27 June 1945
PV no. 2/8/45
Regarding: unknown persons (from Germany)
Subject: guilty of ill-treatment of prisoners
Testifying: Hori Elbert, Polish national, born 24 October 1924 in Lentria [?], residing at rue de Birmingham 14 in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean
War crimes
24 August 1945, no. 2791
PRO JUSTITIA
The Main Commissioner for State Security, [Martin] Hinkens.
On 26 June 1945 at 6.00 p.m., I, Martin Hinkens, Main Commissioner for State Security, officer of the judiciary police, assisting the Auditor General, heard our inspector Adelin Verbans, who stated in French:
On this day, 26 June 1945, at 2.00 p.m., I interviewed Hori Elbert, Polish national, born on 24 October 1924 in Lentria [?] (Poland), residing at rue de Birmingham 14 in Molenbeek- Saint-Jean, who testified as follows in French:
On 1 September 1942 I was arrested by Gestapo agents as a Jew on avenue Louise in Brussels. I was immediately taken to the concentration camp at Malines, from where seven days later I was sent to Germany. We made the journey to Cosel [Koźle] in prison cars. After the train stopped at Cosel, we were supposed to leave our luggage inside and come out, “bribing” the SS, who would [otherwise] beat us with bludgeons and kick us.
Already at the station we were separated from men over 45 years of age, and our group of young men was taken to the transit camp at Sakrau [Zakrzów]. After arriving there we were again divided into two groups: one for the Fürstengrube kommando, the other for the Laurahütte kommando, subcamps of Auschwitz.
I was in the latter kommando. Our work consisted in drilling a new coal shaft – hard work during which we were continually abused and beaten; [on top of this] we got almost nothing to eat: 200 g of bread and a liter of soup per day. With regard to hygiene and medical care, we were not entitled to them. There was a doctor and a nurse, but she only took care of the voluntary workers, while the doctor refused us even the tiniest bit of help.
I was subsequently transferred to the Fürstengrube kommando, where the discipline was the same as in Laurahütte. In October 1943, I left for the Grelitz [Gleiwitz?] kommando in Upper Silesia, again a subcamp of Auschwitz. Oberfeldsturmbannführer Linner was the head of all the small Auschwitz kommandos and ruled supreme there. It was he who would sell us to entrepreneurs or mine managers. He treated all the prisoners very badly; he would beat us with a bludgeon and kick us every time he came to the camp. Once a month he would come to carry out a selection consisting in picking out the sick and the weak, or even others, for the gas chambers and the Auschwitz crematorium. Before leaving, the prisoners slated to be gassed had their clothing and shoes taken away from them and in exchange they were given dirty rags. Some even left completely naked.
I spent nine months in this camp. The discipline was very severe. The wake-up call was at 4.00 a.m. At 5.00 a.m. we left the camp to walk to work. The train station was eight kilometers away; then we would travel 80 kilometers in cattle cars to work. We covered this distance in the morning and in the evening. The steelworks were in Reichenbach [Dzierżoniów?] and we had to go there in summer and winter. Along the way, if anyone could hardly drag their feet from exhaustion or was sick and unable to keep walking, they would be finished off by the SS.
The food provided to us there was the same as in the other kommandos I have mentioned. We were very hungry, and when the civilians or Wachmeistern saw us looking for food in the trash bins, they would beat us, but if it was the SS who saw us, then a bullet might frequently put an end to this search for food.
In January 1944 a typhus epidemic broke out in the camp and we were locked in for three months. Given this situation, the camp authorities wanted to send us all to the crematorium, but the management of the steelworks that had bought us filed a protest in Berlin and we remained in the camp, with no medical assistance, until the disease ran its course. I also had typhus. Over 1,100 people of the 1,500 in the camp died. The food rations did not change during the epidemic.
At the beginning of April I was sent to the Faulbrück kommando to build a new camp. We remained there until 5 June. There was no doctor, no hospital, and as a result we had no medical care. With regard to food, it was the same as in Grelitz. On 5 June I returned to the said camp (Grelitz).
On 10 August 1944 I left for the Anabert [?] kommando, where I was treated most harshly. One Lapke, SA [Sturmabteilung], a Pole, beat us all day without a reason; there were others, too, but I don’t remember their names.
On 1 October 1944 we were collected by Linner – we were supposed to be escorted back to Auschwitz. We were told we were going directly to the crematorium. The day before, in the evening, one of the most barbaric scenes had taken place. To punish the whole kommando and in retaliation, two people were hanged and we had to eat soup with our hands underneath the hanged men.
On the tenth [day, counting from] our arrival in Auschwitz we were examined and identified. We [also] had to declare how many gold teeth we had, and we were tattooed. I have the number B-10785. After these formalities there was a selection for gassing and the crematorium.
I left Auschwitz on 1 November for a kommando reporting to Buchenwald.
The report was read out and signed.