Record of Witness Testimony 314

POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND Trelleborg, 22 May 1946 Testimony received by Institute Assistant Luba Melchior transcribed Record of Witness Testimony 314 Here stands Mr Natan Kapłan born on 1 August 1912 in Radom , occupation tailor religion Jewish , parents’ forenames Mojżesz and Hinda last place of residence in Poland Pionki current place of residence leaving for Poland 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 interned at the concentration [note written above crossing-out] labour [/note] camp in Pionki from [not completed] to 19 October 1944 as a political prisoner bearing the number [not completed] and wearing a [not completed] -coloured triangle with the letter [not completed] I was later interned in Oranienburg from 19 October 1944 to 26 April 1945. I wore a red-coloured triangle with yellow stripe and bore the number 104351. Kapłan Asked whether, with regard to my internment and my labour at the 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: The testimony consists of six pages of handwriting. Pionki Forced labour at a factory, the factory Wache [watch (i.e. guards), Ger.], accommodation conditions, diet, contact with Poles, an epidemic and executions ensuing therefrom, exchange of exhausted labourers for healthy ones, the Jewish settlement in Szydłowiec, expulsion, a transport from Kielce, labour in Pionki, medical care, a transport from Płaszów, help among the prisoners, bonuses, executions, children in the camp, contact with partisans, evacuation, transports to Auschwitz and Oranienburg Oranienburg Bathhouse, change of clothes, quarantine [stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND [/stamp] 1945 [stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp] Testimony of Mr Natan Kapłan, born on 1 August 1912 Prior to 1942, there were no major operations in Pionki. In 1942, the ghetto was liquidated and everyone was sent to Zwoleń, where there was a collective camp. Only healthy people remained in Pionki, and they were employed at Państwowa Wytwórnia Prochu [State Gunpowder Mill (Pol.)]. Out of 1,000 Jews, 180 remained. Jews were tasked with pulverizing coal. [The authorities] placed Jewish workers in a specially created camp. The camp was located on the factory grounds. Ukrainian Werkschutz [industrial security (Ger.)] guards kept watch. The accommodation conditions at the camp were dire. The camp had no fittings or furnishings at all; it was up to us to finish it. The official diet was very meagre, but we had contacts among the Polish labourers from whom we would obtain food items at rather high prices. At first, we were paid for our labour according to the official rate. We worked eight hours of work [note written above crossing-out] a day [/note]. When the need arose, we would work as many as twenty hours a day. After three weeks at the camp, several people fell ill. Two Polish doctors were brought in: a powiat [approx. ‘county’, Pol.] doctor named Majchszak and his assistant, Węglewski. Upon [note written above text] examining everyone [/note], they pronounced sixty people sick and claimed they were untreatable (which was untrue, because most of these people had already recovered). As a result They also claimed that these cases risked turning into a general epidemic that could spread throughout Pionki. As a result of this pronouncement, Polizei- and SS-Führer Böttcher issued an order for all [note written above text] the supposedly ill [/note] to be shot dead. Thanks to the intervention of the factory director, a German civilian engineer by the name of Brandt, some of these people were saved and placed in the epidemic hospital. Twenty-six were shot dead; the rest later returned to health. The epidemic subsided completely and the epidemic hospital was shut down. [The victims] were buried in a common grave on the grounds of the Dunit section. The execution order was issued by Roder, the deputy Werkschutzleiter, and it was carried out by Zugführer [platoon leader, Ger.] Schenk. [The victims] were driven away by lorry, supposedly to another hospital in Kozienice. Transports from other towns were brought to Pionki. The newcomers were supposed to replace exhausted labourers. After segregation, weaker labourers were sent to a collective camp in Szydłowiec. Meanwhile, in Szydłowiec healthy ones were selected and brought to work in Pionki. In November 1942, Governor Frank issued a decree establishing four collective Jewish settlements. Amnesty was officially granted to anyone who was on the Aryan side if they came to the designated settlements. I remember the locations of three of them: Sandomierz, Radomsko, and Szydłowiec. I myself was in Szydłowiec. The settlement was established in the former ghetto, only the ruins of which remained. Five thousand Jews were quartered in those ruins, mainly elderly people, mothers with children, and exhausted labourers from various German companies who had been segregated out. Under orders from Hauptsturmführer Weinrich and Untersturmführer Schippers at the Pionki factories, I obtained permission for an exchange of labourers: exhausted ones from Pionki for healthy ones from Szydłowiec. On 9 January 1943, I myself was present as the Szydłowiec settlement was being liquidated. The settlement was made up of two sections. Everyone was herded into a single section for the expulsion. In the process, [note written above text] approximately [/note] 400 people were shot dead – mainly children. We arrived with the Lagerführer [lit. ‘camp leader’, Ger.] of our camp, Schenk, to collect the labourers, but the settlement was surrounded by Ukrainians and they would not let us in. After communicating with Schippers, we learned that everyone from the settlement had to be executed owing to a raging epidemic. On 12 January, the entire settlement was transported to Treblinka, where they were executed. In August 1943, a transport of 500 Jews arrived [note written above text] in Pionki [/note] from Kielce. Aboard the transport were seventy children who had been taken from their mothers in Kielce, and on the order of Hauptmann Geier, the Schupoführer [chief of Schutzpolizei (protection police), Ger.], all the children were executed. Right before their mothers’ eyes, they were blown to pieces by hand grenades. Jews worked at Pionki in the manufacturing of gunpowder. The work was dangerous. There were frequent explosions resulting in deaths. The medical care was first-class. We got medicines from Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe [Jewish Mutual Social Assistance (Ger.)] in Cracow. The medicines came from the Joint [Distribution Committee]. The work was hard and it ravaged people’s health. The Polish labourers were transported to Germany, and in their place Jews were brought in from various camps. The Płaszów concentration camp supplied two transports (400 people). They were completely exhausted and stood out from our people. Their clothes had ladder-like markings painted on them. At our camp, we wore civilian clothes. Towards the end of 1943, our camp also we re-attired these people in civilian clothes so that they would not stand out. This was done by way of a collection we held amongst ourselves. The new arrivals were searched, and everything they possessed was taken from them. They were assigned the hardest work; since they were so exhausted, we set up a committee amongst ourselves which provided these workers with extra food. The Lagerführer knew about this privately. Officially, we provided an additional 120 grams of bread per day to hard labourers. Roller operators received bonuses in the form of bre vari food items. The Pionki camp remained a labour camp up until the very end. In 1944 came a new Werkschutzleiter by the name of Widner. He wanted to implement new directives making the camp similar to a concentration camp, but he was opposed by factory director Brandt. Nevertheless, discipline did become more severe. For example, if one man escaped, another was to be hanged. A gallows was erected in the yard for this purpose. No such sentences were carried out, thanks to the influence we had with the director. Things were worse when it came to recaptured escapees, who were hanged right in front of all the camp residents. Two sentences were carried out. Five people fled to Kielce; they were caught by the Gestapo and brought to the camp, where they were hanged. The second sentence was carried out for theft of vodka. It happened at the direction of a Gestapo man named Kop. On that occasion, three people were hanged. Pregnant women were not treated differently; the newborn babies were executed. There were older children in the camp on a semi-official basis. They would be hidden whenever the SS commission was visiting. The death rate in the camp was quite low. This was because people there were young and healthy, selected from among many. There were a few deaths. The corpses were buried. News on political developments would make its way into the camp. I had the opportunity to listen to the factory director’s radio. Thanks to the news, we were able to keep abreast of the situation. We knew the front was drawing nearer and the camp was to be evacuated. Two hundred people organized an escape into the surrounding woodlands. Unfortunately, no one the lion’s share of them died there. We maintained contact with partisans from AL (Armia Ludowa [the People’s Army, Pol.]). In the event of danger, they were going to rescue us the entire camp. The factory director took my family and my brother from the camp before it was evacuated.

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