MAREK MONTAG

On 26 August 1947 in Katowice, the Katowice District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, represented by the Deputy Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal, L. Penner, with the participation of reporter Władysław Giemza, pursuant to art. 20 of the provisions enacting the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Marek Montag
Age 37
Parents’ names Jutka and Margula
Place of residence Katowice, Wandy Street 15
Occupation merchant
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

I was at the Birkenau concentration camp between August 1942 and 26 October 1944. Then, together with a few-thousand-strong group of prisoners, I was transported to Oranienburg, and then to Sachsenhausen. From my time at Birkenau, I very clearly remember Fritz Wilhelm Buntrock, who on 20 July 1944 was promoted to the rank of SS-Unterscharführer, and whose likeness is displayed in the window of the building of the Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners.

I met said Fritz Wilhelm Buntrock, back then still an SS-Rottenführer, in 1943, in the so-called section D at Birkenau, where I was staying. At that time, he had the function of a Blockführer. Let me decisively state that Fritz Wilhelm Buntrock, whilst discharging his duties of the Blockführer in section D at Birkenau, displayed particular heinousness. For the slightest misdemeanors, he beat prisoners ruthlessly with his hands and his cane on various body parts; he also kicked them and forced them to the so-called exercising (squats, jumping in squatted position with arms folded behind the head). He would also throw people in a pool filled with water, even during wintertime. These tortures were perpetrated for finding “rustled up” food or a cigarette on the prisoner, or for the so-called uncleanliness or disorder in the block. Once, in 1944, for finding a nose rag on me, he beat me on the head with a cane, cutting my epidermis. As a result of this beating, I wore staples that the doctor put on me. Buntrock also participated in selections. On 20 July 1944, on the day of Hitler’s name-day, he received promotion to the rank of Unterscharführer for his distinguished service in the camp, and was then transferred in the capacity of a Rapportführer [report leader] to the women’s section, section B at Birkenau. There, he treated female prisoners with even greater ruthlessness. This last statement can be corroborated by N. Prawer, resident of Katowice, Lisieckiego Street, who was involved with section B, since he worked as an accountant at the so-called Bekleidungskammer [clothing storeroom].

The report was read out before it was signed.