STANISŁAW GOLJAN

On 29 October 1947 in Lublin, Mieczysław Nowakowski, Deputy Prosecutor from the Court of Appeal in Lublin and a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, pursuant to Article 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, heard the person named below as a witness, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Stanisław Goljan
Age 28 years old
Occupation farmer
Religious affiliation Roman Catholic
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none
Place of residence Dziesiąta village, Zemborzyce commune, Lublin district, post office in Głusk

In the autumn of 1941, I began to work as a cart driver in the Majdanek camp in Lublin. At the time, Muhsfeldt already served as the head of the crematorium in Majdanek. The camp was just being organized. The so-called field I was just being prepared, and there were but a few barracks. At the same time, the first crematorium was also under construction; when Majdanek was expanded, this crematorium was torn down and a new, larger one was built in its place. Until the crematorium was erected, the murdered prisoners were buried in pits located outside the camp wires. Among others, I was used to cart the corpses. I had come across Muhsfeldt some time earlier, before I started to work in Majdanek on a permanent basis. Since I lived in the vicinity of Majdanek, one day in 1941 Muhsfeldt came to me and ordered me to report with my cart for work in Majdanek.

I had to go there as requested and when I arrived in Majdanek, they began to throw the bodies of the murdered people onto my cart, and I had to take them to the pit. Muhsfeldt’s deputy, who carted the corpses with me, forced me to throw these bodies off the cart. I didn’t want to do it, and then the deputy beat me with a whip. I don’t know that man’s surname. Muhsfeldt, who witnessed the scene, told his deputy that he might refrain from using me to do this, as it was enough that I carted the corpses. He said that others could be employed to throw the bodies into the pits. For some time I was regularly summoned to cart the corpses, and later, I was employed in a construction company that was building the barracks in Majdanek.

Since I worked in Majdanek for a longer period, from time to time I had the opportunity to watch the activities of Muhsfeldt, who was notorious for his cruelty towards the prisoners. One day in 1943 I saw Muhsfeldt beating some prisoner with his hands. When this prisoner fell to the ground as a result of the blows received, Muhsfeldt took a shovel handle and stuck it in the prisoner’s throat, and then left him lying with the handle in his throat until the prisoner died in great torment. The prisoners were beaten on a daily basis, and Muhsfeldt and other Germans did it for exercise.

In the late autumn of 1941, I witnessed the following event: a group of sick prisoners numbering 12 persons were loaded onto a truck and driven in the direction of the pits in which the murdered people were buried. When they reached their destination, the sick were ordered to descend into the pits. The sick protested, and then the platform of the truck was raised so that the sick slid into the pit. But they clung to the sides, so Muhsfeldt beat them on the hands, and once they landed in the pit, he shot them with his pistol. Those prisoners who were not killed right away were finished off by Muhsfeldt, who then ordered another group of prisoners who were brought there on purpose to fill in the pits.

Apart from the incidents which I have just recounted and which I witnessed myself, I would like to describe one more: in 1943, Muhsfeldt came to my house and gave me five minutes to get the cart ready. At that time, my brother Longin, who was leaving the flat, was stopped by Muhsfeldt. Muhsfeldt grabbed my brother by the throat and began to strangle him, at the same time nailing him to the fence with his knee. If it hadn’t been for my begging, my brother would have been strangled. My brother currently stays with the army in Biała Podlaska, Field Post Office no. 1325B.

I have just remembered that probably in 1943, Muhsfeldt beat Stanisław Znój (Commander of the Voivodeship Citizens’ Militia Station in Lublin) unconscious only because he laughed or smiled from across the wires at one of the cart drivers and Muhsfeldt noticed that.

Michał Radziwił, currently residing in Kraków, stayed in Majdanek and will be able to testify about the criminal activities of Muhsfeldt.

In the photograph presented to me (the witness was shown the photograph of Muhsfeldt) I recognize Muhsfeldt, head of the Majdanek crematorium.

Muhsfeldt always carried a riding crop with him. Before the Germans fled, he had left Lublin and was sent to Auschwitz. I know this from the prisoners who returned from that camp. I don’t remember the surnames of people who told me about it.

I have nothing more to add. The report was read out.