ROZALIA SABAT

On 2 June 1947 in Kraków, Appellate Investigating Judge Jan Sehn, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, on the written motion of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, dated 25 April 1947 (file. no. NTN 719/47), in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), in relation to art. 254, 107, and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness the person specified below, who testified as follows:


Name and surname Rozalia Sabat
Date and place of birth 27 January 1920, Kielce
Religious affiliation Jewish
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Occupation merchant’s wife
Place of residence Kielce, Focha Street 18, flat 8

On 1 August 1944, the Germans put me on the final Jewish evacuation transport from Kielce to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. At Birkenau, I was placed in section B-IIb, where the female prisoners’ quarters were at that time. I had number A-16407 tattooed. More than 20,000 women of various nationalities were accommodated in this section at that time.

From my time at the camp, I remember SS woman Maria Mandl, who would come to us on a bicycle, most often for evening roll calls. She inspired terror in the camp and we all dreaded her. Whenever she came to us, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. After three months, i.e. in November 1944, I was transferred on a transport of about one thousand women to the Ravensbrück camp, where I was quarantined for around three weeks. After this period, I was moved with a group of 1,500 women to the Malchow subcamp.

The female prisoners of this camp worked at the gunpowder factory, located some four kilometers from the camp. We would travel to the labor site on foot, every day, rushed by SS men and SS women. The factory was underground and the prisoners worked day and night shifts: the day shift was from 5.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. and the night shift from 6.00 p.m. to 6.00 a.m.

The Lagerführerin [camp leader] was first SS-Frau Daniel, who was then posted to Ravensbrück. In the second half of January 1945, she was replaced by Oberaufseherin [senior overseer] Danz. She is the one whom I recognized in the photographs on public display and in the photograph shown to me now (a photograph of Luise Danz was shown).

Long-serving prisoners who had been through Majdanek and Auschwitz said that Danz used to strangle children at Majdanek. We dreaded her a lot because she was very cruel and harsh toward the female prisoners, whom she did not beat with a hand but kicked. I witnessed first-hand as she felled prisoner Bala Opper from Radom (presently in Denmark) and then kicked her on the spine. On that occasion, Danz wore high boots with spurs. Prisoners at Malchow were fed very poorly and we were hungry all the time. Oper had tried to steal some bread in the course of unloading a cart at the warehouse. Danz caught her in the act and punished her as I have described.

I also recall a case whereby Danz stood one prisoner (I do not remember her name) in front of the kitchen and ordered her to hold a carrot between her teeth. The prisoner stood with the carrot between the teeth the entire day. It was in winter and it was freezing cold. Very often, for minor offenses, for instance for satisfying physiological needs by the bunker during working hours, Danz punished us with standing. I remember that it was for this offense that all women returning from the night shift had to stand in the freezing cold, with no food, from 7.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.

Danz wore a uniform with SS insignia, carried a revolver, and always had a bullwhip on her. Three days before the liquidation of the camp, i.e. before the Red Cross transported us to Sweden, Danz, together with overseer Prebeck, fled the camp. That was on 22 April 1945.

The report was read out. At this the procedure and the report were concluded.