Auschwitz Trial at Frankfurt Hears Details of Sadistic Murders by Ss Men

Detailed descriptions of “atrocious, sadistic” murders committed by several of the defendants in the current trial of 22 men who served the Nazis in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death factory, were given to the court here today as the long trial, begun last December, continued. Most of the defendants, all but one of whom were officers in the SS, were identified by today’s witness, Irwin Olsvowka. As he entered the court room, he greeted most of them by name. When he came to one of them, Franz Hoffmann, he used the latter’s SS title, “Herr Obersturmfuehrer.”

Olsvowka, a Pole, said he had been at Auschwitz from April 1940, until the camp was abandoned by the Nazis, in the face of the oncoming Russian Army, in 1945. He implicated not only Hoffman but also Wilhelm Boger, Oswald Kaduk and Klaus Dylewski.

He told the court about the death march, in which the Nazis evacuated the Auschwitz prisoners. “They murdered with special sadism,” he said. “With my own eyes, I saw how Boger, who seemed tired, still seemed to get very real pleasure from killing people. At the start of the march, there were 1,000 to 1,500 inmates in my group. After three days, the number was far smaller. Prisoners who stood still a moment, because they were unable to keep walking, were shot down at once. There was a trail of corpses along the entire road. The SS men had it easy. Most of the time, they rode in trucks.”

The man charged Boger and Kaduk with “going wild” when some Polish prisoners, about to die, showed hatred for the Nazis. “Boger even mistreated those who were already hanging,” he declared. He accused Dylewski of giving him 25 blows with a bull whip at one time because he had accepted some food from newly arrived prisoners.