Leichenhalle - memories

The mortuary book was kept by kapo Ryszler and officially I did not have any access to it. I don’t know an exact time when he entered the numbers of dead prisoners to the book. I think it was before noon, when we went for food for a hospital kitchen.  (…) A few days after I started working in Leichenträger kommando, dr Stanisław Kłodziński asked me to secretly reproduce its fragments. He told me that the book should have been in the room of kapo Ryszler (at Leichenhalle) in a table compartment or under a bed.

One day, after an evening assembly, during “Blocksperre” [time when leaving barracks by prisoners was prohibited], (…) before a car arrived for corpses, it could have been around 10 p.m., I began searching. My colleagues from Leichenkommando went to rest. No one was allowed to walk in Block 28, except for Leichenkommando. My colleagues encouraged me to go with them and take some rest but pretending that I wanted to read a book, I went to the room of kapo Ryszler. (…) Finally, I found the mortuary book in a compartment beside the bed. The book was hidden under a movable, wooden bolster. Next day, I informed Kołodziński about that. During the next days, during Blocksperre, I went to Leichenhalle 4 or 5 times and copied fragments of the book. I wrote them on a single piece of paper and brought them later (…) to Kłodziński in Block 20.

Leichenhalle was a typical notebook and consisted of pieces of lined and graph paper bound together, whereas the pieces of lined paper prevailed. (…) Making entries, I included dates, respective numbers of items and of dead prisoners, (…) Sometimes, diseases were given. However, I did not record the causes of death as I did not know exactly what was going on. Dr Kłodziński explained to me that false causes of death were ascribed to prisoners shot against the Death Wall. (…) Kapo Ryszler recorded the numbers of only those prisoners whose corpses were handled by Leichenhalle. (…)                                  

After some time, Kłodziński said that further reproduction of the mortuary book would take too long and when it would be better if I take the whole book from Block 28 and pass it to him. (…) I took the mortuary book before a morning assembly, hiding the book under my shirt. I don’t know how it was moved the camp.

Stefan Markowski (no. 64914)

It was my idea to send the registers kept by prisoners in the mortuary from KL Auschwitz. The list included annotations beside some numbers concerning, for example, phenol injections. I got these registers with the help of Stefan Markowski who initially was a person on duty in my room (room no. 3 in Block 20) and whom I helped to get in Leichenträger kommando. On my request he provided me with these registers which were smuggled from KL Auschwitz by Józef Róg, who had them attached to his shank.

Stanisław Kłodziński (no. 20019)        

Shortly before an evening assembly, I heard some noises coming from the outside, like heavy objects falling on boards. I asked what was going on. My deputy told me to look through the window. I will never forget what I saw… Corpses were being loaded on a truck. There was a pile of corpses of about 250 people. Two Leichenträgers grabbed them by legs and arms and threw them on a carriage. The third Leichenträger was putting them in a manner to put as many corpses as possible. The sound of falling corpses was so loud that attracted attention of SS officers walking outside the camp. Later, I saw this every next day and I got used to it, as well as to transporting the corpses of my colleagues by a huge truck or carriage. I couldn’t have got rid of my first impression.

Czesław Jaworski (no. 31070)