POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND
Trelleborg, 8 August 1946
Testimony received by Institute Assistant Ludwika Broel-Plater
Record of Witness Testimony 428
Here stands Ms Walerja Tarkowska born on 25 February 1907 in the village of Strzeniówka, near Błonie , occupation labourer
religion Roman Catholic , parents’ forenames Zofja, Walenty last place of residence in Poland Warsaw
current place of residence Warsaw, ulica Madalińskiego 42 m. 3 [lit. ‘Apt. 3, 42 Madalińskiego Street’] who – having been cautioned as to the importance of truthful testimony as well as to the responsibility for, and consequences of, false testimony – hereby declares as follows:
I was interned at the concentration camp in Ravensbrück
from 15 October 1944 to 27 October 1944 as a political prisoner Warsaw evacuee bearing the number ? and wearing a red -coloured triangle
with the letter P.
I was later interned in Beendorf
from 30 October 1944 to 10 April 1945; and
from 20 April 1945 ″ 1 May 1945 in Bresfall [sic, Breteinfelde?]. Asked whether, with regard to my internment and my labour at the concentration camp, I possess any particular knowledge about how the camp was organized, how prisoners were treated, their living and working conditions, medical and pastoral care, the hygienic conditions in the camp, or any particular events concerning any aspect of camp life, I state as follows:
The summary consists of four pages. Contents:
1) Evacuation during the uprising
2) Ravensbrück, gynaecological examinations, doctor’s visit
3) Beendorf camp, life in the camp, factory work, bricked-up alcoves, travelling around Germany, corpses in a wood
4) Brestfall [sic] camp
5) Departure for Denmark, further work in Sweden, return to home country 6) Opinion, comments
Ludwika Broel-Plater
BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND 1945
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Walerja Tarkowska, born on 25 February 1907 in the village of Strzeniówka
When the uprising broke out, I was in No. 3, ulica Madalińskiego 42. On 4 August 1944, I went into hiding in the cellar of that building along with the tenants, because on that date the Gestapo shot dead the building caretaker, his son, and two other men, of whom one was 16 and the other 50 years old. They were executed because they had remained in their apartment and were suspected of being insurgents. The day after the execution, the Gestapo had us bury the men in the flower beds of the building courtyard; they made women do this work. A search was conducted in the apartment of Dr Janisławskiego, my employer. During this search, the doctor’s dressing gowns and hat were stolen; from me, a Ukrainian demanded my shoes, threatening me with a revolver pressed against my temple. Despite this, I gave him nothing and defended myself from his lecherous designs on me, saying that I was a married woman. He relented and left. The German military shot at insurgents from my apartment. A tank arrived, and in the end they set fire to the buildings between ulica Kazimierzowska and ulica Lewicka. On 26 September 1944, they searched and plundered the building and cellar. Then on the twenty-seventh of the same month they led us outside. We went to ulica Andrzeja Boboli; they ordered us to march ahead of them. But in Ślużew they took us to some barrack-like buildings and transported us to Pruszków. From there, we travelled through Germany by freight train for two weeks until finally arriving at Oranienburg, where the men were separated from us while we were sent on to Ravensbrück. Having been put in a tent, we were bathed one group at a time, during which everything was taken from us and we were subjected to gynaecological examinations that were attended by a man wearing a doctor’s white coat. A woman performed the procedure without washing her hands. Then we went to Block 27. We slept two to a bed. After several days – approximately two weeks – a medical inspection was held: we passed naked before a [male] doctor and some SS men. Then the next day we were transported to Beendorf. Four kilometres or so from the factory was a large brick building where
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we lived twenty, fifty, or sixty people to a room, sleeping in bunk beds, two blankets each. At first, every woman had her own bed; later things were worse. They stole the blankets. I had to trade my bread for a blanket, because they had stolen mine. The food was initially passable: cabbage or carrots, and there was even barley soup three times during that period. It got much worse towards the end. Initially, a loaf of bread was split four ways, then five, and finally six. The camp was run by the SS commandant and the oberka [chief woman guard, from Ger. Oberaufseherin]. They were terrible people. They used to beat us about the face and head – she would hit so hard that the sound of the blow would reverberate. The commandant didn’t perform beatings himself but he did assist during them. There were public beatings in the camp. The lady commandant herself beat every tenth woman because of a coat that had been tossed into a toilet. Over the same incident, we went unfed for an entire day in punishment. At the factory, I had a good foreman – an elderly German who used to reassure us that we wouldn’t be working there much longer. When I was grazed by a machine, he demanded the auzjerka [female guard, from Ger. Aufseherin] take me to the Revier [infirmary, Ger.] for bandaging. His assistant, a Belgian civilian, was also very kind to us: he would try to get us coffee and often heated water for us to wash with. I operated machines that made screws. I worked nine hours, including a half-hour lunch break. The German kolonka [prisoner in charge of the work gang, from Ger. Kolonnenführerin], a woman named Ewa, was bad to us. She beat us. Once, when I took a bowl from the table, she withheld my lunch in punishment and also made me stand in the corner throughout the break. We were often threatened with punishments; we would stand outside four hours at a stretch. In the basements there I saw freshly bricked-up alcoves, but I don’t know what was inside them. I saw machines being lowered downstairs, but I don’t know where they were put. The air was very bad there, full of dust; the salt made me choke. Many people there would pass out and collapse while marching along those underground passageways. I worked there
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until 8 April 1945. On Tuesday, 10 April 1944, we left that place aboard a freight train which took us around Germany for two weeks; they gave us nothing to eat for four days. Later we arrived at the Brestfall [sic, Breteinfelde?] camp. On the way to that camp, we spent two days resting after halting on a single-track line in a wood. Lying there were freshly felled trees and a pile of corpses, stacked as high as my head, perhaps four in each row, covered with pine boughs. Prisoners who had died aboard the train were removed and placed there. There were a few barrack blocks surrounded by barbed wire there; I saw men dressed in prison stripes milling about. We disembarked there and were given bread and a little soup. Later we went to Brestfall and rested for two weeks. The German commandant and Polish blokowa [chief prisoner of the block, from Ger. Blockälteste] there were decent; they took care of us. On 1 May, the Polish and Jewish women were evacuated from the camp; the Russians and Germans stayed behind. We made our way to a railway station one kilometre away from the camp, and from there we took trains to Denmark – a German train with German Postens [(male) guards, Ger.]. But in Denmark we were handed over to the Swedish Red Cross. It was then that people believed we were going to our freedom; they cried tears of joy and embraced one another aboard the train. On 4 May, I found myself in Malmö, Sweden. Then a week later we left for Gleminge [sic, Glimminge?]. After that, I did farm work and then cut turf in Bylzolm [sic, Billesholm?]. From there, I went back to the camp in Gleminge and was later employed as a domestic servant for a landowner, where I worked up until the end.
Read, signed, and accepted by Walerja Tarkowska Ludwika Broel-Plater
Opinion: The testifier, an unintelligent woman who is nevertheless aware of the events she experienced, has given a conscientious and honest account of these events. Trustworthy testimony.
Ludwika Broel-Plater
Comments: The testifier was a domestic servant for Dr Janisławski and his wife, and during the uprising she was the sole caretaker of their apartment. I know Mrs Janisławska personally from our shared time at Pawiak Prison and the Ravensbrück camp. Ludwika Broel Plater
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Eyewitness testimony of Walerja Tarkowska, born on 25 February 1907, cont’d
In supplement to my testimony, I declare that during the uprising Ukrainians and Germans herded people into the cellar of a building. Among them were three girls whom the Ukrainians dragged into an adjoining cellar and raped, practically right in front of people’s eyes. The girls were aged 18 to 19 years old. I too was violently dragged outside; I was 36 years old at the time.
Read, signed, and accepted by Walerja Tarkowska Institute Assistant Ludwika Broel-Plater
