BOLESŁAW LERCZAK

Seventh day of the hearing, 1 December 1947

Presiding Judge: Next witness, Bolesław Lerczak.

(Witness Bolesław Lerczak appears.)

Presiding Judge: Please state your personal details.

Witness Bolesław Lerczak, 33 years of age, barber, Roman Catholic, no relationship to the parties.

Presiding Judge: I am advising the witness in accordance with art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the obligation to speak the truth. Making false declarations is punishable by conviction with a maximum penalty of 5-year imprisonment. Do the parties wish to file motions as regards the procedure of interviewing the witness?

Prosecution: No.

Defense: No.

Presiding Judge: The witness will not be sworn in. Please tell us what you know concerning the case, and in particular as regards the defendants present in the room.

Witness: I arrived at the Auschwitz camp on 13 February 1943. The conditions at the camp were much better then. Our entire transport was placed in block 2a, where for fourteen days we lay with our faces down during the day and on our backs at night, lit with blinding lights. From there, we would be taken to the political department for interrogation. I was summoned on the tenth day. During my first time with the political department, I was put on the so-called swing. I was cuffed, they put a metal rod between my legs and I was placed between two tables. And there, hanging with my head down, I was interrogated. For each answer in the negative I was dealt 25 blows, from two SS men: one was using a bullwhip, and the other an oak stick. At that time, the political department was headed by Grabner. He took no active part, but he came in twice during my interrogation. All prisoners brought there had to face the wall, so they could not see much. We had to sing Polish songs, and they mostly demanded Polish carols because it was the Christmas period. Prisoners sang in the corridors while their comrades were being beaten in the rooms. During the first interrogation I received 65 blows. The next day I was given 25 blows for not stating some name for the protocol. That was on the stool and was the first time I passed out. I only counted to seven, they waited until I came to, and started to beat me anew. I had to be carried for further interrogations to the political department because I could not walk. Then, as some prisoners have claimed, so-called kalifaktors, the entire political department assembled, that is 12 persons, and, according to what other prisoners have said, they handed out 300 blows to me. When I came to, they poured water into my nose and then I passed out. When I regained consciousness the tortures began again. A third SS man was called in, who was of Ukrainian descent, and he pushed my shoulder so I would keep revolving, because I was on a swing. The impact of the blow I got then was double. When I begged the butchers to shoot me, cursing the day I was born, they told me that I could rest assured that I would die, but that I would go in a sadistic way, because you did not go lightly there. When I was moved to block 2a, I could not walk or even get dressed because the tendons in my arms were torn. The comrades who tended to me started to abandon me after two days because they could smell my body, parts of which, decaying, were coming apart. The camp doctor came, put some makeshift dressing on me, spoke to the SS man on duty, and ordered that I be moved to the hospital. When I came to the hospital, I had a first surgery, and then I was moved from block 28 to block 21, where I went into a second surgery, performed by Dr. Grabczyński. From block 21, I was moved to block 19, for recovering patients. One day, all sick prisoners were ordered out of the block. We were given sickness cards and we had to stand before the camp doctor. I thought that because I was unfit for work and because there was no incriminating evidence against me I would be released, since the camp doctor took my card. But that was just an illusion. Next day, the sick were dressed and taken downstairs. As I later learned, this was a selection for gassing. Some 120 patients from the hospital were taken away, myself included. I survived thanks to Franciszek Jasiński and another orderly from Chorzów, who, instead of taking me to the van, managed to bluff my way out of the camp office and brought me back my sickness card that the SS man had taken away from me.

Obviously, I was not the only one to be tortured at the political department. Other prisoners were tortured as well and never returned. The severity of the beating is best illustrated by the fact that when I was interrogated for the third time, the SS men had to get a new bullwhip because the old one had frayed and the blows were too weak. The situation for women was worse. They received the same punishment as I did and they were also put on a swing. They took no notice of the fact that their skirts dropped around their faces; they told them to remove their underwear and beat them naked.

When I was at block 2a a general bathing at the bathhouse was ordered. Since I was heavily beaten and could not walk, I could not bathe, and one man on the bathhouse staff, also a prisoner, concealed me. Then I saw another prisoner, who had also been beaten but wanted to wash himself, step into the shower which was so hot that he fell down, and one SS man called him, smacked him in the face, the prisoner went down again, and was beaten two more times as well. I later inquired who this SS man was and I was told he was Grabner.

This is all concerning Grabner as head of the political department.

As regards Aumeier, when I was at block 19, I saw him personally beat people if for some reason prisoners were late for a roll call. When such a prisoner was passing by the Rapportführer’s box, Aumeier beat him and kicked him. If I am not mistaken, this was in 1943. There was a hanging of 12 prisoners. Aumeier was present at this execution and he was one of the first to kick the stools from under the prisoners’ feet. These people, who were being hanged in connection with an escape attempt, went through hell because the noose was too short to put it on quickly, so other prisoners had to lift the convict and pull the noose by force. This sort of death was torture if you put yourself in the place of a convict awaiting his execution. Watching this execution, many of my comrades fainted.

As regards Liebehenschel, I had little contact with him. I know it was said that the conditions at the camp improved after his arrival. I saw myself a selection for gassing at block 2. Those selected were – in the camp slang – "Muslims", that is people unfit for work. This selection was carried out among the prisoners rounded up from the entire camp. For the whole night these people were kept at the block and the next day were supposed to be gassed. Then Liebehenschel came. I do not know what he told them, but in any case, these people were not gassed and returned to their block. Gassings under Liebehenschel continued, but not following selections; rather, prisoners from transports were taken directly to the gas chambers. I suspect that relaxing this policy at the camp was not so much to Liebehenschel’s credit as the result of a change in the Reich’s central policy, which was beginning to fall apart. Maybe he also wanted to show that conditions had improved with Grabner’s and Aumeier’s departure.

I do not recognize any other defendants.

Presiding Judge: Are there any questions for the witness in connection with his statement?

Prosecution: No.

Defense: No.

Presiding Judge: The witness is excused.