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Testimony of: Marion Okrutnik, Inmate No. 39455 at Dachau, formerly of Volaburzecka,

Post Office Adamow, Poland.

Taken at: Dachau, Germany.

Date: 11 May 1945. By: Lt. Col. J. M. Whitaker, IGD,

Asst. Inspector General, Seventh Army.

Interpreter: Anton Zlotorzysnki, Inmate No.

22393, at Dachau.

(IG Note: This witness gave the following account of the shooting of German guards):

400 The day the Americans liberated the camp I was in the stockade in the vicinity of Tower #167. The first Americans that came were two. They were dressed with helmets, the American uniform, much ammunition at their belt, they carried their guns (witness indicates a gun at the ready). There were German guards in the tower. There was a white flag on the tower. I could not tell how many Germans were in the room where the machine gun is kept.

401 These American soldiers came from the corner of the woods. I could not tell exactly from where the Americans came because we were compelled to stay in our block, and then doors were closed, but they came from the direction of the woods. When we saw the American soldiers nobody could keep the doors closed. They were broken open and we ran out. When the soldier got close to the tower they began to shoot. I was not more than five meters from the wire. The Germans did not shoot. When the Americans got to the tower they ordered, "Get out." The Germans came down out of the tower one at a time with their hands over their heads, but one German remained in the tower. The Germans were lined up side by side with their hands up with the canal behind them, generally facing the tower. They were all supposed to be out of the tower but the Americans believe not, and one of the two Americans broke open the door to the tower, which had been closed and made the last German come out. The other soldier was guarding the Germans who had already surrendered. As the one American brought the last German out of the tower they moved over to the line where the other Germans were, and this last German also was lined up with his hands above his head. The American soldier started to search him and as he did the German also jerked his hand toward the place under his left armpit as if he were reaching for a gun. As he did that the American soldier who had brought him from the tower stepped back and the other soldier who had been guarding the soldiers with his gun went "B-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-t!!!", and it was finished.