POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND Trelleborg, 25 April 1946

Testimony received by Institute Assistant Krystyna Karier transcribed

Record of Witness Testimony 282

Here stands Mr Tadeusz Zajączkowski born on 7 August 1922 in Warsaw , occupation locksmith religion Roman Catholic , parents’ forenames Stanisław, Eleonora last place of residence in Poland Warsaw current place of residence Starogard

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 camp [note] prison [/note] in Warsaw known as ‘Pawiak’ from 12 January 1941 to the end of [note] 28 [/note] January 1941 as a political prisoner bearing the number – and wearing a – -coloured triangle with the letter – 1) I was later interned in the Auschwitz concentration camp from 28 January 1941 to 28 April 1941 – No. 9885, red-coloured triangle with the letter 2) Neuengamme concentration camp (near Hamburg) – from 28 April 1941 to 4 May 1944 – No. 4838, red- coloured triangle; 3) Porta Westfalica labour camp (branch of Neuengamme concentration camp) – from 4 May 1944 to 24 December 1944;

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: 4) Beendorf concentration camp (branch of Neuengamme) – from 24 December 1944 to 15 January 1945; and 5) the so-called ‘Sammellager’ [lit. ‘assembly camp’, Ger.] at Ludwigslust – from 15 January 1945 to 2 May 1945. T. Zajączkowski

The eyewitness testimony of Mr Tadeusz Zajączkowski consists of nine pages of handwriting and describes the following: 1. Arrival at the prison, interrogations, life in prison, callisthenics drills, help and information provided by a Polish prisoner, a ‘hard’ transport of 1,200 prisoners to Auschwitz. 2. [note written above text] Auschwitz [/note] ‘Unloading’ of prisoners from the train, first impressions in the camp, bathing, block assignments, relations with prisoner functionaries, quarantine. Working at speed – beatings, [note written above text] broken [/note] promises of additional food. Night-long standing punishment performed by all prisoners in a squatting position – penal company. Decline in strength as a result of insufficient food; moral suffering. Life in the camp. BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND 1945

Strict enforcement of cleanliness with a concurrent lack of fresh underwear. Vermin – delousings that broke up the monotony of camp life. Transport to Neuengamme. 3. Neuengamme. Population of the camp. Work building the camp. German functionaries’ treatment of the Poles and Czechs. Working outside of working the officially set hours. Escape attempt – shooting. Help from a Polish prisoner doctor. Relations with German prisoners. Execution of the witness’s brother. Living in anticipation of death. Transport to Porta Westfalica. 4. Porta Westfalica. Work unloading earth. Constructing tunnels. Lack of discipline – rule of the stronger. Evacuation of the camp to Beendorf. 5. Beendorf. Population of the men’s and women’s camps. Running of the women’s camp. Camp diet. Unplanned evacuation lasting a week [note written above text], death rate [/note]. 6. Ludwigslust. Starvation – death rate. Kapo prisoners taking over from the guards. Prisoners breaking through the wire fence at the sight of an American tank. [stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp]

[stamp] Sheet I POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp]

Eyewitness testimony of Mr Tadeusz Zajączkowski, born on 7 August 1922 in Warsaw

When we pulled up in front of the prison building, they kicked and beat us out of the vehicle, steering us towards the entrance. Awaiting us there stood German soldiers in an intimidating pose meant to demonstrate their readiness to hit us in an instant. Disoriented, we gathered in the corridor, not having the slightest idea what was going on or what they wanted from us. Then we were assigned to various cells. This too was disagreeable – they beat and kick us as though they enjoyed doing so. Then they made their hatred felt in the cells. The harsh discipline and harassment brought us first to despair, and later to apathy. Then came a period of unpleasant interrogations; we went to these hopelessly wondering whether we would return. Some men came back, but there were also quite a few who didn’t. My interrogation was terrible. A German in the rank of Untersturmführer along with two Polish traitors in his service received me like the vainglorious torturers they were; they looked at me in gleeful anticipation of the torments they would be able to inflict on me. At first they beat and questioned me erratically, but in the end they realized they would learn nothing that way. They began employing underhand tactics, trying to trip me up on every word I said, presenting factual evidence, promises – until, finally, their patience ran out. They resumed the beating and threatened me with execution or internment in a concentration camp. Having got nothing out of me, three hours later they tossed me out the door. After the interrogation, I felt an even stronger hatred for them. My resolve hardened: I would tell them nothing and one day have my revenge. They left me alone after that. Prison life. In the morning, we would be woken by hard pounding on the door. This meant we had to get up and tidy the cell. We were physically weak because they gave us absolutely nothing to eat until lunch, which was merely half a litre of watery soup. The cell was designed for no more than six people, yet they packed forty of us inside. We slept on crude stuffed mattresses laid out on the floor, covered by a single blanket. A huge amount of dust would be stirred up in the morning while we tidied. Once we had finished, we would be literally thrown outside for calisthenics drills, from which we returned cut up and battered. We would perform ‘żabki’ [lit. ‘frogs (dim.)’, Pol.], which consisted in jumping up from a squatting position with our hands touching the ground; next were long, drawn-out runs that left us exhausted. As the last of our strength ebbed away, they would force us

to carry on running or to maintain a prolonged half squat, during which we would pass out. When they realized we had no strength left, they herded us back to the cell – with ample use of beating, of course. When one of our comrades collapsed, they beat him until he gasped his last breath. They didn’t want to have any trouble at the hospital. There was one Pole [note written above text] (prisoner) [/note] who, despite being in the Germans’ service, did in fact help the Poles being held in the cells. He was a guard assigned to the corridor. Once he had got the measure of someone, he would smuggle letters for them, give them extra food on the sly, and pass on news that concerned all of us. He used to forewarn us of every search and inspection. After two weeks, he informed us that we were on the list due to be read out for transport to Auschwitz. Everyone received this news with a sense of relief. We had already heard about the atrocities at Auschwitz, yet to us this was heaven compared with prison. We wanted to get away from there as quickly as possible, to escape those terrible interrogations. The day finally came. It took all day to read out the transport list and segregate us, and then we spent all night waiting in the corridor before being loaded onto motor vehicles; there were 1,200 of us. They called us a ‘hard’ [ciężki (Pol.)] transport and were therefore ruthless towards us. They watched us like hawks. Between a double file of bayonets, we made our way from the prison to the vehicles that took us to the railway station. The military police then took custody of us. We were loaded aboard prison wagons, approximately eighty people in each. The military policemen knew nothing about what we had been imprisoned for until we ourselves made them aware who we were. For they had imagined us to be terrorists, murderers, the very worst of the criminal element. They were surprised at what we told them; they even sympathized with us. The journey was tiresome. It lasted two days and two nights. There was nowhere to sit down nor any way of getting any sleep. We pulled into Auschwitz at 3 a.m. We were greeted by the SS. They began shouting for us to disembark quickly. Yet it wasn’t we who disembarked, but rather they who disembarked us. At the entrance to the wagon stood an SS man who shoved us outside, down into the darkness – for we couldn’t see a thing. Standing opposite us was a second SS man with a bright electric torch that he shone into our eyes. Thus, it was a leap into the abyss. If anyone fell down, the SS would bring him back to his feet with a kicking. Amid the barking of dogs and exhortations of the SS men, they led us to the camp gate. There before the gate, they lined us up in fives using

dogs. We had to enter the camp bareheaded, and the temperature was twenty degrees below zero. Then they had us stand in the Appellplatz [yard where prisoners were mustered for roll call, Ger.] and we were counted again. Eventually, we were herded into a vast room. We were glad to be a bit warmer, but a moment later they herded outside again for yet another headcount. Finally, they herded us back into the room – this time for good. There, they had us line up in ranks of five, shoulder to shoulder. It was cramped and suffocating; the weaker men passed out from the heat. After an hour or so [the Germans] brought us coffee, and what awful coffee it was: thick, sour, undrinkable. [note] But [/note] You were thirsty so you drank it anyway. At 5 a.m. we were taken to the bathhouse, made to change into old patched-up clothing, and were then given our block assignments. My first impression upon entering the camp was horrible. A crate with dead prisoners was being carried, and the men carrying it were by then practically corpses themselves. The thought flashed through my mind that I too would soon end up like them. Depressed, I went with my fellow inmates to Block 6. We were received by the blokowy [chief prisoner of the block, from Ger. Blockältester] with derision and disdain. He treated us as though we were completely superfluous. For two weeks, we sat around the block cooped up in the Stubes [(dormitory) rooms, Ger.] learning how to sing in German. From 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. – nothing but singing. We would be so exhausted that we could no longer open our mouths. Next came calisthenics, which included squats, żabki, and drop-and-rise exercises. Then more singing. After those two weeks, we were thrown out of the block to work. We unloaded railway wagons laden with bricks; this involved taking five bricks at a time and running with them to the designated site. When returning for more bricks, we also had to run. Staggered at intervals along our path stood [note written above text] German [/note] Vorarbeiters [foremen, Ger.] who would beat us to ensure we ran. After work, we each had to take and carry another five bricks back to camp, which was two kilometres away. The camp was being expanded and they needed more people there. Our entire Kommando [labour detail, Ger.] was reassigned to do jobs within the camp. I was detailed to a column [work gang, from Ger. Kolonne] that was levelling the Appellplatz. Harnessed to a gigantic concrete roller, we hauled it with every bit of strength we had over uneven ground littered with bricks. On our feet we wore wooden slip-on shoes. We were at risk of breaking a leg any moment, so we made things easier for ourselves by removing the shoes. By the evening, this turned out to have made things even worse – our feet were covered in cuts. The next morning, there was no way to get the shoes onto our feet, which were swollen and agonisingly painful. This levelling work lasted one and a half weeks.

I used to wake up in the morning with the terrible awareness that my suffering was not yet over. Then we began excavating pits for building foundations. One had to cart earth out of the pit in a fully loaded wheelbarrow and then run back with the [note written above text] empty [/note] wheelbarrow. The Lagerälteste and Lagerführer [chief prisoner functionary of the camp and camp commandant, respectively; Ger.] were present for this; they were in a rush to complete this task as quickly as possible. They saw that beating us would no longer get them anywhere, so they promised food supplements and herded us back to the blocks in the evening. In the meantime, one Häftling [prisoner, Ger.] had escaped. They only became aware of this during the evening Appell [roll call assembly, Ger.]. It was sleeting at that time – and we had to stand to attention all night long with nothing on our heads. Between the blocks of prisoners standing in formation walked SS men who made sure that no one moved. Beside us, standing in a separate area in front of the kitchen was the ‘penal company’, which had to crouch in a half squat position until the Häftling was found. In the morning we were given nothing to eat, and were simply herded off to work. We got nothing to eat all day until evening. Only then, when the prisoner was found hiding in a chimney were we given some supper. Every day we had less strength for work. The three-quarters of a litre of soup and 300 grams of bread meant nothing to our starving bellies. After three months I could feel that I weighed only thirty-five kilograms, whereas I had weighed sixty before. A terrible weakness and impotence set into my muscles. My brain, however, continued to function as normal; I tried to figure out how I was going to get through this. But there was no help to be had from anywhere. Camp life The camp bell would wake us at 5 a.m. At the same time, the lights would come on in the Stubes and the sztubowy [chief prisoner of the block room, from Stubenältester] would burst in wielding a stick. He would chase everyone outside to wash. It was freezing cold and we had to go shirtless. The water was frozen solid, so we had to break it up with our shoe heels or wash ourselves with snow. Still wet, we went back into the Stube so that the sztubowy could inspect us to see whether or not we had washed. They demanded cleanliness from us, yet they changed our underwear only once every two months and made us sleep on filthy mattresses and cover ourselves with filthy blankets. Thus, it was hardly any surprise when a vermin infestation quickly set in. This was followed by delousing. They herded us outside in front of the block, and there in the freezing air [ordered us]: ‘Remove T. Zajączkowski

[stamp] Sheet II POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp]

Eyewitness testimony of Mr Tadeusz Zajączkowski, born on 7 August 1922 in Warsaw, cont’d underwear!’ We had to exterminate the vermin ourselves: the sztubowys walked among us and made sure that everyone was inspecting their underwear. Yet this was impossible because we were already frozen stiff – our rigid fingers were no longer capable of any movement. When the blokowy finally tired of this, he allowed us to re-enter the block. But our troubles weren’t over yet – we had to put our clothing in order, wash ourselves thoroughly in ice-cold water, and tidy up the Stube. The following day, we went back to work. Delousings were the only thing that broke up the monotony of our lives. On 28 April, all of us were assembled in the Appellplatz; prisoners were being registered for transport to the camp in Neuengamme. I myself was registered, as was my brother. We felt fortunate then that we would be together. I hoped that things might be better in the new camp. We were transported in cattle wagons by the SS. We travelled all day and all night long. We got 800 grams of bread to last us the entire journey. Along the way, three people in our wagon died. At Neuengamme recommenced the process of changing one’s clothes, washing, and receiving block assignments. It was at that point that I realized we had been brought in to build the camp. Before us, a transport of one hundred people – all German – had arrived from Sachsenhausen; they were given jobs as Vorarbeiters supervising us. We arrived in a contingent of 1,000 people, and already there before us were a further 1,000 or so people – both Polish and non-Polish. Immediately the next day, we were sent to work. We worked from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m in a sodden marshland. I should point out that Neuengamme was located on very boggy terrain. Thus, we had to cart all the mud out of the camp and bring in dry earth and rubble. We transported it harnessed in ten-man teams to a four- wheel cart that would sink axle deep into the mud. By the end of work, we would be completely filthy and wet from the mud. At six o’clock a bell sounded, calling us to supper. Appell always lasted roughly thirty to forty minutes. Throughout this time, we had to stand in the mud.

Then would come the order: ‘to the block’. Supper was doled out next; the Germans went first and chose the larger portions for themselves. We, the Polish prisoners, went next. The food was given to us grudgingly, and anyone who displeased the blokowy got nothing at all. No sooner did we get hold of our bread than we heard the bell and order: ‘Polen und Tschechen raus!’ [‘Poles and Czechs, out!’] With bread in hand, we would fall back into formation on the Appellplatz, where they sorted us again before sending us to work. We worked until 9 p.m. After nine o’clock, we would return to the block. It was cramped inside. The Germans would stretch out on stuffed mattresses in comfortable spots in the middle of the block and fall straight to sleep. We, however, would come back soaking wet and filthy; we had to get to the washing room, but there was no way to do this without rousing any of the sleeping men, who were of course German. On waking, they would curse us, calling us Schweine Polacke [Polish pigs], Saubande [wretched swine], and the like. After washing, we wanted to lie down and sleep but had no mattress on which to do so, so we lay on the wet floor in our wet clothes. I endured this for three months until finally, seized by a crazy thought one day at work, I decided to escape. I glanced around to see if anyone was looking – though by then I didn’t much care if they caught me and then killed or beat me; I just wanted to escape, to be as far from that hell as possible. The SS was watching. They spotted me from the guard tower and sounded the alarm with a gunshot. A moment later, the chase was on – they were shooting at me as though I were wild game. Unluckily, they hit me in the leg and I had no strength to keep running. It was a dumdum bullet and it tore a fist-sized wound in my leg. I was taken to a field hospital. There, I met a Polish doctor who took an interest in me and decided to treat me. I was laid up in the field hospital for a fortnight. After those fourteen days, I left the field hospital and thanks to some string-pulling by the doctor I was put on light duties. I remained infirm on account of that leg for a year, which undoubtedly saved my life as it meant I didn’t need to do hard labour. Owing to my light duty assignment, I was in contact with Germans, who held only these sorts of jobs. Slowly, I became their comrade. After a year’s time, I had to go and do harder work – I was well again. However, my contacts among the Germans and among the better-off Polish prisoners had me assigned to kitchen duty.

While working in the kitchen, I would see the Germans and Poles who worked alongside me stealing – that is, ‘organizing’ [camp slang for ‘obtaining by illicit means’, from Ger. organisieren] – food for their comrades. I decided to follow suit; after all, I had plenty of comrades still working themselves to death just as I had been doing before. It was a wonderful period for me. I worried about nothing, except sometimes in the evenings when I was alone; I would think about home, my mother, and revenge. Those wonderful times, however, were cut short by tragedy. At Appell one morning, my brother was called to the gate. His personal details were checked and then he was taken to the bunker. The date was 22 October 1942. Once the Kommandos had dispersed to work, I dashed towards the bunker. I already knew what was coming, what was going to happen. I was hoping to speak with him in his final moments and was caught doing exactly that by the Blockführer [SS guard overseeing a block, lit. ‘block leader’ (Ger.)]. At that point I got a horrible beating, as it was forbidden to speak with a condemned man. But I was glad to have seen my brother in his final moments. After I walked away, thoroughly beaten by the Blockführer, the latter entered the bunker and hanged my brother. I expected this to happen, because while giving his statement back in Warsaw my brother had been confronted with witnesses and had made a damning admission, namely that he had distributed clandestine newspapers. I too expected to be summoned and hanged after that incident, as I was his brother and had been arrested in relation to the same case. For a month, I walked about as though insane. By that point, I even longed for them to summon and hang me; I wanted to have done with it. But the following days brought me oblivion through my work and the horrors that I looked upon. I worked in the kitchen for two years. They threw me out for ‘organizing’ too much for my comrades. I simultaneously lost the friendship of the German ones, who could no longer get anything from me, though the Polish ones remained ever faithful. Luck was still on my side, however: I got the job of Läufer [runner, Ger.] which meant I didn’t need to work. This good fortune didn’t last long either, though, for the Lagerführer had taken a dislike to me and stated that a Pole could not hold such a good position. One day, I learned that I had been registered for transport to Porta Westfalica. This was how the Germans removed people whom they found inconvenient. When I arrived at Porta Westfalica they sent me straight to work. It was hard labour – unloading earth and stones

from lorries that brought it from tunnels being dug by Häftlings. Lorry after lorry would pull up and need to be unloaded quickly. Work proceeded apace; the Germans were building digging the tunnels for use as ammunition depots. They were rushing because the English were already in France by then. There were 800 Häftlings assigned to this digging work, most of them Russian. We lived in an old folk dancing hall; the bunks were stacked four high. There was no discipline, no order – whoever was stronger got his way. The only thing keeping everyone from outright revolt was fear of the SS. At Porta Westfalica, too, I was somewhat lucky: after three months, an acquaintance of mine had me assigned to the kitchen. Before long, however, they threw me out for ‘organizing’. I even used to ‘organize’ for the Polish civilians who were employed as free workers. The camp was inside the town itself and was encircled by a wire fence. The work site was two kilometres away from the camp. It was a picturesque place – two gargantuan mountains standing side by side, a river running between them – and inside these mountains the Germans were digging their depot tunnels. [note written above text] Both [/note] mountains were riddled with tunnels from top to bottom, like a spider’s web. Some tunnels were even as long as five kilometres. If the Germans hadn’t lost the war, this place would have become a vast heavy production facility for the war industry. A great number of machines had already been brought in for manufacturing arms. They were cutting-edge machines. Tunnels were being constructed right up until the last moment. Once the English were thirty kilometres away, the Germans started to evacuate us while the civilians carried on working. We were glad that our liberation was ever nearer at hand. We were transported to Beendorf. There, we waited to see what the following days would bring. The only Kommandos that did any work were those that had already been working there before. The men’s camp numbered 1,400 people, us included. Beside us, separated by only a wire fence, lay the women’s camp, which numbered 4,000 women. Things were run differently at Beendorf: the blokowy and Vorarbeiter positions were held by Poles. Everywhere you turned, you could see order and fairness. The Poles protected their comrades from beatings and harassment whenever they could. T. Zajączkowski

[stamp] Sheet III POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp]

Eyewitness testimony of Mr Tadeusz Zajączkowski, born on 7 August 1922 in Warsaw, cont’d

Dietary conditions were a little better because there was greater unity among the Häftlings. The Lagerkommandant [camp commandant, Ger.] himself was a rather understanding man; he had no appetite for the war either and therefore understood us. Near the camp were salt mines worked by Häftlings. Until the very end of our internment at Beendorf, the Germans stored food there. Not even the Lagerführer [camp commandant, lit. ‘camp leader’, Ger.] knew whether we should flee or wait for the English. Several times, we were made to change clothes in preparation for travel before they finally made up their minds and loaded us onto a train. They transported us – men and women together – for a week without food. Day after day, we would remove between seventy and one hundred corpses from the wagons and bury them. At last, we arrived at Ludwigslust. Everyone was anticipating liberation by then. We reckoned the English would arrive any day. Despite this joyful time, we were tormented by a terrible misfortune – starvation – which was reaching alarming proportions. In a camp with a population of 5,000, 150 people were dying of starvation every day. We got only 100 grams of bread and half a litre of soup for the entire day. The kitchen was raided regularly by hungry Häftlings. This went on until our final day in captivity, when the SS proclaimed that all Häftlings who could still walk were to join them as they fled from the English – but no one would. Everyone was done with listening to orders. At 12 noon on the second of May, the kapos assumed supervision of the Häftlings from the SS. They were armed and deployed at corners. We began to cheer at the sight of this, but they calmed us down, saying that we would all escape in the evening. The SS men were already making preparations to flee. Twenty minutes later, an American tank appeared on the highway that ran alongside the camp. That was all we needed – we tore through the wire fence and ran towards them. Read and signed by

T. Zajączkowski Krystyna Karier Witness Institute Assistant

Witness Tadeusz Zajączkowski describes his time in prison and the concentration camps with the constant awareness that this material is meant to reconstruct in full how prisoners lived. Thus, in as much detail as possible, he makes an effort to paint a picture of this life – for instance, the hopeless monotony interrupted only by delousings; he takes stock of his own feelings; he characterizes relations between him and German prisoners whose friendship was often based on material advantages. He avoids exaggeration and consequently downplays certain moments, limiting himself to hardly a few words when discussing, for example, his interrogation, which he himself emphasized was terrible. The moment of his arrival at the prison also calls for some discussion. The Germans who were awaiting the Polish arrestees arriving by motor vehicle on the night of 12 January 1941 by no means limited themselves to a ‘pose meant to demonstrate their readiness to hit us in an instant’. After being driven into the prison courtyard, the arrested men had to leap out of the vehicles and, amid beating and screaming, line up in a column facing the building entrance. Then they were compelled to run up to the second floor of the building, passing between a double file of Gestapo men standing every few steps and at every turn, who shouted and beat the terrified and rudely awakened arrestees with whips and the butts of their rifles. I myself, arrested that same night, ran this gauntlet along with sixteen men who were transported with me in one vehicle. The fact that the witness downplays certain moments of prison his experience in no way diminishes the value of his testimony; on the contrary, it reflects well on the witness, who is not blinded by the desire for vengeance which he mentions in his testimony. The testimony is absolutely trustworthy. Krystyna Karier [stamp] Lund, 27 April 1946 POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp]