working as a nurse?
Witness: I would walk up to block 11 before an execution and be present throughout its course.
Defense attorney Kruh: How was it that the witness would be present at an execution?
Witness: During an execution the dead would be moved away from the “wall of death” to the side, and from there the bodies would be taken to the crematorium. Two people would be ordered to walk up to the wall; they would be shot dead and their bodies moved to the side, whereupon the next two victims would walk up. Thus, we had to be present throughout the entire execution.
Defense attorney Kruh: Did the accused Müller himself perform the executions, or were they conducted by the camp authorities?
Witness: Müller shot at the victims himself, but representatives of the camp authorities would stand nearby.
Judge Zembaty: Were executions also conducted at the “wall of death” when Liebehenschel was in charge?
Witness: This I do not remember.
Presiding Judge: The accused Müller may now provide testimony.
The accused Müller: Your Honor, I request permission to give testimony in the case at hand. While I served at block 11, I was never authorized to conduct executions on my own. I was not allowed to drag a prisoner out of the bunker and, without any basis, simply execute him. It must be kept in mind that when such a prisoner was being executed, the camp commandant or [someone from] the political department might walk up – and the inmates were placed in the bunker at their disposal. Only the political department could remove a prisoner from the bunker to have him shot. Throughout my period of service at block 11, my superior was Oberscharführer Gehring. I myself only watched the executions, and this can be confirmed by Gehring, Grabner, Aumeier. I did not shoot any prisoner in block 11 while serving there as a Blockführer [block leader].
Presiding Judge: Does the witness maintain his testimony?
Witness: Yes. I would also like to add that I recall Palitzsch teaching the accused Müller how to shoot, showing him how to use a weapon and at which point to aim.
The accused Müller: Palitzsch and Stivitz [Stiewitz?] did the shooting.
Witness: I myself was present when the accused Müller fired his weapon.
The accused Müller: I did not shoot anybody, I only stood in the corridor.
Presiding Judge: The accused Aumeier may provide testimony.
The accused Aumeier: Esteemed Tribunal, I request permission to put questions to the witness. I ask the witness – you said, sir, that I was in the bunker and carried out executions. Did the witness see me myself in the cells, looking for prisoners to shoot?
Witness: Yes, I did.
The accused Aumeier: How could the witness have seen me in a cell?
Witness: I did not see the accused Aumeier, but I heard his voice while I was standing in the courtyard – it is so characteristic that I would recognize it anywhere.
The accused Aumeier: So the witness did not see me?
Witness: I did not, but I heard the accused reading out the surnames of prisoners.
The accused Aumeier: The fact that I was reading out surnames cannot be interpreted as proof of the fact that these people were going to their deaths.
Witness: I know that after their names were read out they were led up to the wall, for I had a good few friends amongst them, whom I never saw afterwards.
The accused Aumeier: This does not, however, prove that these people were shot in such a manner, without any sentence being passed.
Presiding Judge: I have a question to the accused. How did matters look with the children?
The accused Aumeier: I knew that a large number of children were shot.
Presiding Judge: Was a sentence passed against these children?
The accused Aumeier: Presumably.
Presiding Judge: Are there any further questions to the witness?
Prosecutors: No.
Defense attorneys: No.
Presiding Judge: The witness may therefore step down, and I order a recess until 4.00 p.m.