On 25 July 1945 in Kraków, Judge Stanisław Żmuda (PhD) delegated to the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland at the request, with the participation and in the presence of a member of the Main Commission, prosecutor Wincenty Jarosiński (PhD), pursuant to the Art. 254, in connection with Art. 107 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed the former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner no. 26281 as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Stanisława Rachwał née Surówka |
| Date and place of birth | 29 June 1906, Rudki, Wilno Voivodeship |
| Parents’ names | Karol and Emilia née Tustanowska |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Occupation | housewife |
| Place of residence before the War | Kraków, Karmelicka Street 20, flat 6 |
| Current place of residence | Kraków, Sobieskiego Street 5, flat 7 |
The German authorities held me captive from 13 October 1942 to 2 May 1945. During that time, I was detained at Montelupich prison in Kraków until 1 December 1942, and then transported by car to Auschwitz concentration camp, where I stayed from 1 December 1942 to 18 January 1945. Next, within eight days, I was transported to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück (Jugendlager [youth camp]), where I was imprisoned from 26 January 1945 to 13 February 1945. On that day, I was transported to the concentration camp in Neustadt- Glewe, where I stayed until my release on 2 May 1945.
In the afternoon of 13 October 1942, four Gestapo officers in uniforms came to my apartment at Sobieskiego Street 5. Having inspected my wartime identity card, they asked me a series of questions and mentioned several names. When they noticed that I was trying to swallow a small piece of paper, they all started choking me and punching me in the face, causing me to lose seven teeth. Despite all that, I managed to swallow this piece of paper. One of the Gestapo men was named Vollbricht. In the course of my investigation I found out that he was in charge of my case. I was beaten up and then driven to Pomorska Street, where I was handed a report with the testimony of Wraubek – who was a prisoner at the time – for reading. Then they ordered me to tell the truth and promised to let me go if I did. They threatened that otherwise they would beat me, kill me, and arrest my children. I learnt from this report that I was arrested under suspicion of having aided a Pole wanted by the Gestapo. On that day, I wasn’t interrogated, only transported to Montelupich prison. Two days later I was driven to Pomorska prison and interrogated for five days straight.
I wasn’t beaten in the course of the investigation, but they tried to force me to admit guilt by threatening that they were going to kill me and arrest my children. The Gestapo man Vollbricht was in charge of the interrogation. Another Gestapo man, Erich (a Volksdeutscher), was often present during the questioning. Being able to speak very good Polish, he was the one who looked through, read, and translated the correspondence that had been taken from my desk, which made it easier for Vollbricht to question me. The Gestapo General Bisanz was present only once during my investigation. He was from Lwów, and for many years worked as a restaurant owner. Before the war, he worked for 25 years for the German cause – I know this from a conversation between Erich and a Danish man, Egon Christensen, who was also present at my interrogation. After the interrogation had finished, they gave me a report to sign without reading it to me first. Despite the threats, confrontation with prisoner Wraubek, and promises of freedom, I refused to sign it. I would like to add that during the investigation at Pomorska prison I was given nothing to eat or drink for five days, even though each interrogation lasted an entire day.
At Montelupich prison I was detained in cell no. 40, in the so-called “convent.” The following prisoners were already in this cell: Aniela Kalata from Zakopane, Zofia Bratro from Niepołomice, Zofia Kupiec from Kraków, Zofia Ziołowska from Kraków (Pędzichów Street 8), Halina Gostwicka from Kraków, Kacperek from Kraków, Anna Borowiec and Maria Zarzycka from Lwów. The last two – young and beautiful women – were suspected of being Jewish, and after several days of detention in the cell they were suddenly taken away and never came back. We all assumed that they were shot to death at Montelupich prison. Apart from these two, all of my cell mates were suspected of political crimes.
There were 40 to 50 women in cell no. 40. We slept on pallets placed on the floor and covered ourselves with blankets or coats which we had brought from home. The cell was infested with lice. There wasn’t enough food – a mug of black coffee in the morning and in the evening, soup at noon, and about a hundred grams of bread a day. We survived only thanks to the meals provided twice a week by the RGO [Rada Główna Opiekuńcza – Central Welfare Council]. During that time, Dr. Kościuszko from Kraków was in charge of medical help in the prison, and she ran it with utmost care. However, getting to see a doctor was very problematic, since the SS man in charge of the cell usually ignored the prisoners who asked to be sent to a doctor.
The prisoners were tasked with working in the garden, peeling or sorting potatoes, cleaning cells and corridors. This work was intense and often accompanied by beatings. When one female prisoner managed to escape, the entire female prison was punished with five very strong and painful lashes. During my time, Zofia Ziołowska, and then Zofia Kupiec were in charge of cell no. 40 – both performed their duties very decently. Prisoners were tormented by the female prison guards, mostly Volksdeutschers. During my time there, the worst one was Rosa (I don’t know her surname), who beat people in the face for no reason. For a month I worked peeling potatoes. This is how I met prisoners who worked in the kitchen, for instance Rysia Skarbek, Laura Ripper from Kraków, Jasińska, a hairdresser from the Słowacki Theater in Kraków, Dr. Ernestyna Michalik and her servant Zosia, who helped prisoners a lot by providing them with food, and finally Helena Mytych, who died of typhus fever in Auschwitz on 3 May 1943. My worst memories from this period involve the cook at the so-called “convent” – a prisoner and SS man Grott who specifically volunteered to execute women. All female prisoners had goosebumps from fear whenever they saw him. On 30 November 1942, I was called out of cell no. 40 and led from the so-called “convent” to Montelupich prison. 14 people were placed in a tiny transport cell there. We were called out on the following day, at 4.00 a.m., and after waiting in the corridor for two hours, we were loaded into a vehicle. Down on our knees, motionless and silent, we were transported to the camp in Auschwitz.
We were kept in the vehicle in front of the main gate to Auschwitz concentration camp for eight hours straight. The sign above the gate read: “Arbeit macht frei” [work sets you free]. I witnessed various scenes while we were waiting. Several that were particularly memorable involved prisoners who were being led into and outside the camp while being beaten by Blockführer [block leaders] who searched them. On top of that, every prisoner was repeatedly made to stand to attention and take off their hat. Then I saw the Leichenwagen [hearse] no. 9 stop by the main gate. It was handled by Jews from the so- called Sonderkommando [special work detail]. On top of the cart was some pile covered with a blanket. The cart crew gave their report, then a Blockführer uncovered the blanket and counted the corpses lying on top of the cart – which I saw with my own eyes – the number was 17. He then allowed the transport to depart. The ground underneath the cart which stopped there for a moment was covered with blood, which meant that the corpses were being transported to the crematorium immediately after the execution. But within a couple of minutes the blood was gone, because two prisoners collected it with shovels and buried all traces of it with fresh sand.
After eight hours of waiting, our transport was claimed by an SS woman in uniform – so-called Aufseherin [female overseer] accompanied by the so-called Post [sentry] – and escorted to the female concentration camp at Birkenau. I was then led to a special building, the so-called “sauna,” where they cut our hair, took our belongings away in accordance with a list, made us put on striped uniforms with prisoner number sown on top, noted down our data – especially information concerning Aryan descent, criminal record, and political affiliation – and assigned us to blocks. I was given number 26281. Together with the entire group from Kraków, I was assigned to block no. 7.
This was an Aryan block, where the so-called Zugänge [arrivals] were sent, and which housed about a thousand female prisoners. Built out of stone, it was still unfurnished and there was mud instead of the floor. The block was dark inside and equipped with triple bunk beds – each was meant for five people, but in reality there were up to 12 people per bed. Naturally, sleeping in such conditions was impossible – we spent whole nights awake, in a sitting position. During the first year of my stay in this block, there was no light, water, or showers. Due to such sanitary conditions, the block became infested with insects, especially lice. On each bed there was only a dirty pallet and a dirty blanket issued in the camp to be used as covers.
We were woken up at 4.00 a.m. and rushed outside, where we waited for roll-call which did not start before sunrise. Roll-call usually lasted two to three hours. Waiting outdoors under such conditions in autumn – and even more so in winter – was very tiresome. There were many instances of prisoners fainting or dying, especially since it was forbidden to help a prisoner who had collapsed on the ground and fell into a puddle or mud. During roll-call, prisoners were assigned to various work details. This process was accompanied by all kinds of harassment from kapos – German female prisoners, who were usually marked with black or green triangles. Prisoners tried various ways to avoid working in certain commandos [work details], saying that they were weak or couldn’t carry out heavy labor, but kapos forced them to work by beating and even kicking them.
Assembled into groups, under the immediate supervision of the kapo, the prisoners then left for work to which they had been assigned. Work usually lasted 12 hours and afterwards, before the nightfall, there was about a two-hour long evening roll-call. Roll-call was often deliberately lengthened, as the prisoners were sometimes counted even 15 times. SS women usually couldn’t count, so they ordered prisoners to assemble in groups of five, because every day the total number of prisoners had to be conveyed via telephone to the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin (Reichssicherheitshauptamt).
In the block or during the morning roll-call, prisoners received about one-eighth of a liter of black coffee or German tea (herbs). Prisoners working outdoors were given soup at noon, and during the evening roll-call every prisoner was given black coffee and 250 grams of bread with some addition. Prisoners who worked on the camp premises did not receive soup at noon. During work, we were supervised by kapos and SS women with mean, specially trained dogs.
I was assigned to work at a Rollwagenkommando with eight other female prisoners, four of whom were pulling a cart in a harness, while the other four walked by the wheels. We transported rubbish, bricks, lime, cement, soil, and stones. Roads in the camp were in a terrible state. They were bumpy and muddy, so prisoners kept getting stuck in the mud and losing their clogs. My group was supervised by a kapo: a young Jewish woman from Slovakia, Zuzia, who treated us very badly and hit us (even over the head) with a stick, for no reason.
A general delousing of the entire camp for females took place on 6, 7 and 8 December 1942. All personal belongings were taken away from the prisoners, who were then rushed naked to the so-called “sauna.” They were rushed under freezing cold showers and their whole bodies were shaved. The shaving was usually done by male prisoners, mostly Russians, under the strict supervision of SS men and women. It was a very painful and humiliating process. Every female prisoner had to stand on top of two stools with her legs apart and arms raised. Then a “barber” shaved her, usually with a blunt straight razor and no soap, while the supervising SS men made the crudest jokes and punished even the slightest signs of the prisoners’ embarrassment with a beating. After we were shaved, we had to wait naked for several hours in the “sauna.” Then we received supposedly clean underwear which, as it turned out, was still louse-infested and dirty. We then waited for roll-call. For the entire day we were given no food. During the delousing, the blocks were locked and we weren’t allowed to enter. Everything from the blocks was thrown away, so when we came back, we had to sleep on the floor for several nights.
During these three days, a so-called selection was carried out by the command of the female camp and an SS doctor. The selection was carried out among Aryan and Jewish women. Every day even a few hundred prisoners might have been transported in vehicles straight to the gas chambers, and after three days their total number definitely reached 1,500.
Apart from the gassing and weekly selections, there was also so-called natural selection in the female camp, that is a high mortality rate, which during the typhus fever epidemic in the winter of 1942, 1943, and 1944 reached over 300 deaths per day. No wonder that executions of political prisoners in the female camp were rare in comparison with the male camp. It’s hard to tell what motivated the decisions of the camp authorities during selections. Most of the time they were random or based on a whim of a given authority.
As evidence, I would like to point to a special selection, which occurred within the first days of December 1942 in block no. 7: Witt – an about 22 year-old German SS woman from the Rhineland, to whom we were reporting and who held the post of an Aufseherin, was furious when she discovered that there were too many (over a hundred) sick prisoners in the block. She ordered that 25 patients be transported to block no. 25 – the so-called death block, from where corpses were driven to the crematorium. Witt publicly stated: “As you see, I can do whatever I like with you.” On that occasion, she also beat the block clerk, Karolina Wilińska, accusing her of sabotage and threatening her with punishment. Prisoners sent to death by Witt escaped their doom only by sheer coincidence, for while they were on their way to block no. 25, the transport was stopped by the deputy head of the camp, Margot Drechsel, who saw that the transport consisted only of Aryan women (on top of that, one of them named Rosiak was being carried on a stretcher), and that it was organized without the camp command’s order, so she sent the whole transport to the hospital. During the selection process which took place on 6, 7, and 8 of December 1942, the camp command was selecting mostly Jewish women and only those from among the Aryan women who were old and sick. The SS man Dr. Kitt participated in this selection.
Before the surrender of Italy – that is, until the summer of 1943 – there were no children in the entire female camp. I know of a German authorities’ order which prohibited sending pregnant women to concentration camps. Since prison authorities usually didn’t subject prisoners to gynecological examinations before sending them to camps (I know this from experience), many pregnant women were transported to concentration camps. Wanting to carry out the orders of the highest authorities and to cover up the negligence of the prison authorities in this regard, the camp command sentenced to death those female prisoners who were eight or nine months pregnant (when the pregnancy was evident and certain). In these cases, the pregnant women were sent after the evening roll-call to the so-called Revier [hospital], where they were injected with phenol. What is worse, the injections were not administered by a doctor, but by an expert in this type of thing – an SS man who belonged to the SDG kommando [Sanitätsdienstgrade – auxiliary medical personnel]. I’m aware of two instances of prisoners giving birth in secret at that period of time, but the mothers and the children all died in the Revier within the next three days.
I am familiar with the following hierarchy of the authorities of the female camp: Obersturmbanführer Höss was the main commandant of the whole concentration camp in Auschwitz. Lagerführerin [camp leader] Maria Mandl from Vienna, known among the prisoners as “Mańcia Migdał [Almond],” a boxer by trade, headed the female camp. She hit with a terrifying strength, and was capable of knocking out a person’s teeth with a single blow. She specialized in kicking both men and women in the abdomen. The deputy head of the female camp was Margot Drechsel, who behaved just as bad as “Mańcia Migdał.” From the perspective of the SS, her only assets which made her exceptional in the whole female camp were education in the field of office work and being insusceptible to bribery.
The other deputy head of the female camp was Elisabeth Hasse – a cruel person, who specialized in selections of Jews and always walked around with a huge black dog by her side. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power, the three supervisors of the female camp that I have mentioned were decorated with the highest SS distinction for women. Next in the hierarchy of SS women were e.g. Elisabeth Volkenrath and her sister Gertruda Weniger, Therese Brandl, Irma Grese, Hedwiga Kozubik (a Volksdeutscher), Mysz (a Volksdeutscher), Miklas (a Volksdeutscher), Witt, and many others, whose names I no longer remember. Among the SS men who had a reputation for brutality was Rapportführer [report leader] Adolf Taube from Vienna, who was extremely tall, and who beat and kicked prisoners in a cruel manner. The following people performed the function of Arbeitsdienstführer [work detail leaders]: Richard Perschel (a Volksdeutscher), Ruiters from Lorraine – a relatively decent person, especially with regards to his treatment of Polish women; Moll – who was later head of the crematorium, and who would drunkenly ride a motorcycle all over the camp and run over prisoners; Mokrus, and others. There was also Sturmbannführer Hartjenstein, who was superior to the female personnel of the female camp, and answered to the main camp commandant of Auschwitz. He was succeeded by Hauptsturmführer Kramer from Zawiercie (a Volksdutscher), an illegitimate son of a German father and a Polish mother, who had graduated from a Polish secondary school and often boasted about it. He was succeeded by Sturmbannführer Baer. They were all tall, well- built, and immensely cruel towards prisoners. Since they were high-ranking SS officers, their names were kept secret. The highest authority over all concentration camps set up by the Germans was held by the office operating under the inconspicuous name: SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt Berlin [SS Main Economic and Administrative Office in Berlin]. Höss took over an important position in this office after he had left his post as the commandant of the entire concentration camp in Auschwitz.
Within the hierarchy of the camp staff, recruited from among the prisoners by the Germans, the highest position was Rapportschreiberin. For two years this function was performed by a 20-year-old Jewish woman from Slovakia, Katia Singer – a very disagreeable person, corrupted by power. She had a huge influence over Drechsel, who did favors only for Slovakian Jews. Next in the hierarchy was Lagerälteste [senior camp prisoner], who had unlimited power in all the blocks. She was responsible for enforcing camp regulations, maintaining order within the blocks, dispatching kommandos, etc. At first, this function was performed by a German woman whose surname I don’t remember, then from the summer of 1943 until the end of the existence of the female camp in Auschwitz, that is until 18 January 1945, this function was performed by a Polish woman – Stanisława Starostka from Tarnów. The German authorities trusted her completely – especially commandant Kramer. She was known as “Stenia.” Next was Lagerkapo [prisoner appointed by the SS to oversee camp inmates], senior block prisoners who were her deputies, the block clerk, and room supervisors. A separate group of camp authorities was comprised of kapos of the kommandos – mostly German women who were criminals marked with black or green triangles. I have good memories concerning senior block prisoner Lidia Wicher – an honest person, who helped other prisoners as best as she could, particularly by spending her own money on postcards, which she then gave away to prisoners for free. I would like to add that obtaining postcards was very difficult, Jewish women sold them for food. Within the first few days of my stay at the camp, Wicher gave me a postcard for free. Block leader Jadwiga Drozdowska from block no. 15a also helped prisoners a lot, and so did Hanka Schiller from block no. 4b.
On 12 March 1943, a physician, Dr. Janina Węgierska, discovered that I had temperature over 39 degrees and sent me to the Revier, where I stayed until 12 April 1943. It turned out that I fell ill with typhus fever. The hospital was overcrowded due to the typhus epidemic which broke out at that time. I lay in bed with two Jewish women from Greece, who also had typhus. Prisoner-doctors were doing everything they could to give the sick some relief. Unfortunately, there was a shortage of medications, dressings, and injections. Charts of almost all patients stated that they had the flu or various diseases other than typhus, because as a contagious disease it qualified people for selection. The food was very lousy and insufficient for hospital conditions – it was the same as the food given to workers. The sanitary conditions were awful, there was no water, beddings or underwear. There was a huge lice infestation, impossible to get rid of. It was a miracle that having received no medical assistance – in particular no injections – I recovered from this illness. The head prisoner-doctor at the time and until the liquidation of the camp was Dr. Enna, whose surname I don’t know – a Jewish woman from Slovakia, who had a significant influence over head SS doctor Rohde, and consequently had a great opportunity to improve the conditions in the hospital in every aspect. Unfortunately, she made no effort to improve the state of the sick, because she only cared for Slovakian Jews. The following female doctors worked in the Revier: Dr. Białówna from Białystok, Dr. Konieczna from Warszawa, Dr. Michalik from Kraków, Dr. Perzanowska from Radom, Dr. Kościuszko from Kraków, Dr. Węgierska from Warszawa, Dr. Celina Chojnacka from Warszawa, Dr. Katarzyna Łaniewska from Warszawa, Dr. Jadwiga Hewelke and Dr. Wanda Chmura, a dentist. All of these Polish doctors worked with enormous devotion and dedication, helping the sick, regardless of their religion or nationality, by sharing their own food with them and personally obtaining medicine (because the hospital pharmacy was under the supervision of Dr. Enna, who allowed prisoners to get medicine only in exchange for food that had been sent to them in packages, or for gold, jewels and money). In addition to typhus fever, people fell ill with the following epidemic diseases: pemphigus, scabies brought by Greek and Russian women, Durchfall [diarrhea] – camp dysentery, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and many cases of influenza. Five blocks were designated as a hospital area at the time. Each block could fit from 700 to 900 patients. Technically, these blocks were intended as stables, as was evident from the signs: “Pferdestall” [stable]. The mortality rate in my block was about twenty-odd people a day.
The following people were head doctors in charge of the entire hospital for women: Dr. Kitt, Dr. Rohde, Dr. Mengele, Dr. König and Dr. Klein. They were SS officers.
After I was released from the hospital, I applied for work in an office, where they were looking for female prisoners who spoke foreign languages – especially German. I was assigned to the political department, which was officially called: Politische Abteilung Aufnahme. The department’s office was a just one room located in the “sauna” building. Twenty female prisoners worked there under the supervision of an SS man. Our task was to fill out printed forms with prisoners’ personal data and criminal record. Prisoners from each transport were organized in alphabetical order and tattooed. Then their surname, name, nationality, and type of triangle was written down in the so-called Nummerbuch [book of numbers]. Finally, the prisoners marched to the political department to be registered by means of the forms which I have mentioned earlier – the so-called Bogen. I would like to add that before getting to the political department, every transport was sent to the “sauna,” where prisoners were stripped naked, their hair was cut, and after a bath they were made to put on striped uniforms. In these clothes they were escorted to the political department. A prisoner received her identification number in the political department. This number was written down in the Nummerbuch, and the prisoner was given a sew-on badge with the number in the “sauna.” Prisoners’ belongings were stored in the Effektenkammer [personal effects warehouse]. In the event of a prisoner’s death, all of her belongings were to be confiscated. The only exception were the movable items which belonged to the German and Yugoslav prisoners, for these items were to be returned to the prisoners’ families. All of the movable items brought by prisoners from general transports were confiscated – they weren’t stored in the Effektenkammer, but in the so-called “Canada.” This, however, applied only to Jewish transports which arrived under the name RSHA [Reichssicherheitshauptamt – Reich Main Security Office].
The entire Auschwitz camp was the private property of the SS. In the political department I saw a printed form which stated that everything that lived, grew, and was born on the premises of the camp, unequivocally belonged to the SS. This is why they offered such gifts for the German state and army as, for instance, women’s hair given to the German Army for the production of ropes used on submarines. The confiscated Jewish property – especially gold, jewels, and securities – were a gift to the German state.
The female political department answered directly to the head of the political department in Auschwitz, SS officer Grabner. Oberscharführer Kirschner was his deputy. Our female department was headed by the SS man Klaus, then by the SS man Josef Houstek, who changed his name to Erber – a Czech from the Sudetes, Wladimir Bilan – a Volksdeutscher from Czerniowce, who graduated from a Polish secondary school in Stanisławów, Albrecht – a Volksdeutscher from Łódź, and Hoffman – a German from Lower Silesia. The main department in Auschwitz had power over life and death of all prisoners – it passed death sentences, ordered selections, and had the right to cancel executions. This department also determined the kind of punishment for prisoners and the manner of its execution. The head of this department Grabner and his deputy Kirschner had a reputation for being particularly brutal and ruthless, and were responsible for the deaths of millions of people. The worst SS man from the female camp was Josef Houstek. I know that the appropriate local Gestapo branch often sent a prisoner or a whole group of prisoners to the camp with the annotation that they were to be executed in Auschwitz – immediately or at a later time. In such cases, Auschwitz camp was simply carrying out orders issued by a that Gestapo branch. For instance, in the summer of 1942, a group of over 400 men, who had been captured in a street round-up in May, in Kraków, arrived in the camp in June, and was executed after a mere two weeks of detention in Auschwitz, on the orders of the Kraków Gestapo. Among the people who died as part of this group were Dr. Woźniakowski and Engineer Feliks Beaupré. All the selections of prisoners who were already in the camp or who arrived in a general transport had to be preceded by an order signed by the main camp commandant, a Lagerführer [camp leader], a doctor, and the head of the political department – without the signature of the latter, the selection was invalid.
Only the Nummerbuch [book of numbers] and Zugangsliste [list of arrivals] were stored in the female political department. The forms, so-called Bogen and Unterlagen were sent by the head of the female department to the main political department in Auschwitz. Based on the Bogen and documents which arrived with the detainees, called Unterlagen – on the basis of which the prisoners had been arrested – the so-called Zugangslisten were typed in the main political department in Auschwitz. These included a prisoner’s number, citizenship, type of triangle, name and surname, full date and place of birth, and profession. This book served as the basis for confirming the prisoner’s identity. Copies of the Zugangsliste were sent to the male or female political department, as well as to Lagerführung [camp command], Effektenkammer [personal effects warehouse], Schreibstube [camp administrative office], and Bekleindungskammer [clothing warehouse]. The Zugangslisten and the Nummerbuch kept in the female department were burnt on 16 January 1945 by Oberscharführer Houstek-Erber in the BIIe section of Birkenau camp for women.
A new system of marking types of prisoner was introduced in March 1943. A separate Nummerbuch and a Zugangsliste marked with the letter “E” (Erziehungshäftling [re-education prisoner]) were added to the “Sch” (Schutzhäftling [protective custody prisoners]) category used thus far. Erziehungshäftlinge weren’t tattooed and their detention lasted no longer than half a year – it was six weeks long on average. Such a prisoner was treated better, tasked with easier work, and after serving his sentence, had to go back to his previous job. Prisoners of this kind were people who had committed minor offences during work in the Reich – regardless of nationality, but only of Aryan descent. Their number reached over 1,800 before the end of the camp’s existence. In the autumn of 1943, another category was introduced both to the Nummerbuch and Zugangsliste – marked with the letter “A.” Only Jewish women from the large RSHA transports were given these numbers. They were registered rather neglectfully, on small, red-colored Bogen. The number of prisoners of this kind reached 29,000. I also remember the number of registered Schutzhäftlinge: 89,283.
In June and July 1944, large transports of Hungarian Jews arrived in Auschwitz. About 70,000 women from these transports were admitted to the female camp and placed in the section called “Mexico.” These Jewish women weren’t assigned numbers, tattooed, or registered in the abovementioned books. In the autumn of 1944 they were sent off in large numbers (several thousand a day) to work in factories in the Reich. Our office compiled a typewritten list with only a surname, name, and date of birth. With such a list, a transport would depart in the direction of the assigned workplace. The camp authorities were always diligent in dispatching the transports in accordance with the companies’ requirements, while the political department always checked whether the transports departing from the camp fulfilled those requirements in terms of quantity and quality.
Appropriate marks for prisoners were prepared in the female political department on small pieces of cloth which were then sent to the “sauna,” where female prisoners sewed them onto clothing, having verified that they matched the tattoos. On the basis of the documents sent from prison along with the prisoner, and after the registration of appropriate data in the so-called Nummerbuch and Bogen, the political department prepared the visual identification indicating the prisoner’s type, nationality and number. Visual identification of a prisoner of the female camp consisted of a triangle with the first letter indicating prisoner’s nationality (in case of a black triangle, the letter was placed next to it), and a black number. In addition to a black triangle, Gypsy women were also marked with the letter “Z.” These signs were written on a piece of white ribbon, ten by three centimeters in size. The prisoners wore them on the chest – on the left side of a blouse or a jacket, or on the left sleeve – depending on the directives. Not wearing this kind of identification was severely punished. The following triangles were in use: an inverted red triangle indicating Aryan political prisoners; an inverted green triangle indicating professional criminals who had been sentenced to detention in the camp by the court; a green triangle indicating professional criminals who functioned in the camp as a security measure (Sicherungsverwahrung); a lilac triangle indicating Bible students (Bibelforscherin); the Star of David with black contours, and the Star of David consisting of two triangles – yellow and red. At some point in the mid-1944 a red triangle below a yellow line was introduced to distinguish female Jewish prisoners. A visual mark, so-called Fluchtpunkts – large red points on a white background worn on the back and on the chest – were introduced for prisoners who tried or managed to escape from the camp. It was quite frequent that a prisoner arrived in the camp with documents with an annotation from the Gestapo, stating that she was to wear this sign, even though she had never tried to escape. In some cases prisoners didn’t even attempt to escape from the camp, and yet the political department ordered them to wear this sign, probably as a result of a report made by a Post [sentry]. In addition to a triangle, some female prisoners wore the letters IL (Im Lager), indicating that they were allowed to work only on the camp premises. The prisoners who were admitted in Auschwitz camp for the second time (Rücküberstellt) were assigned the same number and triangle as before, with a line of the same color as the triangle added above. A prisoner could receive two or more such lines, depending on how many times they returned to the camp. The first letter of the name of the prisoner’s nationality was written on top of a triangle in black, e.g. P – Pole, T – Tscheche (Czech), R – Russe (Russian), C – Croate (Croat), J – Jugoslavien (Yugoslav), etc. Until the autumn of 1942, Ukrainians were marked with the letter U, and later with a letter indicating their citizenship. Reichsdeutschers and Volksdeutschers had no letters on their triangles, and they weren’t tattooed. Jewish women had a small triangle or the letter “A” tattooed under their prisoner number.
Work in the political department lasted from 6.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. with an hour-long dinner break. In the event of the arrival of large prisoner transports, we had to work day and night, or even three nights in a row, with no rest and no normal breaks for meals. On such occasions, we had to secretly eat bread which had been delivered to us from the block. The people in charge of the political department treated us mercilessly, rushing us to work, not allowing us to rest even for a bit, and setting up a minimal quota of e.g. 2,000 entries a day. We were obligated to use the so-called Blockschrift, that is to write clearly and legibly – each letter had to be written separately, which naturally required a lot of effort and hard work. After we finished our workday, the head of the department inspected the Bogen which we had filled out, and if he spotted any inaccuracies or mistakes, he kicked up a fuss and made us do it again. Working under such conditions in the department was very tiresome and unpleasant. Outside of the department we led a normal camp life in the blocks.
While working in the office, I could observe various scenes in the camp through the window, especially the so-called Sortierungen, that is selections among the RSHA Jewish transports. These transports were unloaded from the train on the so-called ramp located right next to the female camp. Each transport numbered from 2,500 to 3,000 Jews. Selections were conducted by an SS doctor accompanied by one of the heads of the political department.
Men and women were separated. Usually only those who were young and fit for work were selected for the camp, and as for women – those who were pretty and had a good presence. Consequently, about 10 percent of the women from an entire transport were admitted to the camp. The rest of the transport was assembled in groups of five – women were together with children, elderlies, and the disabled. These groups marched straight to the crematorium, but were officially told that they were going to the camp for people who did not work. Horrible scenes took place during such selections, for the SS men were shouting, beating and pushing people around, setting dogs on them, children who got separated from their parents were crying, many prisoners were shot dead. The SS men were always drunk while on this kind of duty. Jewish women selected for work in the camp were marched to the so-called Zugangs – a barrack where they were stripped naked and their belongings were taken away. They were then rushed through the whole female camp to the so-called “sauna,” where their hair was cut, they were bathed and made to put on striped uniforms. Clothed in this manner, they would come to the political department to be registered. While looking out the windows of my office I could see crematoria IV and V, located right next to the camp, with smoke rising from them day and night. These were the so-called luxurious crematoria of large capacity, equipped with modern technology. A four to five meters high and strangely red flame was coming out of the chimneys along with a black smoke which settled on the grounds of the entire camp, often laying there for weeks and spreading the smell of burnt bodies. Next to the crematoria were deep pits intended for burning those corpses which didn’t fit in the crematoria. I know that small children who arrived in transports at night were loaded into dump trucks, driven to the pits and “spilled” alive into the pits from the body of the truck which was automatically raised. The pits were already burning when the children were being thrown in. The horrible screams of the victims could be heard all over the female camp for one to three minutes.
In July 1944, I was returning to the female camp from office work, which we carried out next to the new “sauna” in Birkenau, where we were registering a small transport of Yugoslav women. I was accompanied by two of my colleagues from the office – Jewish women from Slovakia – and by the head of the political department, Unterscharführer Wladimir Bilan. It was about 11.00 p.m. and it was already dark. While walking through a small forest, we noticed a huge burning pile some one hundred meters away, located next to the pits which I have mentioned. The flame was lighting up a dozen or so luxurious cars parked in front of the pile. Next to the cars I noticed a dozen or so figures dressed in yellow Nazi party uniforms. The party members took turns approaching the pile. Each of them raised their right arm up and yelled “Heil!”, the whole group answered “Heil!” in unison. Each then took a corpse of a child who had been gassed in his gloved hand, and threw it onto the burning pile, and then threw the glove into the fire as well. Our boss came up to the SS men who were standing on guard. He talked to one of them and then returned to us and said: “It’s best if we leave here.” We came back to the camp in a roundabout way, and while we were walking, we learnt from Bilan that this was a party ritual attended by Himmler himself and other high ranking party members, who were obligated to personally kill a Jew every once in a while. Bilan also explained sarcastically that since they were great masters who refrained from doing dirty work, the whole ritual had been prepared beforehand and only corpses of small children who had been gassed had been selected, so that the masters wouldn’t get too tired.
On the premises of the female camp, especially while working in the department, I frequently witnessed instances of unbelievable cruelty and unlawfulness of the SS. The following incident may serve as an example: in the spring of 1944, a transport of 22 Aryan women of Polish nationality with children aged below 10 arrived in Auschwitz from the city of Bydgoszcz. I remember only one surname from this transport: Sierżant – a mother and her one-and-a-half-year old daughter. We learnt about this transport solely from the Zugangsliste sent to us from Auschwitz. We were very surprised, because the transport didn’t go through our political department. We asked around and learnt that three days earlier, at night, the whole transport went straight to the gas chamber. We assumed that this happened on the Gestapo’s orders. A month later, head of our department, Houstek- Erber, brought us a list of 22 people who were to be released, and instructed us to send them to a medical examination and then to the quarantine before release. We deduced that the list provided by Houstek pertained to the transport from Bydgoszcz, and explained that the transport did not go through our department. Houstek made a fuss, claiming that this was impossible, and personally searched for this transport all over our camp and the camp in Auschwitz, suspecting that the transport could be in the KA (Kommandantur-Arrest [camp prison]). Later it was revealed that the entire transport from Bydgoszcz was gassed due to a mistake made by drunk SS men.
Also in the spring of 1944, a transport of eight Jewish women from Zagreb arrived in Auschwitz. The transport was not processed by our political department, and the Jewish women were registered as Schutzhäftlinge [“protective custody” prisoners], so they had been tried, and their property and belongings were not to be confiscated, unlike in the case of RSHA transports. While the transport was being taken apart by prisoners from the Effektenkammer [personal effects warehouse], it turned out that one elderly Jewish woman had a suitcase full of valuables worth several millions. It contained pearls, diamonds, gold, and other precious jewels. A few days later, the whole transport was called out to the “sauna” and then driven straight to the gas chamber in the Red Cross vehicle intended for transporting the sick. The head of our department, Houstek, instructed us to get rid of the numbers of those Jewish women by sticking up the appropriate entries in the Nummerbuch and destroying the appropriate Zugangsliste. This is how all traces of the arrival and presence of this transport in the camp were removed. We were ordered to assign the numbers from this transport to the newly-arrived prisoners. The property of the gassed Jewish woman was divided between four camp officials: the main head of the political department in Auschwitz – Grabner or his deputy Kirschner, Lagerführerin [camp leader] of the female camp Oberaufseherin [senior overseer] Maria Mandl, head Aufseherin of the Effektenkammer Stangel and head of our department, Houstek, because the success of such an operation was dependent on these people working together.
In 1944, two female prisoners were detained in the female camp as hostages in their husbands’ stead. One called Boż from Szczakowa was about 24 years old and eight months pregnant – she was about to be released for this reason. I don’t remember the name of the other one, she was a teacher from Kęty. Both of these prisoners were summoned to the political department, because as it turned out, the Gestapo ordered that they be executed. Head of our department said that this branch of the Gestapo was being particularly vicious, because both prisoners qualified for release. They were shot dead in the crematorium. For the sake of appearances, both prisoners had been driven from the department in the Red Cross vehicle intended for transporting the sick to the hospital.
A transport of Russian prisoners of war – exclusively handicapped POWs without hands and legs – arrived in the autumn of 1943. The transport numbered 631 or 632 people. It was halted for about three hours in the male camp, located at the time right next to the female camp in Birkenau, and then the entire transport was sent straight to the crematorium. I came by this information through direct observation. In March 1943, while coming back from the main camp in Auschwitz, I noticed a transport of Russian prisoners of war numbering about 300 exclusively young and healthy men in Soviet Army uniforms. Assembled into groups numbering 100, they were marched straight to the crematorium. The whole transport was escorted by a large group of SS men under Schwarz’s command. In June and July 1944, 11 transports of Hungarian Jews from Ruś Przykarpacka – each numbering 3,000 people – arrived in Auschwitz camp. Their arrival had been announced beforehand in our political department. Only a small percentage of these transports was admitted to the camp after they went through the process of the selection described earlier. The rest were gassed.
From my own observations and conversations which the SS men conducted in our political department, I gather that all Jews from Greece had been transported to Auschwitz and no more than 5 percent of them survived. All of these transports were from Thessaloniki. 70–80 percent of the Polish Jews died in the camps in Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek and Belz. 50–60 percent of the French Jews died in Auschwitz camp. These transports came from Drancy near Paris. Jewish transports from Belgium arrived from Brussels. About 60 percent of Belgian Jews died in Auschwitz. Transports of Dutch Jews came from the concentration camp in Herzogenbusch. 80 percent of the Dutch Jews died in Auschwitz, mostly from natural causes. The climate and the conditions in the camp killed them within a month of their stay in Auschwitz. 90 percent of the German Jews died. Transports of the Italian Jews began arriving after the surrender of Italy and they departed only from the northern part of Italy and from Rome. 30 percent of the Italian Jews were to be killed. These transports came from various towns. Transports of Czech Jews arrived only from Theresienstadt. I know for a fact that 16,000 of the Czech Jews survived in Theresienstadt camp. Transports of Yugoslav Jews arrived in Auschwitz, but I don’t know the percentage of the deceased or the number of transports.
Auschwitz camp, officially called Vernichtungslager [extermination camp], was supposed to create the worst working and sanitary conditions, along with the lousiest food and the harshest punishments. Apart from the fact that it was in short supply and tasted awful, the food in the camp was also unhealthy – especially soup spiked with powder called “Avo.” This powder stopped menstruation, caused various disorders in the organism, and destabilized metabolism. The best proof is that menstruation resumed in women who refrained from eating this soup, and who had the opportunity to eat food sent in packages from home. Coffee for the SS men and coffee for the prisoners was made separately in the prison kitchen. Since the SS men and women never wanted to drink coffee from the cauldron intended for prisoners, one can assume that it also contained some kind of additive. I know that in block 32 – one of the hospital blocks – there was an X-ray laboratory, where both men and women were sterilized by means of X-rays.
Four general roll-calls occurred throughout the entire existence of the female camp in Auschwitz. I went through only three of them: on 9 February 1943, at the end of February 1943, and in the middle of March 1943. During a general roll-call everyone in the entire camp had to stop working. General roll-call was also carried out in the hospital. The sick stayed in beds without medical assistance, while the whole medical and auxiliary personnel comprised of prisoners stood during roll-call in the camp for several hours. All prisoners were first made to stand on the camp premises in the right order in accordance with their numbers, then they were rushed to a meadow located right next to the camp. The identity of each prisoner was checked while they were walking through the camp gate, on the basis of numbers tattooed on their arms. They were checked against the Zugangsliste provided by the political department. If during this procedure it was discovered that a prisoner did not have a tattoo, she was sent back to the block and tattooed on the very next day. In the meadow, prisoners were assembled in groups of five and columns numbering 200 people, and then counted over and over again for the entire day, sometimes even a few dozen times. During such a roll-call we stood in the snow for a whole day, until nightfall – motionless and deprived of food. A selection of Jewish women was conducted during the second roll-call, at the end of February 1943. About 1,000 people were gassed. Aryan women who were returning to the camp after roll-call had to run, rushed by the SS men and women, and those who fell over or ran too slow were taken to the side and then marched to block 25, i.e. to the death block. Women of all nationalities – including Germans – were subjected to this selection. Over a hundred Aryan prisoners were selected during that roll-call. The third roll-call occurred in March 1943 on the orders of the political department, for the purpose of determining the exact number of prisoners in the camp. A selection was scheduled during this roll-call, as had been announced by the camp authorities, but on that day a high ranking SS man arrived from Berlin and interviewed the prisoners – mainly of German nationality – asking about the conditions in the camp, so the selection was cancelled. From that moment on, no member of the camp authorities wanted to sign orders for selections. These resumed in the autumn of 1943. It follows that the Auschwitz camp command organized selections and other types of executions of its own volition. After each general roll-call, the mortality rate among prisoners was terribly high, which resulted from malnourishment, exhaustion, nervous tension, constant threat of death, “sport,” and weather conditions. General delousing of the female camp which took place on 9 and 10 July 1943 claimed just as many lives. Work in the whole camp stopped, all blocks were locked and thoroughly gassed, while the prisoners divided into blocks were successively marched to the camp grounds. Each block approached large tubs filled with the so-called Blaugas dissolved in water, which was used in the crematoria. The tubs were operated by male prisoners in gas masks. Every female prisoner had to undress, tie up her clothes and hand them to the people who manned the tubs. They threw the clothes into the tubs. Then the whole block led by the block leader marched naked through the entire camp to the “sauna,” where they bathed. Having left the “sauna,” for several hours we waited in the blocks that had already been gassed, and then we went to collect our clothes which were being taken out of the tubs. We dried them in the air, in order to be able to put them on before roll-call – even if they were still wet. Some blocks didn’t manage to collect their things and get dressed on time, so they had to stand naked during roll-call. Over the course of these two days we received no cooked food. Delousing also caused high mortality rates.
The following punishments were used in the female camp: flogging, standing, kneeling down with arms raised up and weighted down with stones, and the SK, that is the Strafkommando [penal company]. A prisoner was punished when an SS man or woman, Lagerälteste [senior camp prisoner], Lagerkapo, or a block leader reported her to the camp authorities. Flogging consisted in at least 25 lashes administered with a long rawhide whip. It was carried out either in the sauna or in public. It was administered exclusively by German female prisoners marked with black triangles. They hit prisoners in the bare buttocks, usually cutting through skin, which caused bleeding. If a prisoner fainted, they would bring her around and resume the punishment. German women – political prisoners – received such punishment as well, usually for engaging in sexual relations with foreigners (Verkehr mit Ausländer [intercourse with a foreigner]). Standing punishment involved standing at attention by the entrance gate to the camp, next to the so-called Blockführerstube [block leader’s office]. This punishment lasted from three hours to a whole day or even several days. During this time, the prisoner received no food, but she spent nights in the block. If a prisoner punished with kneeling put her arms down from exhaustion or if a stone fell out of her hand, she was beaten senseless as an additional punishment. Such punishment lasted from two to several hours, depending on the mood of the overseer. Prisoners were assigned to the SK for getting caught with a cigarette, failing to wear their hair in the right manner, making their bed incorrectly, keeping raw potatoes, cooking in the block, keeping family photographs and letters – especially writing and keeping letters to and from the camp – male camp in particular – keeping any kind of medicine, etc. This punishment lasted from half a year to two years. Finally, there was also the punishment of the so-called Stehbunker [standing bunkers]. Located in block 2b, these bunkers were built out of stone, two meters high, and two people could barely fit inside. A small opening near the ground served as the entrance to the bunker, in a kennel-like fashion. It was completely dark inside, and there was hardly any airflow when the entrance was closed by the trapdoor. The punishment of the bunker lasted no less than four hours. During this time, the prisoner was given no food. A special kind of punishment consisted of pouring freezing, ice-cold water over a naked prisoner (usually in the winter) until she lost consciousness. Aufseherin [overseer] Hasse specialized in this punishment. Each kind of punishment described above was usually preceded by a beating.
The whole female camp feared block 25a. This was the “death block” – a building made of stone, with barred windows, surrounded by a high wall. The block had the capacity for 1,000 people, but very often housed up to 2,000. The infamous Cylka, a Jewish woman from Slovakia, aged about 19, was the block leader there. She had unlimited power, especially since she was close with the Rapportführer [reporting officer] of the female camp, Adolf Taube. Officially, this block was supposed to receive normal food rations, but the Aufseherin [female overseer] from the kitchen gave out fewer rations. On many occasions, Cylka personally decided not to distribute food in this block, and instead sell or exchange it to her own advantage. Prisoners in this block were meant for gassing. I peered into this block once to see how it looked inside. A transport of about 600 Jewish women from Greece intended for execution was there at the time. Horrific scenes were occurring inside. The stuffiness and foul odor made it difficult to even approach the entrance. The block was filled with corpses and dying prisoners. Crawling on top of them were sick and swollen human skeletons covered in blood, who were groaning and begging for some water. Prisoners who were still alive fell ill with contagious diseases such as typhus and typhoid fever, pemphigus, Durchfall [diarrhea], and scabies. Transports to the gas chambers usually departed from this block during the evening roll-call. The so-called Sonderkommando [special work detail] comprised solely of Jews and supervised by the SS men, was tasked with loading the transports intended for gassing. Block 25 existed in this form until the spring of 1944, that is until the beginning of the invasion in the West. At that point – after a thorough renovation – the “death block” was transformed into a hospital block. The numbering of the blocks in the entire female camp was changed solely because of the renovation of block 25. The former block 25 was now called 2a. Despite several disinfections and a thorough renovation, the smell of corpses in this block never went away.
Before gassing, the SS men sometimes dragged female prisoners whom they fancied out of the crematorium. They entertained themselves at their expense in the SS office, had intercourse with them, and then executed them with a shot from a revolver. A typical example of such degeneration of the SS men was the incident with Schillinger, who was killed in his office by a Polish Jewess, who had arrived in a transport from France. When the Jewish woman found herself alone in a room with Shillinger, having been warned about his intentions, she apparently shot him with a revolver while he was distracted, and then killed herself. This incident resulted in an investigation among the SS men. The camp authorities voiced their indignation and outrage regarding the fact that an SS man was having an intercourse with a Jewish woman. Shillinger was known for being hostile towards Poles, and a very eager and cruel executioner. He executed over 500 Poles. No wonder that the whole male camp in Auschwitz felt relieved after he died.
One of the horrors of the camp was the orchestra especially treasured by the camp authorities. Comprised solely of female prisoners, it accompanied prisoners in the morning while they were marching to work and while they were returning for the evening roll-call. The prisoners had to march in fives, to attention, at a steady pace, in time with upbeat German marches. Disrupting the formation, especially making mistakes regarding steps, was immediately punished with beating and kicking. The prisoners’ return to the camp after a day of hard work was tragic. The healthy prisoners had to carry their sick colleagues, or worse – their colleagues’ corpses – on poles. Marching in these conditions was especially difficult and tiresome, and it gave the camp overseers an opportunity to administer brutal punishments. Transporting corpses back to the camp was necessary to keep track of the actual number of prisoners. Every Sunday before noon, the camp orchestra played in the open air in summer and in the “sauna” in winter. The prisoners were obligated to attend these concerts. It was a terrible torment, for while listening to music, they witnessed all sorts of tragic events occurring on the camp premises, such as selections of newly- arrived transports, punishments, etc. There were three orchestras in the camp: in the main
| Auschwitz camp, in | the male camp in | Birkenau, and in | the female camp. The | Gypsy camp |
| had its own special | orchestra. |
Supervised by one of our bosses, we frequently left the office of the political department in order to admit the so-called Zugänge, that is, transports of newly-arrived prisoners. Zugänge came also to camp BIIb, the so-called family camp, to quarantine A, and most often to New Birkenau – the location of the personal effects storage and the new sauna. This gave me an opportunity to see much of the camp and even towns beyond it. For instance, when we were registering a transport of Yugoslav women in the new sauna in July 1944, on our way back I had an opportunity to witness a secret ritual in which high-ranking party members had to personally kill a Jew, as I have testified earlier. We were walking to the new sauna in a western direction between crematoria II and III, and then we turned north. Having completed the registration, we were supposed to use the same path to go back, but this secret ritual and the row of vehicles on the road changed our plans. On our way back we stopped on the road by the edge of a small forest, where we could observe the whole ritual from some one hundred meters away. It was taking place not far from a small, white house located near the personal effects storage. This house was the first, primitive gas chamber in Birkenau, where executions were still carried out from time to time. Also near this little white house, pits were dug in the ground for the purpose of burning corpses of people who had been gassed. The ritual took place in a small and sparse birch wood. In order to avoid the vehicles and guards on the road, we had to walk in a roundabout way between the machines used for clearing water, along the electrical wires, and next to crematorium III, from where we got to the main road (Hauptstraße) to the female camp.
As I have mentioned earlier, the Red Cross vehicle was used for transporting sick prisoners to the hospital and healthy prisoners intended for execution to the crematorium. This vehicle was also used for transporting gas, the so-called Blaugas used in crematoria, as well as for gassing clothes and blocks. We called this vehicle “Sanka,” short for Sanitätswagen [ambulance].
The SS men and women at Auschwitz camp engaged in sexual relations. SS men bragged about it publicly, calling SS women Huren (whores) and speaking about them in a very disrespectful way. SS women acted flirtatiously towards SS men and male prisoners. Sexual intercourse between Germans was permitted and even secretly encouraged by the authorities on account of the desired increase in population. Engaging in such relations was made easier for Germans on account of their living conditions, for every one of them had a separate room, and the camp dignitaries had their own mansions in the town of Oświęcim. Sexual relations with prisoners were met with harsh punishment, transfer to the battle front, or degradation. Despite that, there were cases of SS men having intercourse with Jewish women in the camp. German women were promiscuous regardless of their rank and function. SS men and women alike were addicted to drinking.
Due to my post in the political department, I remember that numbers 1 to 999 were assigned to the German female prisoners who arrived in the first transport from Ravensbrück to Birkenau. They set up the female camp and took up the top positions there. Most of these prisoners were marked with black or green triangles (ASO [Asoziale Elemente – antisocial element] or BV [Berufsverbrecher – habitual offender]), while political prisoners were very few. Numbers from 999 to 6000 were assigned to the transports of Jewish women from Slovakia. The first Polish transports had numbers over 6000. The female camp A and B had previously held 16,000 Russian prisoners of war, who died of typhus and starvation. They were starving so much that there were instances of cannibalism. Only about 70 Russians survived and were later assigned to work in a barrack with food storage. The horribly louse-infested blocks had not been disinfected before the female prisoners were brought in. No wonder that typhus fever broke out among women right away. Until mid-1943, every prisoner who arrived in Auschwitz camp had to be photographed by the so-called Erkennungsdienst (identification service). Every prisoner was photographed from the side and en face, with a number on the chest. Later, as a result of the directive requiring a more frugal approach, only prisoners of German nationality were photographed.
As for the general number of people executed in Auschwitz camp, on the basis of conversations held by the SS men in the political department, I deduced that it was about four to five millions. Komarnicki and a few other prisoners working in the political department at the main Auschwitz camp told me that in November 1944, the International Red Cross in Geneva sent a written inquiry to the Auschwitz camp command, asking about the fate of five and a half million Jews and over two million Aryans who had been deported to Auschwitz camp. This inquiry caused a great consternation among the camp authorities: Berlin blamed the command at Auschwitz and Grabner for everything, while the camp command pointed to orders sent from Berlin. Following this interpellation, Grabner was removed from his post and it was rumored that he was under investigation, detained in a bunker in Berlin, awaiting a disciplinary transfer to the battle front, and even that he had been executed. All prisoners and even the majority of the SS men were convinced that Grabner died at that time, and only Komarnicki didn’t believe these rumors.
I would also like to explain that the Unterlagen [documents] which I have mentioned before consisted of two sheets of paper, often with an attachment, depending on the case, either in the form of a white sheet of paper with the summary of the local Gestapo’s report and identification of the prisoner, or in the form of a red sheet of paper with a summary of the report or a copy of the full report concerning Germans arrested in the General Government. The white attachments were submitted to the files of the prisoners from the territory of the General Government. A prisoner’s personal data, assigned camp, and transit stations with a confirmation that the transport had gone through them issued by the appropriate SS authority were on the first page of the two-page Unterlagen. The head of the political department determined the type of prisoner on the basis of the Unterlagen. There were also small-sized Unterlagen, the size of a quarter of a sheet of paper, used for large transports of Aryans. These included only a prisoners’ personal data and organizational or political affiliation. Rarely interrogated, such prisoners were arrested due to the arrest of their relative. The Unterlagen of this kind never included a summary of the Gestapo’s report. Identification in the Unterlagen was conveyed in a summary way, e.g. ZWZ [Związek Walki Zbrojnej – Union of Armed Struggle] or PPR [Polska Partia Robotnicza – Polish Workers’ Party].
Since the spring of 1944, the camp administration started paying so-called bonuses in the form of “notes” used as camp currency. The bonuses were funded with money which had been sent to the prisoners from home and later confiscated. These bonuses (less than four marks per month) were paid out every day to blocks or kommandos, to all prisoners working on the camp grounds, as well as in Außenkommandos [external work details], that is, outside the camp.
Therefore, these bonuses were no commendation. Refusing to accept them was punishable. In the political department, just like in all departments and kommandos, twice a month, we received bonuses of two marks. The camp administration confiscated over 400 RM [Reichsmarks] that had been sent to me from home.
Kommandos working inside and outside the camp were also given so-called Zulagen [bonuses] in the form of a double food ration distributed on Tuesdays or Fridays. This working bonus consisted of an additional portion of bread with cheese, sausage, or margarine.
The SS men were tattooed under the left armpit. Such a tattoo was comprised of a letter denoting the blood type of the SS man (in case he got wounded and needed a blood transfusion) and a code denoting his original SS unit. Only SS men who were party members were tattooed. Those who had been assigned to the SS from the Wehrmacht were not tattooed. If the tattoo faded, the SS man came to the political department in order to have it touched up. The practice of tattooing SS men was confidential, and the political department workers were forbidden to talk about it. Asked whether the Gestapo men were tattooed as well, the SS man Albrecht from our political department replied that he wasn’t sure – he was afraid to ask them. I acquired this information from the political department.
I knew of two prisoners in the female camp who passed on various pieces of information about other prisoners to the German authorities, acting as informers. One was Koper, a Polish Jewess from Kraków, number over 6000, and the other was a Romanian Jewess, Arta. Both of them kept their race secret, for they passed as Aryans and wore red triangles indicating political prisoners. When this fraud was discovered, they were to be executed. Wanting to save their lives, they offered to spy in the camp and report to the German authorities. In exchange for their services, they were allowed to keep red triangles meant for political prisoners, and pass for Aryans. Other suspected informers included: Rapportschreiberin [reporting clerk] Katia, Lagerälteste [senior camp prisoner] Bubi – a German woman with a black triangle, and Cylka – the senior block prisoner at block 25.
Another informer known around the female camp was Bohdan Komarnicki – a Ukrainian man from Eastern Lesser Poland, district of Kołomyja. Aged about 30, he was over 170 centimeters tall, strongly built, with broad shoulders, big hands, a healthy, elongated red and flushed face, a very wide jaw, appealing dark blue eyes, long and prominent black eyelashes, black eyebrows, a straight nose, full and red lips, healthy and white teeth, a wide smile, and nice, small and flat ears. He had the number 3637 tattooed on his left forearm. He spoke very good Polish, Belarusian, Russian, and German. He spoke Polish in a melodic Lwów dialect, and German mostly in Berlin dialect. He seemed intelligent and sharp. He always said he was Ukrainian, and even emphasized his nationality, while exhibiting a hostile attitude towards the Polish state and its citizens. Although he spoke Romani and Yiddish only a little, he could easily communicate in both languages. Having graduated from a Polish secondary school and WSH [Wyższe Studium Handlowe – College of Commerce] in Kraków, he lived in Kraków until 1939 and worked as an agent at the Scheibler and Grohman firm at Grodzka Street in Kraków. He owned a car and often drove to Czechoslovakia, from where he would transport clandestine materials for the OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists]. The camp authorities found him trustworthy, valued, and reliable – evidently, he served them well. He was a confidant of the head of the entire political department, Grabner. Male and female prisoners alike said that Komarnicki had the deaths of hundreds of people on his conscience. I also came in contact with Komarnicki in the female camp and realized on that occasion that he was very influential and could do a lot of evil or good things. Komarnicki himself told me about his close relation with Grabner and said that he owed him his life. When Komarnicki had typhus, Grabner personally intervened on his behalf in the hospital and gave an order that he be treated and saved, and he threatened that if Komarnicki died, the whole medical personnel would be executed. Komarnicki was a so-called privileged prisoner (Bevorzugte Häftling) – evidently as a reward for his special services he had the right not to shave his head, live in a separate room and be the only prisoner who wore the letter “U” on his triangle until the liquidation of Auschwitz camp. He worked as a kapo in the male political department in Birkenau. He was the master of life and death in the entire Gypsy camp, known as the “Gypsy Baron.” Komarnicki left Auschwitz for the West on 18 January 1945, together with the rest of the camp. I learnt that he got to the Allied- occupied zone, which he had been determined to reach, fearing the responsibility for his actions in Auschwitz. Komarnicki’s family hid in the West as well and stayed for some time in Wrocław.
I heard that another Ukrainian man, one Dorosiewicz, was a servant of the German authorities, but I never met him personally and know very little about his activities. Komarnicki was in close contact with SS man Oberscharführer Boger, who was also commandant of the KA (Kommandantur-Arrest [camp prison]) – the so-called bunkers. As a commandant, he was extremely cruel and ruthless. He often personally carried out executions, but usually left this task to a Jewish executioner, Jakub. He always personally devised elaborate methods of torture, made sure that they were carried out thoroughly, and enjoyed watching it. The last time I saw Boger was during the evacuation of Auschwitz camp on 20 January 1945 in Pszczyna, as he was escorting files from the political department. I personally knew Scharführer Hoffer, who worked in the main political department and usually transported Unterlagen to the female political department. He specialized in overseeing all transports arriving in Auschwitz.
Below I name several people who belonged to the camp authorities:
Hauptsturmführer Grabner (I don’t know his name), about 35 years old, of medium height – about 165 centimeters tall, strongly and proportionally built; with brown hair and blue eyes, dark and prominent eyebrows; a nice, aquiline nose, thin, pursed lips, nice and white teeth, elongated face, and a prominent jaw. He seemed intelligent, quick and decisive. He had a low, sharp voice and spoke proper German. He walked quickly and energetically, his whole figure emanated great self-confidence.
Oberscharführer Boger, aged about 40, circa 170 centimeters tall and disproportionately built – his shoulders were too narrow. He had brown hair, an elongated face, sunken cheeks, a very protruding lower jaw, prominent cheekbones, pasty face, light blue eyes, a cold stare, prominent and black eyebrows and eyelashes, a saddle nose with a bulbous shape, colorless and narrow lips; ugly, uneven and dark teeth, and a very protruding Adam’s apple. His whole face was like a skull and looked terrifying. He had a wobbly walk, his legs didn’t bend in the knees, he seemed like a broken man. He knew only German and spoke in a Hanover dialect.
Oberscharführer Kirschner, Grabner’s deputy, who was always in touch with Komarnicki. He was about 30 years old, over 170 centimeters tall, well-built and proportionate, very handsome and dark-haired; he had an elongated face, subtle facial features, dark eyes, dark and prominent eyebrows, and black eyelashes. He had a light complexion, slightly flushed, a straight nose, full and red lips, nice, healthy and white teeth, delicate hands with long fingers, and a low and warm voice. He spoke pure German with no accent. His appearance made a good and pleasant impression, but he was in fact a cruel and sadistic man, who clearly enjoyed his duties.
Oberscharführer Josef Houstek-Erber was about 40 year old, of medium height, skinny, disproportionate, with very long arms, with fingers like talons, crooked legs shaped like the letter “O”; he had thin, dark blond hair, an elongated and dry face, prominent cheekbones and jaw. He had a grey complexion, deeply embedded and wide set small, blue-grey eyes, bushy, dark blond eyebrows, short eyelashes, a short, concave and bulbous nose, colorless and thin lips, and two sets of false teeth. His whole figure, especially the face, but also his walk made him look like a monkey, which brought on the nickname “Frankenstein.” He spoke very good Czech and German with an Austrian accent. He talked quickly and unclearly, and he was short-sighted, so he wore glasses for reading and writing.
Lagerführer [camp leader] of the female camp, Hössler, about 50 years old, over 170 centimeters tall, of medium weight, proportionately built. He had light hair with a red tinge, greying at the temples; a round, full face, blue eyes, light eyebrows and eyelashes, a slightly pointy nose, two scars on his cheeks, colorless lips, a full set of teeth, pale complexion, and a good-natured look on his face. His characteristic feature was that he spoke with a strong lisp and would frequently say “mein lieber Mann” [my dear fellow]. Around the camp he was nicknamed “Papa Hessler.” He had a wife and two children. He spoke with a Viennese accent.
The Commandant of the female camp, Schwarz, (I don’t know his first name) was about 45 years old, over 175 centimeters tall, very fat, with a large belly, strong and healthy built, a confident and energetic walk. He had dark hair and eyes, prominent eyebrows and eyelashes, and a cruel face of a bulldog. He had a high-pitched, booming, evil and commanding voice, and spoke only German. He was Prussian.
The next commandant of the female camp, Kramer, (I don’t know his first name), about 40 years old and 180 centimeters tall, stout, strongly built, with dark hair, blue yes, proportionate nose, full and red lips, nice and healthy teeth, a prominent jawline, and rosy complexion. He had a cruel and lewd look on his face. The whole camp knew about his close relationship with a Polish female prisoner, Lagerälteste [senior camp prisoner] Stanisława Starostek from Tarnów. He spoke very good German and Polish.
Adolf Taube, Rapportführer [reporting officer] of the female camp, about 30 years old and 180 centimeters tall, bony and strongly built. A square head, blond hair, light eyebrows and eyelashes, yellow eyes, short nose, wide mouth, large teeth, sunken cheeks, and slightly pronounced cheekbones. He had a cruel look on his face and a very protruding Adam’s apple. Very large hands and legs. He was from Vienna, spoke in a Viennese dialect and knew only German. He was a ladies’ man.
The Commandant of the female camp, Sturmbannführer Hartjenstein (I don’t remember his first name) was about 50 years old, very tall, skinny, with a slightly bent posture; had blond hair, turning gray, dry face, sunken cheeks, and aquiline nose. He had an oval face, blue, faded and dull eyes, light and not very prominent eyebrows and eyelashes; thin, pursed lips, and a gray complexion. He spoke quickly, unclearly, calmly, in a low voice, and knew only German.
Arbeitsdienstführer [head of the labor service] of the female camp, Moll, (I don’t know his first name) was about 30 years old, 180 centimeters tall, stout, strongly built, with large hands and legs. Light blond hair, blue eyes, very light eyebrows and eyelashes. A tanned, red faced, light complexion, wide and red nose; full, voluptuous, and red lips. He had a very prominent jaw and a dull look on his face. A drunkard. He could speak German and understand Polish.
Oberscharführer Klaus, about 40 years old, skinny, disproportionately built, with long arms, stoop-shouldered. Blond-haired and turning gray, balding. Dry face, sunken cheeks, gray complexion. Light blue eyes, light and not very prominent eyebrows and eyelashes, a small and short nose, thin and colorless lips, bad teeth (gold crowns). He spoke quickly and unclearly, with an accent from Hanover, as that’s where he was from.
Scharführer Hoffman, 24 years old, started serving in the SS when he was 16. He came from Opole. About 180 centimeters tall, strongly and proportionately built. Blond and handsome, with hair to the side, an elongated face, and pale complexion, he had blue eyes, light and short eyelashes, light and shapely eyebrows. He had a proportionate nose, full, pink lips, healthy, nice and white teeth. A choleric individual. He spoke German, unclearly and quietly. He was married twice and had two children. Both wives were from the Polish Upper Silesia.
Oberscharführer Wladimir Bilan, a Volksdeutsch born in Czerniowce and raised in Stanisławów, where he also graduated from school. About 30 years old, around 180 centimeters tall, well built. He had a characteristic, uncertain walk, an elongated face with a gentle oval shape, pale and slightly flushed complexion, dark eyes and eyelashes; prominent, dark, arched and thick eyebrows, a proportionate nose; full, red lips, and nice, large teeth. He spoke very good Polish with an accent from Lwów, as well as German, Belarusian and Romanian. He had good pronunciation, a low voice, and a calm manner of speaking. He was composed and silent, had an intelligent look on his face. He was married to a Polish woman, they had two children.
Scharführer Albrecht (I don’t remember his name), a Volksdeutsch, born and residing in Łódź, married to a German woman from Łódź. He was over 40 years old, short, and fat. He had a heavy and clumsy walk, blond and balding hairline, blue eyes, light eyebrows and eyelashes. He always wore glasses. He had a short and wide nose, tanned face, proportionate lips, bad teeth (gold crowns in the front), and a soft jawline. He spoke very good German and Polish. He had a grey, pale complexion. He spoke slowly and clearly, in a low and gentle voice. His nickname was “Wujcio” [uncle].
Scharführer Hoffer (I don’t know his name), about 28 years old, over 180 centimeters tall, strongly and proportionately built, sturdy, handsome, blond-haired, blue-eyed, with eyebrows and eyelashes prominent and darker than his hair, a nice and proportionate nose, nice lips, healthy teeth, light complexion with a blush. He had a gentle, amiable face, low voice, and a calm manner of speaking. He was from the Rhineland and knew only German.
Oberaufsehrin Maria Mandl, about 30 years old, 160 centimeters tall, strongly built, with crooked legs in the shape of the letter “O,” and a heavy walk. She was a light blonde and had a very pretty face with regular features. She had an elongated face, blue eyes, shapely eyebrows darker than her hair, a nice and straight nose, light complexion with clear and pretty blush, full, red lips, and nice, small and white teeth. High-pitched, sharp, energetic and clear voice. She spoke only German in a Viennese dialect. She looked like a typical German woman, so we nicknamed her “Brynhild.” She was from Vienna. A boxer by trade, she was an excellent driver, as well as a motorcycle and horse rider.
Margot Drechsel, deputy head of the female camp, about 40 years old, around 166 centimeters tall, very skinny, slouching, with stooped shoulders, ugly, bald, with not very prominent eyebrows and eyelashes, grey-blue eyes, a large nose, wide and colorless lips, a prominent jawline with characteristic, scarce, large and protruding teeth which earned her the nickname “Horse death.” She spoke quickly, in a commanding manner and a high-pitched, unpleasant voice. She spoke only German and was from Berlin. She is supposedly dead.
Elisabeth Hasse, about 32 years old, around 163 centimeters tall, sturdy and strongly built, with muscular legs, light blonde hair, and blue eyes. Prominent eyebrows and eyelashes, light, flushed complexion, big nose, proportionate, red lips, large, healthy, white and slightly protruding teeth. She spoke proper German in a sharp, low, and commanding voice.
Elisabeth Volkenrath, née Miland, about 30 years old, around 175 centimeters tall, sturdy and proportionately built. She was a light blonde with a wide face, blue eyes, wide jaw, light eyebrows and eyelashes, with a prominent case of saddle nose with a bulbous shape, light complexion with no blush, fairly large, healthy teeth. She spoke only German with no accent, in a low and calm voice.
Gertrude Weniger, née Miland (Volkenrath’s sister), about 27 years old, around 160 centimeters tall, proportionately built, slim, with light blond hair, blue eyes, light eyebrows and eyelashes, a proportionate nose, light complexion with a delicate blush, wide and full lips. She had a full and short face, prominent jawline, large and nice teeth. She had an evil look on her face, spoke only German, in a sharp, high-pitched and commanding voice.
Therese Brandl, about 35 years old, around 162 centimeters tall, slim, unshapely figure, manly walk, dark hair, dark eyes, prominent eyebrows, short eyelashes, a sunken and slightly snub nose, a protruding jawline, narrow, pursed and colorless lips, normal teeth, pasty and pale complexion, grim and mean face, without a smile. She spoke emphatically, clearly, made pauses and stressed every word in a commanding manner. She spoke only German with an accent from Hanover, in a low and mean voice. For many years, she was Taube’s lover.
Irma Grese, about 23 years old, around 163 centimeters tall, proportionately built and pretty. A light and very beautiful blonde with big, blue eyes, dark, arched and shapely eyebrows, dark and long eyelashes, very nice and light complexion, with a pretty blush, proportionate nose and red lips, lovely, small and white teeth, and a beautiful neck. Pleasant, low-pitched voice, beautiful legs and dainty feet. She was a lesbian. She treated male members of the SS with hostility, saying that she knew what to expect from this element. She had her favorites among the female prisoners, and liked young, pretty and mostly Polish girls.
Witt (I don’t know her first name), about 24 years old, around 160 centimeters tall, small, proportionate, with dark hair, small face with a gentle oval shape, big and dark eyes, long and dark eyelashes, prominent, arched and shapely eyebrows, light complexion with a blush, pretty, red and full lips. She had small, white, and healthy teeth and an evil look on her face. She spoke only German, in a high-pitched, sharp voice and a commanding manner. She had a nice figure.
All of the people described above either spoke Polish or were so used to hearing Polish speech that they undoubtedly understood it. In addition, all of the men were excellent motorcyclists.
The news about the invasion of the Allies in the West was an extraordinary event which prompted the camp authorities to start acting differently, improving the fate of the prisoners. The female camp received this information on 6 June 1944, at 10.00 a.m. from the prisoners of the male camp, while the camp authorities received it at noon, from the official radio broadcast – Sonderbericht.
This happy news which sparked excitement around the whole Auschwitz camp couldn’t stay secret, so two days later the camp authorities launched an investigation into how it had reached the camp several hours prior to the official information from Wehrmacht. This investigation, however, brought no results.
After the invasion started, the prisoners were punished less frequently and severely, or they were let off completely. If the camp dogs bit a prisoner, doctors reported the SS man at fault to the authorities. Efforts were made to establish closer relations with the prisoners and to show them concern by asking about the working conditions and food rations, and even about their wishes in this regard. Higher bonuses were paid out and more prisoners started receiving food Zulagen. Every block had to be provided with skimmed milk once a week. A special block for children was created and put under Mandl’s supervision – children there were well looked after and received food appropriate for their age.
Children who stayed in this block were Polish, Russian, and Jewish. Roll-calls were shortened to a minimum. As a result of Berlin’s order issued in the autumn of 1944, the camp authorities tried to provide the prisoners with entertainment in the form of a show or a concert held on Sunday afternoons – once even an anti-Soviet propaganda film was shown in the female camp. I know that SS men of all ranks on many occasions signed declarations stating that they wouldn’t beat prisoners, but unfortunately they didn’t follow this rule. Only after the invasion in the West, as a result of a special order issued by Berlin, they signed the declarations of this kind once again. From that point onwards, they obeyed Berlin’s orders and the punishment of beating was administered only on special occasions. In May 1944, after the evacuation of Majdanek, transports of prisoners from this camp arrived in Auschwitz. About 5,000 people from these transports were admitted in the female camp, including exactly 2,000 Jewish women of Polish nationality. These Jewish women were the only living residents of Majdanek after the massacre of the Jews on 3 November 1943, during which 16,000 Jews were shot to death. This transport comprising only young, healthy, pretty, and intelligent Jewish women from Warsaw and were registered in the political department, but not tattooed. Two days later, the department received the order (presumably from Berlin) to get rid of all the numbers and Bogen of these Jewish women. The whole transport was sent to the gas chamber. Evidently, the authorities didn’t want to keep any surviving witnesses of the massacre in Majdanek alive. The transport of Aryan women remained in the blocks. About 800 women from this transport were ill.
Some two weeks after the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, a large transport of prisoners from Pruszków – numbering 10,000 people including women, men, and children – arrived in Auschwitz. Over 5,000 people were admitted in the female camp – women and children, including boys below the age of 14. No numbers were assigned to these transports, registered in the political department as Schutzhäftlinge [protective custody prisoners]. The entire female transport from Warszawa was given numbers from 80,000 to 85,000, while 150 boys were assigned numbers from the male camp in Birkenau. Officially named Evakuierte Warschau [evacuees from Warszawa], the transport was supposed to receive special treatment which unfortunately turned out to be very similar to that experienced by the rest of the prisoners. In fact, when the camp was being slowly liquidated, the transport from Warszawa was sent first to the ammunition factories in the Reich.
When the Germans entered Hungary, a small transport of men numbering about 20 people – all political prisoners – arrived in Auschwitz. About 2,000 prisoners in total were sent from Hungary to various camps. About 15 women arrived in the female camp from Hungary. I know two surnames from this group: Irena Łukomska and Masalska, both of them were Polish. Within three days of the arrival, one of the prisoners transported from Hungary was shot dead – Opoka-Lewensztajn from Lwów.
In the end of July 1944, a slow liquidation of Auschwitz camp began. On one hand, the German authorities wanted to increase the number of laborers in the military industry. On the other, they wanted to keep as many hostages (especially political) as possible, in the event of an exchange. Invasions, both in the West and in the East, also undoubtedly played their role here. For these transports, the camp authorities selected healthy, strong prisoners aged 16 to 45, who were examined by SS doctors. Managers of factories and firms located in the Reich also visited Auschwitz to report how many laborers of what sort they needed. 80 percent of the Jewish women from Hungary were the first to be sent off from Auschwitz as laborers. Then there were the Jewish women who had been evacuated from Płaszów. As for Aryans, Polish women were the first to go, then Russian women and those of other nationalities. Transports of this kind were sent off one by one, until the complete liquidation of the camp.
At the end of August 1944, on Berlin’s orders, all books with records which could serve as evidence of prisoners’ deaths were destroyed. This liquidation was carried out by special delegates from Berlin, SS officers, who within two hours, with the help of the camp authorities, managed to collect all of the books from the Revier [hospital] (Totenbuch [death records]), blocks, and Schreibstube [clerk’s office], load them into two vehicles, and take them away. The only book that remained in the female camp was the so-called Hauptbuch [ledger]. The death of a prisoner was marked in the Hauptbuch in the section Gestorben [deceased] with the letters “SB” (Sonderbehandlung [special treatment]) instead of the word “Gestorben.” In order to get rid of all evidence of gassing, it was ordered that the entire Hauptbuch be rewritten and the letters “SB” be replaced with some other code, which I do not know. Death from natural causes and the release of a prisoner were still registered. The Hauptbuch was re-written within two months by several female prisoners working two shifts – day and night, under strict supervision of the camp authorities. When it was finished, the authorities removed the Hauptbuch from the camp premises.
In the autumn of 1944, a Polish Jewess Mala, from Tarnów, who worked as a messenger (Läuferin) in the camp and had arrived in Auschwitz in the first transport from Slovakia, escaped from the camp together with a Polish prisoner, Edek (I don’t know his surname). After two weeks, the escapees were captured near Bielsko, identified on the basis of their numbers, escorted back to the camp, and placed in the Kommandantur-Arrest [camp prison]. A month later, Berlin sentenced both of them to death, emphasizing that the Pole’s offence was escaping with a Jewish woman. It was ordered that both verdicts be carried out by hanging during the evening roll-call. Mala was brought to the female camp in order to be hanged during the evening roll-call. However, prior to that, the SS men had beaten her in an empty barrack so brutally that they dislocated her arm. Escorted by the SS men on the way to the execution site, where all the Jewish women from Slovakia had been assembled in a square, she managed to commit suicide by slitting her wrists with a razor blade. The SS men continued to beat her as she was losing consciousness from the blood loss. Finally, the Jewish women from Slovakia were told to cart her off to the crematorium under an escort. Several days later, prisoner Edek was hanged in the male camp.
In the late autumn of 1944, following a summer break, the mass gassings of Jewish female prisoners considered as defective and unfit for transport to factories in the Reich resumed. After the evening roll-call, a strict Blocksperre [block curfew] was organized three to four times a week. During the Blocksperre, the Jewish women who had been sentenced to death were escorted from the blocks (each time there were 300 to 500 of them) to “sauna B” under a strict supervision of the SS men, and then they were driven in trucks straight to the crematoria. At the end of October 1944, Berlin issued the order to categorically stop the gassing of the Jews. My boss Albrecht explained that the English had captured 67 Gestapo men in Aachen and sentenced them to death by gassing, stating that they were going to be killed in the same manner as the Jews, and that if the Germans didn’t stop gassing, the English would use this method of killing on the German civilian population gathered by the English in concentration camps. The Germans ceased gassing in all camps within 24 hours. This is why the last two Jewish transports from Slovakia were admitted to the camp in their entirety.
Several days before the order which banned gassing was issued, the so-called Gypsy camp had been liquidated after the young and healthy had been selected from among both men and women. The women were sent to the camp in Ravensbrück, men to other camps. The rest of the Gypsies numbering 4,000 were gassed. The gassing was personally supervised by head doctor of the female camp hospital, Hauptsturmführer Mengele. Due to his research involving twins and Gypsies in general, Gypsy children trusted him, especially since he often gave them sweets. There was a fear of the parents’ rebellion when children were being sent to the gas chamber, so Dr. Mengele himself put the children into vehicles, reassuring kids and their parents that there was nothing to fear and that they were simply going to another camp. Next, the parents were loaded into vehicles which then followed the children. In this deceitful way, the entire Gypsy camp was liquidated. It was located in the BIIe section. Over 28,000 Gypsies went through the Gypsy camp. The first gassing of the Gypsies occurred in May 1943 and involved 1,600 people.
As a result of the ban on the gassing of the prisoners, a slow process of demolition of the crematoria began. Prisoners blasted the walls of the bunkers intended for gassing with dynamite, destroying the evidence of the crime in the process. Simultaneously, all of the pits used for burning corpses were cleaned, filled with sand, and eliminated, and turf was placed on top of them.
Following the start of the invasion in the West, American aerial attacks on Auschwitz camp began. Bombings were relatively rare (they happened maybe six times), but air raids were very frequent – they occurred almost daily – and during those moments, the air raid alarm was always announced, and the whole camp was surrounded by artificial fog. Air raids occurred during the day and at night. Bombings took place only during the day, with the exception of one evening air raid which took place on 23 December 1944. This air raid was carried out at about 7.00 p.m. by a single, allegedly English aircraft, which bombed the SS-Lazarett [hospital for the SS] with exceptional precision, during a ceremony at which the ill SS men were receiving their Christmas Liebesgaben [care packages]. The only people inside were the SS authorities. There were casualties among the SS men, but no one knew their number, for the authorities managed to eliminate all traces of the bombing before morning. From that point onwards, the SS-Lazarett was moved to a different location – I don’t know where. One day the Americans carpet-bombed the buildings of the SS-Unterkunft (supply storages) and the bunker of the SS men. I learned from my boss Bilan that 180 SS men died. The bunker was very well-hidden, not visible, and covered with turf, so the pilots had to possess precise and accurate information about its location. Some SS men died also in SS-Unterkunft, but their number is unknown. Unfortunately, 12 prisoners who happened to be hiding there from the bombs died as well. During the air raids, all prisoners in the entire camp were subject to the Blocksperre [block curfew]. All kommandos working outside had to return to the blocks, men working in the female camp had to go back to their own blocks, while all of the SS men and women left the camp grounds and hid in the bunkers. The SS men from the so-called Postenkette [cordon] left guard posts and hid in bunkers dug in the ground for this very purpose, while the barrels of machine guns were directed at the camp. After the air raids and the bombing of the SS-Unterkunft and the SS men’s bunker, they – along with Aufseherinnen [female overseers] stayed on the camp premises, following orders and apparently feeling safer there. A characteristic change in the SS men and women’s approach occurred after the invasion in the West began, namely that they attempted to get closer to the prisoners and blatantly justify their position. In particular, all Volksdeutschers tried to present their alibi to the prisoners. The new approach of the camp authorities was also hugely influenced by the fact that London radio broadcasts listed names of the kapos in the camp. These broadcasts reassured the camp authorities that the prisoners had some contact with the outside world. Investigations into such matters often ended with death sentences, even in the case of a mere suspicion.
At the end of November 1944, the whole female camp A and B was moved to the sections BIIb and BIIc and BIIe, and partly to the main Auschwitz camp – to the so-called “Iraq” [?]. In October and November, the number of workers of the political department and Schreibstuben was slowly decreasing because the influx of new prisoners – so-called Zugänge [arrivals] – had stopped, and plans were made for the liquidation of the camp. I was also subject to this reduction and moved to section BIIe – to the so-called Häftlingsunterkunft, where I worked as a Schreiberin [clerk]. Located in BIIe section were the Revier [hospital] for women, blocks for children, partly evacuated [transport from] Warsaw, and the so-called Schonungsblocks, i.e. leisure blocks. This whole camp was intended for people who didn’t work.
The political department still functioned in the camp, but it was now much smaller and headed by Houstek-Erber. The department kept records of those who were released from the camp and of the new-born children.
The birth rate was high on account of the evacuation of Warsaw and the fact that the Jewish women from the last transports were allowed to give birth. The new-born children were registered in the normal Bogen as Zugänge. Under the place of birth we put: “Auschwitz, Kassernenstrasse 4” and reported it to the registration office. It was forbidden to write “Auschwitz concentration camp” in this section. After 24 hours each child was given a tattoo on their leg.
In 1944 two transports of Russian children departed from Auschwitz – the children were from around Vitebsk and Smolensk, aged 1 to 14, and had been forcibly taken away from their mothers, who were prisoners. These children were subject to medical examinations by Dr. Rohde. Only healthy children were sent to the German Kinderheime [children’s homes] in Nakło and around Poznań.
The camp administration was often notified of a demand for children among German childless families. In such cases, an SS doctor selected the right, healthy, and pretty child of Polish nationality, maximally one year old. He would take them away from the mother and keep under quarantine for three weeks before release. Then the child would be sent to the right address or handed over to the German family who came to claim him or her in person. There were about 20 of such incidents. Taking children away from their mothers was more cruel than gassing and caused terrible despair and breakdown of the mothers. These children also had their numbers tattooed before being sent away. The practice of taking children away from prisoner-mothers and from the evacuated Warsaw, which were supposedly to receive special treatment, continued until the end of the camp’s existence and in its last six months became even more intense.
At the beginning of January 1945, a large transport of sugar, chocolate, and condensed milk came from the International Red Cross in Geneva. Prisoners were given 35 sugar cubes with glucose twice, and the blocks for children received small amounts of condensed milk. A kilogram of chocolate with vitamins intended for each prisoner was distributed only among the SS men.
I would like to add that the Jews in Auschwitz camp had a different official address for correspondence than the Aryans. The address for the Jews was: “Birkenau, bei Neu Berun”.
I learnt from a number of SS men that during a rampant typhus fever epidemic in the winter of 1943/1944, Oberaufseherin [senior overseer] Maria Mandl suggested to the camp authorities a project involving the gassing of the entire female camp, allegedly in order to get rid of the epidemic which decimated the inmates. Grabner accepted this project. Lagerführer [camp leader] Hössler strongly objected, so information was sent to Berlin, which did not allow to gas the entire female camp, but ordered that only the typhus patients be gassed. Consequently, over 6,000 female prisoners were gassed. The female camp as a whole survived by a miracle.
Due to the Soviet offensive on the eastern front, which began on 12 January 1945, on the following day we saw the German forces withdrawing in chaos, units of the Gestapo and the SS first. While on their way, the units entered the camp premises, where they received provisions. From that point onwards, the uncertainty among the camp authorities grew with every hour, orders were issued and then changed, everyday roll-calls ceased, and the camp authorities no longer cared for following the camp regulations. What they feared the most was that partisans would liberate the camp. At the night of 17/18 January 1945, SS men came from the main Auschwitz camp and destroyed the records – hospital records in particular. Only Dr. Mengele managed to load the whole material regarding the Zwillinge [twins] into a car within half an hour and transport it to Berlin. On 18 January 1945, the evacuation of the prisoners assembled into columns started in the morning and the atmosphere became more relaxed. The warehouses were open and every prisoner could take out supplies from inside. We were made to stand in formation to be counted and then released again. Only healthy and strong prisoners were arranged into columns, the ill and small children were supposed to stay in the camp. The camp commandant personally made sure that this was the case. The SS men inspected the blocks, searching for prisoners in hiding. In the evening, prisoners were made to destroy and burn papers and documents which had anything to do with the camp’s existence. Everyone was waiting for the Soviet Army to take over the camp any minute.
Finally, at 8.00 p.m., we were arranged into columns once more. We left the camp under a strong escort of the SS armed with Panzerfausts. I don’t know how many columns departed from Auschwitz camp; I marched in the last column numbering 1,800 women. There were over 12,000 prisoners in the female camp on that day. The camp authorities allowed the prisoners to take as many blankets and as much food as they wanted, but they discouraged taking sizeable luggage, for it could hinder the march. Hauptsturmführer Hössler oversaw the proper evacuation of Auschwitz and personally supervised the departure of each column. My column went through the main camp in Auschwitz, where everyone received a loaf of bread and one package of tinned food for two people. At night we started marching to Rajsko and Brzeszcze. Columns of male prisoners marched before us. We were marching hastily, under very difficult conditions: it was snowing, there was a heavy storm and some black ice. The SS men rushed the column by yelling “ los, los ” [come on]. Near Brzeszcze we were allowed to stop and rest in the snow for two hours. At about 4.00 a.m. we continued to march in the direction of Pszczyna. Already around Rajsko, we started noticing corpses – at first only of male prisoners. During the day it turned out that all these people were killed in the same manner – the victims’ heads were simply blasted off with the dum-dum bullets, and the brains splattered all over the road. The number of corpses increased as me moved forward. Near Pszczyna, we counted about 15 corpses within the distance of one kilometer. I do not exaggerate when I say that the road was covered with corpses. We marched non-stop for 24 hours, and then the column stopped for a night in the town of Poręba, district of Pszczyna, because the SS men got tired. We slept in barns. Most of the SS men who escorted us were old, apparently they had been recently enlisted from the Wehrmacht. The column was headed by a young SS man (I don’t know his name and surname) aided by five young SS men, who were executing prisoners on the way. While marching, I witnessed the execution of one of the prisoners who apparently hid in the village. He was shot together with all of the residents of the house, including children – about ten people in total. Before we left Auschwitz, we were advised that escaping or hiding on the way would result in the death penalty for the prisoner and for those who aided him as well. Despite this threat, some prisoners attempted to escape while some locals offered prisoners great help by way of hiding them, and providing water and food. About 50 prisoners from my column ran away during the march. The SS men shot to death the following prisoners from my column: Ada Stadnicka from Warsaw and Aurelja Piekosz (I don’t remember their prisoner numbers). While marching, I also saw the corpse of prisoner Włodzimiera Sawicka from Kraków, number over 6000, massacred and stabbed with bayonets. These prisoners died only because they collapsed on the way and couldn’t keep up. I saw a number of prisoners’ corpses but most of them were lying face down, with heads busted to the point that it was impossible to recognize them.
The most difficult section of our journey was getting through the woods in Pszczyna, due to a storm, black ice, and the fact that we were inhumanely rushed by the SS men, for the SS escort feared a partisan attack. I saw a female prisoner wrapped in a blanket, sitting by the path in the woods. There was blood on her face and she stretched out her arms towards our column in a pleading gesture. Then one of the young SS men came up to her, and having replaced the normal bullets in his gun with the dum-dum bullets as he was approaching, he shot her twice, literally blasting her head off. The whole path in the woods was covered with corpses, as well as objects and food items left on the ground by the prisoners who were marching ahead of us.
We passed Pszczyna at about 10.00 a.m. Outside the town we were allowed to rest for half an hour, and then we continued to march until we got to Wodzisław, district of Rybnik, where we spent the night in barns located on farms. Up to that point, we had been marching full four days. In the early morning, we were led to the railway station and loaded onto a train, where a hundred female prisoners were placed in each of the open rail cars. We were transported in the direction of Berlin. During the march and the train journey, we suffered especially from thirst, for the SS men wouldn’t even let us find some water on the way, and the locals weren’t allowed to approach the train. I have to emphasize that in the section of the road from Pszczyna to Wodzisław, buckets with water and sometimes food were placed by the road or in front of the houses, so that prisoners could secretly get some water. On the third day of the train journey every wagon received five loaves of bread. This whole time the SS men were given good provisions. We were allowed to step off the train only once every 24 hours for a few minutes. Each wagon was guarded by two SS men armed with machine guns. On the last day of our journey, right outside Berlin, a higher ranking SS officer inspected the whole transport and heard out our complaints – in particular we requested water. As a result of this inspection he gave an order that we be provided every day with warm water from the station or from a machine. No wonder that in these conditions various diseases spread among the prisoners. In Berlin we experienced a two-hour air raid and were bombed by several American aircraft. Our trains stood on the open railways, while the SS crew hid in the bunkers or neighboring houses. In the course of the train journey, we also survived several anti-air raid alarms, during which the train was always left at the station, while the SS hid in the bunkers. The authorities evidently wanted the prisoner transports to be bombed and destroyed.
We passed through Berlin at about 10.00 a.m. The whole transport was to be left in Groß-Rosen camp in Silesia, but unfortunately the camp was already being evacuated. Our transport was sent to Sachsenhausen, but this camp was overcrowded and didn’t accept our transport. We finally stopped in Oranienburg, where only four female prisoners got off. Stenia Starostek, Schmidt – kapo at the Bekleidungskammer [clothing storage] of Czech descent, remembered by the female prisoners as a cruel and brutal person, and two German women Rapportshreiberinnen [reporting clerks] Rya and her sister Elza, a block leader of the German block. These prisoners apparently wanted to hide in Oranienburg. The camp was overcrowded by the prisoners evacuated from other camps and could not take in our transport. We were finally transported to the camp in Ravensbrück, where the escort simply left the transport behind and took off. The camp had no choice but to admit us. We got there on 26 January 1945. The whole transport numbering about 1,800 people was settled in the so-called Jugendlager [youth camp] located in a secluded place and previously intended as a punitive correctional facility for young German girls. The whole transport was placed in one big block with a stage, apparently formerly used for performances. The block was very tightly packed and the prisoners had to sit there, squeezed one right next to another, with no way of getting some sleep or lying down. Nights were especially horrible and tiresome, for there wasn’t enough air. The windows were tightly shut, we relieved ourselves mostly in the block, and the only way to leave was through a window. The food was insufficient, and we received it no sooner than on the third day of our detention – some soup and a hundred grams of bread. We spent two entire weeks in these conditions. Atrocious scenes took place especially during the distribution of food from a cauldron, when the prisoners were snatching this tiny amount of soup from each other’s hands and fighting for every bite of food. The camp authorities were no longer able to maintain order. We suffered in particular from a shortage of water for drinking and washing. We could only wash ourselves with snow. We also used snow to quench our thirst. Right away, a louse-infestation broke out and contagious diseases started spreading – Durchfall [diarrhea], typhus and typhoid fever, and German measles. There was no medical assistance, the authorities confiscated the first-aid kits brought by prisoner-doctors and even conducted searches for this purpose.
On the grounds of the Jugendlager, women evacuated from Warsaw entirely occupied three blocks. All of them were elderly ladies – over 45 years old in any case – who had been sentenced to death as unfit for work. They were treated in an inhumane way and during roll-call they were made to stand barefoot in the snow for hours, hungry and with no coats on. This is how blocks were decimated, for about 50 people died every day, and those who went to the Revier [hospital] were taken to the gas chambers at night.
After two weeks, we were transferred to the main camp in Ravensbrück and placed in one block housing over 2,000 people. The conditions improved, because there were only three women per bed, the food was a bit better and distributed more regularly. The block was overcrowded nonetheless. We suffered from the lack of air, especially at night, when the window shutters and doors were shut. When the sewers got blocked, water flooded the whole camp, the excrement was flowing out of the cesspits, and the air around the whole camp became toxic and stuffy. This was especially unbearable since the camp was located in the valley and surrounded by a high wall. Some transports had been placed in the so- called Zelte, that is huge tents put up directly on the ground. They got flooded with water. The camp intended for 5,000 people, was filled with over 48,000 women at the time. There were many deaths among inmates. Selections in the Revier were conducted often and the female prisoners were gassed regardless of their nationality and religious affiliation. The crematorium was working non-stop.
From 8 February 1945, transports numbering about 2,000 people each started departing from the camp in the western direction, in order to decrease the number of prisoners in Ravensbrück. Transports from Auschwitz were evacuated first. My transport departed on 12 February 1945, and it comprised over 240 Aryan women from Poland and about 1,600 Jewish women from Hungary, all of them from Auschwitz.
My transport was loaded onto a passenger train at about 3.00 p.m. and every female prisoner was given half a loaf of bread, one tenth of a margarine cube and 200 grams of liverwurst which was an extraordinary ration. The journey lasted until 6.00 a.m. The train finally stopped at the Neustadt-Glewe station. The transport was escorted by Aufseherinnen [female overseers] and only a couple of SS men. The camp in Neustadt-Glewe didn’t want to admit our transport, so we waited at the station for over three hours. Finally, the Aufseherinnen unloaded us from the train, counted us, and then left us unguarded at the station and took the next train to Ravensbrück. We waited at the station for the SS men for two hours. In the meantime, there was an alarm and an air raid in the area. Eventually, we were claimed by several SS men along with the future camp commandant who was holding the rank of a non-commissioned officer at the time – he immediately started beating and kicking the prisoners for no reason, and amidst all the screaming and shouting, he arranged them into columns numbering five people. In the evening we were herded into a factory and placed in a shed which had previously been used as a drying plant. We spent a whole week in this shed, in horrible conditions, with no water, lying on wood shavings. It was terribly cramped and we had to spend nights sitting down. The food was distributed in the afternoon of the following day, and it consisted in a quarter of a liter of soup and one loaf of bread for ten women.
The whole shed was surrounded by a strong SS guard detachment – we would risk getting shot by leaving it. Roll-call was held at about 9.00 a.m. and lasted until noon, and then we were given food. German prisoners with black or green triangles were in a privileged position, they beat their colleagues in an awful manner and stole food from them. After a week, we were led to the camp right in the middle of an airport located three kilometers away from a town and surrounded by woods. In this camp, there was an aircraft parts factory, a school for pilots, and a huge airport. A large transport from Auschwitz, numbering about 1,800 people, and a transport of about 900 people evacuated from Warsaw were already there. In total, there were 4,500 women in the camp. Before we were admitted in the camp, SS men conducted thorough body searches, stripped us naked, and took away literally everything that we had brought from Auschwitz, except for the clothes that we wore. Then we were herded into blocks divided into small rooms, each housing 38 people. We slept on the floor, in very cramped conditions and we had no air. At first, roll-call was held twice a day, later once a day. The food was very lousy – it consisted of soup made of several pieces of turnips floating in lukewarm, unsalted water. Only from time to time were we given coffee in the evening. Bonuses were distributed three times a week in the form of twenty grams of cheese, margarine or marmalade.
We carried out work in the forest, collected firewood, dug trenches, worked at the airport and in the aircraft factory. The working conditions, as well as food and sanitary conditions did not improve in the course of my stay at this camp. The commandant – the SS man whose surname I don’t know, and his deputy Aufseherin, harassed us in a horrible way, beating and kicking us for no reason. For instance, stealing a turnip was punished with having to cut all hair and with a Blocksperre [block curfew], as well as both moral and physical torment.
Air raid alarms occurred very often, as did air raids and bombings of the camp. I witnessed a very precise air raid on the airport carried out by English fighter planes. All 36 aircraft standing at the airport were destroyed. No bomb ever hit the area of the blocks occupied by the prisoners, and the pilots who flew low over the roofs of the barracks gestured to us, urging us to leave the grounds of the airport. The largest air raid I saw involved 3,800 Anglo-American aircraft flying to Berlin. It lasted several hours. During one such English air raid, one of the aircraft exploded onto the airport and the crew died. It was forbidden to bury the bodies of the English pilots – the female prisoners were ordered to load them onto wheelbarrows with shovels and give them to pigs as fodder. During the air raids, all of the SS men would leave the camp grounds and hide in the bunkers, aiming the barrels of their guns at the camp.
As a consequence of the air raids, columns of female prisoners were sent to get rid of the rubble and corpses from the neighboring towns. Right next to the camp, there was a stalag [prisoner-of-war camp] for about 150 French POWs, who worked in the aircraft factory. They always provided us with information about the political situation and – insofar as possible – with food. When the allied forces entered, the stalag ’s crew was the first to aid us – they cut through the wires to open up the camp and released us.
After being in the camp for a month, I fell severely ill with a disorder of the labyrinth. The disease was brought on by exhaustion of the whole organism and made it impossible for me to stand up on my own. It was caused by the conditions in the camp, starvation, heavy labor, and the lack of sleep. At the moment of the liberation of the camp by the American forces, I weighed only 43 kilograms, while I was 165 centimeters tall. I was placed in a most primitive camp hospital. In each bed there were three patients with no underwear, completely naked, sharing one blanket. The triple bunk beds were located in a small hospital barrack with a low ceiling. On average, 50 people fit into one room, and there were four sick rooms. Despite several interventions of prisoner-doctors, the camp authorities did not allow the expansion of the hospital. The following diseases were spreading: typhoid fever, consumption, Durchfall [diarrhea], and a final stage of scurvy. Terribly bothered by lice, we also suffered due to a shortage of water. The mortality rate at the hospital was high, on average 5 or 6 out of 200 patients died every day. In total, about 500 people died in the camp within three months. The ill women were horrifically emaciated. Some of them weighed only 27 kilograms and looked like living skeletons suitable for an anatomy class.
Three prisoner-doctors worked in the Revier: Dr. Tetmajer from Warsaw, Dr. Perzanowska from Radom, and Dr. Alina Brewda from Warsaw, who used to work at block 10 in Auschwitz – the so-called experimental block. All these doctors looked after the sick to the best of their abilities, as did the prisoner-nurses. Unfortunately, the complete lack of medicine and dressings made it impossible to provide medical assistance. The hospital was supervised by an SS man from Pomerania, whose name I don’t know, and who was a member of the sanitary crew called the SDG in short [Sanitätsdienstgrade – auxiliary medical personnel]. From time to time, the aviation regiment’s doctor visited the ill. He saw the hospital’s shortcomings but couldn’t remedy them, because – as he said himself – he wasn’t allowed to give out medicine from the military hospital. Before each of his visits, the hospital was cleaned and the severely sick women were hidden on the top bunk beds, as was instructed by the camp authorities. No new patients were admitted due to the fact that the hospital was overcrowded, so some of the sick remained in the blocks and were visited by doctors. Many prisoners died in such circumstances. The hospital received the same food rations as the blocks. The corpses were carried outside in coffins and buried in the local forest. Putting any signs on the graves was forbidden. The coffins were then carried back. Even three corpses could fit inside such a coffin. In these conditions I spent two months in the hospital, until the liberation of the camp by the US Army.
One time during my stay at the hospital, packages from the English Red Cross were distributed. A package was divided into four parts for the ill and into eight parts for the healthy. One package weighed five kilograms. I learnt from one of the SS men that in 1942 the International Red Cross started sending a package per one concentration camp prisoner every month. Unfortunately, the packages were usually distributed only among the SS men. Only packages with a specific addressee, sent from Geneva or Portugal, were given to prisoners – but usually in a reduced state.
In the second half of April 1945, the whole camp became more relaxed and there was a strange atmosphere of uncertainty and anticipation of the liberation of the camp. There was a new camp commandant, but despite his promises, he did not manage to improve the fate of the prisoners. In the last days, the camp authorities’ attitude towards prisoners improved significantly. The kommandos were rarely sent to work in the forest and the authorities were indifferent to escapes of the prisoners. There was a permanent air raid alarm. Some ten days before the end of the war, newspapers ceased to be published in the Reich. On 2 May 1945, at about 6.00 a.m., having fled in panic, the authorities of Ravensbrück camp and some members of the authorities of Auschwitz camp arrived in our camp. They stayed in the camp to rest, but having received the information about the Americans taking over Ludwigslust, they fled in panic, leaving the camp under the supervision of the SS men hidden in guard posts. The camp experienced terrible moments of uncertainty, for the camp authorities were no longer there, and we didn’t know what orders they had left for the SS men. On that day, we received no food at all, despite the intervention of the female doctors. At about 2.00 p.m., starved prisoners made for the camp warehouses which were full of supplies, when the camp commandant of Ravensbrück (I don’t know his name), holding the rank of Hauptsturmführer, appeared out of nowhere and started shooting at the prisoners, killing eight women on the spot. At 3.00 p.m., the SS men disappeared from their guard posts, and at about 4.00 p.m. the French stalag opened the camp and announced the happy news that the US Army had taken over the town of Neustadt-Glewe and that we were free.
For the first time after so many years we walked out of the camp freely, and were able to look around in the area, while the sounds of combat were still audible. We took special notice of the piles of military documents scattered around together with uniforms and weapons left by the SS. The prisoners at once started eating a lot, which damaged their starved organisms. We spent the night in the camp. On 3 May 1945, the American army arrived in the camp and right away started taking good care of all the prisoners, providing them with food. At noon that day, an army vehicle of the Red Cross arrived with a transport of medicine and dressings. On that day, I received my first recuperative injection. Afterwards, I went with my colleagues from the camp to the town and witnessed the most beautiful May 3 parade that I have ever seen. It involved the march of the surrendering German forces, numbering 85,000 people, before the US Army. We stayed in Neustadt-Glewe camp until 5 May 1945, that is until the moment when the Soviet Army entered the town and the camp, allowing us to return to our homeland.
I organized a group of nine prisoners and we travelled on horseback through Mecklenburg and Brandenburg. We crossed the Oder River in the town of Schwedt. We got on a train in Drezdenko near Krzyż, in the Poznań Voivodeship. When we were travelling on horseback in Brandenburg, in the woods near the town of Angermünde I got shot in my right hand by German partisans. I arrived in Kraków on 24 May 1945. I was in a poor condition. Thanks to the care provided by the Polish Red Cross I am slowly recovering. I get my strength from the joy of having survived miraculously, and from regaining my family and freedom. It is a dream come true – to be a human being again, not a number!
I vividly remember many women, who were my companions in misery in the camp. Some survived Auschwitz camp, others met their deaths there.
I would like to list some names of the deceased prisoners of Auschwitz whom I knew: Barbara Ziołowska from Kraków, who died of typhus fever in May 1943; Tusia Wielopolska, who was arrested in July 1938 in Berlin under the suspicion of espionage, transported to Auschwitz in January 1943 from Kodbus [Cottbus?] prison near Berlin, and died of typhus fever and rubella at the end of March 1943; Amelia Dürr from Kraków, who died of Durchfall in March 1943; Maroszani from Szczawnica, who died of typhus fever in March 1943; Stanisława Kuźdżał-Kicka from Kraków, who died of typhus fever in June 1943; Ewa Niedzielska from Kraków, who died of consumption in May 1943; Stanisława Rakoczy from Kraków, who died of typhus fever on 15 November 1943; Del Ponti from Kraków, Siemiradzkiego Street, [died] of typhus fever in February 1943; Jadwiga Mazanek from Kraków, who died of pemphigus and typhus fever in March 1944; Żyborska from Kraków, who died of typhus fever in January 1944, and countless others, whose names I don’t remember.
These are just several victims of Auschwitz camp, and there were 22,000 concentration camps, including labor camps, scattered around the lands occupied by the Germans, as I learnt from Wladimir Bilan, head of the political department.
The following people survived the Auschwitz camp, but I don’t know what happened to them afterwards: Walentyna Konopska from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Janina Unkiewicz from Lublin, Stanisława Rzepka, Maria Świderska from Nowy Sącz, Ernestyna and Aniela Lasow from Katowice, Halina Lipińska, Jadwiga Rakowska from Opoczno, Truda Guttman, Edith Linka, Jung Wali from Slovakia, Danuta Figiel, Jadwiga Budzyńska from Opoczno, Zofia Gromska from Będzin, Teresa Łubieńska, Żółtowska, Czartoryska, Jezierska, Martyna Puzyna, Maria Tarnowska, Jadwiga Szylig, Teresa Kordecka, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Wanda Moszczeńska, Krystyna Rzewulska, Maria Jakubowska, Maria Chądzyńska, Irena Miłaszewska, Wiktoria Klimaszewska, Jadwiga Despot-Zenowicz, Wanda Ślusarczyk with her mother, Dorota Laskowicz, all from Warsaw, Wanda Mysłakowska, Zofia Śliwińska, Tola Kopycińska, Helena Hoffman, Zofia Bratro, Zofia Haltow, Wanda Żak, Maria Meisner, Barbara Wiśniewska, Alina Pietkiewicz, Eugenia Ułan, Antonina Piątkowska, Anna Schiller, Halina Skoneczna, Helena Dzikowska, Maria Starczewska, Izabella Sosnowska, Krystyna Cyankiewicz, Monika Galica, Helena Matheizel, Barbara Kamińska, Anna Szweiger, Wanda Dubiel – all from Kraków, Narcyza Kielan from Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Magda Hermes from Łódź, Wanda Maruschany from Szczawnica, Celina Mikołajczyk from Lublin, Maria Grzesiewska from Katowice, Alina Jankowska and Eugenia Matuszewska from Białystok, Ludmiła Logaczow from Leningrad, Katarzyna Gaładżum from Lwów, Danuta Mosiewicz from Przemyśl and Włada Tymnicka from Tarnów.
Memories of the camp in Auschwitz and of other camps still cause me to break out in a cold sweat and have terrifying nightmares while I sleep. When the reality wakes me up from a dream, I have to believe that the dreadful torment of Hitler’s reign, which lasted several long years, is behind me. This torment left physical traces on my body: disease of the labyrinth, a couple of missing teeth which had been knocked out, and general weakness. The strength of my spirit, however, remains intact, after it helped me to survive, along with a strong will and faith. This prisoner of Auschwitz continues to live, in defiance of that Nazi beast’s intentions, and looks at the proud generation of the Herrenvolk – broken and crashed into pieces – and at the faded and deceitful slogans and mottos spread under Nazi rule, which aimed at the destruction of the European nations, and which fortunately turned out to be false and temporary, just like all evil in this world.
At this point the report was brought to a close, read and signed on 22 August 1945.