KRYSTYNA SUCHAŃSKA

On 11 November 1947 in Radom, the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Radom, in the person of a member of the Commission, lawyer Zygmunt Glogier, heard the person named below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Krystyna Suchańska
Age 30 years old
Parents’ names Edward and Stefania
Place of residence Radom, Żeromskiego Street 34
Occupation employee of a bindery
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

I was arrested together with my mother on 11 November 1942 and taken to Kościuszki Street, where we had our personal details taken down, and then we were transported to the prison and placed on the second floor, in the so-called Sonderabteilung [special division], which was overseen by Koch, in a women’s cell that was located in a former chapel. Koch, a prison [illegible], had his sympathies and antipathies, and he also beat women. He especially tortured a Jewess from our cell, [illegible] from Szydłowiec if I am not mistaken, whom he beat at every opportunity; when her husband hanged himself in his cell, Koch led her there so that she would see him hanging there, dead.

I was interrogated at Kościuszki Steet only once, shortly before deportation to the camp. I remember neither who interrogated me nor on which floor. During this interrogation I was beaten by some military man, but I am unable to describe him. On the day I was interrogated all my companions, that is, six women, were beaten. I was beaten with a whip in a room looking out to the courtyard, which was situated to the left of the staircase. On that day everyone who was interrogated – the men and the women – was beaten.

There were about 36 women in the women’s cell, of whom only one was released and the rest deported to the camps. I was deported together with my mother and sister to Majdanek, from which I was transported to Ravensbrück and then to Leipzig. I was liberated by the Americans on 18 April 1945. My mother, who was incarcerated with me at Majdanek, was subsequently transported to Auschwitz as a sick person and died there – we learned this from some friends who were brought from Auschwitz to Leipzig.

I confirm that this is my testimony.

The report was read out.