Eleventh day of the hearing, 5 December 1947
Presiding Judge: I would ask the next witness, Seweryn Prawer, to approach.
(The witness Seweryn Prawer presents himself.)
Presiding Judge: Please provide your personal details.
Witness: Seweryn Prawer, 44 years old, an office worker by profession, religion – Jewish, relationship to the accused – none.
Presiding Judge: I hereby instruct the witness, pursuant to the provisions of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that you are to speak the truth, and that 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: No.
Defense attorneys: No.
Presiding Judge: The witness shall therefore be interviewed without taking an oath. What does the witness know about the case in hand, and in particular about the actions of the accused? When was the witness incarcerated at the camp and under what circumstances did he encounter the accused?
Witness: I was deported to Birkenau in March 1943. For a time, the accused Buntrock was the block orderly there. He was the terror of the entire camp, section C. Some time later he was appointed Rapportführer [reporting officer] of the Czech camp, the so-called family camp. During each roll call Buntrock would beat and kick not only the men, but also the women and children. When he burst into the block and saw any sign of untidiness, he would drag the women from their pallets and roll them around the floor. After six months, all of the Czechs detained in the camp were gassed to death. Buntrock, being the Rapportführer, played a prominent role in the killing. Before they were driven off to the crematorium, the Czechs were sent to separate blocks and kept there for two days. They were visited by the camp commandants and the SS men, who gave sweets and milk to the children; on the evening of the same day they were all sent off to the crematorium.
Presiding Judge: Are there any questions or would anyone want to make a statement?
The accused Buntrock: Your Honor! I would ask for permission to ask the witness when he saw me at roll call beating women and children. And also whether he saw me dragging women by the hair after roll call and rolling them around the block?
Witness: I was in the men’s camp, and Buntrock was a Blockführer [block leader] at the Czech camp, however I was detailed to the Czech camp; I was present at roll call and observed what he was doing.
The accused Buntrock: I would like the witness to be asked at which block these incidents purportedly occurred.
Witness: I do not remember the block. With all certainty, however, the accused Buntrock remembers me. I was a Schreiber [office clerk] at the Bekleidungskammer [clothing storeroom]. If he does not remember me, then with all certainty he remembers my superior, kapo Schlesinger.
The accused Buntrock: Schlesinger was there. The witness could have been in the male section, but not in camp II-B.
Witness: I was allowed to enter the Czech camp.
The accused Buntrock: Even if the witness was allowed to enter the Czech camp, he would have had to have left it for roll call.
Witness: I was the so-called Kommandier [prisoner-in-charge], and I am sure that Buntrock knows what this means.
The accused Buntrock: You sir must have definitely been removed from the camp before roll call, and therefore you could not have seen what I did during roll call.
Witness: As a Kommandier I was numbered off at one camp and added on during roll call in the other camp.
Presiding Judge: Are there any further questions to the witness?
The accused Dinges: Since the witness was an office clerk for Schlesinger, then I am sure that he recollects that I would drive up on a motorcycle and bring in drugs and other articles. I was called the Rottenführer.
Witness: This is correct, he did drive up once on a motorcycle, however I cannot say whether he brought any drugs; rather, it was something different, although I do not know exactly what.
Presiding Judge: The witness may step down.