On 16 November 1946 in Opoczno, at the Magistrates’ Court in Opoczno, Judge W. Szczygieł heard the person mentioned hereunder as a witness, without administering an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declaration and of the provisions of Art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Jadwiga Sarnowska née Rakowska |
| Age | 25 |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Stanisława |
| Place of residence | Opoczno, Kilińskiego Street 17 |
| Occupation | student |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
| I | arrived at the women’s camp in Birkenau on 14 September 1943 and remained there until |
the evacuation, that is until 18 January 1945. On the second day of the camp’s evacuation, 20 January, I escaped from my transport.
Immediately upon my arrival in the Birkenau I was placed in the so-called quarantine barrack, where I remained for about two months, and then, in mid-November, I fell sick with typhus and was placed in the Revier. It was something like an infirmary. They kept me there until February 1944, when I was sent to work in the Aufnahme Abteilung [admissions office], probably as a result of backing from prisoners Walentyna Konopska and Halina Lipińska- Gorlach. I worked in the Aufnahme office for about eight months, until October 1944, when the office was largely abolished and the camp moved to other sections. In October 1944, I was directed to the Unterkunft [supplies warehouse] section BIIb, where I sorted blankets, pots, and bowls. I worked there until 18 January 1945, until the evacuation of the camp.
At the time of my arrival in the camp there were around a thousand women prisoners of various nationalities in the barrack of block 6a, where quarantine was held. While in quarantine, I saw the Sortierung, that is the selection of Jewesses who were in our and other barracks. During such selections the women prisoners had to pass naked in single file in front of a group of SS men and Aufseherinnen [female overseers]. In this group I saw SS man Taube, Oberaufseherin [senior female overseer] Mandl, and Lagerälteste [senior block prisoner] – a Polish woman by the name of Stenia. Taube would hit the naked inmates with a whip. All the Jewesses whom they picked would be sent to block 25, from where a few days later they would be transported to the crematorium. At roll-calls held when I was in quarantine we always had to stand outdoors for a few hours, regardless of the weather. During my stay there, which lasted nearly a month and a half, several women died. Later, when I was in the Revier, that is in the infirmary, a typhoid epidemic broke out in the camp. We were given no medication or assistance of any kind. We lay on bunk beds, three or four women per bed – sick women, suffering from different diseases, were lying together. I myself, ill with typhus, caught scabies from one of my companions. The barrack was always very dirty and actually teeming with lice; it was not heated, and the women often had no shirts. In December of 1943, on average some 300 prisoners died in the Revier each day.
I worked in the admissions office, which came under the Politische Abteilung [political department], from February to October 1944. We registered the personal data of the Zugänge – the new arrivals. 15 women worked there, including 8 Poles, namely: Walentyna Konopska (presently deceased), Danuta Mosiewicz from Przemyśl, Stanisława Rachwał from Kraków, Zofia Bratro (presently resident in Katowice), Stanisława Rzepka from Nowy Sącz, Halina Lipińska from Opoczno (she married Gorlach and presently lives in Wapno, in the Wągrowiec district of the province of Poznań).
During my period of employment in the admissions office I was only aware that it registered and kept records of inmates; I know nothing about the camp authorities using the office to cover up the crimes committed in the camp. When transports arrived, only young women who were fit for work would be registered in the admissions office and then placed in the camp. The rest went directly to the crematorium and were not entered in the records.
The acronym “SB” is known to me, it stands for Sonderbehandlung [special treatment], that is, gassing and incineration. This abbreviation was not used in our office. It was used in the Schreibstube [camp administrative office]. Among the prisoners who worked there were Jadwiga Magnuszewska née Budzińska from Opoczno, presently resident in Pleszów (Poznań province) and Danuta Nowak née Figiel (resident in Nowa Wieś, district of Słupsk county). I never encountered the acronym “GU.”
In November 1944, the gassing of people in the camp was stopped, probably on orders from Berlin. If and when those abbreviations ceased to be used and what they were replaced with, I do not know. The direct head of the Aufnahme office was Włodzimierz Bilan, while his superior was Houstek. I do not know the SS men Klaus and Hoffman, as at the time they no longer worked in the camp. Houstek was the main head of the Politische Abteilung and took part in the selections as well, I saw him myself during a selection of Jewesses from Hungarian transports. He was probably subordinate to the camp command. Włodzimierz [Wladimir] Bilan was subordinate to Houstek. Neither Houstek nor Bilan abused the female prisoners working in the office of the Politische Abteilung. However, Houstek was hostile towards the other women prisoners, and I saw him beat them while he was employed in the camp. SS-Oberscharführer Wladimir Bilan did not abuse me, however he did not make my life in the camp any easier either.
Whether he took part in selections and gassing of prisoners, I cannot say. I can confirm that of the SS men known to me, Arbeitsführer SS Perschel took part in the selections and beat prisoners, I saw that almost daily.
I cannot say anything specific about Rudolf Höss, I only saw one written message forwarded to our Aufnahme which carried his signature, but all these crimes took place when he was the camp commandant.
The interview report was read out.