The testimony includes thirteen and a half hand-written pages, and describes:

Voices from Ravensbrück Interview no. 371 (English translation) Polish Documentary Institute, Lund Lund, 19 June 1946 Helena Miklaszewska, Institute assistant taking the record RECORD OF WITNESS TESTIMONY no. 371 Witness: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Born: 25 July, 1929 In: Udrycze Occupation: pupil Faith: Roman Catholic Parents' names: Michał, Zofia Last place of residence in Poland: Udrycze Current place of residence: Öreryd Having been informed of the importance of truthful testimony, the consequences of false testimony and her responsibility to tell the truth, she has made the following statement: - From 10 December 1942, to 16 December 1942, I was in the concentration camp at Zamość as a deportee. I had the number _/_ and wore a _/_ triangle with the letter _/_ on it. Then from 16 December 1942, until? July 1944, I was in Auschwitz as a political prisoner, having the number 27 272, and wearing a red triangle with the letter "P" on it. Then I was in Ravensbrück p. 63 672(?)? July 1944, to 25 April 1945. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [Asked whether I have any specific information from my time or work in the concentration camp about how it was organized, the camp regimen, inmates' working conditions, treatment of prisoners, medical and pastoral care, hygienic conditions, and also specific events in all areas of camp life, I can state the following:] The testimony includes thirteen and a half hand-written pages, and describes: 1. Deportation from the village Udrycze 2. Transit camp at Zamość 3. Arrival at Auschwitz 4. Death of sister, mother, and father

5. Work at the camp 6. Operations and stay in the Revier 7. Departure for the camp at Ravensbrück 8. Work in the gardening workgang and at Upental In 1942, in the Zamość district and other surrounding districts, the Gestapo began to deport the Polish population. The deportees were gathered in a transit camp in Zamość. My family was prepared for deportation, we packed up our things and waited for the order to leave. Of our belongings, we were allowed to take bed linens, and of clothing, a coat or dress, in addition to what we were wearing. As for food, we could take about ½ kg of bread per person, a little milk, and some fat. In the village of Udrycze, deportation took place on Thursday, 6 December 1942. From our village, only my family was to be deported, because the head of the village, Jan (?) Paul, a Volksdeutsch, has reported that my family had not agreed to sign the list declaring German nationality. Paul was an evil person, he persecuted the Polish people in the community. One tried to talk my family into changing our last name to Lisser, and claiming to be Germans on that basis. In early December 1942, my whole family was summoned to appear at the Gestapo headquarters in Zamość for questioning. On the appointed date, we all went to Zamość, except my older sister Helena, who, having troubles with her legs, had not walked at all for three years, so she could not go. In Zamość as part of the questioning our height, head, skull, etc., were all measured exactly. We went through twelve rooms, and in each were given various questions and asked if we declared ourselves to be German. In the last room, where our measurements were taken, they threatened my father that if he did not sign the Volksdeutsch list, he would be beaten and deported to Auschwitz. In spite of the threats, neither my father nor anyone from our family agreed to sign the list and we returned to our village. After that we were left alone until the day of the deportation. That day, the deportation commission came to our farm, [made up of] five Gestapo and many Ukrainians, and we were told that we would not be deported, that we would stay in the village as employees of German owners, who would come and take over our farm. Then we unpacked our things and were left alone until Monday - that is to say until 10 December 1942. That day, at four in the morning, the deportation commission came again, and told us to vacate our house. We were ordered to pack quickly, while the gestapos assisted us and checked what we were taking. Then, our whole family, that is my father, Michał, my mother Zofia, sisters Helena, Marianna, and Janina, my brother Stanisław and sister Kazimiera xxxxxxxxx with her husband Tadeusz xxxxxxxxx, the son of my sister-in-law Bogdan xxxxxxxx and my cousin Marian xxxxxxxxx, and I all were loaded into two wagons and taken to the camp in Zamość. In Zamość, my brother, taking advantage of the confusion at the square, jumped onto another wagon and escaped.

The transit camp in Zamość was big. It had a lot of wooden one-story barracks. The camp's grounds were fenced off with electrified wires. The whole camp was divided into different sections, there was a section for children and old people who could no longer work, and for mothers with babies, and a separate section for people who were fit to work. Entire families were in that section. Officially, it was not permitted to go from one section of the camp to another. We were put in barrack 10, it was dirty, there was no water, we slept on bunks. In the morning and evening we got Ersatz coffee and a piece of bread, at noon - split pea soup. We did not suffer so much from hunger yet then because we still had the food that we had taken from home. On 16 December, everyone in barrack 10 was sent by transport to Auschwitz. Our transport had about 70 people - men, women, and children. We went from the station to the camp in rows of five, women in front, men behind. My father and my cousin Bogdan went with us because they carried my sister Helena, who could not walk at all. They brought her to the camp's gate and left her there. Mama and my sister Maryśka took her and carried her to the bath. There we were bathed, changed into underclothes, striped prison dresses, and "jaki" [German, Jacken: jackets], we got white scarves for our heads, I think, and wooden clogs for our feet, with no stockings. Then we were taken to block 21, and after a while we were taken from there to block 16. In that block we were tattooed with numbers on our left arms, I got tattooed with number 27 272, and my hair was cut. At that time in the camp, people said that this was done because there were many people who escaped from the camp, so they tried to make this more difficult. Shortly after we were tattooed, toward the end of January 1943, my sister Helena was taken from us to block 25, which was the death block. That block stood near the aufsierka's block [German, Aufseherin: SS female, wardress], and was closely guarded, and entrance was forbidden. Only a couple of Jewish women worked there. The windows had bars on them. I knew that corpses were kept in that building, and very sick people were taken there after Selektionen. Block 25 was connected to the next block, 26, with a wooden fence, and the only entrance to that block was from the street, but block 25 had an entrance through a gate in the wooden fence. That entrance was guarded by Jewish women prisoners who worked in the block. When we were moved to block 16, the blokowa [German, Blockälteste: a prisoner who was the head of a block] Ewa, whose surname I do not remember, wrote down the names of the people who were unfit to work and said that all of them would have to go to the rewir [German, Revier: hospital block], because people who did not work could not remain in the block. Later it turned out that they were not transferred to the rewir, but to block 25. Mama carried my sister herself to the gate of block 25, where two Jewish women took her - my mother never saw her again. During the time she was in block 25, I sometimes saw my sister. I would not go out to work, which was very dangerous, since if I did not work I could be sent immediately to block 25; then, I would try to see my sister and take her coffee, which she asked for. I could see her only through the window, and I would give her the coffee only through the window. The conditions in that block were terrible, it was very dirty, infested with rats, the sick would lay on wooden bunks without any straw mattresses, covered only with a blanket. They did not get any noon meal, i.e., soup, at all, just coffee and a piece of bread twice a day. The sick were terrorized, forbidden to say anything at all about the conditions prevailing in the block.

My sister did not talk much, and asked me not to say anything to Mama. She was just very thirsty and asked for coffee. My sister was in block 25 for about three weeks, and then I saw her on a truck together with corpses, she was taken to the crematorium. I did not tell Mama about this at that time because she was in the rewir at that time, very sick with heart troubles. Two weeks after my sister was taken to block 25, when I was at work with my sister Maryśka, Mama had a heart attack and was taken to the rewir. I did not see Mama at all; five days after Mama went to the rewir, my sister and I managed to go to the rewir, when I asked the blokowa about my mother, she said that she had been dead for three days, without giving any more details. So it was just my older sister Maryśka who remained in the camp with me - I lost my mother and my sister Helena in Auschwitz after two months there. Then, thanks to my cousin Bogdan, who worked as a carpenter in our camp, I learned that shortly after my mother died, my father died in the men's camp, though I do not know under what circumstances, since it was not easy talking to my cousin, and we could not talk for long. At that time I did not have any news about the rest of my family - my youngest sister, who was eight years old, my married sister, brother-in-law, and brother who had escaped in Zamość. When I arrived at Auschwitz I was thirteen years old, in block 16 going to work was mandatory, so I went to the ausenkolumny [German, Aussenkolonne: work gangs that worked outside the camp in agriculture, on roadwork, and hauling rocks and sand] right away and worked with my sister Maryśka on the railroad, clearing snow from the tracks. The work was not very hard, but we were not dressed warmly enough and we would get terribly cold. We had to work at a quick pace, since if any of us stopped working, the SS guarding us would sic his dog on us. We would get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. We would get cold coffee and go out to roll call. It lasted about an hour. After that, we would go out in work gangs to work, and would work until suppertime. After returning in the evening, we would get ¾ of a litre of soup for lunch, and our evening coffee, a piece of bread and margarine. Afterwards, the evening roll call would take place. It lasted a very long time, sometimes several hours, and we would return to the block late at night, exhausted from working, standing, and chilled to the bone. We would go to bed right away. At night in the block we would be cold, we had only one blanket each, and would wake up from the cold. At night we would have to get up to go to the toilet, which was far away from the block. It was very dirty in the block, rats would screech at night and keep us from sleeping, and there were lice and fleas. The conditions were very difficult to endure. After a while, in February 1943, a children's block was created. Then the blokowa would take children away to the block immediately after roll call. I was afraid to say I was a child, because I thought that if I didn't work, they would take me to the "chimney". I kept going to work with my sister until spring, working at clearing away snow. In spring I worked fertilizing with my sister, too. An SS guarded us, and if any of us stopped working, the SS would start beating her right away with a rubber strap with wire on the end of it. I remember one time when an SS beat a Ukrainian woman, Maruszka, whose last name I do not remember, very badly. The SS took this Ukrainian woman to a barn, and though the doors were

open, we did not see the SS beating her, we did hear her terrible screaming. When she rejoined us, Maruszka was so badly beaten she could not work at all. I was registered in that work gang as a child, and was transferred to camp B. At that time, everyone who was fit to work was moved to camp B. The sick and unfit to work, on the other hand, stayed at camp A. In camp B, I was put into block 8; my sister was put into block 7. I did not go to work anymore there. We children had a "school", where a Polish woman would come to teach us. Our studies were secret, unofficial. The women's camp at Birkenau was divided into the sections: A, B, and C. Gypsies were in section C. I know that from time to time at the Auschwitz camp the camp commandant, assisted by Stenia, the Lagerälteste, would carry out a Selektion of people for the gas chambers. When that happened, the work gangs would march in groups of five through the gate in single file, marching in goose-step past the commandant, who would pull women out of the rows, with a cane, and have them stand to one side; aufsierki would lead the women chosen in this way to block 25, and from there they would be taken to the gas chambers. I marched several times in goose-step past the commandant when he was carrying out a Selektion, but I was never selected; sometimes, however, many people were selected from the work gangs. At Auschwitz there was a gas chamber and a crematorium, which were located in buildings that were outside the camp. I would see those buildings on my way to work, and once I saw a group of Jews going down into a pit near the crematorium. Auschwitz's crematorium was large, and had several chimneys. Jews worked at the crematorium, and in the camp people were of the opinion that every once in a while that komando [German: Kommando: work gang] was sent to the gas chambers and then burned. Several times when I was returning from work, I saw men's work gangs that were also returning from work, they were carting several corpses on a cart, they were prisoners who had been tortured to death while at work. Such cases were not uncommon among the men's work gangs, which were treated very brutally. The hygienic conditions in the camp were very bad, diseases such as typhus, malaria, tuberculosis, scabies, pemphigus, diarrhoea, and others raged. There was very little medical care. The dirt, lice, rats, and lack of water helped the spread of disease in Auschwitz. The mortality rate in the camp was enormous, in our camp 10 people died a day. While I was at the children's block No. 8, I did not work. The block was relatively clean, it had three-level bunk beds, mattresses, white bedclothes and blankets for the beds. We had a bed to ourselves. I was there only a few days, then I went to the rewir. My glands were swollen, I had a fever and was taken to the rewir in camp A. The rewir here had about thirty blocks. Depending on the kind of disease, the sick person was taken to the appropriate block. I was put in block 29, for tuberculosis. This block was divided into two parts, one for people who had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, the other for those suspected of having it. The block was clean, it had three-level bunk beds with straw mattresses, but with no sheets.

The block was connected to the sewer line, had a toilet and running water, and from time to time we even got a chance to take a bath in the block's bath. The doctors, who were prisoners themselves, were Dr. Janina Węgierska and Dr. Jasińska. Dr. Węgierska was completely devoted to the patients, she was very good to us, and tried to help us in any way she could. Dr. Jasińska was much less involved in our care. One big obstacle to treatment was the lack of medicines in the camp, but Dr. Węgierska [took it upon herself to try to obtain them], probably she "organized" [to steal food or items from camp warehouses] them, and her colleague, whose last name I've forgotten, helped her do this. I was in the rewir for a long time, had three operations, my glands were taken out. Dr. Węgierska did the first operation in the ambulance, the second and third were done by Dr. Jasińska and a Jewish woman. The stitches did not want to heal after the operation, they were pussy for a long time. I do not know why. Dr. Węgierska did the first operation in the ambulance in the spring of 1943. I used to go to work then. My glands were very swollen, it was so painful that I could not even swallow anything. My sister Maryśka sent me to the rewir, but I did not want to go to the rewir, because I was scared. My mother and father's sudden deaths were still fresh in my mind, I was afraid that going to the rewir might later be a reason for sending me to block 25, where I would be sentenced to die in the "chimney" like my sister Helena. Meanwhile, my condition worsened very much and sztubowa Zosia [sztubowa: assistant to the blokowa, responsible for order in an individual room], whose last name I don't remember, took me to the ambulance. There I stood outside waiting for perhaps an hour, then I went to the operating room, where I was laid down on a bed, covered with a white sheet, Dr. Węgierska put me to sleep with chloroform and then removed the lower glands on the left side of my neck. When I woke up, the operation was over. Dr. Węgierska wanted to send me to the rewir straight away, but I didn't want to, I didn't say why, I just insisted that I wouldn't go to the rewir. Dr. Węgierska explained to me that the wound would not heal quickly, and that if I wouldn't go now, I would have to go after a while anyway. The doctor gave in to my stubbornness and Zosia the sztubowa took me to the block. The next day I went to work, I had a fever, but I couldn't stay in the block, I went to work with my sister. For two weeks I continued to work while I had a high fever, and it was then that I was moved to the children's block, and from there I was taken after a few days with a fever of 40 degrees to the operation block, No. 10, where a Czech Jewish woman doctor performed the operation on me, this time with out any anaesthetic. After that, I was sent from that block to block 29, and after a few days Dr. Jasińska operated on me again without anaesthetic. Both of the operations were also to remove my glands, on the right upper side of my neck. I lay in the rewir for a whole year, in block 29. During that time, the wounds from the operations by Dr. Węgierska and the Czech Jewish woman doctor healed, but the wound from the third operation is still producing pus and refuses to heal. It was quite clean in the rewir, but there were lice from time to time, we sometimes even had warm water to wash with. The doctors and nurses took care of us and wanted to help us however they could.

[illegible - "That winter"?] men and women would bring us medicine from the outside. Of course this was done unofficially. We each had a bed to ourselves, but when there were new sick women brought in, we would lie two to a bed. At the beginning of my stay in the rewir the medical care was not sufficient, but after three months in the rewir, circumstances improved enormously. I remember how right after the operation I was put in bed, very sick, with a fever of 40 degrees Celsius, with an old lady who was all swollen. After a few days that woman died, and I was completely unaware of what was going on, I didn't know that she had died. She lay like that next to me for about four days. I saw big, black rats coming and gnawing on her face at night. I was terribly afraid, but I was too weak to call a nurse. In the morning, when I regained consciousness, it seemed that I had only dreamt it all. I had a high fever the whole time, and was unaware of what was going on around me. After two or three days, when I felt a little better, the woman who had been lying next to me was taken out, she was completely stiff, and her nose had been chewed off. I figured out at that point that the rats who came at night must have done that, so I had not just dreamt it all because of my fever, it was real. I became even more afraid of them, especially when I heard their squeaking at night, or when I saw their big silhouettes jumping across the beds. In the beginning, a lot of people used to die in the block where I was, over 15 a day, then that number decreased a bit. When I was in the rewir, there Selektionen were conducted for the gas chamber; the camp commandant and doctor carried them out. During the Selektionen, the sickest people and those that had scabies were chosen. These Selektionen took place very often, even three times a week. I know for a fact that the blokowa, a Jewish woman, hid a young Jewish girl, who was about thirteen years old. In hiding, she was not subject to selection. I was put on a transport to Ravensbrück while I was in the rewir, leaving despite the fact that I had an open wound from the third operation that was still full of pus. On the way, I got a fever, and was ill when I arrived at Ravensbrück. We arrived at about 6 p.m. and stood by a wall behind the blocks for a long time, in the early hours of the morning, one of the [women] prisoners in the bath took several of the younger women in our transport and took them to the bath, where we slept a couple of hours. Then we were given showers, they had us change into camp dresses and took us to the eighth block, that was around 6 p.m. I had a fever and got a bed straight away, on the second level, and lay down straight away. Of all the blocks I lived in at Ravensbrück, that block was the cleanest. In general it was not that crowded, we had two blankets to a bed and plaid canvas covers for them. We had straw pillows for our heads with plaid pillowcases. The block was tidy. After a few days, I went to the rewir, but I was not admitted and was sent back to block 8. After two weeks, I was moved to block 21. It was dirty there, it was crowded, it was untidy. No one paid any attention to us. After a short while, we were moved to block 29. Here, too, it was dirty and cold, we did not go to work, but we would go out for roll calls, which were very long. It was very bad in that block, I tried to get moved to block 16 through someone I knew from the kitchen. With the help of the blokowa

from block 1, Marta Baranowska, the general blokowa for all the rewir, Ulka, whose last name I can't remember, and the blokowa from block 16, Wanda Urbańska, I managed to get moved to her block, by first getting an illegal "[illegible]karte" to the rewir. In block 16 it was clean and tidy. The block's administration was good. After a while, I managed to get into the gardening work gang. The work was not hard, we used to dig in the garden. Our work gang's kolonka [German, Kolonnführerin: female prisoner responsible for a work gang] was Genia Cybruch, who treated us well. While I was in that work gang, sometimes I would pass by the crematorium, and saw a lot of ashes and bones lying in a heap, the kolonka explained to us that those are human bones. I did not work long in the garden work gang, after that, thanks to my acquaintance Marysia Szydłowska and Wanda Kosmowska, the kolonka from Upental, I managed to get a place in the factory that made wooden clogs. That was good work, because it was not hard and it was inside. My job was to nail on the tops of the clogs to the wooden soles. While working in the factory, we secretly used to take out clogs for our friends in the camp who did not have any shoes. It was difficult to get the clogs out, there were searches at the gate, we had to be very careful so as not to get caught doing it. My friend Marysia Szydłowska got three weeks in the sztrafblok [German, Strafblock: punishment barracks] for taking out clogs, and she was supposed to be sent away on a punishment transport, but she managed to avoid this, she just stayed in the sztrafblok longer. In the Upental factory there was a big warehouse of soap, Marysia Szydłowska noticed this and we started to "organize" that soap and bring it to the camp, no one ever caught us at it. I worked in the wooden clog factory until the end of my time in Ravensbrück. [next two lines illegible] Read, signed, accepted. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The young girl testifying was put in a camp at age 13. She told about her experiences simply, naturally, calmly, and with self-control. She is not able to express the psychological aspect of her experiences at all, which is also why in the part of her testimony regarding the death of her parents and sister only the dry facts are given without any sense of tragedy. The testimony is trustworthy. Helena Miklaszewska