POLISH SOURCE INSTITUTE IN LUND Frostavallen, 3 March 1946 Testimony received by Institute Assistant Luba Melchior Record of Witness Testimony 195 Here stands Ms Estera Bergman born on 8 February 1900 in Dęblin , occupation none religion Jewish , parents’ forenames Berek and Blima last place of residence in Poland Irena, Dęblin current place of residence Frostavallen, Sweden 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 [note written above crossing-out] labour [/note] camp in Dęblin from 1942 to 1944 as a political prisoner bearing the number 713 and wearing a [not completed] -coloured triangle with the letter [not completed] I was later interned in Częstochowa from 1944 to December 1944, bearing the number 4014. Then I was interned at Ravensbrück from December 1944 to March 1945, bearing the number 96253. Then I was interned at Bendorf for two weeks. Then I was interned at Hamburg-Wandsbek for two weeks. 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 testimony consists of three pages of handwriting. Estera Bergman 1. Dęblin Arrest, ghetto, expulsion, camp, contact with the outside world, accommodation conditions, evacuation 2. Częstochowa labour camp General conditions, work 3. Ravensbrück Arrival, bathhouse, changing of clothes, stint in the Zelt [tent, Ger.], diet, work 4. Bendorf Quarantine, departure, death rate in transit 5. Hamburg-Wandsbek Accommodation conditions, hunger, departure, liberation BLOM’S PRINTING, LUND 1945 Testimony of Ms Estera Bergman, born on 8 February 1900 The town of Irena and its environs (Dęblin) was a fortress and airfield. It was bombed straightaway on 2 September and even took some damage. After the Germans swept in, they too stationed depots and a large military force there. After the invasion, they began to arrest politically engaged Poles and Jews who were suspected of political activity. They were executed politically by shooting in Lublin. The Germans conducted frequent labour round-ups. People would be executed by shooting for trying to hide from work. In 1941, the ghetto was established. Straying outside the Jewish quarter was punishable by death. In 1940, Austrian and Czech Jews were brought in. The Germans created a camp for them on the outskirts of the town. [The Austrian Jews] worked there in the military facilities. In 1942, rumours were circulating that the civilian population of Dęblin was going to be expelled, just as had happened in other towns. The Germans claimed that Jews working for them would remain. Thus, we tried to get into the camp where the Viennese Jews were living. Not everyone was accepted. Dęblin became Judenrein [lit. ‘free of Jews’, Ger.] after three deportations which took place in 1942. I remained by virtue of my employment in the camp. We were working there at the airfield doing various jobs. The conditions were bearable. We still had some supplies left from home. Moreover, we were working with Poles who, for the right price, would bring us food. The accommodation conditions were poor. A small barrack block was occupied by 200 women. The filth and vermin distressed us greatly. Men were in the same compound, in a second block. There were 1,000 people in the camp. The camp had four barrack blocks. We worked there until evacuating in 1944. We were sent to Częstochowa, because the Russians were already nearby. In Częstochowa, we worked at a munitions factory. Częstochowa had four camps attached to the arms factory. In the camp I was in, there were 6,000 people. Men lived in separate barracks in the same compound. The camp was surrou on the factory grounds, surrounded with barbed wire and guarded by Ukrainians, the Jewish police, and the Werkschutz [industrial security force, Ger.]. The Werkschutzleiter, a man from Skarżysko-Kamienna, was a terrible sadist who was known for his exploits. In Skarżysko, he used to rape Jewish girls before shooting them dead. In Częstochowa, he would beat prisoners – over the slightest transgressions, he would punish them with twenty- five, often fifty, lashes on bare flesh. The camp in Częstochowa had brick buildings and that is where we lived. The accommodation conditions were not good. The men had it worse; their quarters were even more crowded than ours. The diet was poor. [We had] contact with Poles at work. The Poles would bring us food, but it was very expensive and our means of paying had almost run out by then; only a small handful of people could avail of it. Work at the factory was done in two shifts – nights and days – each lasting twelve hours. Operating the machines was hard and dangerous. There were various accidents. The medical care was poor. There was a sick room, but no medicine. The sick went untreated. In December 1944, I was sent to Ravensbrück in a group of 350 women. We arrived at Ravensbrück on Christmas Day after a six-day train ride in sealed wagons, where we had been squeezed aboard eighty people to a wagon. It was very cramped. In each wagon, we were escorted by an SS man and an SS woman. Waiting for us at the station in Ravensbrück were SS women. We were escorted onward to the camp on foot. Once in the camp, we were made to stand in the camp’s main thoroughfare. We were struck by the sight of carts laden with corpses driving past. In the evening, we were taken to the bathhouse, where we spent the night. There, we underwent registration. We received numbers; my number was 96253. The next day, we were bathed; our hair was cut; and we were made to change into ragged clothing. Everything was taken from us. Then we were taken to the Zelt. This was a tent. The Zelt was divided into two sections. On one side were beds, where we slept four to a bed without any blankets. By the wall stood buckets in which we relieved ourselves. The buckets used to overflow, and the entire floor was filthy. We would walk about in the mess and later keep our dirty shoes under our heads. The stench was awful. Many of us were sick with Durchfall [diarrhoea, Ger.]. The food provided was very poor: a small piece of bread and half a litre of soup once per day. The soup was distributed at various times of day. One day it would be at 12 noon, another day at 2 a.m. We were held in the Zelt for three weeks. Then we were led over to Block 23. I did various jobs. The work was hard and done outdoors. It was wintertime and we were underdressed for the weather. At work, we would be beaten relentlessly. I was at Ravensbrück for three and a half months. Then we were sent to Bendorf, where we spent two weeks in quarantine. The camp had brick buildings that had formerly belonged to a factory. We lived in a cellar and slept on a finished floor. Some sawdust had been scattered here and there. When we woke in the morning, we – and the floor – would be soaking wet. It was terribly damp there. We went to the toilets in groups, escorted twice a day. The food was slightly better than it had been at Ravensbrück. The prisoners there before us worked, but there wasn’t time to assign us jobs – the camp was evacuated because of the approaching front. We were sent to Hamburg. The journey to Hamburg took twelve days. We were given food every third day. Every day, there would be a dozen or so corpses [note written above text] in the wagon [/note]. We travelled in uncovered railway wagons, with 120 people or more in each wagon. By the end of those twelve days, 1,800 people remained out of 5,000. On the last day, we were screaming and shouting – we were in revolt. We told them to go ahead and shoot us, because we couldn’t stand suffering any longer. That was the day we were brought to the camp in Hamburg-Wandsbek. Up until then, the camp had been occupied by Christians – Polish women evacuated from Warsaw. They had been working there at a rubber factory. When we arrived, the factory was out of operation. We were put under quarantine in a single block. We suffered badly at that camp; it was filthy. We slept four to a bed. Our hunger was intense – worse than at any other camp. We used to eat vegetable peels that we would pick out of the rubbish. We were held there for two weeks and once more we were sent away, not knowing our destination. Along the way, we were liberated by the Swedish Red Cross in Denmark. I arrived in Sweden on 5 May 1945. I weighed forty-five kilograms and had grown extremely weak. In Sweden, I regained my strength. I presently weigh sixty-seven kilograms. Estera Bergman The witness illustrates general conditions in the camps. Her testimony gives an accurate portrayal. Institute Assistant Luba Melchior
Enter the password to open this PDF file:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-