JADWIGA SIUTA

On 18 August 1947 in Katowice, District Investigating Judge W. Mędlewski, with the participation of reporter Stefan Krawczyk, interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Jadwiga Siuta
Age 25
Parents’ names Antoni and Jadwiga, née Hajduk
Place of residence Nowa Wieś, Poniatowskiego Street 14
Occupation shop owner
Criminal record none, allegedly
Relationship to the parties none

I was interned at the Majdanek concentration camp between 17 January 1943 and April 1944. At that camp, I came across suspects Bruno Langer, Emilie Macha, Hildegarde Lächert and Alice Orlowski. I knew all the suspects by their names at the camp.

As regards suspect Langer, I can only say that I once saw him beating a Jewish prisoner. I do not know what Langer’s function was.

Suspect Macha was supervisor at the “gardens kommando ” and I cannot say anything negative about her. On the contrary: the suspect enjoyed a good reputation among female prisoners. Prisoners called her “Mutti”. The suspect kept up prisoners’ spirits, relating to them news from foreign radio broadcasts, and she said that all this would soon end and that the prisoners would be set free while she would go to prison. I know that the suspect unselfishly brought prisoners bread in her own suitcase. I also know that the suspect sent prisoners’ letters, and even parcels, circumventing the camp censorship.

In October 1943, I was staying in the infirmary, suffering from abdominal typhus. Lying on a bed next to me was a young Varsovian girl, whose name I no longer remember, also suffering from typhus. Suspect Macha, at personal risk, brought in the sick girl’s father and fiancé. I saw the suspect bring the girl a bunch of flowers, hidden under her cloak, from her fiancé. The suspect mostly spoke Polish. I know that Oberaufseherin [senior overseer] Erich told the suspect a couple of times not to speak Polish.

Suspect Lächert was an overseer and aided the Oberaufseherin during roll calls. I saw myself, more or less twice a week, as the suspect would go on the rampage during a roll call. She paced along the rows of female prisoners and beat them with a bullwhip on the chest and on the face. The suspect called female prisoners names all the time (Polnische Bande) [Polish bandits]. The suspect went by the nickname Bregida. All prisoners, women and men alike, dreaded her.

Suspect Orlowski took up a post at the Majdanek camp in summer 1943. Orlowski was an overseer in the “laundry kommando ”. I often saw Orlowski beat prisoners with a whip; she beat me, too. Whenever the suspect passed a prisoner by, she hit her, or at least abused her verbally. The suspect called female prisoners names (Polnische Bande). I saw her whack a sixteen-year old prisoner in the face just because the girl had stoked in a furnace in an improper way.