Record of Witness Testimony 482

POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND Strömsnäsbruk, 10 June 1946 Testimony received by Institute Assistant Ludwika Broel-Plater transcribed Record of Witness Testimony 482 Here stands Ms Janina Grabska born on 7 March 1906 in Czarnokońce Małe, Tarnopol Voivodeship , occupation clerk religion Roman Catholic , nationality Polish parents’ forenames Antoni, Bronisława proof of identity provided known personally [to the Institute Assistant] last place of residence in Poland Warsaw current place of residence Strömsnäsbruk who – having been cautioned as to the importance of truthful testimony as well as to the responsibility for, and consequences of, false testimony – hereby declares as follows: I was arrested in Brzeziny Śląskie, Bytom Powiat on 1 September 1939. I was held in the following prison (ghetto, labour camp, etc.): Bytom – Brzeziny. I was interned at the concentration camp in Majdanek from 18 January 1943 to 21 April 1944 as a political prisoner yes bearing the number 4571 and wearing a red -coloured triangle with the letter P. I was later interned in Auschwitz from 21 April 1944 to 30 September 1944; then at Ravensbrück from 1 October 1944 to 22 March 1945; ″ ″ Watenstedt labour camp from 22 March 1945 to 5 April 1945; and then again at Ravensbrück from 5 April 1945 to 22 April 1945. Asked whether, with regard to my internment in the prison, ghetto, or concentration camp, I possess any particular knowledge about how the camp was organized, how prisoners were treated, their living and working conditions, medical and pastoral care, the hygienic conditions in the camp, or any particular events concerning any aspect of camp life, I state as follows: The testimony consists of a twelve-page manuscript plus two pages of replies to supplemental questions. It describes the following: 1) Arrest under false charges. 2) The witness’s building coming under fire during combat along the border. Beating of prisoners under escort. Prison and combat in Brzeziny. 3) POW camp in Gliwice. 4) Germans sympathizing with the communists. 5) Soldier Weneger and protection from the Gestapo. 6) Prison in Rawicz: two weeks of interrogations, day and night. 7) Prison in Leszno. Executions by shooting. Death and pardoning of Fr Popławski. Beatings during days of national celebration. Release. 8) Evacuation of the population. 9) Re-arrest. 10) The camp in Majdanek. Absence of windowpanes, bedding, water, and toilets. The Polish women’s work establishing hospital blocks and organizing camp life. Jewish transports. SS men shooting BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND 1946 cont’d overleaf at children. Selections. Children being taken away. Crematorium. Public hanging. Mass executions by shooting. Polish women beaten on Holy Thursday. The sadist Eugenia Piekarska. Beating, standing, and starvation punishments. Self-defence by the prisoners. Bolstering morale. M. Żurowska. Aid from the Polish Red Cross and Rada Główna Opiekuńcza [Central Welfare Council, Pol.]. Ludwika Broel-Plater [stamp] POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp] [stamp] 1. POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND [/stamp] Testimony of Janina Grabska, born in Czarnokońce (Tarnopol Voivodeship) I was arrested on 1 September 1939 at my home in Brzeziny Śląskie, near Bytom. At that time, I was working as a clerk [correction made by the witness, hereinafter ‘correction’] at the Orzeł Biały mine [/correction]; apart from this, I was also running a Polish Army culture and education centre in the military forts. Owing to my contact with the military, I was aware of the threat facing the country; nevertheless, I was surprised when gunfire broke out below my window at 4 a.m. From the banging of the machine guns and exploding grenades, I could tell that our entire building was under fire. Bullets were coming into the apartment, so I flung myself to the floor and out of harm’s way – as did two men who had taken cover in my room during the shooting. They were acquaintances of mine: an engineer by the name of Czaplicki and a chemist, Stanisław Kuzdrzał [?]. Shots were still being fired and we were still lying on the floor when six civilians wearing swastika armbands burst into the room. They ordered us to rise and stand with our hands up while they set about searching [correction] my [/correction] room. They confiscated three revolvers from my two associates. They beat them right in front of me and marched us with our hands raised to Bytom, which is [correction] two [/correction] kilometres from Brzeziny. Reportedly, the men continued to be beaten along the way [correction] according to Czaplicki, who was released [/correction]. One of the Gestapo men present accused me of shooting and killing, with a revolver, a German soldier who had been outside on the opposite side of the building. It is my belief that the soldier was felled by a bullet that had passed through my apartment, exiting on the opposite side from the shooting. My accuser was an office colleague named Marcoll who had been passing himself off as a Pole but now turned out to be a German and a Gestapo agent. The six Gestapo men were led by a man called Cove [?], the son of a local restaurateur. He had crossed over to Germany and become a Nazi [correction] German [/correction]. 2. Along with the other residents of that building, who were Giesche company employees, I was herded into the cellar. We were told that the building was going to be bombed. German aeroplanes were circling low above the ground. At two o’clock, all of us were evacuated to the station in Bytom. We travelled by bus. There were [correction] approximately 150 [/correction] people altogether. After arriving at our destination, I was separated from the larger group and taken [note written above crossing-out] driven [/note] to Gestapo headquarters, where I was held until 7 p.m. Then I was driven to the prison in Bytom or Brzeziny [correction] [note] (where exactly it was located, [/note] I cannot say as I don’t know Bytom well) [/correction] and incarcerated in an isolation cell. The dimensions of the cell were three metres by two metres by one and a half metres [correction]; there was a bunk and small locker attached to the wall, as well as a stool, bucket, and water jug. [/correction] At 3 a.m. insurgents retook Brzeziny. The prison command and staff fled, but we were locked in the cells and had no way of getting out. I could hear the fighting: bullets were slamming into the wall while reports came in over the radio, which the fleeing authorities had left on in their haste. After a while, everything went silent. Two hours later the Germans came back. Every day for the following three days, we were taken to the Gestapo station for interrogation, but owing to a lack of time no interrogation ever took place. After two weeks’ imprisonment, forty men and I were driven to a POW camp set in woodland near Gliwice. There, deliberations took place on what to do with me, because I was the only woman among them. In the end, I was quartered in the personnel barracks. Every night, I could hear people being executed by gunshots near the block. In contrast, I saw the Germans positively doting on Poles and Russians who had [note written above text] previously [/note] been arrested for communism. I had no news of the situation the country was in, apart from joyful announcements by the German personnel in my block about the capture of Poland and about Rydz- Śmigły fleeing to Romania. The camp radio broadcast excerpts from the defence of Brześć and exhortations to surrender addressed to Kostek-Biernacki. The conditions I had 3. at that time were good – a room to myself and food from the soldiers’ pot. I had work from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. with [correction] a fifteen-minute break [/correction]. My job involved scrubbing floors, washing kitchen linens, and cleaning the personnel block. Only my nights were sleepless at first, because the German soldiers would come in, stand in the middle of my room, and stare at me. Disconcerted by my calm demeanour, they would leave my room without committing any transgressions. When I complained to the German officer in charge of the camp, they stopped bothering me. After two weeks at that camp, I was transported to a prison in Rawicz with the same group of forty men [correction above text] plus one hundred others [/correction] with whom I had arrived at the POW camp. I was told that I was going for execution. The men were loaded aboard freight wagons which were sealed shut, while I and the German personnel were placed aboard a passenger carriage. Throughout the journey, I was guarded by two soldiers wielding rifles fitted with bayonets. Along the Gliwice–Rawicz line our train stopped at stations whose names I can’t recall, but I distinctly remember Gestapo men boarding our wagon at those stations and looking me over. They were going to beat me because they knew that I was accused of killing a German soldier. Yet the soldiers escorting me – and in particular a Viennese soldier by the name of August Weneger – stood firm in my defence; this led to arguing and almost came to blows. Weneger justified his defence of me by saying he had orders to deliver me to Rawicz and therefore had to defend me in order to fulfil those orders. In the face of such an argument, the Gestapo relented. In Rawicz, we were loaded aboard uncovered lorries and ordered to sit with our heads below waist level while holding our hands over our ears. If anyone raised their head, 4. it was struck back down with a truncheon.

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