On 15 November 1946 in Gliwice, the investigative judge for the District Court in Gliwice, Judge Zygmunt Świtalski, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Władysław Kluczny |
| Age | 44 |
| Parents’ names | Antoni, Anna |
| Place of residence | Sośnica, Sztygarska Street 5 |
| Occupation | machinery foreman in the “Sośnica” mine |
| Religious affiliation | Roman-Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I stayed in the “death block” (no. 11) in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 3 March to 24 March 1942, and then I was moved to a regular block. During my stay in block 11, I was interrogated twice a week in the Political Department, that is on Tuesdays and Fridays, where I was beaten with a rubber baton finished with lead in order to force a confession out of me. There were two Gestapo men assigned to the beating, whose names I do not know.
I was released from the Auschwitz camp in September 1944. I cannot say anything about Höß’s activities specifically, but when it comes to SS men, the Blockführer Kowal repeatedly kicked prisoners with full force, and I still wear marks of these attacks on both my legs up to this day.
Regarding Palitsch [Palitzsch], I always saw him with a rifle in block 11, and once I saw him shoot dead a prisoner whose surname I don’t know. It happened in the summer of 1943. Apart from that, it was commonly known that Palitzsch was responsible for shooting the prisoners. I also know of an incident from 1943: while in the lavatory, I saw dead corpses lying on the square and Palitzsch standing next to them with a rifle. I’d heard from the inmates that within the Political Department, Lachmann was the one who decided about life and death, and wiped out many of the prisoners himself.
During my stay in block 11, every day around 20 people were executed. I know of this because I was ordered to cover the bloodyj ground with sand.
When I was working for a longer period in the blacksmith workshop, situated next to Crematory I, for many days I witnessed how masses of Jews (adults and children) were chased to the crematories, how little children were walking to their deaths holding on to their parents’ clothes.
In 1943 I saw 12 or 13 prisoners from the Construction Office being tied up by a prisoner named Jakub, and then hanged.
Generally, the camp in Auschwitz was horrifying and the people were treated in a terrible way, but I am not able to name the SS men who committed these atrocities. I am concluding my testimony hereby.
The report was read out.