Record of Witness Testimony 445

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, Kielce Voivodeship , occupation seamstress religion Jewish , nationality Polish parents’ forenames Irek, Chana proof of identity provided [not completed] last place of residence in Poland Sosnowiec 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.

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