KAZIMIERZ SZELEST

On 19 June 1947 in Kraków, Municipal Judge Dr. Henryk Gawacki, acting deputy prosecutor of the District Court in Kraków, with the participation of a reporter, Aniela Bereźnicka, a senior reporter of the Prosecutor’s Office of the District Court in Kraków, and pursuant to Article 20 of the provisions introducing the Code of Criminal Procedure, in connection with Article 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Kazimierz Szelest
Date and place of birth 25 March 1917 in Kraków
Parents’ names Jan and Wanda, née Piątek
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation unemployed
Place of residence Kraków, Pawła Popiela Street 6, flat 10
Relationship to the parties none
Criminal record none

From August 1940 to 18 or 20 January 1945 I was a prisoner in the Auschwitz camp, and if my memory serves me right as to the dates, from June 1942 to the end of my stay in the camp I was employed in the prisoners’ kitchen or else in the storeroom of that kitchen where I was tasked with chopping meat. This kitchen was located by the main gate of camp no. 1, and its window looked out to the said gate. Through this window, I could see very well all the people who were coming in and out of the camp. Since I was incarcerated in the camp for so long a time, I knew all the details, even those pertaining to particular members of the camp personnel, as seeing them almost every day, I knew where each of them worked and what tasks he performed. Therefore, I am able to provide the following information with regard to some former personnel members whose photographs were presented to me today:

I recognize suspect Kurt Müller beyond doubt as a Blockführer, among others a Blockführer of block no. 11. I very often saw suspect Kurt Müller beat prisoners during roll calls, and when the work brigades were coming back from the site of their work to the camp, I saw him conduct searches in front of the Blockführerstube [camp manager’s office] and rob prisoners of food or alcohol which they had brought with them; during these searches he used to beat prisoners with his hands or a stick in the face or blindly all over the body and kick them. Sometimes Müller was accompanied by a dog held on a leash, and I saw him most often with the dog in the period when he served as Blockführer of block no. 11. I didn’t see suspect Kurt Müller sic the dog on the prisoners. I myself suffered no harm at the hands of Kurt Müller.

The report was concluded, read out and signed.