Eleventh day of trial, 5 December 1947.
President: Please call the next witness, Aleksander Splewiński.
(Witness Aleksander Splewiński appears.)
President: Please give your personal details.
Witness Aleksander Splewiński, 46 years old, musician, a Jew by religion, no relationship to the parties.
President: Pursuant to Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I advise the witness of the obligation to speak the truth. Making false declarations is punishable by imprisonment of up to five years. Do the parties wish to make any representations concerning the procedure of interviewing the witness?
Prosecutors: No, we don’t.
Defense attorneys: No, we don’t.
President: Therefore, the witness will testify without an oath. I would like the witness to declare what you know about the case itself, especially about the activities of the defendants. Did the witness know Buntrock?
Witness: I worked in the orchestra, so we often left the camp premises to go to work, from where we brought bricks, wooden boards or sod to the camp. Once, when we were carrying sod to the camp, we met Buntrock. He came at us and killed one of my friends with the helve of an ax. Having killed him, he declared in German, “Where I struck, the grass won’t grow again”. This prisoner died after only two blows. On the following day he was burned in the crematorium.
President: Are there any questions to the witness?
Prosecutors: No.
Attorney Rappaport: Does the witness know the defendant Dinges, a former chauffeur?
Witness: I don’t recognize the name, but maybe I would recognize the man if I saw him.
(Defendant Dinges raises).
Witness: I don’t know him.
President: Does anyone wish to make any representations?
Defendant Buntrock: Please let me make a declaration. The witness has testified that I killed Lustig from Łódź with a shovel. I declare that as long as I stayed in the camp, I didn’t kill anyone.
President: Is the witness sure that he is not mistaken?
Witness: I am positive that I am not mistaken. What the defendant has said is a lie.
President: Are there any more questions to the witness?
Prosecutors: No.
Defense attorneys: No.
President: The witness may step down.