KRYSTYNA JAWORSKA

I, Krystyna Jaworska, born on 11 April 1925 in Samborek, resident in Samborek near Skawina (no. 68), testify briefly as a witness.

In 1941, I was taken to Germany and I worked for a bauer [a rich farmer] for eight months. One day, [it so happened that] I worked at the threshing machine with a German – an SS woman in civilian clothes. She started quarrelling and fighting with me, because I spoke about Poland in a political context. As a result, the Gestapo took me to prison, and from the prison I was transferred to Auschwitz.

I was interrogated on the following day in Auschwitz. After the interrogation, they flogged me. Some SS men assisted in the flogging, but they are not here. Here only Liebehenschel is present, and Brandl who hit me several times in the face. I sat still and waited for what would happen next. As far as I know, Doctor Liebehenschel gave an order to throw me out and take to block 7, where I stayed from January 1942 to 1944.

Brandl also cruelly abused Polish and other women. Danz, who – as far as I know – was a senior Aufseherin [overseer] would throw women out of the block to the field in the rain and freezing cold, sometimes at night. We would stand like that until the roll call. While the prisoners were standing there, Danz would abuse them at the same time, kick them, beat them and pull their hair. If she did not like a prisoner, she would take her aside and send her to block 25 through Stanisława Starostka, who was the block leader for quite a long time. In block 25, prisoners were starved, beaten and chased by dogs. The dogs would pull at the bodies of the sick and exhausted. Prisoners were taken away a few days later. It happened until a larger number of people arrived who were taken to the crematorium in the evening. Also other things happened.

Kremer, whom we called [illegible], was the head of the crematorium in Auschwitz. I worked in the crematorium as a punishment for “organizing” food items and vodka from transports. I worked there for 13 days. [Then] a good friend of mine bribed an SS man, who is not present here, to let me out. I remember the first image from the time I worked in the crematorium: a Polish Jewish woman going to the furnace. She was interrogated in the crematorium office, where she told them her pains and sorrows. She did not let the Germans take her life – she took out razor blades, cut her artery and collapsed.

I remember a Polish woman giving birth. Alice Orlowski was passing by with a dog, chasing Polish women away and setting the dog on them (it was terrifying for the women who would fell into the gutter in despair, crowded, and stupefied). I remember that when that Polish woman was giving birth on a concrete floor, Orlowski passed by. The child was taken away by an SS man to the crematorium. Alive.

I can clarify the rest of the matter when I am summoned for interrogation.