CHASKIEL BRZEZIŃSKI

It [the hearing] happened on 3 April 1948, in the building (headquarters) of the General Consulate of the Republic of Poland in New York, 157 East 67th Street.

The person mentioned below appeared at the hearing:


Name and surname Chaskiel Brzeziński
Citizenship Polish
Place of residence New York, 550 West 144th Street
Place of birth Warsaw voivodeship, Gostynin district, Gąbin [commune]
Age 47
Parents’ names Abram and Chawa née Słomów, Brzeziński
Criminal record none

Having been advised of the consequences of false declarations, the following testimony was made before the consul, Roman Kwiecień, in the presence of Jakub Goldberg as a clerk:

Before and during the war, I lived in Płock at Bielska Street 33, from where, on 20 February 1941, I was resettled by the occupant’s order to Częstochowa. On 26 September 1942, during a selection ordered by the Germans, I was at the selection square – on the Nowy Rynek Square in Częstochowa – along with a crowd of Jews of 10,000 who were driven there. I stood in one row with my wife Jenta née Żeleźniak [?] and my 11-year-old son, whose name was Beniamin. During the selection, my son and wife were ordered to leave the row, and something like this happened: General Böttcher, who was there managing the operation, came to the spot where I was standing and ordered my son to be taken away. When the military policeman took my son by the hand and pulled him away a few paces, I ran after them to say goodbye to the child. When I leaned over to kiss them, General Böttcher hit me with a whip over the head and kicked me so hard I fell back into the line. [My] son and wife, who ran after him, were sent to Treblinka on the same day by transport, and that was the last I saw of them despite my search when the war was over.

During this period, I lived in the Częstochowa ghetto and worked in factories. On the morning of 23 September 1942, the Germans surrounded and closed the ghetto. The so- called selection and displacement of Jews from the ghetto started. The incident described above, of 26 September 1942, happened during the so-called second selection – the first was on 23 September that same year. I saw with my own eyes how a group of Jews was being lead off during the selection; when this group was on the corner of Krótka and Warszawska streets, General Böttcher came and called out a pregnant woman from the line; she looked heavily pregnant. When the woman stepped out of the row onto the pavement to comply with the order she received, that Böttcher took out a revolver and shot her on the spot. When she fell onto the road into the gutter, the child came out of her womb. This incident and image will never leave me until I die.

I met Burtenschlager [Bartenschlager] in 1944 in Częstochowa in the Warta factory, where I was forced to work. He was the head of the guard or factory security (Werkschutzleiter). He carried out his tasks with the help of a trained dog and he was a terror to all the employees and workers of that factory. He has on his conscience the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands, whom he murdered in Częstochowa and in Skarżysko, where he previously held identical functions.

I myself was beaten by him personally in October (I don’t remember the day) of 1944 in the following circumstances. I was returning from the factory after the night shift. I left the boiler room after washing myself and did not manage to join the group of returning workers. Bartenschlager came up to me and without a word began to whip me all over my body, and when I fell all bloody, he kicked and trampled me with his shoes; finally, he sicced the dog on me, which tore up my clothes and bit me. Miraculously, I came out whole, but to this day I have traces of that bite on my left leg.

I also state with all certainty that the same Bartenschlager personally shot my nephew, Jakub Bomzan, 19 years old, in Skarżysko-Kamienna. I know that from Jakub’s brother, Izrael, who was present at the shooting. Today he lives in Australia [?].

Finally, in July 1944 (I don’t remember the day), in my presence, a group of Jews were brought to the factory from the Lublin region. I saw with my own eyes how Bartenschlager selected all the children from the group, loaded them onto trucks and left the factory with them and several guards. Based on the words of Polish hostages who worked with us and lived privately outside the factory, I testify that these children were taken to the Jewish cemetery and shot by Bartenschlager and the assisting guards.

At this point, the testimony was concluded and the witness showed his registration card from the immigration office [dated] 7 June 1947, No. 6697026.