NORBERT MOSKOWICZ

Eleventh day of the hearing, 5 December 1947

Presiding Judge: Please summon the next witness, Norbert Moskowicz.

Witness Norbert Moskowicz, 25 years old, a driver by occupation, religion – Jewish, relationship to the accused – none.

Presiding Judge: I would like to remind the witness of the obligation to speak the truth. The provision of false testimony is punishable by a term of imprisonment of up to five years. Does the Prosecutor’s Office or the defense counsel have any motions as to the procedure according to which the witness is to be interviewed?

Prosecutors: We release the witness from the obligation to take an oath.

Defense attorneys: As do we.

Presiding Judge: The witness shall therefore be interviewed without taking an oath. May the witness please present the circumstances in which he encountered the accused, and what specific facts he associates therewith.

Witness: As regards the transport of children who were exterminated in Auschwitz, I can repeat what I heard from my colleagues who worked in the Sonderkommando [special squad]. These children were gassed to death. They were the victims of a test gassing carried out in the first crematorium in Birkenau.

After spending three weeks in quarantine, I was assigned to the Krematoriumbau [crematorium construction squad], and that was where I first encountered Grabner, who personally made sure that the crematorium was built as speedily as possible. One time, a companion of mine was lugging a fifty-kilo sack of cement, but the weight was too much for him, and Grabner turned to my kapo with the words: “Finish off that dog”. The kapo then broke off the handle of a shovel and used it – together with his feet – to beat the prisoner so severely that he indeed died. This was carried out on Grabner’s instruction.

Thereafter I was transferred from the crematorium to the “Kanada” barracks. There I met Grabner again. Being the head of the political department, he himself gave Moll the documents of people who were to be gassed. Grabner was present at the arrival of nearly every transport.

Once, the camp received a transport from Belgium, or possibly from France – I no longer remember exactly from where, and an SS man who had never been to Auschwitz asked an SS man from the camp – pointing to the crematorium – what was it with the fire coming out of the chimney. His SS colleague responded: “People are being burned here”. Whereupon the other SS man unholstered his pistol, said: “I do not want to set my hand to this”, and shot himself. Grabner himself witnessed this. He ordered that the man be covered with a blanket and thrown into a Red Cross vehicle that was carrying cans of Zyklon B.

Usually, Grabner would himself inspect the people going to the gas chamber. He walked with them until the very crematorium, turning back only when they were down in the bunker.

Presiding Judge: What can the witness say about Lorenz?

Witness: I encountered Lorenz at the so-called Kartoffelbunker [potato bunker]. He would drive up in a truck to get potatoes. It was very muddy there and the vehicle kept getting bogged down, especially as it was raining continuously. The accused Lorenz would then order the prisoners to push the truck. Obviously their assistance was ineffective, for the vehicle weighed five tons. The accused Lorenz would then hit them over their heads with a pitchfork. He would torment women in the same way.

Defense attorney Rappaport: Did you know Dinges? The driver.

Witness: I do not remember anyone by this surname.

Presiding Judge: The accused Dinges, please arise. (The accused Dinges arises.)

Did the witness encounter the accused Dinges?

Witness: No.