Voices from Ravensbrück
Interview no. 449
(English translation)
Polish Documentary Institute, Lund
Lund, 7 May, 1946
Ludwika Broel Plater, Institute assistant taking the record
RECORD OF WITNESS TESTIMONY no. 449
Witness: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Born: 24 July 1889
In: the Kisiele estate, Wołyń
Occupation: lecturer of English and French
Faith: Roman Catholic
Parents' names: Adam, Teodozja
Last place of residence in Poland: Kraków
Current place of residence: Lund
Having been informed of the importance of truthful testimony, the consequences of false testimony and
her responsibility to tell the truth, she has made the following statement:
- From 30 September 1944, to 26 April 1945, I was in the concentration camp at RAVENSBRÜCK as a
political prisoner. I had the number _/_ and wore a red triangle with the letter "P" on it.
Asked whether I have any specific information from my time or work in the concentration camp about
how it was organised, the camp regimen, inmates' working conditions, treatment of prisoners, medical
and pastoral care, hygienic conditions, and also specific events in all areas of camp life, I can state the
following:
The testimony includes twenty-one pages of handwritten text and describes life in the RAVENSBRÜCK
camp from the time of the witness's arrest, and one page of commentary on the Swedes' selflessness
and a description of certain individuals. The document contains:
1. Arrest, prison in Monteluppi Street, investigation. "Flea cell", transport to Ravensbrück.
5. Baths, delousing, medical check. Inoculations, lack of medicines - help from fellow inmates.
6. Blackmailing, prayer, and lectures. Scouting.
9. Prisoners without any ideology. The blokowe [German, die Blockältesten: prisoners who were
the heads of blocks], sztubowe [assistants to the blokowe, responsible for order in individual
rooms], [..."Zimmerdienst". Moving].
10. Sanitary conditions in 1945 in the blocks and in the rewir [German, Revier: infirmary, hospital
block].
11. Selections. The sztubowa YOUPEL. Escapes. Help from the blokowe and the "guinea pigs" and
from fellow inmates.
12. March to the "Jugendlager"
13. Death barrack, thirst, beatings, hunger. Night in the barrack.
14. Block five. Help from fellow inmates. Selections - death transports.
15. Frenchwomen transported to freedom.
16. Poisoning in the rewir.
17. Destruction of records and documents, dismantling the blocks. March to Ravensbrück camp.
Robbed of clothes. Time spent in the Ravensbrück rewir. Package abuses, transports to freedom.
19. Description of people - Dr. Węgierska.
20. How the witness felt. Departure for Sweden - impressions from the journey through Germany,
people in the transport.
21. Arrival in Sweden - official and private Swedish assistance.
Ludwika Broel Plater
On 10 August 1944, I was in my flat in Kraków with my husband and two friends, older gentlemen, Mr.
Jan Krzysztofowicz, who was staying with us at the time, and Father Henryk Woroniecki, a neighbour
living in the same building, who had come to visit us after the police curfew.
At about nine in the evening, we heard a soft bell, and suddenly we saw three machine pistols in the
doorway to our sitting room, aimed at us. We were told to put our hands up and to keep completely
quiet, and they began to search the entire flat, during which they did not find a single piece of
compromising evidence. After the search, which was superficial, however, we were told to prepare to
march out. Meanwhile, Gestapo were taking all of the valuables, money, and stocks and bonds. They
took about seventy thousand złotys in cash, which the R.G.O. [Polish, Rada Główna Opiekuńcza: Central
Welfare Council] institution and our friends had had in various deposits; some of it was also our own.
We told the Gestapo this as they confiscated the money. We were told to march out in complete
silence, the Gestapo followed right behind us, with their revolvers aimed at us - this is how we were led
on foot to Pomorska Street, to the main Gestapo headquarters.
Our maid and the guests mentioned above were taken with us. The Gestapo locked the flat and took the
keys from everyone except the maid. We were taken to the office on the first floor, where three
Gestapo were sitting, and they put us in different parts of the room, facing the walls. Going down the
corridor to that office, I noticed many men who were facing the wall, most of whom were handcuffed;
they were waiting to be interrogated. We also stood in that position in the terrible heat. The Gestapo
were in shirtsleeves, they had even taken their shoes off. After one and a half hours later, they told us to
turn around and face the room, and we stood that way for another one and a half hours. After three
hours, a Gestapo dignitary, who was also unbuttoned because of the heat, I suppose he was HAMANN
from Nowy Sącz, that city's Gestapo commandant, known for his cruelty.
My husband was taken to be interrogated first; fifteen minutes later, it was my turn. I was in an office
with a Gestapo, who began to fiddle with his revolver after I entered the room, and for a long time
amused himself by aiming at me and releasing the cock. I waited about an hour in those conditions for
my interrogation. After an hour, some higher-ranking Gestapo officer appeared and asked me for my
personal information, and about whether I belonged to the A.K., which of course I denied. Afterwards, I
was taken downstairs to the entrance hall, where I found my husband; we sat next to each other there
under guard, and were forbidden to talk to each other. We waited about half an hour, and then were
taken by lorry to the Montelupi prison, guarded by 4 Gestapo. Despite being closely guarded, my
husband and I managed to mutually agree on our first statement.
In the entrance hall, my husband's wallet and my handbag were searched, and then we were allowed to
say goodbye to each other, and I was taken away first to cell 89 on the second floor. The cell was
designed for seven people. It was narrow, with one window that had an iron grating covering it, which
allowed light and air to come in only from above. The furniture consisted of 7 straw mattresses made
mostly of paper with a bit of straw added; a table, a small bowl on the floor, two buckets, and a shelf on
the wall for bread. The switch for the lamp hanging from the ceiling was on the outside of the cell, the
doors had a small peephole. The walls were terribly dirty, scrawled with Ukrainian writing. The walls
were teeming with bedbugs. As he took me to the cell, the Gestapo, with a look of glee, pointed at the
walls, repeating, "Wanze... Wanze..." [bug... bug...]. There was no water. I asked for a jug of water,
which after a while was brought to me. When the lights were turned out, in the moonlight I saw a bentover figure sitting on the table - it was Janka Puzynianka, who could not bring herself to lay down for the
bedbugs to devour her.
During my seven-week stay in that cell, our number grew to 17, people from all strata of society. Of
those seventeen, three were released, two were taken to an especially difficult camp - Jadwiga
Karłowska was taken with them, née Koszówna, who was not heard from again, and her husband, who
according to information I received from an eyewitness, was tortured to death at the Gestapo
[headquarters] on Pomorska Street.
The prison food was a mess kit of bitter, dark liquid, called black coffee, 20 dkg of bread, and for lunch a
small bowl of barley soup, usually unsalted, with some cabbage leaves in it. In the evening, completely
inedible soup made of bread. My daily activities amounted to killing bedbugs on the walls and scratching
an opening in the wall, between the grating obscuring the view onto the prison yard and the wall. When
the commandant - a humane person - was the prison's director for four days, we received blankets, but
we also found out that this commandant was arrested by the Gestapo and was placed, as a prisoner,
into a cell across from ours. He was there the whole time we were. Once a week we got a hot shower,
after several weeks in the prison without any bath at all. At first all used go to the baths at the same
time, then we were sent one cell at a time.
After four weeks, I went on my first walk; we went out by cell. They were careful to keep us isolated by
cell when we would go for walks, but we made contact nevertheless. The walks would last half an hour.
During one of the walks, we noticed a transport of men - I recognized someone I knew in it, Aleksander
Michałowski, a young, healthy, strong man of about twenty-five. The Gestapo gave him a strong blow to
the head because he had smiled at us. I found out later that he died in the concentration camp. He was
a person who had been caught during a large round up in the streets of Kraków.
We were allowed to receive packages once a week, they were sent from Patronat [an organisation
aiding prisoners]. In addition, twice a week we received bread spread [with ??] and from time to time
soup or vegetable salads. Many of the items were given out to the German or Ukrainian prisoners.
Prisoners brought the kettles with food under guard by the Gestapo, but it was possible to make contact
with them secretly.
After that humane commandant, another came. He was also German, distinguished by his unusual
cruelty and ruthlessness. During my time there, one execution by shooting was carried out on a woman according to the version that went around camp, she was a German informant.
They began to interrogate me after four weeks. Going down the hallway, I would always see men facing
the walls, and moaning could often be heard coming from the interrogation cell, and also from the
cellar, where those prisoners accused of more serious offences were placed, there was constant
moaning and screaming. I heard from my fellow prisoners who had just recently arrived that there was a
cell known as the "flea cell" in the cellar, where people were held for up to 48 hours. People emerging
from that cell were swollen from the bites, because they would be covered in a thick, black blanket of
fleas. Despite the fact that nothing was discovered during my investigation, I was taken by transport on
29 September 1944, to the camp at Ravensbrück.
Our transport was comprised of 62 women prisoners from Kraków and Nowy Sącz. The journey lasted 36
hours. Patronat gave us food for the trip in the form of bread, jam and coffee; it was distributed to the
wagon at the train station before our transport departed. We arrived at Fürstenberg late in the evening,
3 km from RAVENSBRÜCK, and we walked to the camp. We stood in the camp square for 24 hours in the
pouring rain; for a few hours during the night, until dawn, we were in a small tent, and then we were
taken in groups to the baths.
I saw a transport from Auschwitz at that time, comprised of over 1000 people who were standing on the
street along the wall for 36 hours. Those people were a sorry sight; they were starved, many of them
fainted from exhaustion, they asked for food, which we gave to them through cracks in the tent.
Nevertheless, they had to stand in rows and were not allowed to rest. After taking away my medallion because jewellery, i.e., my watch and rings, I had buried in the ground, which some of my fellow
prisoners did as well, when we were taken to the baths, everything was taken from us; I was given back
some soap, one toothbrush and shoes.
In the baths, several hundred people waited for several hours, nude, in a freezing cold room, for the
shower to be turned on, which was barely tepid and cold. Then, naked again, we waited for a long time
to be given clothing - underwear that had been steamed, but spotted and dirty, blouses made out of silk
tricot, with a low neckline and short sleeves, a short, thin skirt, without any hooks or snaps, and ripped
stockings with no elastic; with no kerchiefs on our heads, we went to block 17 to stand for a couple of
hours in front of the baths.
After six months at Ravensbrück, I was transferred from one block to another five times. I was deloused
twice, we were herded into a tent, forced to undress completely, throwing out our clothes down on the
ground, which was dirty and wet, because there was always water in the tent from the ground, which
was soggy; the rewir nurse sprinkled the clothes with powder and that is how the whole operation
ended; we got dressed quickly in the clothes that were dirty and wet from the wet ground. I went to be
seen by the doctor twice as well, which took place at the rewir in this way: we were made to stand in
pairs, naked, along the corridor, on a tile floor, by special windows that the aufseherki [German,
Aufseherinnen: female SS, wardresses] opened on command, when there were heavy frosts, the waiting
lasted at least an hour, if not longer. Then we marched around the doctor, who was sitting on the table.
One nurse looked in our mouths, another at our eyes and that was all there was to the examination.
One could only go to the rewir if one had a fever of more than 39º. People did not go there even when
they were seriously ill, however, because they were afraid of being selected and of catching
communicable diseases. In the winter of 1945, we were inoculated against typhus. A "Schwester" came
from the rewir, took her place by a table in the middle of the aisle in the dining room, and one by one,
released from the sleeping quarters, we went around the table. One of the nurses moistened a spot
above on the upper-left part of our chest with a disinfecting liquid, and then the "Schwester" injected us
with the inoculation one after the other with the same needle, at least several dozen people I saw
around me, without disinfecting the needle. We were inoculated like this three times, and my body did
not react, but I know about the case of Paula Karwatowa from Kraków, who had a fever of 40º for over
three weeks and whose legs were paralysed. She recovered fully from the paralysis only in Sweden after
undergoing treatment.
Despite the fact that a Czech nurse was on duty all the time in my block (17), Poles had the most trouble
getting medicine, which was made of out of magnesium powder, carbon from burned birch branches
and aspirin. We got all other necessary medicines only by indirect means. This is how I managed to get
sympatol, tanalbin and aspirin for myself and my sick fellow prisoners.
In general, I was resistant to ailments of the skin and stomach, and only near the end did I fall ill with
bronchitis, in winter I had an intestinal disorder. I was so careful when washing never to touch the sinks
and faucets that I even washed my underwear under cold running water, holding them in the air. I had
just grown very thin and was suffering from a severe case of vitamin deficiency. Because of the hunger
that prevailed, my friends who had access to the kitchen and the place where the vegetables were
peeled used to get food there secretly - which was severely punished. This was very important help for
me and my fellow inmates. Teresa Bromiwiczowa who worked in the room where the vegetables were
peeled helped me in this way. Karolina Lanckorońska, as blokowa and then demoted by the German
authorities to sztubowa because she was constantly taking our side in our conflicts with them, also
shared her packages with me, gave me extra food, got me medicines and protected me when there
were selections. Krystyna Karier also gave me extra food, who as the sztubowa of my block would give
me half of her portion of soup, which was a more nutritious kind for them as well. I used to shared that
portion with my French fellow inmate, Mrs. Woronow.
This unconditional sharing was typical of relations between the inmates at Ravensbrück. If someone
found something good in a parcel, it would be divided so gradually that sometimes it got to be the size
of a nut. My friends would also give me clothes. Of those who helped me, I must mention Maria Józefa
Grocholska, Karolina Lanckorońska, Stanisława Schoeneman and Hanka Kulinicz. I "organised" [German,
organisieren: to steal food or items from camp warehouses] wool for the Frenchwomen, because they
were helplessly undressed and barefoot. I used my position as deputy forsztrykierynka [German,
Vorstrickerin: female prisoner who was head of the workshop where stockings were knit in the block] to
take wool secretly from the boxes. I would give people who received the wool leave from work,
registering them as sick, so that they would have time to work on the things they needed for
themselves. We would buy any other clothes we needed in exchange for bread. Toward the end, it was
mostly Russians and Ukrainians going out on transports who did the trading. I paid for a knife, a mess kit,
and eyeglasses with bread in this way. When we would work in the block knitting stockings, we engaged
in sabotage: since the stockings were not going to be used in the camp itself, we would work as slowly
as possible, so as not to endanger the Polish kolonka [German, Kolonnführerin: female prisoner
responsible for the work gang], I would also drop a stitch and tie them at the bottom with a weak
thread.
Speaking of sabotage, one of the frequently used methods of sabotage comes to mind: giving extra food
to the sick and weak inmates in block 20, organised by Hanka Kulinicz and Kisłowska the sztubowa and
podsztubowa. This was done from the items constantly "organised" from the camp kitchen, on an iron
stove in the room that served both as the dining and knitting room - a kettle of nutritious soup was
cooked there. They would give out over 20 portions a day, as far as I know, the action lasted several
months. The help of friends was not limited to that of a material nature, but was also very developed in
the cultural and educational field as well.
Most importantly, before and during work we said a prayer together as we worked. One of the women
who initiated our praying together was Teresa Łubienska. On Sundays and holidays there were religious
services in various blocks. We prayed and chatted together every day during the roll calls and as we
worked. During work, people would report on the latest news in the German newspapers, and
sometimes from the underground press as well, and would also talk about literature and history.
Secondary school classes were organised for the young people. Among those who taught those classes
were Teresa Bromowicz, Jadwiga Wiktor and Tina Orlikowska (Hilda), Wanda Madlerowa, who wrote
down a school textbook from memory. I gave individual English lessons. There were various scouting
troops, "Kamienie" [Rocks] and "Mury" [Walls] - I belonged to "Mury". On Christmas we organised a
gathering at which we could talk, shared an opłatek [Host] by a small Christmas tree, and had
sandwiches, meant to symbolize Christmas Eve supper, and we sang Christmas carols. Decorations were
handed out. This all took place outside on the small street between the blocks in the freezing cold.
The most painful thing for me in the camp was how some of the Polish women behaved. Some of them
were from a group of people who had been evacuated from Warsaw, who came en masse in the late
autumn and who had a very low level of national and social awareness. They were from the petty
bourgeois, who being embittered and unaware of the role of a Polish woman prisoner, provoked
arguments and fights, accompanied by terrible name-calling by their behaviour - fighting over the size of
their portion when everyone was going hungry, over their place in the cramped bunks, over the slightest
bump in the crowds going through the doors, unavoidable in the difficult camp conditions. Being
fundamentally hostile towards French and Italian women, they made life difficult for them and provoked
them, negatively influencing their opinion of Polish women in general.
In addition, the behaviour of some of the blokowe and Zimmerdienst also was marked by a lack of basic
ethical principles and a lack of human feelings for those prisoners. Here I can mention Zofia
Suchorzewska, arrested with her husband despite their advanced age, after a year in prison -- where she
lost her husband - she was brought to Ravensbrück, still with unhealed wounds on her legs from when
the Gestapo tortured her; after five months in the camp, finally in February 1945 she was transferred to
the "Jugendlager", where after a few days she died. Zofia Sokołowska, who was over 70 years old, a
teacher from Nowy Sącz, a member of the landed aristocracy and a valuable community activist, was
transferred to the "Jugendlager" and after a few weeks died from durchfall [diarrhoea].
Moving the prisoners from block to block was one typical method used in the camp. We were ordered
to march out of the block. After waiting in rows for several hours outside, no matter what the weather,
we would walk up to the block indicated, and then wait there for several more hours. After the people
were registered again, the entire crowd was let into the sztuba, and everyone had to get a place for
herself on the bunks that were occupied by a couple of people already, which created a hostile
atmosphere between the newcomers and those who were already settled in there.
In the winter of 1945, the hygienic conditions in the camp were awful: the sewer lines were not working,
the toilets were closed and the area around the blocks were fouled dreadfully by thousands of
prisoners. The sztubowe and blokowe could only beat and shove people as they relieved themselves in
an attempt to prevent this. Overcrowding meant there was a lack of water and no possibility of washing
oneself. In some of the blocks (No. 26), there were kettles with food on the tables that stood along the
tubs with water, and there was no access to the washroom. In the washroom at the rewir, there were
stacks of corpses on the floor, almost halfway to the ceiling, and the personnel would launder the
clothing and sheets of those who had died in the washroom basins and tubs in cold water without any
disinfection. In all of room 3 the water taps were free, because the rest were either blocked with
corpses or reserved for the personnel.
In the month of April, I saw the following hygienic conditions in block 6, where Dr. Janina Węgierska
was, a person of unusual diligence: people who were healthy (and feigning illness) were sharing the
same bunks with people who [were] sick with typhus, diarrhoea and dysentery. A woman's corpse lay on
the bunk next to mine for about 24 hours. That woman had arrived healthy, hoping to [save herself by
feigning illness there], and she caught typhus with rash [exanthematous typhus] and died ten days later.
There were three buckets under the windows that were constantly occupied by the sick. There was only
one person with a basin for the entire room, and she ran to and fro the whole night, from one sick
woman to another. Some of the sick women were also insane.
A group of sick women would come to the rewir, who would be taken off the stretchers and put onto
the floor by the brankardjerki [nurses], who cut their hair, took them out of their rags, and put them two
to a bunk. In the room that held 80 people, 5 to 8 people died daily. The corpses, naked, and fouled,
were thrown onto stacks, where they lay until the iron cart would come. Sometimes rats - there were
many of them - would gnaw away on them all night. Sometimes the corpses lay like that for 24 hours.
They would grab them by the legs and sling them onto the cart. The food was gruel, swede and cabbage
soup and herbal tea. Dr. Węgierska would get medicine surreptitiously and did what she could, giving us
her own food, hiding us and warning us of searches, all with the greatest of difficulty.
On 25 March 1945, I was in block 29 when we were told to go out for roll call with no tops on, and
barefoot. After waiting a couple of hours, the director of the Labour Office, PFLAUM, the doctor, and a
whole slew of aufseherki and policewomen appeared and conducted a selection, after which several
hundred people from our block, including me, were taken to the "Jugendlager". The Selektion was
carried out solely on the basis of the whim of the person doing the choosing. People who attempted to
run away were beaten and kicked until they rejoined the ranks. The sztubowa of block 29, the
Frenchwoman Youfel, was known for her cruelty. Smiling, she would gleefully help the policewomen
beat people, she pulled and dragged them by the hair. She pushed me so hard once as we were being
chosen to go to work that I fell and ripped a hole in my knee, traces of which I have to this day.
Those who were selected to go to the "Jugendlager", including me, were split into rows five-across,
taken past the barbed-wire fence, and held across from blocks 23 and 22, where the blokowe Polish
women, Stanisława Schoeneman (Siasia) and Eliza Cetkowska. The doors to these blocks were standing
open so that some of us were able to hide there. Polish policewomen encouraged people to escape
from the rows and made it possible for them to do so; among them were the "guinea pigs", with their
komendantka Marja Józefa Michałowa Grocholska. Grocholska was one of the foremost Polish women
in the camp, distinguished by her courage in coming to the aid of her fellow inmates regardless of what
danger she might be putting herself into. She was one of the political prisoners who would receive
harsher punishments, but this did not break her, and she was always very civilized.
Because the work gangs were returning to camp when we were marching out, some of us joined them. I
stayed in the columns that were going to the "Jugendlager", not wanting to reduce the chances of my
fellow inmates who were overcome with panic, and not wanting to leave Mrs. Woronow, the
Frenchwoman, with whom I had gotten to be friends in blocks 16 and 29, who was not able to escape
because of her indecision. Teresa Łubieńska remained with us for the same reasons, thus making it
possible for Halina Stypułkowska to escape.
There were prisoners in that group - the Dmochowska sisters, and another 30 Poles who remained after
the escape, many Frenchwomen, Gypsies, Jews, and even Czechs, even though the Czech blokowa
(Wilma) had covered for them. Surrounded by German policewomen, who were joined by Polish
policewomen, whom we were to tell our last requests and messages to our families, we walked slowly,
because there were people among us whose legs were swollen whom we had to help march. We passed
the Siemens camp and after an hour and a half's march, we reached the gate of the "Jugendlager",
about 3 km from the main camp. The Polish policewomen left at that point, and only the German
women and camp policewomen from Uckermark remained.
We were taken to the last transit barrack (6 or 5), the "death" barrack. We stood for a couple of hours
on the street in front of it, in rows, while our names were written down. Written down in groups, we
walked into the block up a few cement steps; we were so tired that getting up those steps took
enormous effort despite the fact that we tried to hide our exhaustion - many people entered on their
hands and knees. In the barrack there was a small room and one large, empty room, into which over 800
(eight hundred) women were herded. Most energetic was a young German policewoman, who beat the
women as they were being herded into the block with a short oar - in the crush, they could only crouch.
After a while, a small bucket of water was brought. The thirsty women threw themselves at it, trampling
each other. I went, too, to get some water with my mess kit for Mrs. Woronow and Mrs. Łubieńska, who
were very thirsty. As we took water, the policewoman beat us over the head so hard with the oar that
some of the women fainted. I also got hit hard on the head A few spoons of water were distributed to
each person so that it would be enough to go around for several dozen people. Then the doors were
bolted shut and the lights turned out from a switch outside the room. No food was handed out.
A guard was patrolling outside, constantly threatening us and telling us to be quiet, which was
impossible. There was no indoor plumbing, a few dozen small tins that had held jam were used instead.
These filled up very quickly and overflowed, covering 1/3 of the room and the women who were sitting
on the floor, the prisoners squeezed together there. Even though the windows were open, the
airlessness and stench were unbearable. Many Gypsies were wearing lice-infested rags, and the bugs
went from one person to another. People were moaning and fighting so much all night long that it was
impossible to sleep.
At about 11 o'clock, our door was unbolted and the German policewoman, upon seeing how fouled the
room was, told us to clean it within fifteen minutes, using our own clothes as rags - otherwise the food
would not be distributed. The room was cleaned, more or less, and then the women, already terribly
weak, were herded out to roll call, where they were counted once again. The roll call lasted about two
hours, and then each of us got a ladle of swede soup while we were still standing outside, and then we
were split up into blocks.
Teresa Łubieńska and I, along with several dozen other Polish women, were sent to block 5 - where the
blokowa was a German woman and the sztubowa was a Pole, Wanda Różańska. There were four rooms
there that had three-level bunks with straw mattresses and no blankets or sheets, we slept 2 to a bed.
From the corridor that divided the block into two parts you went to the washroom; there were no toilets
inside. The Zimmerdienst controlled the water supply, who did so according to their own imagination
and needs. We had to pay for the chance to wash ourselves or launder our clothes with bread or soup,
or be someone "with a position" to use the bathroom. While I was there, the food was like it had been in
the camp, just without any sausage or margarine. The soup was distributed once a day and bread in five
parts.
We had the stocking-makers stop working. Because many people did not have a complete set of clothes
(a coat over their shirt and barefoot) [and] suffered terribly from the cold when they had to go out to
the selection roll calls, as I described above, it was a nice surprise when our friends who stayed behind in
the camp sent us clothes, food, and mess kits. This help was organised thanks to the help and contacts
of Karolina Lanckorońska, who was helped by Ludwika Broel Plater, Marja Bortnowska, Krystyna Karier
and several others, whose names I do not remember. I, for one, received sugar from a R.C. [Red Cross]
package from Marja Bortnowska, and a tin of fish.
On Holy Wednesday and Holy Thursday there were Selektionen. Prisoners from the Jugendlager stood
for several hours at roll call. Our block, as the last one before the transit block, stood the longest. The
Poles were grouped together in our block, by Teresa Łubieńska - they prayed with her under their
breath, growing quiet only when the authorities approached. After several hours (about 4 hours), an SS
man approached us, Oberaufseherka [female SS head of the camp] with a rod in her hand, examining
our faces and legs closely (we were barefoot), with a blow of the rod drove the woman who had been
chosen out of the line, guided only by her own imagination in doing so - because I saw myself that they
often left behind people who showed signs of being seriously ill or of exhaustion, and instead took those
who were much healthier and more robust. The women who were chosen were made to stand to one
side and were surrounded by a mob of policewomen, who herded them to the "death block" by beating
and thrashing them with rods. Among those taken the first day was Elisa Rivet, mother superior of a
convent in Lyon, a good-looking woman who was still young, just about 56 years old.
The next day, after the Selektion was finished, the authorities noticed that there were 4 Frenchwomen
missing from the transit barrack - as a result, after the roll call, all of the Frenchwomen were taken and
set aside, and we were told that if the missing ones were not found, all of the Frenchwomen would go to
the transit barrack (read: "death barrack"). They began to search the blocks and they pulled the
Frenchwomen out from under the bunks in our block, 5: three were half-alive and one was dead. They
were in such a state because they had been in shock for a long time and because of the lack of air under
the low bunks. They were dragged away to barrack 6, and the Frenchwomen were allowed to go back to
barrack 5.
All the victims of the selections on Wednesday and Thursday were held in barrack 6 with no food until
the evening of Holy Friday. At 7 p.m., it was announced that we were not allowed to leave the blocks,
open the windows, or even stand by the windows. Seven enormous lorries drove up and stopped in
front of our block, 5; SS loaded about 500 [five hundred] designated women into the lorries, taking
whatever they had away from them; they were left with only a shirt or dress - the rest of the things, like
shoes, underwear, etc., were left lying on the road along which they had been taken away. We could
hear terrible screaming and crying as the women were beaten when they were being loaded onto the
lorries. The sounds of the blows and the laughter of those who were torturing them. I saw how 5 or 6
corpses of people who had died during this action were dragged to the side by the legs. In addition to
those lorries, two more arrived from Ravensbrück, loaded with about 250 [two hundred and fifty]
women. - and then the air raid sirens went off and those lorries left the camp in the dark.
The next day we found out, from the version that was being repeated around the camp, that those
women had been gassed that same night. And upon returning later to Ravensbrück, we found out from
eyewitnesses that on Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday an enormous number of corpses had been burnt
in the crematorium.
On Easter Sunday the mood in the camp was very difficult, we were terribly depressed. The food that
day was the same as usual - swede soup once a day. On Easter Monday after roll call, all the
Frenchwomen were called in front of the block and taken to the gate. We were sure that it was a new
selection. After a tortuous hour's wait, Mrs. Woronow told us that they were going to freedom by Swiss
Red Cross lorries that had just arrived. From that moment, our hope of being liberated began to grow,
since from that moment there began to be talk about the liquidation of the "Jugendlager". At that time,
the rest of the young women in the blocks designated for them behind the wooden fence were sent
away.
During our last days there, a young Russian woman, in her early twenties, who was pregnant and had an
ulcerating wound on her chest, was sent to the rewir, where she was given some kind of medicine. She
died a couple of hours after returning to the block. I saw her as she was leaving for the rewir - she
looked strong and healthy, she had a round face, with a dark complexion, so she could not have died a
natural death. I also used to see the nurse from that rewir sometimes. She was a young German woman,
always laughing; she was pretty, with wavy hair that she would wear loose, she paid a lot of attention to
how she dressed.
On the Thursday or Friday after Easter, documents and the log books were destroyed and the blokowa
began to admit that she was Polish and we were told to destroy the bunks. We did not even manage to
finish that task, which we did with great enthusiasm. A roll call was held and after a couple of hours we
were told to march to the main camp at Ravensbrück.
The straw mattresses in the "Jugendlager" block were terribly infested with lice. In my block, prisoners
were treated completely inhumanely, though Teresa Łubieńska and I did not experience any bad
treatment personally, since we had been highly recommended to the block's Polish authorities by Karla
Lanckorońska. Thanks to her, we were given jobs as "szrajberynki" [German, Schreiberinnen: female
prisoners working in the camp offices], which meant we wrote down lists of the block's prisoners, whose
number used to change constantly because of transports and selections. Very many prisoners, despite
the fact that they appeared to be extremely exhausted, were jerked about, shoved and beaten over the
head with anything that happened to be handy, for example a board - which I saw with my own eyes.
We were constantly being punished by having our food withheld, by having to go to extra roll calls, etc.,
while being crudely reprimanded by the block authorities.
Having arrived at the Ravensbrück camp in the afternoon, we were held in the yard in front of the baths,
where we waited until evening, standing in the pouring rain, after which we got showers, which took an
hour, during which time we were thoroughly robbed once again, left with only our shoes. We were
assigned new clothes, consisting of a shirt, a cotton dress, and a soldier's bandage instead of a kerchief.
We only got toothbrushes and soap. We were taken in the dark to block number 31 (thirty one), where I
knew the blokowa, Hanka Zaturska. She helped us, giving us each a coat and putting us in the section
where the Zimmerdienst had their beds. When the word got out that we had returned, women
prisoners helped us, bringing us food and clothes, so that soon we were once again completely
equipped, and greeted as if we had returned from the hereafter. The first people to help us were M. J.
Grocholska, H. Kulinicz, and K. Lanckorońska. Because it was a transit block, and thus insecure - on the
initiative of H. Kulinicz and with the help of Zaturska and H. Wasilewska, we were sent as sick to the
rewir and there we were given into the care of Dr. Węgierska.
We remained there until [the camp] was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross. A few weeks before we
departed, Canadian packages came to be distributed among the Polish women. Earlier packages had
been distributed to prisoners of other nationalities - one 5 kg package per person. At that time it was
announced that each Polish woman would receive 1/5 of a package if she acknowledged the receipt of
the entire 5 kg. After several hours of discussions, the women prisoners refused to accept them, and as
a result several sztubowe went to the Strafblok - I recall they included Ola Stypułkowska and Irka, whose
last name I do not remember, from block 17 side B. Because of the Polish women's resistance, the
packages were distributed in parts, but among the Jewish and Gypsy women.
Meanwhile, Swedish Red Cross vehicles arrived, and the remaining French, Norwegian, German, Belgian,
and Polish women left some of the blocks. A week before our departure, Teresa Łubieńska, another
woman, whose last name I do not remember, and I were called "nach vorne", and after they made us
stand for a couple of hours in the yard, and after we watched the packages being distributed to the
Jewish and Gypsy women, we were taken to the office, where the adjunct commandant and the
Oberaufseherka BINZ proposed each of us an entire 5 kg package. After our question of whether all the
Polish women had received similar packages was answered in the negative, we refused to accept them.
The Germans pressured us for half an hour, but we still refused - so we were allowed to march away in
the end.
On 25 April, in the morning, Dr. Węgierska informed us that vehicles of the Swedish Red Cross were
coming and that they would be taking away the people who were in the infirmary. The German blokowa
reacted in such a way that when Dr. Węgierska left, she told us to hand over our clothes, underwear,
and shoes under the pretext that we were going to be deloused. Neither I nor Mrs. Łubieńska followed
this order, but most of the women were left naked and barefoot so that when the official order came to
stand "nach vorne", they could not leave the barrack. But just then Dr. Węgierska came and after a
sharp exchange of words, the blokowa ran to the clothes storage and brought the necessary clothes
from there, which the prisoners, grabbing whatever they could in a hurry, came out of the barrack
dressed in a most peculiar way.
After standing a few hours in front of the barrack and after the soup was distributed, our names were
written down and we were taken beyond the camp's gates. There were 750 of us (more or less) in all.
Despite the fact that everyone in the infirmary was supposed to be taken, only about 100 Polish women
were taken, the rest were young, non-infirmary Jewish women. Dr. Węgierska, given the opportunity to
leave, said that she would not leave as long as any patients remained in the hospital. Since there were
still some patients there, she did not leave with that last transport. She was about 30 years old, small
and thin, with a round, pink, child-like face, but was strong in spirit and worked for those in her care
with dedication, putting herself at risk in the process.
Many fellow prisoners helped us while we were in the rewir, and the nurse named Ela from Auschwitz
was especially kind towards us and helped us very much. The entire time I was in the camp, it was as if I
had a double personality. My real self seemed to be observing was what happening to my physical self. I
was never surprised by what the Germans did to me, and I always expected something worse, though I
defended myself with my will to stay alive for two reasons: most importantly, thanks to my faith that the
Germans would be defeated and that I would return to a free Poland, and also my aversion to the
thought of perishing in Germany, that country I so detested.
Having come through the gate, we saw 32 white Swedish Red Cross buses and Swedish staff people.
Because the Jewish women stormed the busses, we were afraid that there would be no places left for us
and that we would have to return to the camp. One Swedish Red Cross officer told us, however, that we
would all stay outside the gate, we waited patiently and our group fit into one of the last buses, of
whom I remember the following people: Hanka Kulinicz - severely ill with typhus, as it later turned out;
two "guinea pigs", Alicja Jurkowska and Jasia Markiewiczówna; Marja Żurowska, Borysowiczowa; Zofia
Dackiewiczowa; Dawidowska; Karwatowa with the paralysed legs; Lasocka, who was still ill with
pneumonia; and others, whose names I do not recall.
As we drove through German towns, I noticed the gloominess and apathy of the Germans we saw. We
soaked up nature's unfolding beauty, but as long as I was in Germany, I still felt insecure, and did not yet
feel free. The bus stopped for the night in a forest under the trees, because the Germans were being
heavily bombed by Americans at that time, and one of the vehicles in the previous transport had been
bombed. While we were stopped in the forest, we could feel the ground shake from the detonations.
The [people who had been in the] rewir did not receive food packages, not even bread for the journey,
so we travelled hungry. The first food we received was in Denmark, in the evening of the next day.
When we drove through Kiel, the sight of the terribly destroyed city filled us all with joy. We crossed the
Danish border at Krushö-Padeborg, where we were received with unusual warmth, and it was only
there, despite the German guards that were to be seen in the city, that I felt free. On 28 April 1945, we
disembarked at Malmö, freed from the threat of torture and death thanks to the initiative of the
Swedish government and Count Bernadotte, and since then the lovely country of Sweden has been
offering us its hospitality, understanding the exceptionally tragic situation of our country, who, fighting
for the freedom of the world nevertheless did not gain its own freedom.
Read, signed, and accepted
(-)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
witness
(-)
Ludwika Broel Plater
Institute assistant
Now that the preceding testimony regarding my time in a German concentration camp has been
recorded, I would like to mention something about the selflessness of the Swedish people, who came in
great numbers to the aid of those who had been in the German concentration camps. Various charity
organisations participated in this effort, such as the Swedish Red Cross, Lotta, students and many
private individuals. Of those known to me personally, I must mention Greta Wulff of Lund, who escorted
all the transports from Copenhagen to Malmö, which were arriving twice a day. When the transports
had stopped coming, she worked in the quarantine camps for one month. After leaving the Swedish
camp, she hosted me selflessly for one year, and she is currently an active member of the Polish aid
committee in Sweden, "Polska hjälpen", and sends packages to Poland. I can say the same of her sister,
Maja Nilsson of Malmö. In general, the Swedish people I met showed me a great deal of sincere good
will and helped me very much, and gained my most sincere respect and friendship.
Read, signed, accepted
(-)
Ludwika Broel Plater
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
witness
Comments by the person taking the record: The witness, whom I know personally from the time we
spent together as prisoners as the RAVENSBRÜCK camp, is distinguished by her exceptional intelligence,
clearness of thought, precision and impartiality. As a person belonging to the highest stratum of society,
she is on a high ethical and ideological level, thus her testimony is one that is fully trustworthy.
(-)
Ludwika Broel Plater
Institute assistant
Correction to comments: The nationalities named as having left on the Swedish Red Cross transports on
page 18 of the manuscript is incorrect - Germans did not leave with those transports. When a given
camp was being evacuated, the German women were split up into groups and sent to other camps, and
managed to join Swedish Red Cross transports only under false pretences, claiming to be of other
nationalities, most often Polish.
(-)
Ludwika Broel Plater
Institute assistant
Addendum to the record and comments: As director, I add the following corrections and additional
comments to the record:
1. page 21: "... the transports from Copenhagen to Malmö, which were arriving twice a day..."
Exact data as follows:
In the early phase, a total of 8 transports arrived in Malmö on 26, 28 and 30 April 1945, and on 1, 2, 3, 4
and 11 May 1945.
2. page 21: "...the Polish aid committee in Sweden, 'Polska hjälpen'". The committee's name is
"Polenhjälpen". Since 1942, its director has been Mrs. Sigma Blanck, Malmö.
[page 25]
3. page 22: comment: " As a person... fully trustworthy." - To adhere to the Institute's principles
and reality, without detracting from the significance of the witness's testimony, I submit that
opinion in the following formulation: "The witness is a person who belongs to the highest
stratum of society and is of a high ethical and ideological level. Her testimony is one that is fully
trustworthy.
Lund, 7 October 1946
Institute Director
(-)
Zygmunt Łakociński