POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND

Malmö, 14 August 1946 Testimony received by Institute Assistant Ludwika Broel-Plater and Helena Dziedzicka

transcribed

Record of Witness Testimony 447 Here stands Ms Jadwiga Natkańska born on 9 July 1902 in Kelmentsi (Bessarabia) , occupation teacher religion Roman Catholic , nationality Polish parents’ forenames Józef Wanda proof of identity provided [not completed] last place of residence in Poland Radom current place of residence Malmö, Celsiusgatan 22 who – having been cautioned as to the importance of truthful testimony as well as to the responsibility for, and consequences of, false testimony – hereby declares as follows: I was arrested in Radom on 24 November 1941 I was held in prison (ghetto, labour camp, etc.): in Radom from 24 November 1941 until the end for roughly eight months I was interned at the concentration camp in Ravensbrück from January 1942 to 24 April 1945 as a political prisoner bearing the number 9055 and wearing a red -coloured triangle with the letter ‘P’. I was later interned in [not completed] from [not completed] to [not completed] Asked whether, with regard to my internment in the prison, ghetto, or concentration camp, I possess any particular knowledge about how the camp was organized, how prisoners were treated, their living and working conditions, medical and pastoral care, the hygienic conditions in the camp, or any particular events concerning any aspect of camp life, I state as follows:

J. Natkańska The testimony consists of twenty-five pages of handwriting and describes the following:

1) Torture room at the Gestapo station in Radom. Various forms of torture. Jail in the basement. 2) Arrest. Harsh conditions in prison. Interrogations. Duplicity of tormentors. Torture. Being shackled to

beds. Murder of a man named Kowalski. Transport with prostitutes. Decent treatment of prisoners by escort. Sentences seen by accident.

3) Arrival at Ravensbrück. Prohibition on receiving parcels and letters. Bathing. Medical examinations. Conditions in Block 14. Working aussen [outside (the camp), Ger.]. Selection of prisoner doctors to work in the Revier [infirmary, Ger.]. SS doctors and nurses. Treatment of pregnant and sick women. Behaviour of German children. Hohenlychen –

BLOMS BOKTRYCKERI, LUND 1946

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[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

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work and treatment. Profiles of sanatorium workers. The NN block [Nacht und Nebel, lit. ‘night and fog’ (Ger.)]. Work in the Bekleidungswerke [apparel workshops, Ger.]. Torture of prisoners by SS men and aufseherkas [female guards, from Ger. Aufseherin]. Polish women’s refusal to accept bonuses. The camp adjoining the Siemens factory. The Siemens Revier. Doctor Kurt, a dirty woman who treated prisoners badly. Evacuation of the camp.

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

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1 1 Eyewitness testimony of Jadwiga Natkańska, born on 9 July 1902 Until the German occupation, I had been working as a teacher at Maria Gajl, a girls’ gimnazjum [secondary school, Pol.] in Radom. Directly after the German military entered the city, all school buildings were seized by the military and there was no space in the school buildings to teach children. Gimanazjum staff – and headmasters in particular – were arrested. Those not present were hunted down by the SA (Sturmabteilung [lit. ‘Storm Division’, Ger.]). As someone who had been working for the Red Cross out of conviction, I became involved in the resistance as a communications chief. When the Gestapo came to Radom, it established a headquarters at Wytwórnia Broni [lit. ‘Arms Manufacturing Company’, Pol.]. Without delay, they adapted the entire building for their purposes. Floggings took place in the attic. The flogging room looked like a dental clinic, because roughly six dentist’s chairs had been put there, tilted back. Interrogation subjects would be restrained in these with their hands cuffed behind, while [Gestapo agents] doused them with water and beat them with rubber truncheons. [The Gestapo] would lash the bare soles of their feet with twisted-wire whips that were frayed at the tip. After such a whipping, walking felt like stepping on hot coals. A jail had been set up in the basement. In the flogging room, there was also a crane that looked as if it had been made from a dental X-ray machine, with the addition of a rail and wheel along the ceiling. Prisoners hoisted up to the ceiling by this crane would get lacerations on their arms; it looked as if they had been cut with a straight razor. These hanging sessions would last quite a long time. After half an hour, the pain dulled the victims’ sense of time and space. All they could feel was their arms being pulled out of their sockets while their hands, constricted by manacles, gushed blood. I attest to the existence of this torture chamber as an eyewitness, because after my arrest I was questioned there and was tortured on those instruments over a ten-day period. At 4.30 a.m. on 24 November 1941, I was arrested by the Radom Gestapo in my own apartment,

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along with my family and others who were living there or who simply happened to turn up. I myself was arrested on charges of conducting conspiratorial activities, while my family and acquaintances – despite there being no charges against them – were also taken to prison and spent many years in the camps. With regard to the people who were arrested by chance, I should clarify that they were not in my home at the time of my arrest; rather, these were people who, unaware of my arrest, visited my apartment over an approximately ten-day period and were caught by two Gestapo men who were stationed there – one sitting by the front door, the other by the kitchen door. All of the building residents and the caretaker were so terrorised that they dared not warn anyone going to my apartment of the danger they were in. The number of people caught this way, according to accounts from people I later met in the camp, was fourteen. Among them, I remember Ms Dachowska, who had come to invite me to play bridge (she was later interned at Ravensbrück with me from 1942 to 1944); and some friends of my son – Górnicki, Szczepkowski, and Derkacz – who, because they had dropped round our home by chance, were interned at Auschwitz from 1941 or 1942 until the evacuation in 1945. The family members arrested with me were my husband and my son, neither of whom were involved in any political activities, let alone knew about my resistance work. They were sent to Auschwitz. After my arrival in Sweden, I learned from fellow inmates of theirs that they had been separated in October 1942, at which time my son Stanisław was transported to Mauthausen with a group of young people designated for experimental operations. This account tallies with a notification sent by the authorities of that camp to Ms Ankowska from Nisko (armaments factories inside the ‘secure triangle’),

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near Chorzów; the notification stated that my son had died of blood poisoning at that time. Also from the accounts of these fellow inmates (Hulanicki from Radom (?)), I learned that after getting separated from my son, my husband had a nervous breakdown, fell ill, and was taken to the Revier, never to emerge again. This happened in late1942. Straight after our arrest, I and the people in my apartment – that is, my husband, son, and two lodgers – were taken to the Gestapo station in the Wytwórnia Broni building at ulica Kościuszki 6 [lit. ‘6 Kościuszki Street’]. There, I was incarcerated in the basement of the building, while the others were sent to the men’s prison at Holy Trinity Church in Radom. The basement had been converted into cells. There was a tiny window that, after ten days of questioning, was painted over so that no light would penetrate my cell. The interior was damp and mouldy. The food was passable thanks to Patronat [a Polish prisoners’ aid society]. I had an iron bed with a straw-stuffed mattress and blanket. Thanks to the fur coat I had brought with me, I was not as cold, but the pipes inside the cell were covered in frost. I was taken for interrogation. During the first two days, I did not go to the basement, but stood in the corridor facing the wall with my hands cuffed behind my back while people suspected of involvement in my case were being questioned. I myself was summoned two or three times a day by the Hauptführer investigating me. On the first day, from 5 to 11 a.m. there was no interrogation; I was simply led into a small, softly furnished sitting room, where I was cordially invited to take a seat and offered cigarettes, which I didn’t want because I never smoked. This refusal was deeply lamented by gentlemen in uniform who changed every fifteen minutes or half an hour, and they strongly urged me to smoke. I was also offered food (cabbage with potatoes in an enamel bowl) which I could not eat due to how nervous I

4 was; at that point, I was strongly urged to eat at least a few spoonfuls. Throughout this, they tried to persuade me that they fully trusted I would tell the whole truth, since it was in my interest to do so. They said they knew whom they were dealing with; they touted the Hauptführer as a highly cultivated man; they said they were sorry they had had to arrest me and that I would be released just as soon as I told the truth. I was called before the Hauptführer, who stood up to greet me. He ordered the interpreter to relinquish his chair – it being the more comfortable one – to me. At this, the interpreter left the office, and over the course of half an hour [the Hauptführer] took down my particulars and a summary of my life. Whilst looking over the written record of this, I became convinced that my words had been misrepresented, so at my insistence the record had to be struck through several times. On the first day, I was made to look at photographs and say if I recognized anyone. On the second day, I continued to deny belonging to the organization. At that point, I was taken ‘up top’, i.e. to the torture chamber. I was placed in a dentist’s chair with my hands cuffed. The Hauptführer took a seat in another of the chairs and asked me questions, warning that I would be beaten every time I replied ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know’. The interpreter, a teacher from Poznań by the name of Majewski, was already standing in the room with a rubber cane in his hand, and after my first answer in the negative he struck me over the back with the cane. For each successive negative reply, I got an increasing number of lashes, reaching as high as eighteen. Because I did not scream, the [Hauptführer] decided I wasn’t being beaten hard enough, so he began to beat me himself. And because I was still not screaming, he beat the soles of my feet. After this flogging, I was completely unable to walk. Then the same men who had been torturing me a moment before brought some soft slippers, found ones that fit me, and pushed me

J. Natkańska

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

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Eyewitness testimony of Jadwiga Natkańska, born on 9 July 1902, cont’d downstairs to the first floor, where there was more bustle and activity; in front of witnesses, the men were once again sympathetic and helpful. While walking along the corridor, I saw a prisoner from the cell across from mine, Mr Kowalski; he was standing in the stairwell in handcuffs. Read, signed, and accepted Ludwika Broel Plater

J. Natkańska

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

1 Testimony of Ms Jadwiga Natkańska, born on 9 July 1902, cont’d Mr Kowalski is one of our true heroes. Both of us had initially lain shackled to beds in cells on opposite sides of the corridor. Our hands and feet were shackled to the rails of the bed so that we lay spreadeagled. Since all I could hear was him crying out for his wife and son, I thought they were somewhere in that basement too. She, however, was actually in the city jail, and I don’t know what happened to the child. [The Gestapo] thrashed Kowalski with plain, hard sticks. He was beaten so badly that everything inside of him ached. By the fifth day of interrogations, he stopped saying anything and just wheezed. On the fourth day, he had told me that despite how badly they were beating him he wouldn’t betray anyone, even though he knew that his wife and son would answer for it. He told me this through the door, for by then we had been unshackled. At 2 a.m on the fifth day, the wheezing stopped. In the morning, Gestapo men came and took him away in a sack. He looked like a little pile of bones. After that, I went for interrogations once a day after lunch (before then the sessions had been twice daily); they would take me directly to the torture chamber in the attic. The questions began. Mostly, they asked about Skarżysko; they asked me about some sheep shed which I knew nothing about. They beat me constantly. I would be hoisted up by my shackled hands for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time; afterwards, I would have no idea what was going on. I could see them but couldn’t hear their voices. It was a strange state of mind. I could hear an awful noise, but I don’t know if they were shouting at me or if it was a buzzing in my head. After ten days, the daily interrogations and torture ceased. Then they thrashed me approximately once every three or four days, and I have the impression that it was less intense but I may simply have grown accustomed to it. They stopped hoisting me up. They didn’t beat me as much, but would prod me painfully with rubber canes instead. Five days later, I was confronted with my former commander, who had given us all away. During the confrontation, he said that he knew me and that I was the communications chief. I admitted to nothing.

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Then they starting taking me once a week, and then once every other week. My wounds healed somewhat, and when I arrived at Ravensbrück I had only one wound, a festering one in my lower back. The commander (nom de guerre Roman) was badly beaten and his wounds became ulcerated. He had betrayed some 128 people, including his own mother and two sisters. All three were hanged. We know nothing about what happened to him. A second man arrested at the Czech border, Włodek (real name Władysław Pień), was beaten and tortured. Then they stopped beating him, and after a month or so we saw Wachtmeisters leaving his cell carrying large folios. There is every indication that he turned informer for the Gestapo. Once a month, we would be driven to the bathhouse in town. During the trip, Roman would try to make contact with us, whereas Włodek pretended that he didn’t know any of us. What happened to Włodek, I do not know. The interpreter during my interrogations was Majewski. He was Polish – a teacher from Poznań. He did everything he could to mislead everyone. He made many promises but never kept any. During one of the final interrogations, he asked if the Polish people were so stupid as not to know that nothing could withstand the Germans. Quite often, the beatings and torture resulted from mistranslations on his part; this was deliberate. He was 32 years old. I was held in isolation for six months. During the final two months, I was given a cellmate. She was an acquaintance of mine from Skarżysko. After eight months, we were told to take all of our things. We learned from a Czech guard (a very decent fellow) that we were going to be transported to a camp. In the courtyard, we were made to stand facing the wall. There were just over 150 of us – all women. We were transported by rail in passenger carriages. Along the way, between ten and twenty prostitutes were added to the transport. We were escorted by Bavarians who behaved extraordinarily well. [illegible crossing-out] For the eight-day journey, we had received one loaf of bread per two women. The soldiers

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escorting us brought us condensed milk and food. Travelling in one of the carriages was the highest-ranking Gestapo man in charge of us. Our guards would warn us when he was walking through the carriages. At such times, we were not permitted to look through the window; if we did, the Gestapo man would lash us across the face with his riding crop. In a compartment where there were prostitutes, he struck one woman so hard that she couldn’t open her eye. We didn’t know where we were headed. An older soldier escorting us told us that he was not allowed to say and asked us not to press him, because if he were to tell us, he would be sent to the camp along with us. We spent eight days in transit. The Bavarians gave us some advice. Among other things, they advised us to look out for ourselves, especially during the first week; because if we drew no attention to ourselves during that time, we would establish a reputation that would serve us later. Waiting for us at the railway station in Ravensbrück were forty aufseherkas with dogs. From branch headquarters had come Elsa Ehrich, twenty-five SS men with rifles, and fifteen SS men walking freely. We were made to stand in ranks of five and the aufseherkas formed a cordon around us, mainly taking up the rear. Back in the carriage, we had accidentally learned [illegible crossing-out] [note written above crossing-out] about our sentences [/note]. An SS man had left a dossier on the bench before leaving the carriage. We saw the sentences issued to three of us; mine was among them. All three of us had been sentenced to death. After that, we assumed that everyone involved in our case had a death sentence. We were not allowed to conduct correspondence, receive parcels, or read newspapers and books. Only [note written above crossing-out] During the period [/note] when Langefeld was the lady commandant of the camp, we were able to receive parcels, letters, and newspapers for a three-month period. The moment she resigned, the restrictions were reinstated. The blokowas [chief prisoners of each block, from Ger. Blockälteste] received lists of names stating that we were prohibited from receiving any mail or parcels. [illegible crossing-out] At that time, we were dispersed among various blocks. In 1944, in late winter, all of the NN prisoners along with the ‘rabbits’ [króliki (Pol.), to be understood as ‘guinea pigs’] were transferred to Block 32. When we arrived at the camp, we spent the afternoon standing in front of the bathhouse. Our particulars were written down and we were admitted to the Bad [baths, Ger.].

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We were robbed of everything we had. Many women had their hair shorn off. We were reclothed in summer dresses and left unshod. After the baths, we were lined up naked for a medical examination. Rosenthal and Oberhauser looked us over. Oberhauser peered down our throats while Rosenthal asked us three questions: (1) ‘What is your occupation?’; (2) ‘Which Gestapo [branch arrested you]?’; and (3) ‘What were you arrested for, and do you know why you have come to Ravensbrück?’ Upon seeing the marks on my body, he asked me what [illegible crossing-out] I had been so badly beaten for. I replied that the Radom Gestapo would do a better job explaining that. Ilza [sic, Ilse?] Mach, a Sudetendeutsche [ethnic German woman from Bohemia], treated us very kindly. Once we were dressed and standing in a group, she approached us and said: ‘Don’t wor Are you Polish? Don’t worry – everything’s going to be fine. Long live Poland!’ She conducted herself exceptionally well the entire time. She knew how to get on Oberhauser’s good side and she made many things easier for us – whenever she could. After the medical examinations and a change of clothing, we went to Block 14. The blokowa was Waca, a terrible woman. She used to beat all of us. When the aufseherka didn’t come to inspect our folded clothing, Waca would stand in for her. She would jump onto the beds and beat women for badly folded clothing or for having socks on their feet. She deliberately picked out the elderly women in her block and made them scrub the stools. She reported us to the aufseherka and made life miserable for us. We spent all of quarantine – approximately two months – in her block. Then we were split up into different blocks. I was assigned to Marta Baranowska’s block. Conditions there were very good. For a few days, I did work that involved clearing a lake bed. We formed a human chain, passing along crates full of sludge and lake vegetation. It was light work and I never saw an aufseherka the entire time. The kolonka [prisoner in charge of the work gang, from Ger. Kolonnenführerin] was Irka Możdżeń, a very decent woman who did a lot to protect us. Then A few days later, we were summoned to see the oberaufseherka [chief woman guard, from Oberaufseherin], and everyone who had any medical background was selected. All of us were asked. Although I said that I hadn’t completed my medical training, Rosenthal selected

J. Natkańska

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

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Testimony of Ms Jadwiga Natkańska, born on 9 July 1902, cont’d me anyway along with three other women: two who were fully trained doctors with several years of practice behind them; and two of us who had not completed our studies, even though there were fully trained doctors among those he had rejected. The following day, Oberhauser asked us what languages we had a command of and told us who would be working with whom. I was to work with Adamska. Two days later, we reported to Schiedlausky. He was glad that three of us were Polish (the fourth woman was Czech). Schiedlausky did his best to maintain an evil image, but I never saw him beat anyone. Once, I was rummaging through the medicine stores, as I needed something for the block. Schiedlausky came in unexpectedly and saw me rummaging through the shelf with the tweezers; on the shelf below were lenses for eyeglasses. He asked if I was going to conduct eye tests, thereby providing me with a ready excuse. He was humane in interactions; none of us ever had any unpleasantness from him. With regard to patients, he relied heavily on our opinion. He never checked up on us or refused our requests, whether for a Bettkarte [lit. ‘bed card’ (Ger.)], referral to the Revier, or the like. He was of below-average height and slim. He wore glasses [note written above text] with cylindrical lenses [/note], but sometimes went without them. He was dark-haired with light-coloured eyes, a slim face, and a slightly aquiline nose; and he was extremely nervous in his movements. He took no part at all in the experimental operations. Only once, when the ‘rabbits’ were in the bunker (on 15 August 1943), did Fischer force him to be present while individuals selected for operations were identified. Rosenthal was a small man with a protruding lower jaw, dull facial expression (to match his equally dull mind), extremely elongated face, blue eyes, and dark blond hair. A very musical man, he had a good singing voice. He was a monster. Whether he asphyxiated children with his own hands, I do not know; but that he was present while Gerda did so is a fact. With regard to us, he was always of the opinion that we worked too little. On the ward, he would beat patients horribly and kick them during examinations. Sentences of death by lethal injection were issued by him and, reportedly, Oberhauser. They were carried out by [illegible crossing-out] Gerda Guernheim and Schwester [nurse, Ger.] Erika. A great many such injections were administered, first and foremost to

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any patients with mental illness, active tuberculosis, chronic phlegmon, swollen legs, or heart disease, and to seriously ill Jewish women. The orders to kill infants probably originated from him. Injections that induced miscarriage were also given with his knowledge (these were done by sister Erika). Pregnant women would be called to the Revier and examined superficially; the stage of pregnancy was determined, and the women were sent back to their block. A few days later, they would be called back, but this time individually. They were asked how they felt. Every one of them had complaints of some kind, so at that point they would be given the injection and the following day they would miscarry. The injections were generally administered up until the third month of pregnancy; in later months, they would use the pretext of taking mucous samples to induce miscarriage. The maternity room was located in the second Revier. Looking through the window of the rabbits’ room, I saw Dr Rosenthal leave the second Revier, followed by Gerda G. carrying a small white bundle. They were talking cheerfully. Gerda, while laughing and looking at him, squeezed a child in the bundle with her left hand (she was left-handed). For a moment, the child could be heard whimpering, and then it stopped. The child was wrapped in a flimsy piece of linen. By the operating theatre was a small room that no one was permitted to enter, except for Gerda. Occasional births took place there, and quite often I myself saw infant corpses. In relation to the workers under her, Oberhauser was exceptional. She took great care of us and never did us the slightest harm. But she was not good to the patients. She tried to force an old German woman to work. The woman had been complaining of hip pain after falling from a cart. Oberhauser tried to force her to run down a corridor, but the woman could not run. Oberhauser chased her outside and began to pour cold water over her; this went on for a good fifteen minutes. The woman was clearly suffering. We advised Oberhauser to X-ray the woman’s leg. It turned out that her leg was broken in two places. Then Oberhauser had the woman’s leg put in plaster. Oberhauser had a rather foolish look on her face in front of us. She would often beat and shove patients,

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but was better than Rosenthal. She was quite tall, and heavy – in her movements, build, and thinking. She had blonde hair, grey eyes, uneven overlapping teeth, and a round face and features. Whenever we came to her with patient issues, she never checked up on us; she trusted our diagnoses and sought to accommodate us. The Oberschwester [head nurse, Ger.] (whose name I do not recall) – a tall, thin woman with large protruding ears – was a morphine addict. Any preparation containing morphine or cocaine would go missing from the medicine stores. She later had a trial during which her drug addiction was proved. When she had had her injection, she would be quite bearable and would often talk with us – she would even be receptive to requests. Yet when the injection stopped working, she would become angry and unapproachable. She was abusive towards patients; she would beat them and withhold medicine. In cases of sores, for example, she would postpone aggressive treatment until red infection lesions appeared. She and Rosenthal tried to outdo each other when it came to abusing patients. She was removed from her post when the trial began. She had returned twice to the camp in Ravens. After her came Oberschwester Marshall. It was her second time back; the first time had been before my internment at the camp. This change occurred in late 1943, early 1944. In relation to the workers, there were those she favoured and those she disfavoured. I did not see her beat the patients, but it was very difficult to get anything from her. Even Dr Treite was afraid of her. My impression was that she was an informer. She wanted to know everything that was going on, even in the SS Revier. When she found out that I was leaving the Revier (I wanted to leave of my own accord), she came and told me that if I wished, she could arrange to have me kept on. That went to show just how much influence she had. A certain Brandt was made blokowa of one of the sick blocks. She was interested in everything, especially what was going on in the Revier. Once, she asked me if I knew about the killing of children and the seriously ill. I know that she later spoke about this with the commandant and informed him of Rosenthal’s relations with Gerda Guernheim.

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Afterwards, an interest was taken in that couple. A search was conducted of Gerda’s and Fina Pautz’s things. Fina was blokowa of a Revier block. The search turned up a great many kitchen supplies and items of various kinds. [illegible crossing-out] During the search, Ramdohr seized a large number of documents and took Gerda to the bunker. That same day, she confessed that she was pregnant. She later gave birth in the bunker. She tried to communicate with Rosenthal; she would throw slips of paper out through the bunker window, addressed to Rosenthal and Fina. Ramdohr found out about this – I don’t know how. The messages were relayed by one of the bibelforszerkas [Bible Students, from Ger. Bibelforscherin] and a cook. Gerda had been sending large quantities of items to her parents with the help of [illegible crossing-out] the Czech pharmacist Bożka Syrodkowa [sic]. Brandt claimed credit for uncovering the Rosenthal–Guernheim affair, but I don’t know if this boast was entirely justified. Dr Percy Treite was very good as a surgeon. He performed various interesting operations. He successfully carried out muscle and nerve grafts. For instance, in a case of muscle and nerve atrophy where function had been lost in an extensor muscle of the arm, he took three strands of muscle from the trapezius and reattached them to a tendon in the elbow joint. The operation was a success. On a personal level, he could be described as constantly frightened. He was afraid of the Czech women, among others. He was a mad scientist type. In relation to patients, he was decent. In fact, he took little interest in the patients; he left everything to the women doctors and Revier nurses. Dr Klimek was good to the patients and to the staff. It was he who established the system whereby the women prisoner doctors made all the decisions. He was consulted only in matters of the utmost importance. He reorganized the entire Revier. He was of Czech descent. He resigned of his own accord; he said that he wasn’t suited to working in a camp. The Revier staff had better conditions than prisoners in the camp. We had free time when we were permitted to sunbathe. We were allowed to heat up food on an electric cooker. Our diet was the same as in the camp. We had better clothing; it was clean and decent.

J. Natkańska

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

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Testimony of Ms Jadwiga Natkańska, born on 9 July 1902, cont’d The Polish women in the Revier got along well with one another, but not with the Czech women, who were very unfriendly towards us. The Frenchwomen used their fine culture and manners to their advantage, but they were remarkably unknowledgeable of the workings of the camp. The Russian [women] doctors were generally incompetent at their profession and were characterized by a complete lack of culture. When I was dismissed from the Revier, I went to Block 3. I was there for several weeks. At that point, I was a sztrikerinka [knitter, from Ger. Strickerin]. Once, Treite summoned me to an operation and quizzed me. For example, he asked me what the pupil of the eye looks like when a patient is anaesthetized with chloroform. I replied that the question itself was wrong and that if he didn’t have confidence in me he could check my qualifications. A week later, he dismissed me. As a sztrikerinka, I often travelled to the sanatorium in Hohenlychen. Aufseherka Stere [sic] would go with us. She would [only] shout at us when the authorities were nearby. She was very good to us. She used to allow us to take fruit or vegetables for the sick, always saying that didn’t see a thing. She never searched us nor did she let the SS men do so. One day, Halina Chełmicka and I arranged that she would come to me during work. She had a cart driver named Tomasz – a Pole – tell me to go to a pigsty where a French NCO handed me a letter in which she informed me that she had been arrested. She came the following week and told me that someone had reported to Gebhardt that [note written above text] she [/note] was flirting with SS men. With the help of some Swiss doctors at Hohenlychen, she managed to clear things up. Halina Chełmicka’s work involved operation charts at the sanatorium and X-ray photographs. During her time at Ravensbrück, Halina Chełmicka stole lists of the medications that were used on the ‘rabbits’ after their operations [illegible crossing-out]. This list [sic] could help to work out what kind of operations were being performed, since it was not actually known what exactly

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was involved in the operations. The lists had to be sent out of the camp in secret. The types of medicines and durations of use gave clues about the operations themselves. Schwester Erika was one of those who never wanted to give me anything to do. She didn’t give me medicine, nor did she issue Bettkartes. We diagnosed a German prisoner with scarlet fever; she was running a very high temperature and had difficulty staying on her feet. She was a young and otherwise healthy girl. We went with her to the examination room. I told the nurse that we had made a diagnosis of scarlet fever; the nurse ordered us to wait for the [male] doctor. It was around 8.00–8.30 a.m. The sick girl sat there for a few hours until nurse Erika eventually ordered that she be thrown outside, and temperatures were well below zero. She stood there until about 2 p.m. Only then was she allowed to see the doctor. It turned out that it was indeed scarlet fever. The girl later got arthritis, followed by endocarditis; she spent a year in the Revier as a patient. After her discharge from the Revier, she worked several weeks in the kitchen and fell ill with a kidney condition. Throughout the rest of the camp’s existence, she was unwell and moaned in pain. The prolonged standing in sub-zero weather had done her great harm. Late one evening, a newly arrived Polish woman named Maćkowiak started to haemorrhage in the Bad. Nurse Erika refused to keep her in the Revier. The woman returned to her place in formation and waited in front of the Bad. She got a little better. We brought her a sweater, which she put on under her dress. She went to her block. The next day, she began to cough up blood clots [note written above text] Lungenembolie [pulmonary embolism, Ger.] [/note]. The blood was dark in colour. We asked her if everything was all right with her lungs; she said that it was from her stomach. Nurse Erika wouldn’t take her to the Revier. We, however, managed to catch Schiedlausky in the corridor. He had her [note written above crossing-out] the sick woman [/note] brought to us; then, in his company, we asked nurse Erika for a Revier card. She was furious that she had to give us one. The sick woman died three days later. Aufseherka Schreiter from the labour office had two sons roughly 8–10 years of age. [note written above text] Once, [/note] a large column of women ahead of us was marching to work. Standing on a platform in a garden was a group

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of boys with stones in their hands. One of the young Schreiter boys was holding an old kettle that had been crushed flat. The boys were throwing stones at the prisoners; the Schreiter boy threw the kettle and cut one of the prisoners in the forehead. The woman fainted. The boy ran up to a window and shouted: ‘Helmut threw twice and missed – I let fly and hit straight away!’ An elderly person leaned out the window and gave the boy a small bundle of sweets in reward. The German women left their fellow prisoner lying unconscious in the road. At the sanatorium, by a greenhouse, we were sorting through carrots that were to be heeled in. We were approached by an elderly woman with a boy, aged 8 or 9, who looked very gaunt. The woman began to complain to us about how few vegetables she was getting, even though she had four children to feed [note written above text] and yet here so many were rotting [/note]. We told her we would give her some. The woman glanced anxiously at the boy. Eventually, she had him go to the orangery to see what was there. The boy peered through the glass, but kept glancing back at his mother. A moment later, the mother gave up on taking any carrots. She said she was afraid her son would turn her in. Regarding Halina Chełmicka, she was supposed to hand the medication lists to Liberakowa [Liberak], the forestry column kolonka; but because Liberakowa failed to come to the Revier at the appointed time, Chełmicka left the lists with me and I delivered them to Liberakowa. Chełmicka commuted daily to Hohenlychen and attended operations performed on Germans; she made sketches or took photographs of the operations. When she was at Ravensbrück, Oberhauser provided her with descriptions of operations which Chełmicka would then reconstruct in the form of coloured drawings. We assumed that these were the operations on the ‘rabbits’. Ilza [sic, Ilse?] Mach (a Sudetendeutsche) often worked with Chełmicka until late at night. I saw a few of these drawings. They were drawings of grafted muscles in the arm. Indicated at the bottom of the drawing was medication type, time, and dosage. Oberhauser told Chełmicka that Gebhardt wanted Chełmicka to live at the sanatorium. Several of us convened a meeting of sorts to determine whether or not Chełmicka

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ought to go to Hohenlychen. We decided that [illegible crossing-out] it would be good if she went, because she had been interned in the camp for five years by then, unable to learn; yet she intended to go to medical school and believed her knowledge would benefit greatly from attending the operations. Chełmicka stayed at Hohenlychen almost a year as a prisoner. Then she was allowed to move freely within a certain radius, but if she went any farther she had to report to the police. She was granted this concession due to the intervention of a dignitary who had come to Hohenlychen to perform an inspection. Chełmicka overheard Gebhardt speaking about her to this grandee; he said that she was the Häftling [prisoner, Ger.] that had been discussed and that he wanted her to be released, because it was troublesome having to keep her under guard. A while later, Chełmicka was released. When she was released and had the ability to move about freely, she befriended some Swiss doctors who were undergoing training at the sanatorium. I remember one of their surnames: Meier. She would often return very late after visiting them. Several times, on her way back she ran into Gebhardt. Gebhardt suspected her of meeting with Germans and told her that she was under arrest. She was forbidden from leaving her quarters and had to do her work there. Gebhardt warned her that if confinement to quarters did no good, he would send her back to the camp. Her confinement lasted several weeks. Not out of sentiment, but because he was unable to handle the photographs on his own, he cancelled her confinement. He warned her, however, that if it happened again, he would send her back to the camp. Chełmicka claims that she owes the material she smuggled out of the camp (books and perhaps notes and drawings – I don’t know exactly) to the help of the Swiss doctors. Detailed testimony regarding this matter, along with all the material, was given to Mr Olszowski from the Polish consulate in Malmö after Chełmicka’s arrival in Sweden. Some Jewish women got sunstroke while at work and had horrible, foul-smelling wounds due to a lack of bandages. I know that when no one else wanted to take care of them, Chełmicka and Jola Krzyżanowska dressed

J. Natkańska

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

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Testimony of Jadwiga Natkańska, born 9 July 1902, cont’d their wounds with utter devotion. They helped them walk between blocks and took care of the sick. Before the departure of Oberhauser, who particularly disliked Chełmicka, it was through Chełmicka that we got all medicines, Bettkarte extensions, etc. Chełmicka did everything she could at a time when the Germans were economizing on bandaging. Chełmicka would steal bandages and medicines. On a personal level, I owe her a great deal; thanks to her I avoided a lot of unpleasantness. She was very kind to me. Almost at the same time that Chełmicka left, perhaps some months afterwards, Dr Klimek came. He was there for maybe two months altogether. Parcels began arriving at the camp under Langefeld, who fought for this with her superiors. The farm manager at Hohenlychen used to scream at us in an incredible manner. He didn’t beat us, but he would scream and threaten us with punishments. Once, we had a huge number of cabbages to be heeled in. The pace of work was incredible. The manager watched us from a window. By evening time, the work was finished. As a reward, the manager had each woman sent a packet of sweets (there were twenty-five of us). As a point of honour, we declined. We thanked him but said that we had done without any of that for many years till then and we would make it to the end. The gardener always used to pin the blame on the manager when it came to work exemptions or anything that might make our job easier. For instance, when it rained and we wanted him to call us back from the field, he would say he was not authorized to by the manager. He treated us even worse after the manager left. We commuted to the sanatorium by bus. The German bus driver was very kind. He used to stop the vehicle in the woods and let [note written above text] us [/note] have a walk. He would delay our arrival at work, and then in the evening he would come up with various pretexts to collect us from work early. While on the road, he had us sing ‘Jeszcze Polska Nie Zginęła’ [‘Poland Has Not Yet Perished’, the Polish national anthem] and learned the song anthem himself.

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At Hohenlychen, there were approximately forty French POWs working as woodcutters, farmhands (tending crops and animals), servants, and hospital staff. They facilitated contact between us and Chełmicka; they would take parcels and letters to her. What’s more, they would post letters for us on the sly; often, we didn’t have any stamps, so they would put their own stamps on the letters and post them. They did everything they could for us. They brought us cigarettes, fruit, vegetables, and sweets. They would take food to Chełmicka, who was prohibited from contacting us. She was hungry and very poorly fed. At first, she wasn’t remunerated at all; it was only after her release that she started getting the minimum wage. Chełmicka was fed the same as we were in the camp, except her soup was a bit thicker and more cleanly prepared, though completely devoid of fat or sugar. In 1944, I was in the NN block. There were 3,000 of us in the block. Conditions were awful. There were four women for every bed. We were matched with workers from the other shift so that two women slept in the daytime and two at night. I was a sztrikerinka at that time, and later I worked in the Bekleidungswerke. There were things there that had been plundered from all over Poland and the camps. I found my husband’s coat and the canvas wrapping (or, rather, sack) from a parcel; it had my husband and son’s address on it. The parcel had been sent by my son’s godmother, probably to a prison. A woman named Wera Szczęsna came across her own bedlinens from her apartment in Warsaw. We would sort through these things, put them into piles, and tie them into bundles. Every day, lorries would take these away, but I do not know where. I know that various patches and scraps of fabric would be sent away, some to the front and some to Mauthausen and Auschwitz. We did quite a lot of ‘organizing’ [camp slang for ‘pilfering’, from Ger. organisieren]. When carrying back the food kettles, we would fill them with garments which we smuggled out into the camp. No one ever thought to search the kettles. We were trying to clothe our fellow inmates. Despite the searches, we managed to smuggle out a very large amount of clothing. There was an aufseherka there who had an SS man for a husband. She was very bad to us; she tormented us. When someone had caught her eye,

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she might beat them every day for no reason. There was no way of stopping her. Her husband was even worse. There was another SS man there named Zelenko, who was probably worse still. He was a young fellow, no older than 23 or 24; he beat everyone, regardless of nationality. He wore a ring with a skull and crossbones, which he would turn towards his palm before beatings. He broke a German woman’s nose by punching her with that ring. One night, he caught a Frenchwoman looking out of a window during an air raid. He dragged her outside by the hair and gave her a tremendous kicking in the abdomen. Afterwards, her abdomen swelled up and became gangrenous. She died in the Revier a few days later. He kicked another woman (German) so badly that he broke a bone in her leg and she was unable to walk. She reportedly died afterwards. During a night-time alert, the SS men disagreed about whether we should go to the blocks or remain where we were. We were standing in formation by the gate. Opitz chanced upon us and [illegible crossing-out] began to beat us savagely – what for, I do not know. Women were swollen and had cuts all over their arms and faces. There was another Untersturmführer [SS officer rank] there whose name I don’t remember, a very decent man [note written above text] (Czech) [/note]. He was quite moved by the fact I spoke German. Once, he came and asked where I was from. I told him Warsaw. He told me that he knew Warsaw, (this was before 1944) and that Berlin had suffered greater damage; Warsaw would be rebuilt by all of Europe, but no one would rebuild Berlin. One night, a kolonka burst in with an aufseherka and had all the Polish women transferred to a section with machines where the work was hard. It turned out that there were too many of us and only two of us (Anweisungs [lit. ‘orders, instructions’, Ger.]) were kept in the machine section. The work there was very hard. I went to the Czech [Untersturmführer], who intervened on my behalf by arranging for my dismissal and (in the labour bureau) a transfer to Siemens as blokowa. The incident of the Frenchwoman who was pulled out through the window and beaten, as well as the incident of the German whose leg was broken, took place in the Bekleidunkswerke, but the perpetrator of these was not Zelenko, but another SS man whose

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name I do not remember – a night-duty guard. I saw facial scars under a prisoner’s eyes caused by the spindles of a machine. The woman had been sitting at the machine when Zelenko hit her in the head and she cut her face on the spindles. We were searched almost every day, as we left work or during work. The workers would arrange themselves into two rows, and if there weren’t enough aufseherkas we would be asked which prisoners wanted to search their fellow inmates. Only German women volunteered to do so; no Polish or French woman volunteered. At the workshop, bonuses were issued for good work, but the Poles refused the bonuses. The German women couldn’t understand this. We Anweisungs were entitled to larger bonuses, but I and the other Polish woman did not accept them. The aufseherka asked whether we would accept them if we were offered even more. I didn’t reply to that question. The German kolonka explained that since I was doing a good job, I was entitled to the bonus. In reply, I said that I was doing a good job because I was afraid I didn’t want to get hit in the face. The aufseherka called me proud. All of this was a nerve-racking experience for me, because one never knew how such a refusal might end. The Frenchwomen took the bonuses, but they were excellent at not working or, rather, faking work: they would be doing nothing yet looked as though they were busily working away. The Poles were incapable of doing this, unfortunately. When it came to ‘organizing’, however, the Poles excelled. I was later made a sztubowa [chief prisoner of a block room, from Ger. Stubenälteste] at Siemens. Kolonkas came to the NN block and said that everyone going to Siemens was to pack up their things into parcels and hand these over to the Siemens sztubowas and blokowas, who would come and collect them. They took quite a large number of parcels. I myself gave them a rather small parcel. All of these parcels disappeared. After a long search, I found my parcel, but it had been rifled. The rest of the parcels were simply gone. A few days after the parcels were taken, we were told to present ourselves in front of the Revier. Pflaum turned up along with two prisoners who worked in the Arbeitseinsatz [labour deployment office, Ger.]. Two comrades and I ducked

J. Natkańska

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

IN LUND [/stamp]

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Testimony of Jadwiga Natkańska, born 9 July 1902, cont’d into the Revier and hid. Half an hour later, we came back out and learned that Pflaum had beaten everyone, saying that they were too young for Siemens and that they were shirking their duties. An aufseherka came from Siemens and asked where the column of workers had gone. It turned out that Pflaum had taken them all away. Eventually, seven of us were gathered up and there was an examination. A few days later, we were brought in front of the Revier; our names were checked; and we were ordered to wait in front of the Bad. We waited until evening, and then we were put inside the Bad for the entire night, which we spent sitting on wooden rods. The following day, we were finally taken over to Siemens. We left the Bad at 3 a.m. and spent another two hours waiting in the freezing cold. Then there was an Appell [roll call assembly, Ger.] and we waited again until lunchtime. After lunch, aufseherkas took us away. When we arrived at Siemens, the commandant came [illegible crossing-out] and ordered that we be escorted to the camp adjoining the factory. A guard ordered us to lay paving stones on the road. A Siemens kolonka, Janka Konopacka, came and sorted this out. Finally, we found ourselves in our new blocks in the camp. The blocks were divided into three Stubes [rooms, Ger.]. One of them housed office workers; the second, Czech women; and the third, Polish women. I was made sztubowa of the Polish room. Every day, someone in authority would come to perform an inspection. They were looking for coal, which we were forbidden from ‘organizing’. They would search the top bunks of the beds; meanwhile, the coal would be safely tucked away in a chest under the bed. Anyone who was caught stealing would be made to stand for half a day in a puddle or deep snow, wearing a sign that named her crime. Every SS man [note written above text] and aufseherka [/note] who walked past would hit the woman in the face. On the whole, conditions were good – far better than they had been at the main Ravensbrück camp. The food was much better; the kitchen was superbly run by a Czech woman named Jarka. The Lagerälteste [chief prisoner functionary of the camp, Ger.] was a German woman, formerly the blokowa of Block 2 in the main camp. She ordered sztubowas and blokowas to keep watch in the toilets day and night to keep prisoners from fouling them. She came up with all sorts of things to make our lives miserable. She was constantly putting prisoners on report. Eventually, she landed herself in trouble by admitting

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to her friend Schuppe that she had sent a letter on the sly. She ended up in the bunker – Schuppe had reported her to Ramdohr. Schuppe was German and an international spy; she was interned for knowing too much. She had been assigned the Siemens camp to spy on the prisoners. She fetched the parcels from the main camp and stole items from them. Once, out of these stolen products she made small parcels for the sztubowas and blokowas. We refused to accept these parcels and we threatened told the aufseherka. Every few days, Schuppe would report to the political bureau about the goings-on in the camp. She would try to force her way into the blocks in order to find out what was happening inside. I had heard to steer clear of her because she was a plant. The Russian women at Siemens – where we did not go hungry – would ‘organize’ whole kettles full of food from the other blocks and rob their fellow inmates. When we were transferred back to the main camp, they stole milk and supplemental rations; they behaved scandalously. The better ones among them asked to be transferred to the block section where the Poles and office workers were quartered, so as to get away from their compatriots. The commandant used to go about with a riding crop, whipping and chasing these latter women, who were regularly late leaving the block for Appell. At Siemens, there was a Revier for factory workers. Conditions for bed patients were bearable. It was clean, but the initial doctor there was a Czech woman who later died. She was not good to us. She was reluctant to admit seriously ill prisoners to the Revier. Once, a prisoner was ill with typhoid, but the doctor refused to admit her to the Revier and had her put in a top bunk. While trying to get down, the woman lost control and fouled all of the bunks – hers and her neighbours’. On my own initiative, I had her sent to the Revier in the main camp. In the Siemens Revier, there were no toilets, only buckets, and the stench was awful. The Czech doctor was succeeded by a German one, a woman named Kurt, who was terribly lazy and dirty. She used to beat and shove, make difficulties, and withhold medicines. She would get angry when I brought sick women in.

19 Sc Schuppe had the Zimmerdienst [room cleaning detail, lit. ‘room service’ (Ger.)] abolished in order to

make life difficult for the sztubowas and blokowas. Relations between us [note written above text] (prisoners) [/note] were good and friendly. There was a Polish woman named Teodozja Jancz there. Reportedly, her entire family had signed onto the Volksliste [register of German nationality]. She was a spy in our block. She reported everything that happened in the block to the oberaufseherka. She had it in for me and made threats. The aufseherka called on other ladies to check what was happening in the Stube, but they were sympathetically inclined towards me and Jancz’s spying came to nought. One night in early April 1945, right before the end of the camp, we were ordered to get up and gather our things. We didn’t know where they were going to take us. As it turned out, we were being sent away in groups of a hundred to the old camp. In our place came men who were starving and in a horrendous state; they were from an evacuated camp, supposedly Auschwitz. They raided the kitchen straight away, such was their hunger. They were so weak that they were no longer even being herded off to work; they were in a state of complete and utter exhaustion. Most were Dutch. We were transferred to Block 28, behind the wire mesh fence at the bottom of the camp, for more or less two weeks. Several factory sections were still going to work. One day, at last, the Belgians, Luxembourgers, and Frenchwomen were transported out of the camp. The Polish women left the camp after them; the first transport was with the remaining Frenchwomen on 23 April. On 24 April, I departed for Sweden on a large transport of Polish women. We were standing by a lake outside the camp. The aufseherka had left us there because she didn’t know what to do with us. Then Binz [and] Scharzhuber showed up. Binz saw the two Wierzbicka women smoking cigarettes, and she beat them. We were ordered to hand over our blankets, but our belongings were left untouched. A month or so before the end, there was a selection at the Siemens camp. The entire camp was called to assembly. A commission came. We were made to run approximately one hundred metres, then walk briskly and do half squats. The weaker of the women fell over

[stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE

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after this run. Those who couldn’t get up under their own strength were made to stand off to the side. Reportedly Some said they were taken straight to the chimney; others said to Jugendlager [Youth Camp, Ger.]. A few very ill women remained [illegible crossing-out] in the block, hoping that no one would come to check the blocks. Two [note written above text] very ill [/note] Czech women succeeded [note written above text] – they survived [/note]. I myself managed to have three sick Polish women incorporated into a column of healthy prisoners and they survived. Read, signed, and accepted by Jadwiga Natkańska H. Dziedzicka Institute Assistant Comments from H. Dziedzicka, Institute Assistant receiving the testimony: Witness Jadwiga Natkańska, although very intelligent, becomes nervous when recounting all her ordeals; she is not quite able to bring her nerves under control and gives her testimony in a chaotic manner. Often, she will resume a topic after having abandoned it. She is clearly reliving her grim past. She tries to wring as many facts as she can from her memory, and to render them as faithfully as possible in order to bear witness to the truth. Her testimony is entirely credible.

H. Dziedzicka Institute Assistant