Date of the protocol: Trelleborg, 16 th May, 1946 Protocol No. 304 Witness family & given names: Ms. XXXXXXXXXX Places of internment Born on 5 th March, 1920 Time period from / to Birth place: Potok Wielki, Poland Winter of 1942 / Occupation: Dressmaker Citizenship: Polish May 1943 Religion: Jewish May 1943 / Parents names (F/M) Mojżesz / Helena Jun 1943 Last residence in Dąbrowa Jun 1943 / Poland: Present residence: Leaving for Łódź, Poland Oct 1943 Oct 1943 / Apr 24, 1945 Placed in: DESSAU Prisoner data (triangle, number, letter) Political prisoner, red triangle, 155, P MAJDANEK Number 12212 AUSCHWITZ Tattooed number Δ 47220 RAVENSBRÜCK Number 27223, at first triangle with a star, later triangle with the letter P as a Mischling Notes The testimony consists of seven pages of handwritten text and covers the following main items: 1.Leave for the labor camp DESSAU: Camp layout; attitude toward inmates; living conditions; food; work hours. 2.Witness arrested by Gestapo; prisons; first interrogations in LUBLIN; deportation. 3.MAJDANEK: On arrival to the camp witnessing execution of a death sentence; selections. Living conditions; food; work; transport. 4.AUSCHWITZ: Admission; living and sanitary conditions; new transports and selections. Work hours; conditions at work; leaving Auschwitz. 5.RAVENSBRÜCK: Admission; quarantine. Living and sanitary conditions. Roll calls; food. Changes at the camp. Selections. Work at Siemens. Last night in the Strafblock ; out to freedom. Page 1 of 7
Institute member at the protocol: Luba Melchior (Translation from Polish by Kris Murawski 1 ) RECORD OF WITNESS TESTIMONY No. 304 Name: Ms. XXXXXXXXXX Born: 5 th March, 1920 In: Potok Wielki, Poland Occupation: Dressmaker Religion: Jewish Parents 1 st names: Mojżesz, Helena Last residence in Poland: Dąbrowa Current residence: Leaving for Łódź, Poland Instructed about the importance of truthful testimony as well as on responsibility and consequences of false testimony, the witness testifies as to the following: I was in camp in: DESSAU from: winter of 1942 to: May 1943 as a political prisoner with number 155, wearing red triangle with letter P then I was in: MAJDANEK from: May 1943 to: June 1943 with number 12212 then I was in: AUSCHWITZ from: June 1943 to: October 1943 tattooed with number Δ 47200 then I was in: RAVENSBRÜCK from: October 1943 to: Apr 24, 1945 with number 27223, at first triangle with a star, later triangle with the letter P as a Mischling Asked if in connection with my incarceration, my work 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 any specific events in all aspects of the camp life, I testify as follows: The testimony consists of seven pages of handwritten text and covers the following main items: 1 Translator s notes (if any) are in italics, enclosed in square brackets. Page 2 of 7
1.Leave for the labor camp DESSAU: Camp layout; attitude toward inmates; living conditions; food; work hours. 2.Witness arrested by Gestapo; prisons; first interrogations in LUBLIN; deportation. 3.MAJDANEK: On arrival to the camp witnessing execution of a death sentence; selections. Living conditions; food; work; transport. 4.AUSCHWITZ: Admission; living and sanitary conditions; new transports and selections. Work hours; conditions at work; leaving Auschwitz. 5.RAVENSBRÜCK: Admission; quarantine. Living and sanitary conditions. Roll calls; food. Changes at the camp. Selections. Work at Siemens. Last night in the Strafblock ; out to freedom. The outbreak of war found me in Dąbrówka. I lived there until 1942. There were no extraordinary harassments of Jews. We wore white armbands and were allowed to move around within a restricted area. A ghetto was not established. In October of 1942 an order was issued for all Jews to gather in Zaklików from where they were deported. People were put in railroad cars with quicklime. The cars got locked and people suffocated inside. I did not report for deportation. For two weeks I hid with Polish friends. But someone informed on me and I had to flee. I walked to Kraśnik and volunteered at the Arbeitsamt for work in Germany pretending to be Aryan. I was sent to Lublin with a group of Polish women who were going there involuntarily as well as few volunteers. In Lublin we waited for a larger transport. After a week we left for DESSAU. Travel there took one week. We traveled in passenger cars with SS escort. In DESSAU we were received by the Lagerführer, who introduced us to the camp. There were already 150 men and women in the camp who arrived two weeks before us. They were assigned to dig ditches. We were placed in barracks. The camp was surrounded with barbed wire. The camp was guarded by a German policeman; it neighbored with a camp of the Frenchmen, Belgians, and Dutchmen, who were forced laborers as well. They were treated better than Poles. At first we contacted with them, later it was not allowed. The Polish camp consisted of 24 barracks. They were of different sizes, large ones and small ones. The camp was located in woods. There were 24 of us in a room. Each one got a bed, two blankets and a straw mattress. On the first day we were taken to dig ditches. Later I succeeded to get assignment to the kitchen. Food in the camp was inadequate. Daily bread ration was approximately 300 g, with margarine, sausage or cheese; twice daily coffee, one time during the day a liter of rutabaga soup. We worked from 6 AM till 6 PM. A reveille was at 4 AM in summer, at 5 AM in winter. There was a roll call before leaving for work. Such roll calls were four times during the day, each time we were counted. Living and sanitary conditions were tolerable. The barracks had plumbing. Page 3 of 7
Sundays were free. Generally, we were treated not too badly. I stayed there for six months. I wrote a letter to my cousin, who lived on Aryan papers. My letter has arrived after my cousin was arrested: she was arrested as a Jew. Because of that letter, I was arrested, too, as suspect of being Jewish. The Gestapo came to get me, they took me to the office and their first question was about my real name. It was clear to me that I was doomed. From emotion I fainted. But I did not admit anything. They searched my place. They told me to take my belongings and took me to the guardhouse. A car was waiting there and took me to the prison in DESSAU. I was interrogated there, kept for a day and sent to the prison in HALLE, where I spent few days. This prison was clean, the food was normal, as in prison. From HALLE, with a transport of other political prisoners, I was transferred to BRESLAU [Wrocław]. The BRESLAU prison was in a basement, we slept on stone floors. There were no beds. There were two hundred of us and it was so crowded that it was very hard to find room on the floor. Conditions in this prison were much worse than before. Filth was annoying, many people and not enough water. Food was worse, too. From Breslau I was sent, with other twenty people, to a prison in CRACOW. From Cracow I was transferred to the WARSAW Pawiak prison and, after two days, to LUBLIN. Only here I was interrogated for the first time. They requested my ID, and since I did not have one they knew at once that I was Jewish. I did not admit it. I was placed in an Aryan cell. However, a Polish guard sent me to a Jewish cell, in spite that I did not admit being Jewish. There were twenty five of us in the Jewish cell all Jewish women who lived until now on Aryan papers like me. After two days there was an interrogation. I was threatened with hanging and beatings, and I was beaten. At last I confessed that my mother was Jewish and they left me alone. From the prison they sent me to MAJDANEK. It was end of May 1943. A Jewish woman who escaped from Poniatowa came with us to MAJDANEK. On arrival to MAJDANEK the guards immediately recognized her, they beat her on the head and wherever they could. They kept her all day at the Gestapo office. In the evening there was a roll call for everybody she was hanged in an open view. MAJDANEK was a very tough camp. On the first day there was a hanging that I mentioned above, and on the second day there was a selection. Mothers, children, sick, weak and elderly people were taken away. They were all gathered in one block. On the following day they were taken to the crematorium. Selections were very frequent. People who returned from the quarry barefooted, had their feet lacerated and swollen. It was enough to have swollen feet to get selected. My number in MAJDANEK was 12212. The camp was surrounded with barbed wire and there were numerous sentry swallow nests around. Living conditions were terrible. There were about 1,500 people in a block, 2-3 people slept in one bed. Not every bed had blankets. Roofs leaked, it was like raining inside barracks. Meal queues were very long. Not always it was possible to get a meal when they run out of portions. So there were furious fights in the queues, as everybody attempted to be the lucky one who gets the dinner. Hygiene was very bad: one barrack served as a Page 4 of 7
Waschraum for all people in the camp. Therefore, the queues were endless and to wash yourself or to wash the utensils was not easy. The reveille was at 3 AM, the roll call at 6 AM and it lasted two hours. The roll calls were very tiring. After the roll call we were rushed to work. The work was nonproductive, we carried rocks from one place to another and we were severely beaten at work. Work lasted till lunch time; at noon we had to run to get meal which we not always got. After lunch another roll call, a shorter one this time. We were led again to work till 6 PM. After 6 PM, the evening roll call, and only after the roll call to the block for coffee and bread. The bread portion was 250 g. I was only three weeks at MAJDANEK. One day at the roll call we were ordered to line up in twos per row. Three thousand of us best looking women were selected for sending to AUSCHWITZ. We changed to striped garbs and wooden clogs, and we traveled in freight railroad cars previously used to transport coals and lime there were 50 people per car. Cars were sealed. We traveled full day and night. We were given provisions in Lublin. We did not know where we were heading. We arrived in AUSCHWITZ in the morning. We were taken to the block where we were tattooed, our hair was cut and we were sent to bath. The bath was drafty and with cold water. We changed and were led to the block. We were placed in a previous stable barrack, 1,200 people. Brick floor was in the center of the barrack and wide, two-level bunks were arranged along the walls. Seven people slept in a bunk. The barrack was dirty and water was very hard to get. When we heard Auschwitz! on arrival, we thought we will not get out alive. We knew about the crematorium ovens where people were being burnt. Old prisoners quieted us down saying that the gas chamber is not functioning. Alas, after two weeks we could see how people are being burnt. Transports from France, Czechia, Belgium, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands were coming all the time and were going through a selection. Those who were healthy went to the camp, others were loaded on trucks. An allegedly Red Cross vehicle followed the trucks. We already knew that it was way to the crematorium. Arriving transports included many corpses, people who have had suffocated on the way. The crematoriums worked day and night. I often saw at night as naked people were led in the direction of the crematorium. Later, when less gas was used, screams could be heard of people who were burnt half-alive. We could not sleep because of screams of children being led to the crematorium. One time a transport arrived with a rabbi. He asked prisoners who worked the transport whether all who arrived go to die because he wanted to say the last prayer. They said the last prayer aloud. Young people ran in the direction of the wires, but they found their death there the SS-men shot at them. After that incident the so-called Sonderkommando was not allowed to tell the transports where they were. Our transport worked außen in the fields at hay or digging. Many of us got ill and perished. We left for work at 6 AM with music playing and the return was with orchestra playing, too. The Page 5 of 7
roll calls were twice daily. They were long and tiresome. They woke us up at 3 o clock. At work we were beaten, forced to do the Hit the deck! On your feet! exercises. The work was hard. As an exception, my Kommando was not that bad. My friends worked harder, standing in water all day. Quite often they returned from work carrying dead bodies on their shoulders. Guards on duty were shooting at their whim. It was enough to walk aside for natural needs and death was lurking. I was three months in AUSCHWITZ. The Mischlings were collected for a transport to RAVENSBRÜCK and I was in that transport. There were 82 people altogether. We traveled by a passenger train escorted by SS-men who treated us tolerably. In general, since officially I was no longer Jewish, I was treated better. At the station in RAVENSBRÜCK the Aufseherinnen with dogs waited for us. They took us to the camp, to the bath. We were bathed and after changing clothing, taken to a quarantine block. It was quite OK in the quarantine. The camp was not yet overfilled. Each of us had a bed, straw mattress, two blankets and bed linen. There was internal plumbing. Compared to Auschwitz we were doing quite well. We could wash ourelves with no restrictions. During the quarantine period the roll calls were conducted indoors inside the block. It has changed after the quarantine. The roll calls were long, we worked außen, then I worked in Stoffweberei and later at Siemens. At first food was better, then, as more transports were coming, it was getting worse and worse. Lodging worsened, too. We slept two in a bed. At first we did OK at work. Then selections to Jugendlager started. At Siemens we worked 12 hours daily. Sundays were free. Two weeks before the liberations work in the factory became disorganized. Red Cross parcels were the indication that freedom was near. On April 24 the Jewish women were called to come forward, their personal information was recorded and we were sent to Sweden. We spent the last night in the Strafblock. We were gathered all together, it was very crowded, stuffy. We could not believe that we were going to be free. We thought they were taking us to another camp. But the reality proved to be full of joy. We were taken through the gate outside, to freedom. In Sweden I regained my strength. Here I found out that my father is alive in Poland. He had siblings there and I am going to join with them after many years of suffering. My father, brother and sister survived because they found shelter with Polish people. Three of my brothers went to the woods to partisans to fight Germans. Until now there is no news about their whereabouts. I am glad that I have this handful of family still left. Comments of the interviewer: (Signed) XXXXXXXXXX Witness Page 6 of 7
The witness mentions camp PONIATOWA. It was a Jewish camp. Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto were brought in there. PONIATOWA was located in Lublin Voivodship, near MAJDANEK. All Jews from Poniatowa were executed in Majdanek on November 3, 1943. The testimony deserves full trust. (Signed) Luba Melchior Institute member Certifying compliance: Signature: Kr. Karier Institute member Page 7 of 7