POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND Trelleborg, 26 August 1946

Testimony received by Institute Assistant Halina Strzelecka

Record of Witness Testimony 445

Here stands Ms Szyfra Rajzman born on 15 February 1923 in Wodzisław, , occupation seamstress religion Jewish , nationality Polish parents’ forenames Irek, Chana proof of identity provided [not completed] last place of residence in current place of residence Sosnowiec 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 [not completed] on [not completed] I was held in prison (ghetto, labour camp, etc.): Neusalz an der Oder [present-day Nowa Sól] labour camp from January 1942 to January 1945. I was interned at the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen from mid-March 1945 to 15 April 1945 as a political prisoner bearing the number (I don’t remember) and wearing a – -coloured triangle with the letter – I was later interned [note] during this time I was [/note] in transit undergoing evacuation from Neusalz to Flossenbürg from January 1945 to the middle of March.

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: Szyfra Rajzman The testimony is composed of five pages of handwriting and describes the following:

Sosnowiec: The witness volunteering to go to the Dulag [Durchgangslager, lit. ‘transit camp’ (Ger.)] Medical examination Factory transport (quantitative and qualitative description)

Neusalz an der Oder: Types of work at the Gruschwitz thread factory Burns, frostbite, workplace accidents, frantic pace, rotting hands Medical examinations every six months, unhealthy women being sent away How the foremen treated workers Accommodation conditions Clothing Good hygiene conditions Insufficient food; improvement starting in 1944

BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND 1946

Good mood initially, followed by complete apathy Camaraderie The Revier [infirmary, Ger.] The sick and unfit for work being sent away Elimination of the so-called transportunfähig [unfit for transport, Ger.] Punishments administered: food deprivation, Postsperre [lit. ‘mail ban’, Ger.], confinement to a dark cell, cutting-off of hair Help from Polish civilians Eight- and then eleven-hour working day Evacuation: seven-week march in snowy conditions with insufficient food Acquiring food from Bauers [farmers, Ger.] Spending nights in barns A week’s rest in Flossenbürg Journey to Bergen-Belsen, starvation, suffocating due to the lack of air

Bergen-Belsen: Sitting on concrete in the blocks Piles of corpses Crematorium smoke, day and night Dragging of corpses Starvation, lack of water Onset of apathy A poem by Maria Suszyńska: ‘Freedom’ Liberation The witness breaking down after liberation and some details about her life afterwards

Eyewitness testimony of Ms Szyfra Rajzman, born on 15 February 1923 in Wodzisław – 1 –

In January 1942, I received a summons from the Sosnowiec Arbeitsamt [labour bureau, Ger.], which there was called a Sonderamt [lit. ‘special bureau’, Ger.]; within twenty-four hours, I was to present myself to the Dulag, from which transports of Jews were being sent to labour camps. Should I fail to turn up, it was threatened, they would confiscate my family’s ration cards and evict them. I had a large family: mother, father, and ten siblings ranging between 3 and 26 years of age. I didn’t want them to be evicted and condemned to an itinerant life because of me, so I went voluntarily. I was at the Dulag for eight days. We were examined by a doctor. Some of us were rejected for being unhealthy; the rest were deemed fit for work. The factory that we were meant to go to required 150 people, yet there were approximately 250 of us. Just before we were due to leave, it turned out there weren’t enough people; apparently, many had been released in exchange for bribes. In order to meet the quota, [the Germans] took thirty of the people who had previously been rejected owing to poor health. We arrived in Neusalz an der Oder as factory workers assigned to the Gruschwitz thread factory. We were the first group of Häftlings [prisoners, Ger.] to work at the factory. In addition to us, there were many German and foreign civilians working there. We were assigned to various departments: Appretur, Spinnerei, Feuchtspinnerei, Kämmerei, Baumwolle [respectively: dressing, spinning, wet spinning, finance, cotton (Ger.)]. Considered the hardest assignment was what was called Reste [lit. ‘remnants’ (Ger.)] – which involved harvesting flax and then laying it out in the field – as well as work in the Spinnerei section. Reste had it worst. All day long they were exposed to the sun, rain, or freezing cold. They were sunburned in the summertime and frostbitten in the winter. The flax and various weeds lacerated their hands, and they had a hard time picking up the bundles of harvested flax. Working in the Spinnerei section, meanwhile, was very dangerous. There were masses of dust and the pace was frantic; workers were constantly rushed off their feet. There were many unfortunate workplace accidents: and, fingers, heads would get caught in the machinery. Once, a machine tore the scalp from a woman’s head along with her hair. She was taken to hospital in Sosnowiec. Many girls would fall ill from dust in their lungs. In the Feuchtspinnerei section, fingers would rot away from hands kept constantly in water. The work was just as dangerous as in Spinnerei and the pace was the same. I myself worked in Baumwolle, which involved winding the spun thread onto spools. It was the lightest job there was; plus it was difficult to monitor how much work I had actually done. Every six months, we were X-rayed to check whether we were healthy. If the X-rays showed any major changes in women’s lungs,

– 2 – they would be sent away to the Dulag in Sosnowiec. From there, an ambulance would take them to Auschwitz. I heard about this from acquaintances who had witnessed one such transport. On the whole, the foremen didn’t treat us that badly. There were, however, a few bad ones, such as a foreman in Feuchtspinnerei who beat workers savagely. We lived in a camp that was ten minutes away from the factory. Our barracks were clean, that is, free of lice and fleas; on the other hand, we had bedbugs from the very first day. Every woman had her own bed and two blankets. We wore our own clothing which we had brought from home, with stars on the backs and fronts. It wasn’t until 1944 that we were ordered to put striped patches measuring twenty centimetres by twenty centimetres on the backs. These patches could not just be sewn on but had to be sewn in place of cut-out fabric; an auzjerka [female guard, Ger. from Aufseherin] inspected to ensure this was done. The underwear was our own. At first we washed it ourselves; later there were camp laundries. We had plenty of water. Cold water was available at all times and warm water every day at certain times. It was possible to maintain cleanliness. We didn’t have lice. The food wasn’t good. Quantities were small: six thin slices of bread, perhaps about 200 grams; and a litre of meagre soup for lunch. We knew that we were getting increased rations, even a Zusatz [supplement, Ger.], but we never saw any of it. The lagerführerka [lit. ‘(female) camp leader’, from Ger. Lagerführerin] used to steal it from us. When the SS took over the camp in 1944, the food improved considerably; the SS must have been stealing less of it. As a result of our poor diet, we all grew so exhausted that even the strongest women succumbed to apathy. Initially, we had sung and held lively discussions after work – even played football and put on shows. Later, we were so weak that we no longer felt like doing anything at all. Camaraderie was very strong. By and large, we had already known one another on the outside; the transports arrived town by town and this greatly fostered camaraderie. We trusted one another. Although cases of informing did indeed occur, they were very rare. A Revier did exist. It was run by a Jewish medic. She dressed wounds and dispensed medicines such as aspirin. Initially, the lagerführerka refused to acknowledge chronic illnesses. If a woman had been lying in bed for several days, the lagerführerka would beat her and force her to work. Later, she came to accept the fact that women could be ill. Every so often, the Revier would be emptied by having all the incurably ill patients sent to Auschwitz. There were about a dozen normal, unstacked beds in the Revier. It was warm and clean there. Patients who were ‘transportunfähig’, as it was termed, were eliminated right then and there with medicinal drops of some kind.

– 3 –

The first to be eliminated this way after three months in bed was Hela Biedermann, a young 18-year-old Jewish girl from Sosnowiec. The medic told us about this. The most frequently administered punishments were food deprivation and what were called Postsperres. For the actions of one woman, all the women would be punished. We wouldn’t be deprived of food on weekdays, only Sundays. For infractions such as having an illicit letter or parcel, women were beaten and punished with confinement to a dark cell; later their hair would be cut off. The dark cell was located in a cellar. Living on the other side of the fence, in what was called the Mädchenheim [lit. ‘girls’ home’, Ger.], were Polish women who were there as civilian workers. They used to help us with letters on the sly; they would relay parcels and news. We worked in two so-called Wechselschichts [lit. ‘alternating shifts’, Ger.], each eight hours long – from six o’clock to two and from two o’clock to ten – and in one so-called Normalschicht from six to six [note written above text] with a one-hour lunch break [/dopisek]. In 1943, three hours’ Überstunden [overtime, Ger.] was introduced to the Wechselschicht, which meant that all of us had an eleven-hour working day. The night shift wasn’t introduced until 1944. By then, there were approximately 900 of us Jewish women at Neusalz. In January 1945, the order came to evacuate. We were issued enough dry provisions (bread and margarine) to last us a week, but ended up walking seven weeks. We would enter homesteads along the roadsides and beg for food. In barns, we would loosen kernels of grain from unthreshed crops. We slaked our thirst with snow. Nights were spent in barns. The journey was very hard, through deep snow. Our legs were constantly wet; our stockings and clothing would dry on us as we walked. But worst of all was the hunger. In general, the local population was eager to help migrants. The roads were crammed with carts of people trying to flee. We made our way thus through Saxony and the Sudeten Mountains before arriving in Flossenbürg. There we were bathed; our personal effects were taken from us and we were given others with the inscription ‘KL’ [Konzentrationslager, concentration camp (Ger.)]. A week passed uneventfully, and then they transported us away to Bergen-Belsen. [note written above text] They gave us three days’ worth of food. [/note] We travelled in sealed cattle wagons. There was so little air that we could hardly breathe. Using penknives, we drilled holes in the wagons. At train stations we organized group chanting. On a signal, the entire train would shout in unison: ‘Wir haben Hunger.’ [‘We are hungry.’ (Ger.)] It did no good. We got nothing to eat or drink. A week later we arrived at Bergen-Belsen.

– 4 –

As soon as we had left the wagons, we flung ourselves on the heaps of swedes. Sick women were loaded onto motor vehicles; healthier ones went on foot. Along the way, we drank water from a pond even though the Wachmann [watchman, guard (Ger.)] forbade it. At Bergen-Belsen, we were taken to a block with a concrete floor. We lay, or rather sat, on the bare floor. It seemed as though we had come to a cemetery. In front of the block were piles of corpses for which there was no more room in the corpse Zelts [tents, Ger.]. Day and night, smoke billowed from the chimney. It irritated the throat; I thought I would continue smelling it till the day I died. Later, the crematorium could no longer burn the corpses fast enough, so [illegible crossing-out] they would be dragged into a field day and night. It was a horrible sight to see two Häftlings pulling a corpse [note written above text] by straps tied to its arms and legs [/note]; the ones doing the pulling were by then already corpses themselves. I don’t know which were more numerous at Bergen-Belsen – corpses or living prisoners – but there appeared to be more corpses. Once a day, we would get ‘soup-water’; once every few days, bread. The hunger was so intense that once, when I threw a piece of ‘organized’ [camp slang for ‘obtained by illicit means’, from Ger. organisieren] swede among the men dragging corpses, they almost killed one another over it. People drank water from the sewers and latrine ditches. People grew so apathetic that they felt no compassion either for others or themselves, and when the moment of liberation came they couldn’t even feel glad about it. I have appended a poem by Maria Suszyńska which faithfully illustrates the first moments that followed liberation: ‘Freedom’ How strange you are; you have still a mortal face. The cold wind and golden sun take the tally of your decaying ribs. From dark spruces a breeze grazes o’er your green eyes. Such rotten eyes you have, foul odour from your mouth. Living corpses dressed in rags drag you by straps While you gape, baring your teeth at the sky, the clouds, the sun. How monstrous you are! Who made you? Who thought you up? ‘The name of this island is Freedom,’ men who came yesterday said. ‘And the word became flesh!’ cried out the living. ‘Freedom! They have brought freedom. Now we shall be happy. Allow us to weep,’ they shouted. ‘Allow us to roar and sob! Allow us to embrace this newfound freedom, to kiss and cherish it!’ Yet still there you lie, the wind drying your rotten bones, Bulging belly more taut with ev’ry shout of freedom from the living. Szyfra Rajzman

Eyewitness testimony of Ms Szyfra Rajzman, born on 15 February 1923 in Wodzisław, cont’d – 5 –

They are feasting on their pickings; they have no time for you. For the living, for the living: freedom. For the dead: silence in heaven. For the living, the mouldy bread, here so begrudged; For them, the plenteous tuber heaps – the departed can well eat silence. Oh, what tunes this wind plays on the corpses’ ribs! But the living cannot sleep, gorged on their mouldy green loaves. But the living cannot sleep, gathered round a row of bonfires. They lob potatoes into the coals, trusting the stars to guard their spoils. Boys and girls already walking arm in arm – that’s love. Freedom, wild freedom – but still the rotten bodies, But still the sad spirits with the last word ‘freedom’ Go one by one, go down the narrow dirt lane, Flow one by one, flow along their milky ways. Stark silence looms before them; before us, vibrant freedom awaits. I cannot tear my eyes away – I cannot tear my heart away From those whom the man-demon kills with a kick; From those who so hungered but for a slice of bread, And now, still unsated, go to their heaven; From those, for whom bread and earth hold so much, so much meaning. I cannot tear my heart away and I am for them, for them grieving.

To me and many others, the worst thing did not seem to be death per se but rather death by starvation. Even after death, starvation seemed to continue to peer out of the eye sockets. What kept me going till the English arrived was my desire to see liberation. When they entered the camp, I broke down. By the third day, I had a temperature of approximately 39°C; the first tin of lard passed me by completely. I was laid up in the block. The English were coming and taking away people with typhus, but they left me behind. Although I felt worse and worse, I was still able to walk. Eventually, I managed to get into the hospital. I was at Bergen-Belsen until July. Then I came to Sweden. After a short period of quarantine in Malmö, I was placed in a hospital for tuberculosis patients in Katrineholm, then in Rosöga. From December 1945 to May 1946, I was at the convalescent camp in Rättvik, then at the camp for the healthy. I have been working for the last two months. Halina Strzelecka Szyfra Rajzman Institute Assistant Witness

– 6 –

Institute Assistant’s comments: The witness is a young girl with a face that is not at all typically Semitic. She has green eyes and wavy blond hair. Only certain gestures and expressions give away the fact that she is Jewish. She is returning to Poland to join her brother, who was the only one of her numerous family members who survived. Her parents and nine other siblings perished in a ‘deportation’ after the witness had been taken to the Dulag. Therefore, the sacrifice made by the witness – who went to the Dulag voluntarily in order to save her family – was in vain. Despite the enormous harm done to her and the loss of her family, the witness does not betray any bitterness or hatred. She speaks in positive terms about the German population who provided assistance to prisoners traversing the countryside. The appended poem provides a nightmarish depiction of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen: piles of corpses with distended abdomens, still bearing the mark of starvation even after death; and against this backdrop, the living paying no mind to the dead, instead making bonfires, cooking potatoes, and satisfying their instincts – both for food and sex. What stands out from her cursory description of the medical examinations conducted in Neusalz and the prevailing conditions in the Revier is the inhumane treatment of prisoners by the Germans, who exploited them to the utmost and then eliminated those who were no longer capable of work. Of those who were sent away to Sosnowiec, some – though not many – later recovered; the others went to Auschwitz. Halina Strzelecka