Puławy, 18 January 1946. Judge F. Klaude interviewed the person named below as a witness. Having advised the witness of criminal liability for making false declarations, the obligation to speak the truth and of the significance of the oath, the Judge took an oath, following which the witness testified:
| Name and surname | Władysława Dąbrowska |
| Age | born in 1905 |
| Parents’ names | Zofia, Bronisław |
| Place of residence | Puławy, the Institute |
| Occupation | biologist |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
I was arrested in Puławy on 1 March 1941. On the same day I was deported to Lublin, to the Gestapo [headquarters]; I was interrogated there, and after signing the testimony protocol was moved to Lublin Castle. During my six-day stay at the Gestapo and later in the Castle, I found out from my colleagues that they were subjected to anthropological measurements at the Gestapo. I was not subjected to such.
I stayed in a prison cell meant for 22 people, but there were around sixty of us. As a result, not only couldn’t we fit two to a bed, but there wasn’t even enough space to sit on the floor. The window was tiny, high up by the ceiling, covered with a so-called basket. The cell wasn’t heated, we didn’t get anything to cover ourselves with. As for the food, it was totally insufficient: black coffee in the morning and evening, krupnik for dinner, that is half a liter of grey, colored water with no groats or potatoes; the daily bread portion was 200 grams. The cells were dirty, full of lice, and I have to say that the lice infestation was [being spread] on purpose (women infested with lice were moved to the cells where the political prisoners were held). More than once, during the interrogations, the Gestapo threatened young girls with being eaten alive by the lice. The lice infestation resulted in typhus fever, a disease widespread throughout the prison, especially in the male section. During my stay at the Gestapo in the Lublin prison, which lasted until 20 September 1941, I often saw my companions coming back from interrogations terribly mauled, with black eyes, busted lips, body wounds that wouldn’t heal for years (I lived with these women for the next four years in Ravensbrück, for example Kiryłowa), bruised kidneys and heart conditions that could result in death at any moment (Eugenia Mann). All women were beaten naked during the interrogations.
We were watched by Polish women in the female section, former prison jailers. Usually they acted decently, making life easier for us in many cases, apart from one woman of Ukrainian origin, a permanent resident of Lublin and married to a Russian, whose name was Pogrebna. She was remarkably brutal and treated political prisoners much worse than the criminal ones. It seems that Pogrebna had graduated from police school in Warsaw before the war.
On 20 September 1941, a transport that included around two thousand women was taken from Lublin to Warsaw and after being joined by women from the Pawiak, both of the transports were taken to Ravensbrück. On the site, we learned that our transport, as well as that of all subsequent political prisoners from Poland, was called Sondertransport. Having arrived at the camp, we were deloused. The doctor, whose surname I don’t recall, carried out the delousing in a drastic and distressing way. All our private belongings were confiscated except for toiletries, and we were given underwear and camp uniforms. Our belongings were initially stored in the depository, in the so called efekts, and were supposed to be given back to us when we would leave. In spring 1944, those items, after the best had been set aside, were sealed as FKL (Frauenkonzentrationslager), marked with crosses (75 cm crosses in bright colors were sewn onto them) and distributed in place of the striped camp uniforms.
Regarding the hygienic conditions in the camp, initially – after my arrival – it was clean, the delousing was thorough, the underwear would be changed every two weeks and bedsheets every six weeks. From spring 1942, that is after Oberaufseherin Mandl took over, the hygienic conditions started to worsen: numerous transports of Ukrainian women were subjected to only partial delousing, so the lice started to spread very quickly, each year the numbers increasing. Personal underwear was distributed less and less often – every six weeks, then every few months, and in addition the laundry was poor, it was just boiled with all the stains, pus and lice. The density in the living barracks, starting from 1943, was so great that a block meant for 270 people housed over a thousand, with three prisoners sleeping in every bed (slightly over half a meter wide). It was the same at the Revier [hospital], where two or even three sick inmates had to sleep in one bed (e.g. a typhus patient with a pneumonia patient, etc.). From April 1942 onwards they took away our warm clothes: jackets, warm dresses, underwear, and stockings – we were left in summer short-sleeved dresses, with two pieces of thin underwear, and barefoot. I should mention that even as late as in June, during the morning roll calls (3.30 a.m.), there was white frost, and the roll calls lasted one and a half hours at their shortest, sometimes up to several hours.
Along with the worsening hygienic conditions, food rations became smaller. Food rations initially consisted of: black coffee in the morning, vegetables and a plate of unpeeled potatoes, half a liter of Knorr’s soup in the evening, and an 800-gram loaf of bread for four prisoners. Gradually the food deteriorated, and from autumn 1944 we would only get black coffee in the morning and evening, vegetables cooked together with peelings from the SS kitchen, and the 800-gram loaf of bread was split between seven people. The hunger was extreme. Receiving parcels was forbidden until November 1942. We knew that the Swedish and American Red Cross were sending food parcels weighing from 2 to 5 kilos, meant as a weekly supply. There were also parcels from the Swiss Red Cross addressed by name and they often got through to us after the chocolate, cigarettes and sugar had been taken out, or the overall size had decreased by half. Only once, in April 1945, each of the prisoners received 1/5 or 1/7 of the parcel.
Near our camp, there was the evacuated military sanatorium of Hohenlychen for war convalescents. After the Germans fled Ravensbrück, I personally visited this place and saw lots of boxes of parcels sent in by the Swiss, Swedish, and Canadian Red Cross, my conclusion being that the parcels sent for prisoners had been used by the Germans for their sick. I witnessed similar boxes in the private apartments of SS men, too. Apart from that, I saw entire basements of the Political Offices (Politische Leitung) filled with sugar, Swedish bread, canned food, soap, tooth powder, toothpaste – everything covered in Swedish writing.
After several weeks spent in quarantine, we were assigned to work. Some women were selected to work outside: at private properties, road construction, forest logging; some were appointed for internal camp work, such as: sewing factory, laundry, kitchen, washing; and the remaining women – to units that loaded and unloaded the trains, the so-called military Betriebs, which were overseen by SS men and which sewed for the military. Regarding the units that worked at the station on unloading the trains, in the post-uprising period there were special units that usually consisted of Ukrainian women. This is explained by the fact that starting from October 1944, in the aftermath of the uprising, all kinds of belongings were brought from Warsaw, such as: machines, devices, clothes, whole textile strands of all types, toys, paintings, museum exhibits (miniatures, golden triptych with the Holy Mother), and generally speaking items of various disciplines. Bringing these things and transporting them into the camp’s premises to the sheds or piling them up in the open went on for several months, sometimes until March 1945. I need to explain that they were brought inside the camp territory, but outside the fences that surrounded the living barracks.
The fact that the things came from Warsaw was revealed by the Warsaw and Łódź labels on the fabrics that I often saw personally (e.g. “Węgierski” company) while working at the sewing factory, where the fabrics would be illegally used for underwear or clothes for the German camp staff.
That the fabrics weren’t meant for such use was proven by the fact that in case of an unexpected visit they would be cut into tiny pieces and burned in the stoves. I also know that the most valuable ladies’ furs, such as silver fox, astrakhan, etc. (also with the labels of Warsaw-based companies) were delivered to the military Betriebs to be utilized for various jackets and anorak uniforms for soldiers or aviators. I saw a whole bunch of precious Polish and foreign books, often long out of print, real collectors’ items, probably from Warsaw libraries or collections. After the uprising, 12,000 women from Warsaw, often with kids, passed through the Ravensbrück camp. Both the women and children were deprived of clothes or belongings, and left with a single piece of outerwear, such as a light dress, and one set of underwear without stockings. Mothers with children, like all women, got up for the morning roll call at 3.30 a.m., which was technically still night. The children with the mothers stayed in the camp for about half a year, then they were sent somewhere. As for older boys, they were separated from their mothers and sent away to the male camp; their mothers remained.
Regarding the experimental surgeries carried out in Ravensbrück, I can only speak of Polish women. They were all political prisoners brought in September 1941 in the Lublin transport, and several were taken from the Pawiak in Warsaw in June 1942. The surgeries began when Kögel was the camp commandant and Mandl was its Oberaufseherin. Experimental operations were initiated by professor Gebhardt and it was either him or his assistant, Dr Fischer, who decided about everything while carrying out the procedures. Professor Gebhardt was the chief doctor in the military trauma sanatorium in Hohenlychen. Dr. Oberheuser assisted during the operations and examined the patients beforehand; she was the camp doctor. The examination was really brief. They were limited to measuring the temperature and having a brief look at the bodies (especially arms and legs).
The surgeries either had an experimental purpose or their aim was to collect bone fragments from legs and probably transplant them to patients in Hohenlychen sanatorium or elsewhere, or sometimes to collect serum after having infected [the subject].
On 12 April 1942, an unprecedented order came that forbade the prisoners transported from Lublin to work outside the camp. At the same time, twenty women from that delivery were called in front of the Oberaufseherin, named Mandl, who was particularly cruel towards Jewish women (sending those gravely ill to do the toughest work, ripping bandages off of festering legs, decreasing food rations, etc.), and who was generally strict and harsh in her treatment of all prisoners. The Oberaufseherin inspected my legs, and then sent me back to the block. On 22 July 1942, thirty of the youngest Poles of the Lublin delivery were summoned in front of the camp commandant Kögel and a doctor from Hohenlychen, Gebhardrt, who sent them back after examining them. On 25 July, the Oberaufseherin verified the personal information of all the prisoners from the Lublin delivery and two from the Warsaw one. On the next day, 75 of the youngest were called into the Revier (ambulatory and patients’ wards) in front of the local doctors and director Kögel. Six of them were kept inside, and after a brief examination their legs were shaved, and they were injected with morphine shots. Four days later – on 1 August – they were all operated on. The operations involved infecting the muscles and probably the bones. The initial two batches of operated women were marked with the letters T1, TK1, TM1 on their casts – group one, the weakest reaction; T2, TK2, TM2 – group two, stronger; T3, TK3, TM3 – group three, the strongest. [People assigned] to group one: Wanda Kulczyk, 20 years old and Aniela Okoniewska, 24 years old; group two: Rozalia Gutek, 20 years old, and Marianna Gnaś, 25 years old; group three: Wanda Wojtasik, 20 years old, and Maria Zielonka, 28 years old. Their right leg had been operated and put in a cast, they had extremely high temperatures starting from the first night (over 40 degrees), the highest within the third group, and terrible pains that led them to suicidal thoughts (they said they were ready to jump on the electrified wires). Starting from the second day, their legs gave off a terrible smell. They were isolated from their environment, and during the first three changes of the wound dressing their eyes were covered. The only people who could access them were the German nurses, who – upon leaving the room – locked it with a key. At night, [the patients] were left without any care. Two weeks later, on 14 August 1942, nine more were called up, and they were also divided into three groups: 1) Jadwiga Kamińska, 28 years old (she protested against the operations on behalf of the group, but with no result), Zofia Kormańska, 30 years old, and Zofia Kawińska, 20 years old; 2) Władysława Karolewska, 29 years old, Alicja Jurkowska, 20 years old, and Maria Karczmarz, 26 years old; 3) Urszula Karwacka, 27 years old, Krystyna Iwańska, 23 years old, and Janina Iwańska, 19 years old. Their bodies’ reactions were similar to the above. All the information I’m giving about the first two groups is based on my personal observations and oral reports from those who were operated on, information that was secretly shared with me through a window. Between 17 August and 1 September, four prisoners were taken: Janian Mitura, muscle infection operation; Aniela Sobolewska, both legs; Krystyna Dębska; Zofia Stefaniak – all three bone operations. On 15 September, infectious operations performed on the same wounds were conducted on: W. Kulczyk, Rozalia Gutek, M. Zielonka, J. Kamińska, W. Karolewska, U. Korwacka. 21 September: Zofia Sokulska, 28 years old, muscle operation, left leg. 30 September, infectious muscle operations: Maria Nowakowska, 21 years old, Pelagia Rakowska, 52 years old, Wiktoria Szuksztul, 17 years old, Maria Pajączkowska, 22 years old, Weronika Kraska, 30 years old, Zofia Hoszowska, 28 years old, Stanisława Młodkowska, 33 years old, Stefania Łotocka, 30 years old, Halina Pietrzak, 30 years old, Alfreda Prus, 20 years old. Kraska died on the third day after the operation with symptoms of tetanus. On 13 October, A. Prus died showing symptoms of gas gangrene. 7 October: infectious muscle operations: Aniela Lefanowicz, 40 years old, Irena Krawczyk, 35 years old, Pelagia Maćkowska, 40 years old, Stanisława Jabłońska, 35 years old, Jadwiga Łuszcz, 24 years old, Zofia Kiecol, 35 years old, Genowefa Kluczek, 20 years old, Maria Kuśmierczuk, 22 years old, Kazimiera Kurowska,19 years old, Maria Kapłon, Czesława Kostecka, 34 years old.
11 October 1942, Zofia Kiecol died.
13 October 1942, Stefanowicz died, showing symptoms of gas gangrene.
13 October 1942 Kurowska died. All of them in terrible agony.
1 October 1942, Barbara Pietrzyk (16 years old), bone operation of both legs (operated five times throughout five months).
3 November 1942, Barbara Pytlewska (25 years old), frequent muscle operations, both legs (operated five times)
3 November 1942, Stanisława Śledziejowska (17 years old), frequent muscle operations, both legs (operated five times).
3 November 1942, Izabela Rek (19 years old), bone operation, both legs, operated four times.
4 November 1942, Zofia Baj (24 years old), bone operation, both legs, operated two times.
4 November 1942, Irena Backiel, bone operation, both legs, operated two times.
15 November 1942, Leokadia Bień (20 years old), bone operation, both legs, operated five times. 17 November 1942, Bogumiła Bąbińska (27 years old), muscle operation, operated three times, six incisions.
20 November 1942, Maria Grabowska (33 years old), bone operation, both legs, operated three times.
20 November 1942, Maria Cabajowa, infectious operation.
23 November 1942, Infectious injections into the leg: 1) Wojciecha Buraczyńska, 22 years old, 2) Eugenia Mann, 32 years old, 3) Jadwiga Gisges, 35 years old, 4) Eugenia Mikulska, 32 years old, 5) Jadwiga Dzido, 20 years old, 6) Anna Sienkiewicz, 21 years old, 7) Wacława Andrzejak, 21 years old, 8) Krystyna Czyż, 18 years old, 9) Jadwiga Bielska, 20 years old. After the injection, the first six were made an incision on the place of the injection, four others were only treated with vein injections.
22 November 1942, frequent muscle operations, four incisions on each leg: Hegier Helena 26 years old, Czajkowska Stanisława, 19 years old, operated three times.
2 December 1942, Pelagia Michalik, 22 years old, bone operations, operated two times.
2 December 1942, Zofia Sokulska – repeated muscle operations on the same leg and in the same location.
2 December 1942, Janina Marciniak, 20 years old, bone operation, operated three times.
2 December 1942, Władysława Marczewska, 32 years old, bone operation, operated three times.
5 January 1943, Stanisława Michalik, 32 years old, bone operation.
19 January 1943, Zofia Modrowska, 36 years old, bone operation.
30 January 1943, Halina Piotrowska, 27 years old.
In January 1943 the doctors declared that there would be no more surgeries except for concluding the experimental studies on those who were already in the Revier and had been operated on before. On 10 March, the following were summoned to the Revier: Michalina Marczewska, Regina Małkowska, Pełczyńska. They announced to the doctors of the Revier (Oberheuser and Schiedlausky), that they did not give their consent for any operations. At the same time, the rest of those operated on filed an official letter to the “ oberinka” (Oberaufseherin Langefeld) addressed to camp commandant (Suhren), which said: “The undersigned prisoners are requesting Sir Commandant to hear them on the following matter: from 1 August 1942 experimental surgeries have been conducted at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the subjects being healthy political prisoners who do not give their consent. The name “rabbits”, widely accepted on the camp’s premises and in the Revier, proves the purpose behind these operations. Turning to one of the doctors in demand of an explanation did not yield any results. In January 1943 the doctors declared that the surgeries would not be continued, but new subjects have been called. We are asking Sir Commandant to explain whether the operations that are carried out on us are punishments related to any sentence, for as we know, international law does not allow experimental operations without consent to be a part of a punishment, even on criminal prisoners.” The commandant did not meet us and or respond in any way. However, the operations on the three selected women were not carried out. Throughout February and March, they carried out operations on the patients who had been submitted in November and December. On 15 August 1943 the following were summoned to the Revier: Stefania Sieklucka, 33 years old, Joanna Szydłowska, 37 years old, Helena Piasecka, 27 years old, Halina Piotrowska, 29 years old, Władysława Karolewska, Zofia Kormańska, Pelagia Michalik, Urszula Korwacka, Zofia Sokulska. They did not show up at the Revier, knowing that everything was set up to operate on them. As a result of this disobedience, the whole block no. 15 was ordered to come out and line up. All other prisoners in the whole camp were forbidden from leaving their blocks. The above mentioned were called out from a list one by one, and the first ones whose names were read out made a statement in front of the “oberinka” (Oberaufseherin Bintz) that they were refusing to be operated on. “Oberinka” gave her word that they wouldn’t be operated on, and took them in front of the headquarter offices, where they all escaped into the crowd of standing women from the block. Then they were captured by the police women and led to the bunker, where the next day, wearing dirty dresses and unwashed for two days, they were operated on despite their struggling resistance. The remaining four (one was left to look after those who had been operated on) were released back to the block after being held in the bunker for eleven days (including one in the isolation room, without food). Five of the operated, after two weeks of lying in the bunker without any professional care, were moved to the Revier and operated on three more times each. By the end of December, without X-raying their legs, they were told to stand up and walk. Helena Piasecka broke her leg while making the first step, fracturing it in the operated section. Not until after a week, an X-ray showed that the shin bone was just 2.5 cm thick at the operated spot. The Revier refused any medical supplies that could help the bone regenerate. In general, the Revier usually refused to treat the surgery complications, which happened very often. After the experimental operations, wound dressing changes were delayed due to lack of time and other reasons day by day, until 10–14 days passed (the wounds terribly suppurating). The hygienic and septic conditions were horrible. The patients were not receiving care for long periods. The festering wounds revealed pieces of glass, material and surgical needles.
The way events unfolded on 15 August 1943 and the following days shed some light on the general relations within the camp. When block 15 was subjected to a three-day arrest without food or light, the whole camp, including the jailers, finally found out that the operated Poles had not only refused to be operated on, but also protested against them, as shown by the present incident. At the same time, the Poles learned from the nurses of the Revier, SS janitors and the civilians who they worked for, that the administration was spreading rumors that the operated Poles were criminals who had murdered German soldiers, gouging out their eyes, etc., that they had willingly agreed to be operated on in return for a fee paid to them or their families, and that in exchange for their consent they had had their death sentences pardoned. When the incidents of 15 August defied all these lies, the German civilians were outraged by the atrocities happening within the camp and in expression of their support for the Poles, sent them food and fruits through their camp colleagues at the time of their detention.
From among the women operated in January 1943, the following were executed: Pajączkowska and Marianna Gnaś, 28 September 1943: Maria Zielonka, Rozalia Gutek, Pelagia Rakowska, and Aniela Sobolewska.
On 5 February 1945 all the women who had been subjected to the experimental operations in the camp of Ravensbrück were barred from leaving the block, which was usually done before an execution. As the secret rumor circulating around the camp had it, it related to instructions from Professor Gebhardt, who was the initiator and chief of the experimental operations, and who demanded that all the operated be removed from the camp’s premises. The operated women resolve to defend until the end and buy some time, so they hid in other blocks, in the ditches and in attics, taking advantage of the many outgoing transports of people at that time; they attempted to leave with one of them, disguised and under fake surnames. The rest of those who had been operated on were evacuated along with all others.
In regard to women who arrived at the camp pregnant, they would be subjected to induced miscarriage, so giving birth wasn’t allowed. Rare cases of babies being born were handled in such a way that the nurse, a German called Gerda (I don’t know her surname) would smother the babies, who were then thrown into the so-called Heicung (central heater). Gerda, Dr. Rosenthal’s lover (he was a medic that was playing a doctor, drunk almost the entire time), was a specialist in giving deadly injections to women whose condition was serious, and to those chronically ill. She would give the injections on the order of Dr. Rosenthal or on her own initiative, and – as people said – they were given because the agony of the dying people was a source of sexual arousal for them.
Both Gerda and Dr. Rosenthal were imprisoned, I don’t exactly remember when. What they were charged with, I don’t know. From the time of their arrest, there were no more induced miscarriages.
After the women evacuated from Warsaw arrived (the transports flowed in from mid-August until November), all the pregnant women, a couple of hundred of them, were called out and offered an induced abortion, explaining that it would make their stay in the camp easier. They all refused. After a month the same solution was proposed, and the answer was also a no. The babies that were born were not killed anymore, but almost all of them died.
Near the end of December 1944, while women were being transported from the Auschwitz camp, a group of over a hundred Gypsies came to Ravensbrück. They were all subjected to castration, including nine-year-old girls. It consisted of exposing them to x-ray radiation and then some operations. The victims suffered greatly, they bled, vomited and were overall badly sick after these operations. In the period of mass transportation of women and their delivery to Ravensbrück, huge numbers of them were being deported to munition factories at the same time. Because the workers and German staff were informed that the arriving women were criminals, being punished for torturing and ripping the eyes out of German soldiers, their attitude in the factories was usually hostile. During that time so-called bonuses were implemented, both in the factories and within the camp. This meant that the prisoners were paid in coupons that could be used for buying goods from the canteen. The camp administration probably pushed for the bonuses to be drawn by prisoners to back the information they spread among the civilian population that prisoners were rewarded for their work. Cases of refusing the bonuses were surprising for the German workers in the factories, who at that point learned that the women were political prisoners. In the camp, Poles and Russian women from the Red Army usually didn’t accept the bonus, neither did isolated individuals of other nationalities.
From January 1945 there are selections carried out in the camp, when women from whole blocks were lined up in front of the buildings and following an inspection done by a committee consisting of the male camp doctor and several SS-men, older women with swollen or wounded legs were put aside and then sent to a nearby camp, over 4,000 of them, to the so-called Jugendlager. Their coats were confiscated there, they slept on a bare floor, and stood in front of the barrack for days on end. Those who complained about it were taken away and disappeared, nobody knew where to.
In the meantime, three chimneys of the crematory were belching out smoke without a break, and the stifling stench of burnt corpses filled the air day and night. You could hear that these women were gassed in special wagons or in a special chamber placed next to the crematorium, behind the Politische Leitung. The chamber was incorrectly built, leaky, and supposedly people who entered suffered for 24 hours, the blood flowed out of their skin pores, and they burned still half-alive. This continued until April 1945.
As for the executions by firing, carried out on Poles in the Ravensbrück camp in the period between March 1942 and February 1945, about several hundred people died. They were killed without being tried or sentenced, taken in batches of 6 to 12, irregularly, every several days, weeks or months, more often at times when the situation in Poland was tense. Based on the notes from the documents of the political office, made secretly by several Poles, I can provide the following data concerning the Ravensbrück camp: from 6 September 1939 until 31 January 1945, 32,445 Polish women passed through the camp, including 12,217 evacuated from Warsaw. A month before the camp was shut down, its population, including the ones working at the so-called kommandos (units registered in the camp, but working and living outside), was more than 13,000 women. Executed in Jugendlager: 4,375. By the end of April 1945, when the front was very close to Ravensbrück, orders to evacuate the camp by force were issued. All women were hustled towards Lübeck. Only the sick remained, a few doctors and not many of the staff. The commandant announced that the Dachaubetriebs (military workshops), the bunker and the political unit office would be blown up. This was not put into effect, and on 30 April 1945 the first units of the Red Army entered Ravensbrück. The number of prisoners that went through the Ravensbrück camp exceeded 120,000 female prisoners in total.
I hereby conclude my testimony.
The report was read out.