Polish Research Institute at Lund University, Sweden

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1 Place and date of the protocol: Malmo, December 6, 1945 Protocol no.: 27 Witness' family & given names: XXXXXXXXXX Places of internment Born on 1888 Period from / to Placed in: Prisoner data (triangle, number, letter) Birthplace: Profession: Cisk, county Ostrołęka, voivodeship Warsaw, Russian partition of Poland housewife November 12, 1943/ February 2, 1944 RAVENSBRÜCK Nationality: Polish February 7, 1944/Easter 1944 MAJDANEK Citizenship: Polish Red triangle with P Religion: Roman Catholic Easter 1944/August 1944 AUSCHWITZ Red triangle with P Parents names (F/M): Marianna / Wincenty Number Last domicile in Poland: Cisk, Ostrołęka, Poland August 1944/ April 1945 RAVENSBRÜCK (there 2-3 Present domicile: Cisk, Ostrołęka, Poland weeks in JUGENDLAGER) The deposition includes six and half pages of handwritten notes and describes: 1. Arrest and conviction for 9 months of prison. 2. Stay in 3 prisons: OSTROŁĘKA, PŁOCK, OLSZTYN [ALLENSTEIN]- East Prussia. 3. Transport and lasting 2 weeks trip to RAVENSBRÜCK - despite of the fact that the witness already served 9-month prison sentence. 4. Witness s troubles in connection with her leg s illness 5. Departure with the shipment of the sick- the trip in the freight cars with food deprivation 6. The care of the Red Cross in the MAJDANEK camp 7. Transportation of the sick to AUSCHWITZ- a terrifying trip Page 1 of 8

2 Place and date of the protocol: Malmo, December 6, 1945 Protocol no.: The quarantine in the women s section in AUSCHWITZ- BRZEZINKA branch 9. The AUSCHWITZ camp - tiring repeated baths, mortality and treatment of dying and living prisoners. 10. The witness being beaten during work- knocking out of a tooth. 11. The unemployed block- observation of the segregation of incoming transports. A building housing the crematorium- burning of corpses in the pits near the woods. 12. Punishment imposed on the block- kneeling with arms raised upwards 13. Trip and arrival to RAVENSBRÜCK. Living conditions- procurement of food 14. Selection and transportation of naked women to crematorium 15. Transfer to JUGENDLAGER and participation in the selection 16. Return to RAVENSBRÜCK camp. Page 2 of 8

3 Institute member interviewing/at the protocol: Krystyna KARIER (Translation from Polish: Roman, SOLECKI) 1 RECORD OF WITNESS TESTIMONY no. 27 Name: MRS XXXXXXXXXX Born: 1888 In: Cisk Profession: housewife Religion: Roman Catholic Nationality: Polish Parents 1 st names: Wincenty, Marianna, Last domicile in Poland: Cisk Current domicile: Cisk Instructed about importance of truthful testimony as well as on responsibility and consequences of false testimony, the witness testifies as to the following: I was detained in: concentration camp in RAVENSBRÜCK, Time period from: 12 th Nov, 1943 to: 2 nd Feb, 1944, as a political prisoner Number: [?], wearing Red triangle with a letter P. I stayed then in: concentration camp MAJDANEK, Time period from: 7 th Feb, 1944 to: Easter 1944 (10 weeks), I stayed then in: concentration camp AUSCHWITZ Time period from: Easter 1944 to: August 1944, Number: , wearing Red triangle with a letter P. From August, 1944 until first days (about) of April 1945, I stayed in RAVENSBRÜCK. Next period of about 2-3 weeks I stayed in so called JUGENDLAGER (branch of RAVENSBRÜCK) from where I returned to RAVENSBRÜCK. Asked if in connection with my incarceration in concentration camp, I have any specific information about camp organization, the camp regimen, prisoners work conditions, treatment of prisoners, medical and pastoral care, sanitary/hygienic conditions, and also on any specific events in all aspects of the camp life, I testify as follows: The deposition includes six and half pages of handwritten notes and describes: 1. Arrest and conviction for 9 months of prison. 2. Stay in 3 prisons: OSTROŁĘKA, PŁOCK, OLSZTYN [ALLENSTEIN]- East Prussia. 3. Transport and lasting 2 weeks trip to RAVENSBRÜCK - despite of the fact that the witness already served 9-month prison sentence. 4. Witness s troubles in connection with her leg s illness 1 Translator s notes (if any) are in cursive, enclosed in [ ] parenthesis Page 3 of 8

4 5. Departure with the shipment of the sick- the trip in the freight cars with food deprivation 6. The care of the Red Cross in the MAJDANEK camp 7. Transportation of the sick to AUSCHWITZ- a terrifying trip 8. The quarantine in the women s section in AUSCHWITZ- BRZEZINKA branch 9. The AUSCHWITZ camp - tiring repeated baths, mortality and treatment of dying and living prisoners. 10. The witness being beaten during work- knocking out of a tooth. 11. The unemployed block- observation of the segregation of incoming transports. A building housing the crematorium- burning of corpses in the pits near the woods. 12. Punishment imposed on the block- kneeling with arms raised upwards 13. Trip and arrival to RAVENSBRÜCK. Living conditions- procurement of food 14. Selection and transportation by cars of naked women to crematorium 15. Transfer to JUGENDLAGER and participation in the selection 16. Return to RAVENSBRÜCK camp. I was arrested on March at the border, for crossing the border into the Third Reich s territory and purchasing 10 kg of flour; arrest location BORAWY. From BORAWY I was transferred to OSTROŁĘKA where I was kept for one week in the prison and then sentenced for 9 months of prison because I didn t want to disclosed who did I buy the flour from. The sentence was shortened by two months because I cried. From Ostrołęka I was transferred by train, shackled, to PŁOCK. I stayed 11 days in Płock and next I was transferred to the prison in ALLENSTEIN in East Prussia [OLSZTYN]. When in prison I worked in a military factory, we made ski. I worked in this factory 6 months, followed by work in the fields already in October. The sentence was ending October about 5 days before this date - I became ill and stayed in my cell with fever. When I was still working I was called by the prison authorities who wanted to check my personal data and circumstances of my arrest and the cause of it - I was then interrogated by Gestapo. After I described everything they ordered me to sign without mentioning the sentence. On October hence four days after the end of my sentence- Gestapo came and took me while I was sick. My colleagues helped me to dress and they supported me- I was so ill; on top of it my leg was swollen because of two ulcers which were later operated in Ravensbrück and on my way there I got a bandage in one of the German hospitals. We traveled about 2 weeks, stopping off in at least 5 prisons. I was carried on a stretch while being transported to a prison. In a prison we lied on the floor- there was a terrible hunger during the entire trip. Page 4 of 8

5 In RAVENSBRÜCK we had a normal bath; everybody from the transport had her hair cut both old and young - although we did not have lice. They took everything we had. There was a gynecological exam in the bathroom. After the trip, already in the block where they put us, the block leader led me to the ambulance, so called Rewir. On my way back I was beaten by the Aufseher [German for supervisor ] for having my head covered with a towel; at that time we didn t get the scarves and it was very cold because we didn t have hair- they were very closely shaved. Next day my leg was operated on in the Rewir - they cut my ulcers and I lied few days in the Rewir and later in the block so-called Bettkart. My leg was not healed yet when they transferred me from the block of the ill to the block of the working. After a few days they sent me to work nach Aussen [German for outside ], I hauled the dirt, unloaded the bricks on the boat, hoed potato heaps etc. I had to work ceaselessly because otherwise the Aufseherin would beat me. Hard work and being continuously exposed to cold (I also carried kettles with food), I couldn t heal my leg and also ulcers started appearing on my whole body. In January I was selected to the transportation of the ill. I left Ravensbrück with a group of ill to MAJDANEK. We traveled 4 days in freight cars, obtaining small portions of bread - hunger was such that we cried; we gave our bread to the weaker ones who couldn t stand the hunger and ate snow. We were terribly crowded during the trip - I kneeled as I couldn t even sit because of the ulcers. On the fifth day we arrived at MAJDANEK and we were taken over by the Polish Red Cross from Lublin. They took care of us heartily and transported us with cars (uncovered) to the camp. There it was quite well, we were fed by the Red Cross and we had medical care. We were all placed in the camp s hospital. While in Majdanek I also had an arm surgery because of infection. I was cured and before Easter I was sufficiently healthy to be able to work for a day and a half. After this work my legs were swollen again so that I stayed for a week in the block and didn t work. During the third day of Easter an order came to transport ill of Ravensbrück to OŚWIĘCIM [Ausschwitz]. The ill that could not walk were transported to the railroad station by cars, after being examined by the Aufseherin. Others had to walk. The journey was horrible- this was a very bad experience. We were crowded in the freight cars sitting one on the other, separated with barbed wire from the SS-men who were in the center of the wagon. The barbed wire went from door to door reaching the ceiling. The SS-guards had on the end of a wooden pole some kind of hammer which they used through the barbed barrier to prod women who wanted to rise from the sitting position in order to straighten their numb legs. I heard the SS-men shooting in the neighboring wagons. There were rumors that one woman was killed but I did not witness it. Behind the wires we had buckets where we relieved ourselves and the SS-men were taking those buckets, emptied them and we were getting them back. We got food for the entire trip. After arrival to OŚWIĘCIM [AUSSCHWITZ] all sick women were transferred to women s camp in BRZEZINKA where we stayed few days laying in beds in the Rewir. It was like quarantine. Page 5 of 8

6 After this quarantine they bolted us about 3 km through the men s camp where we got food. We sat on the ground between the blocks. From there they moved us to women s camp in Oświęcim, where we stayed all day sitting on the ground at a shed. We were terribly tired. For the night they moved us to a building with cement floor wetted with water. We lied whole night in this water - many died - I saw in the morning that they carried women, who were still moving, dragging them to a heap near the block for their last moments before death. Simultaneously they gave us food- we couldn t eat of course looking at this terrible image and also being so tired. After that they took us to bath taking away all our stuff (clothing and underwear) to a delousing station. We sat naked for several hours. During the bath we were precisely shaved and moved through a trough with water, probably disinfecting water. After the bath we were taken into a month quarantine. After that we had another bath and medical inspection. We paraded naked in front of the doctor. Those who were unfitted to work were transferred to block 7 - the block for notworking. From there they chased me however out to work and I work at leveling and carrying stones needed for building a highway. Once, while at work, a supervisor in the SS uniform who also spoke Polish hit three times my head and back with a stick, this happened in the orchard where we were leveling. I don t know why this happened. Then, the same day, when we lined up for dinner, an eleventh woman stood at the other end of my row. We were required to line up 10 in a row - I stood at the other end of this group of ten. The same chief approached me and hit me twice in face knocking out my tooth and disturbing a hook to which another tooth was attached. Still during the quarantine where we were led after the first bath- the block leader who we asked for blanket said that this is a death camp and that our heads will be tomorrow anyway on the wall. This cause a terrible impression - we cried frightened that we experienced so much and that such an end will happen to us. My next job after working in the orchard was Kommando 15 - we had to walk to our work 12 km and dig the ditches in the fields. After several days I got sick again- my legs were swollen so much that I couldn t go even to the toilet or to my bunk bed which was on third level. Then the block leader led me to a Sauna or the bathroom where came the physicians and a clerk from Arbeitseinsatz and segregated the able and unable to work. One of the young girls- a Pole- had one eye covered with a bandage; she faked an illness to avoid work. They ordered her to unbind the eye and discovering that this is a fake they have beaten her with a thick stick in our presence. Then they took her away and she reportedly got 25 sticks. I was then assigned to the unemployed block. There were only 5 Polish women in the block- there were many Jewish and Czech women. Not far from us, on a square, they placed the recently brought Jewish-Hungarian women. They were kept there for the entire night freezing them. They were reportedly taken to the gas chamber. I saw with my own eyes only the segregation of arrived transports, directly from the trains - there were also children. The arrived were divided into various groups, then they were led to a house where was supposedly a crematorium. The ones that entered obtained towels. After those people entered that house I saw a high red flame from the sticking out chimney, a stench of burned bodies floated over the camp. Going to work I Page 6 of 8

7 saw at the woods edge burning ditches; one was saying that the bodies were burned also thereduring the time when the crematories couldn t keep up. The same stench of fat and bones spread over the fields. My block was punished once in such a way that after the roll call we had to kneel for one hour with raised arms. We kneeled in water, on stones, guarded by an SS-man, who have beaten the women who lowered their arms. This punishment lasted a week. I was drawn to work from the block for unemployed; I worked at ameliorations for 3 days. Finally in August we were subject to a new segregation and after a bath and long waiting under constantly changing orders (once it was said that we have to leave, another - that we stay) we were prepared to be transported to Ravensbrück. We traveled four days, the conditions were a little better than during our travel from Majdanek to Oświęcim. We got food and we were not grated. When we arrived to RAVENSBRÜCK at night, they kept us outdoors through whole night on a street between Rewir and the camp s wall. The conditions were already terrible, after the quarantine we were assigned to a regular block and were punished not knowing why. Once we stood as a punishment before baden from noon until after the midnight roll call, without food. Acquiring food: only these got that who were stronger; beating, pouring water by the sztubowe [rooms bosses] caused the life to be hell. From this Block 21 I was transferred to B1.28 in the grated part of the camp. The remainder of the selected colleagues that stayed in Block 21 left after a week, beaten by the Aufseher and pushed by force by the SS-men into a car destined to the crematorium. I also saw how the naked women from block 22 that were dying together were pushed into the cars and deported. I saw all this from behind wires. The life behind wires was very difficult under the threat of perpetual selections. One believed that it is better to go to work - hence we searched for kolonki [Column leaders], who could get us behind the gates to any work. I work then in a coke [loading] column. The work was very hard and because we were weak from hunger and in general invalid we were unable to pour over the coke at the required rate, we were constantly slapped in the face by the Aufseher. Another time we worked on covering the grassland with sand, slushing in the water the whole day. More or less toward the end of March during a selection for which we marched naked or in the underwear, covered only with a coat - I went out to JUGENDLAGER. In the last minute sztubowa threw me out a dress through a window. During the last selection in the Jugendlager I was also selected to a gas chamber. Completely aghast I ran toward the row of selected - then as if someone jogged my back, I turned in the other direction joining the row of the women selected for the block. There was such confusion that no one noticed my escape. They locked us in the blocks and did not allow looking through the windows. In the evening (I don t remember whether this was the same evening or another, I was simply unconscious from the sensation) came the cars and took the other miserable women. I heard that at that time there were 8 cars full of women. It was quiet during the [Easter] Holidays, and after the Holidays we were transported, completely unexpectedly to the RAVENSBRÜCK camp. They made us stand in front of Baden Page 7 of 8

8 half of the night, they took everything, gave us a dress and thin underwear and after a bath they led us again to the wired part of the camp. Beating and being flushed with water accompanied the last days of the stay in the camp. Then to our great joy we obtained the Red Cross packages, however we still did not believed the rumors that the Red Cross will save us. Finally the rumors proved to be true and we departed - leaving the hell behind us. Read, signed, accepted: (+++) Witness signature by crosses verified by: (-) Kr. Karier Comments of the person taking the record: Testimony of the illiterate Mrs. XXXXXXXXXX is unconditionally trustworthy. The witness experiences very strongly the period described crying often. Lund, 7 th December, (-) Signature, Krystyna Karier. Page 8 of 8

Polish Research Institute at Lund University, Sweden

Polish Research Institute at Lund University, Sweden Witness family & given names: Mrs. XXXXXXXXXX Places of internment Born on 21 st July, 1925 Time period Placed in: Prisoner data Notes from / to (triangle, number, letter) Birth place: Cracow, Poland Till