JERZY BIELECKI

On 11 August 1947 in Kraków, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Appellate Investigative Judge Jan Sehn, acting upon written request of First Prosecutor from the Supreme National Tribunal, this dated 25 April 1947 (file no. NTN 719/47) and in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293) in connection with Article 254, 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the former inmate of the Auschwitz concentration camp, named below, as a witness, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Jerzy Bielecki
Age 26 years old
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Occupation machine technician
Place of residence Kraków, Stachowicza Street 15, flat 8

I was incarcerated in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 14 June 1940 to 21 July 1944 as Polish political prisoner no. 243.

I was deported to Auschwitz in the first transport from Tarnów. The first Schutzhaftlagerführer [head of the camp] whom I encountered in Auschwitz [was] Hauptsturmführer Fritzsch. He was very harsh and brutal towards the prisoners.

In the summer of 1942, he was succeeded by Hauptsturmführer Aumeier. At the time, other prisoners and I knew him by his name, and presently I recognize him beyond any doubt in the photograph presented to me (presented). In terms of brutality and harassment of prisoners, he surpassed his predecessor, Fritzsch, to such a degree that the period of his rule in Auschwitz was much more worse and harder for the prisoners than under Fritzsch. Aumeier personally beat and maltreated prisoners; he would kick us for no reason at all or on the slightest pretence. When the kommandos were back from work, he took part in searches at the gate, and if he found some “organized” products on the prisoner, he would irrevocably place him in the bunker. He would also say to the SS men standing next to him, “ Im Bunker mit dem Hund ” [send the dog to the bunker]. The SS men would escort the people thus caught by Aumeier to the bunker, where the prisoners would most often perish – either starved to death or executed, I suppose. If vodka was discovered on some prisoner, Aumeier always had him executed.

It was Aumeier who introduced and organized the so-called standing bunker (Stehzelle) in Auschwitz. During his time, twenty-something prisoners were crammed into one of the underground cells of block 11, and these people suffocated there – they died due to lack of air. Aumeier would constantly hurl abuse at Polish prisoners, calling them such names as a Polish swine or shithead (“ polnisches Schwein”, “ Dreckpole”).

Aumeier held the post of the first Schutzhaftlagerführer in Auschwitz for over a year. He was replaced with Schwarz, and then the camp conditions improved.

The report was read out. At this the hearing and the report were concluded.