Polish Institute of Source Research in Lund Sweden

Transcription

1 Polish Institute of Source Research in Lund Sweden Date of the protocol: 29 th of November, 1945 Protocol no.: 009 This protocol covers testimony of two witnesses, witness 1: Mr. XXXXX and witness 2: Mr. YYYYY Family & given names of witness 1: XXXXXXXXXX Places of internment Born on 16 th of August 1902 Period from / to Placed in: Prisoner data (triangle, number, letter) Birthplace: Lublin 1 st July, 1940 / Profession: Aircrafat Mechanic 2 nd May, 1945 Nationality: Polish Citizenship: Polish Religion: Roman Catholic Parents names (F/M): Kazimierz / Katarzyna Last domicile in Poland: Lublin, Fabryczna Street 43 Present domicile: As the above Concentration camp, SACHSENHAUSEN- ORANIENBURG Red triangle, -, letter P Notes Political prisoner Page 1 of 8

2 Polish Institute of Source Research in Lund Sweden Date of the protocol: 29 th of November, 1945 Protocol no.: 009 Family & given names of witness 2: YYYYYYYYYY Places of internment Born on 27 th of January 1903 Period from / to Placed in: Prisoner data (triangle, number, letter) Birthplace: Profession: Kielce Clerk of the Community 17 th July, 1940 / 2 nd May, 1945 government / officer of the Polish Army Reserve Nationality: Polish Citizenship: Polish Religion: Roman Catholic Parents names (F/M): Antoni / Helena Last domicile in Poland: Kielce, Wolności Square 2 Present domicile: Not specified Concentration camp, SACHSENHAUSEN- ORANIENBURG Not specified The testimony of witness XXXXX, supported by witness YYYYY, consists of eight handwritten pages and covers the following main items: 1. Description of torture and death of General ROJA in July Details of quarantine in Sachsenhausen in July Sojourn in clinker works Grossziegelwerk- Oranienburg, work while running- im Laufenschritt ; Cruelties at work: hitting those pushing carts in the face using whips, drowning in mud and water of those exhausted by work- causing the prisoners to run outside the line of guards, to be killed. 4. Tortures at work in Speer Stenbearbeitungwerk-Oraniemburg in Execution of some Russian Prisoners of War by shooting them in Summer Notes Page 2 of 8

3 Record of Testimony given by: XXXXXXXXXX and YYYYYYYYYY Protocol no. 009 Institute member interviewing/at the protocol: Attorney at Law Bożysław KUROWSKI (Translation from Polish: Andrew Dobranski) 1 RECORD OF WITNESS TESTIMONY no. 009 Witness 1: Name, MR: XXXXXXXXXX, Born: 16 th of August, In: LUBLIN Profession: Aircraft Mechanic Religion: Roman Catholic names of parents: Kazimierz, Katarzyna Last domicile in Poland: Lublin, Fabryczna Street 43 Current domicile: Wambrzeżyce-Dwór, Lower Silesia Instructed about importance of truthful testimony as well as on responsibility and consequences of false testimony, the witness testifies as to the following: I was imprisoned in: Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen Oranienburg I was kept there between: 17 th of July 1940 and 2 nd of May 1945, as a political prisoner With number: --, wearing a Red triangle with a letter P. (Supporting) Witness 2: Name, MR: YYYYYYYYYY, Born: 21 st of January, In: KIELCE Profession: Clerk of the Community Government, officer of the Polish Army Reserve Religion: Roman Catholic names of parents: Antoni, Helena Last domicile in Poland: Kielce, Wolności Square 2 Current domicile: The same A Asked if in connection with my incarceration, my work in the concentration camp, I we have any specific information about camp organization, the camp regimen, prisoners work conditions, treatment of prisoners, medical and pastoral care, sanitary/hygienic conditions, and also any specific events in all aspects of the camp life, I testify as follows: The testimony of witness XXXXX, supported by witness YYYYY, consists of eight handwritten pages and covers the following main items: 1. Description of torture and death of General ROJA in July Details of quarantine in Sachsenhausen in July Sojourn in clinker works Grossziegelwerk-Oranienburg, work while running- im Laufenschritt ; Cruelties at work: hitting those pushing carts in the face using whips, drowning in mud and water of those exhausted by work- causing the prisoners to run outside the line of guards, to be killed. 4. Tortures at work in Speer Stenbearbeitungwerk-Oraniemburg in Execution of some Russian Prisoners of War by shooting them in Summer _ 1 Translator s notes (if any) are in cursive, enclosed in parenthesis 3(8) Translation from Polish by Andrew Dobranski, 14th of February 2013

4 Record of Testimony given by: XXXXXXXXXX Protocol no. 009 I was arrested in Lublin on 28 th of April 1940 for work in social organizations before the War. I was in prison in Lublin until 1 July 1940, after that I found myself in concentration camp Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg. I was there until 2 nd May I personally observed as follows: Tortures and death of General Roja. General Roja, a known Polish Commander, was imprisoned in SACHSENHAUSEN. In July 1940 enlisted officers of SS lead this old General dressed in prison uniform by pulling on a rope on his neck through the alleys between camp blocks. He looked terrible, had black bruises on his face, staggered from exhaustion. I saw SS men beating him with sticks, shouting Polish General. He was led to wash room in block 37 and there SS men inserted a hose into his mouth an opened the water. This was done intermittently. One could see bulging of his abdomen; I would never expect that it was possible to pump so much water into a person. Then suddenly the General fell. Then one of the SS men laid a stick on his throat and stepped on it. When the General showed no signs of life the SS man released the pressure on the stick but then several times repeated the act. I saw when eventually the General s body was carried out in a blanket. The people who saw it were repeating so perished our General Roja. Several people were present or were passing by. Quarantine in July 1940 Confession Upon arrival at the camp we underwent a 4 weeks long quarantine. We slept on straw mattresses crowded like sardines in a box, some persons in each wing. For the morning reveille a block elder beat anyone handy with a rubber club. After tidying up, breakfast was given, then roll call where we stood at attention for about two hours. Then we had so called sport jumping in crouched position with arms extended, rolling in dirt, having to run around while we were beaten by a whole contingent of block elders, hall elders and SS men. Those exercises lasted at least an hour and were repeated several times a day, depending on the wish of SS men, Blockführer and block elders. After one of those exercises on certain Sunday a German criminal prisoner (he was wearing a green triangle) offered us the following proposition: you know where you are and what is the fate that awaits you and so would anyone like to make a confession?. Ten or twelve Polish prisoners volunteered; I was among those that could witness the whole event. They were ordered to strip down, take two pails each to the wash room, then fill them with water and hold the pails in arms extended while turning around. They were beaten with canes until they all fell down and vomited. When they came to, they were ordered to roll in that water, flip over and finally when SS men entered and asked whether they truly confessed they were informed that this was Polish confession and it was ended by SS men beating everyone with sticks. In clinker factory 2. In September 1940 I was assigned to work in clinker factory 4 kilometers distant from SACHSENHAUSEN. The factory was the property of SS and was called Grossziegelwerk Oranienburg. I worked in column XII, called that of Felix the Bandit. We were preparing the terrain for another factory by leveling it. Small carts were filled with dirt, four of us worked from 7AM to 5 PM with one hour lunch break. We pushed about carts a day over the distance of one kilometer. All that work was done while trotting, in Laufschritt, which had to be practiced by the entire camp, where all work was done that way. An SS man or Felix the Bandit 2 Translator is not sure here, but the witness uses word Klinkeria which probably means clinker / brick manufacture 4(8) Translation from Polish by Andrew Dobranski, 14th of February 2013

5 Record of Testimony given by: XXXXXXXXXX Protocol no. 009 sat on the cart and hit prisoners over the face with flexible rod drawing blood and after the whole day of such tortures prisoners no longer looked like humans but rather as massacred faces pushing the carts. If someone fell down no longer being able to push the cart, the SS-men would take him by the arms and legs and heave the body into nearby bog where he would end his life. Upon return to camp, the number of prisoners had to match the number that left the camp the corpses were dragged into the camp s appeal place. There were such three or four corpses every day. After working there for 3 weeks I was so weakened that I could no longer work and was left. The workers were mainly Poles. It happened one day that a lorry jumped the tracks and blocked the whole traffic. There came SS Oberscharführer (Sargent) BOGDALLA and ordered the four who pushed it, to dig a deep pit. Then he beat them and threw them into the pit and had other prisoners burry those Polish workers, all political Prisoners. After some time they were dug out, all were dead. We all witnessed that because the traffic was stopped. Lunch was brought from camp to the workers at the factory. We ate standing, in formed columns, God forbid if anyone would sit down. As we were returning to camp in march columns, sometimes SS-man would throw a piece of bread, a cigarette or a prisoners hat beyond the line of escorting SS-men guards. If anyone dared to brake rank and run to pick it up he was instantly killed by guards shooting. This happened quite frequently. I witnessed at least ten such killings. Bread was such a temptation that even death did not deter people. This was the worst time of work periods in the camp. Not many survived this. Noted by: Read, signed, accepted: (-) (-) B. Kurowski XXXXXXXXXX Institute Assistant The witness 5(8) Translation from Polish by Andrew Dobranski, 14th of February 2013

6 Record of Testimony given by: YYYYYYYYYY Protocol no. 009 I was arrested in Kielce because I belonged to an underground organization. On 17 July, 1940 I was in concentration Camp SACHSENHAUSEN-ORNANIENBURG, where I was detained until the end of WWII, 2 May In September of 1940 I was assigned to a work detail at Steinbearbeitungswerk- Oranienburg so called Speer by the prisoners. I had worked there for three months. I recall what I had lived through while working there and what I observed and I say: The work consisted of clearing the forest and leveling of the terrain to allow construction of stone works, that were to supply Berlin area with stone construction material. At that time some 400 (four hundred) prisoners worked there. This work was one of the heaviest in the camp Sachsenhausen, because of its nature but also because of brutality and tortures. Personally I worked carrying large trees from the canal over a distance of one kilometer. Huge trees that under normal conditions would have to be carried by at least 50 people, were carried by only 20 prisoners. Sometimes the foreman would still remove a few persons so that the rest was no longer able to carry despite beating with sticks, which heavily fell on us. The tree that was dropped would break legs and hands and --I remember also cases of deadly accidents. After finally reaching the destination point we would drop the tree, and then all had to run back to get the next tree. Along this path foremen and their assistants beat with heavy sticks people that were falling down from exhaustion. The road back to the camp did not allow us to rest only caused further suffering. These conditions lasted the entire time while clearing the forest, half a year. Day after day we dragged the ones that were staggering, unconscious and those dead back to camp s appeal square. A German called Pawlowski was the foreman, and commando leader was SS Oberscharfürer SCHUBERT, known in the camp for beating and shooting people. I witnessed tortures. At one time our detail was ordered to dig 2 meter deep pits, for concrete fence posts. Prisoners worked in the pits throwing dirt out. In a pit next to mine worked young man, a Pole, that was hated by the foreman. The man was in the pit and suddenly foreman GONSCHOREK approached to cascade dirt into the pit so that the young man became buried up to his neck. Then Foreman Gonschorek repeatedly kicked him in the head. The prisoner was so shocked and had a nervous break that after the return to camp he hung himself. Besides that I remember that during work, bored SS-men would throw bread, cigarette or a prisoner s caps beyond the line of sentries and when someone would run out to pick that up they would shoot him to kill. It happened frequently at that time and I witnessed at least ten such cases. This was happening because new prisoners at work did not know about those shootings and encouraged by SS friendly talk, would run outside the line of sentries to meet their death. SS-men suffered no consequences for those deeds. It was known that SS Oberscharführer who shot prisoners was not demoted, quite the opposite was advanced in rank. I saw SS-Oberschrführer SCHUBERT shoot two prisoners with his pistol while they were standing in front of the Command Building. This kind of behavior, completely unpunished, gave other common SS-men and the sentries encouragement to follow. Shooting execution of Russian Prisoners of War. In July of 1941 six barracks in camp Sachsenhusen were fenced by barbed wires to serve so called Kriegsgefangen-Arbeitslager ( Prisoners of War work camp ). The Russian prisoners in their uniforms were housed there. On 31 st of August 1941 at 8 PM, we were forbidden to approach the 6(8) Translation from Polish by Andrew Dobranski, 14th of February 2013

7 Record of Testimony given by: YYYYYYYYYY Protocol no. 009 camp s appeal place. In some minutes, two trucks drove in and took 20 prisoners each, allegedly to the bath. They were taken to the Industriehof (Industrial Court) beyond the outside wall but still within the camp. There stood a building with a Russian inscription Bania ( Bath in Russian). They were told to undress and in the next room, twenty at the time, were shot to death in the back of the head. During one evening some 500 were shot that way. These executions lasted not quite the whole month, until about 25 th of September1941. We heard the shots clearly and each evening we saw trucks returning again to take new group of Russians out to be shot. We saw flames in four field cremation ovens mounted on trucks, day and night cremating bodies. The stench of burned flesh was all over; it seemed like we were in hell. All together some Russian POWs were shot. Information about shootings were brought by prisoners that worked in Industriehof, besides SS Oberscharführer KAISER one of the executioners and other SS-men rode out in each truck with the Russians. Read, signed, accepted: (-) YYYYYYYY (-) XXXXX Comments of the person taking the record: Witness XXXXX appears quite trustworthy. Wants to tell exactly what he saw, but has some difficulties recollecting details and expressing them in words. General ROJA was indeed in camp Sachsenhausen at the time of the quarantine in the summer of I know about it from my colleagues, trusted witnesses. He was subjected to various mortifications. When I was in Sachsenhausen from 8 th November 1941 to 2 nd May 1945 I found that the memory of General ROJA s military, hard posture was alive in the camp. One has the impression that Witness XXXXX did not know the General; he knew that the General was in block nr. 37 but he could not be 100% sure whether in the scene that he described it was General ROJA whom he saw. The witness undoubtedly saw the entire scene that he described, but it could have been someone else. From my own observations I know, that during the quarantine of 1940 people were killed by pumping them full of water and prisoners were tortured in a manner that he describes as the one used to kill General ROJA. This is the first such testimony about General ROJA and further depositions by other witnessed should confirm this testimony. The confession described here was undoubtedly a reality. During the quarantine of 1940 the events such as this one, depending on degenerate imagination of SS men and others had taken place. The bestialities in Klinker , were not surpassed in its mass and kind by any other work place in Sachsenhausen. Work conditions described by this witness, order of the day, and cruelties in Klinker are confirmed in other protocols present in the Institute and do not give one any reason to doubt him. BOGDALLA was one of the best known executioners in Sachsenhausen. Witness YYYYY is known to me personally from the camp from year He is intelligent; his testimony is not only totally credible but also conforms to others on the subject. Personally I worked in the Steinbearbeitungswerk Oranienburg, so called Speer from 5 th February 1942 to 21 st March Work place (Kommando) Speer for a long time (certainly until 1942) had an opinion and character of a penal command and was for the mass of workers in all respects the worst command in Sachsenhausen. The story of the particularly cruel events in Speer from existed in the camp to the end and was frequently brought forth in narrations of many nationalities, mostly Poles, who survived this period. The execution of some Russian 7(8) Translation from Polish by Andrew Dobranski, 14th of February 2013

8 Record of Testimony given by: YYYYYYYYYY Protocol no. 009 Prisoners of War undoubtedly took place. All the circumstances of this fact were still fresh in the minds of people and known throughout the camp when I arrived in Sachsenhausen on 8 th of November From present news I know that killing of those prisoners is part of the prosecutors accusation act against German War Criminals facing the Nürnberg trial. At the end of 1941 some Russian prisoners died daily in this Prisoners of War work Camp, sequestered from the rest of the camp. I worked intermittently as Leichenträger carrying two dead bodies per coffin to be cremated. The bodies showed signs of beating, and bestialities and were bruised and dirty. I know that among those Russians there were also Poles from area of Wilno, among others, which was evidenced by the names they carried; for instance Witold Borowski, or place of birth. The present protocol was prepared during the day before witnesses departure to Poland. Their time in the repatriation camp of Malmö got short and we were unable to prepare a more detailed protocol based on their experiences, people that lived through a lot during the five years in the camp. (-) Bożysław Kurowski Institute Assistant Witnessing compliance of the copy with the manuscript. / signature of Kurowski/ Institute Assistant 8(8) Translation from Polish by Andrew Dobranski, 14th of February 2013