A report of testimony given before the Voivodeship Jewish Historical Commission on 20 June 1947 in Kraków.
The testimony was heard by: Sara Berklehammer
The testimony was made by:
| Name and surname | Dr. Ilze Freund |
| Date and place of birth | 14 January 1902 in Wrocław |
| Place of residence | Kraków, Wrzesińska Street 8, flat 12 (both before the war and presently) |
| Occupation | physician |
In the case of Alice Orlowski, “Chłopczyca” [tomboy].
I met “Chłopczyca” for the first time in “Kabel” [cable factory], where I worked as the camp physician.
On 15 May 1944 at 8.00 a.m., she stormed into my dispensary in the company of another Aufseherin [overseer] whose surname I didn’t know and gave me hell. She began to scream and yell that the place was filthy and not yet cleaned, and that there were cigarette butts in the ashtray. I tried to explain that I saw the first patients, that is, those who set off for work at 7.00 a.m., from 6.00 a.m., and that from 7.00 to 8.00 a.m. I admitted those coming back from work, and so I couldn’t have started cleaning before 8.00 a.m. But my explanations were to no avail. Enraged, she came at me and beat me about the face and eyes so hard that one eye immediately puffed up. Upon leaving, she told me that she would be back in half an hour, and that the place had to be spotless by that time.
I heard through the wall that she entered the neighboring barrack, occupied by women who had returned at 7.00 a.m. from the night shift. I heard her beat them without mercy; at one point she ordered that her whip be brought. Then I closed the dispensary and went to see the director. I went to the deputy director Dietze and told him that Orlowski was mercilessly beating women and that probably more or less half of them would be unable to go to work at night. Dietze told me that he couldn’t interfere because the case wasn’t within his competence, as such were the orders of the SS.
Orlowski promptly learned about my intervention, stopped beating prisoners and came to my dispensary. She told me that I would be removed from the post of a doctor and that she would send me to the Steinbruch [stone quarry] in Płaszów, where I would be sure to perish. She threatened that I would see what she was capable of and that she would take her revenge on my husband. This threat affected me so much and depressed my spirits to such a degree that when she had left, I decided to poison myself and therefore took seven grams of phenobarbital. Some time later I lost consciousness.
When Orlowski learned about my suicide attempt, she forbade others to try to save me and didn’t allow anyone to come in and see me. She locked the door to the dispensary and took the key. Nevertheless, when she had left, Dr. Hausman and Dr. Fromowicz, assisted by my husband and dentist Kleinmann, entered the dispensary through the window and did everything they could to save me.
Two days later, the guards from Płaszów came to take me to the Steinbruch, but since I was unconscious, they loaded me onto a cart. My husband, taking into account the possibility that I would be executed, volunteered to come with me. Trude Steuer, a German Jewess who was director Boehme’s secretary, was also taken then.
In Płaszów, I was placed in the hospital, where I was visited every day by Orlowski, who threatened me that my days of leisure would soon be over and that I would be sent to the Steinbruch. After a few days, I was sent as a washerwoman to the laundry, and Orlowski pointed at me and said, “See, this is that doctor from “Kabel”, now she is a washerwoman”.
Three days later she changed her behavior towards me; she gave me lighter work, that is, marking dirty underwear. I suppose that I owe this change for the better to director Boehme, who held me in high regard and respected my work. He pointed it out to the Lagerführer that Orlowski incited Łukasik, the commandant of the Werkschutz and allegedly a Volksdeutscher from Silesia, who wanted to get rid of me and Steuer, as the two of us knew that he used to rape Jewish women. Boehm accused Łukasik before Grimm that he didn’t behave properly and that he shouldn’t hold the post of the commandant of the Werkschutz.
As a result, Grimm summoned me for interrogation and demanded, “Give me the surnames of these women who had been raped by Łukasik”. I replied, “I won’t give you any names,” to which he said, “You have to; we have our ways to make you speak”. I replied, “I’m not afraid of you. I have already proved that I’m not afraid of death”. Then he changed his tone and told me, “You’re afraid to give any names because you think there’ll be repressions. I swear on my honor that I consider these women as victims and that they won’t be punished”. I was still very brave back then, and I told him that I didn’t believe his word of honor.
Then, Grimm proposed that he would read out the surnames which had been submitted to him and I would merely say “yes” or “no”. And he began to read. I kept saying “yes”. Then he said, “So he raped these women”. I replied, “Excuse me, but he didn’t. He tried to rape them”. “What do you mean, tried?”, Grimm asked, surprised, “were they resisting?” “But of course”, I answered. “The Germans created the notion of Rassenschande [racial pollution], but for a Jewish woman to give herself to a German would be even worse, and each of them would rather die than have intercourse with a German”. My answer awed him, and from then on he treated me with respect.
Towards the end of June, “Chłopczyca” sent me with a transport to Wieliczka, where I worked as a doctor in the dispensary. Two weeks later, I fell gravely ill and was transported to the hospital in Płaszów, where I stayed for a week.
Later on I worked in the potato room. On 5 August 1944, the whole potato room was sent to Auschwitz. I managed to escape on the way to the train station and returned to the camp, to my husband, but unfortunately on the next day he was deported to Mauthausen.
Beginning on 8 August, I worked for a week in Barackenbau [construction unit], and then, thanks to Scharführer Müller, I was employed as a cleaner and typist in the garage. I spent two weeks there, and on 26 August, as a doctor, I went with a transport to the Nachrichten Gerähtslegar camp in Gundelsdorf, which formed a part of KL Flossenbürg in Bavaria (see the testimony on Gundelsdorf).