Mirka Winer Testimony (doc. 301/1169)
Original, manuscript, 4 pages, 210 x 295 mm, Polish language
In Lublin
On 15 November 1945
Mirka Winer
Testifies for the record
Born 4 February 1932
Tatooed number A 3977 in Auschwitz
Student
Before the war she resided in Bełżyce near Lublin
Presently in Lublin, 8 Lubartowska Street apt. 12
Has mother; a merchant’s daughter
Record taken by: Irena Szajowicz; Head of Historical Commission in Lublin
I was living in Bełżyce when Germans entered Poland in 1939. The commandant for the
town was a German named
Engel. We were terribly afraid of him, because
he used to beat and shoot people. He would
invade a flat and kill whole families. That’s what
happened to the Silbernadel
family: father Kuna
Herisch, sons Usze and
Jankiel for trading meat. He also
stole and plundered Jewish flats. A few times a week gendarmes would come from a neighbouring town 10 kilometres away – Niedźwice. 1Note 1:
NiedrzwicaThey had us give them money, autos, horses. They kept making
new demands. It all started with a contribution
of 20000 zlotys, and then they just
kept demanding more. Once SS-men
came from Lublin and
took 400 men to Majdanek, many people died then, shot by
the SS. In 1941 they took several hundred men and
women to Majdanek. One Tuesday in 1942
Ukrainians and SS-men came. They shot at people and took people away,
Hess was the commandant. The camp was fenced with wire and we were guarded only by Jewish militia. Hess didn’t torment us too much. Almost 9 months later an SS-man named Feiks2Note 2: Notorious SS functionary Reinhold Feixcame with Gestapo officers. 500 women and children were killed and the remaining 100 and the men were taken to Budzyń. I was saved because I mingled with the group who’d been selected to go.
Feiks was commandant for the camp in Budzyń, where at that time there were already Jews from other towns: from Kraśnik, even [from] Warsaw. There was a total of about 5000 of us. SS-men kept guard there. People died every day. They died of hunger (we were given a loaf of bread between 10 people; the soup was thin and the potatoes raw). From time to time selections took place; the weaker and the children were selected and machine guns were fired.
A year later they dressed us in striped uniforms and moved to a new camp named Barakenbau; it was located near Budzyń, but administered by Majdanek. Leipold was the commandant. He and SS Unterscharführer Jungfleisch and Oberscharführer Willi Kleist beat, shot and tormented us inhumanly. Leipold hanged people head down from the barracks ceiling for any petty offence. The victims hung like this for several hours and many died like this.
Some time later we were moved from Barakenbau. I can’t put an exact date on Majdanek. In Majdanek I wasn’t all that miserable. When the Red Army approached, Germans moved us to Ćmielów; we walked 170 kilometres on foot. Those who couldn’t make it were shot. For 8 days we were driven in rain with almost no food. In Ćmielów we were loaded onto trains and taken to Auschwitz. We had numbers embossed and wee directed to work right away. I worked in lager 3Note 3: Lager – (Ger.) camp B in Strassenkommando. I worked very hard. I had claimed I was 16 to save myself. And so I had to work like adults. They kept making
The journey took a week. In terrible conditions and we suffered hunger. In Belsen Bergen we lived in tents. We would freeze terribly and get wet in the rain. Food was scarce. Krämer arrived later on, as did Lagerältester Stenia from Auschwitz, 5Note 5: Stanisława Starostka, capo in Auschwitz camp, promoted to Lagerälteste in Bergen-Belsen. who was terribly cruel to us. [There were] plenty of SS-women from Auschwitz and they molested us very much, but I forget the names. We did not work. Krämer introduced strict rigour and relations deteriorated to a state worse than in Auschwitz.
Next, we left with 500 women to Raguhn near Dessau. We did very hard work in an ammunition plant there. Aufseherin Lanni and Unterscharführer, whose name I can’t remember, molested us dreadfully. Americans were coming closer. We were loaded up onto auto and transported around for two weeks. They beat and kicked us terribly and gave almost no food. Finally, we arrived in Theresienstadt where we were to be burnt. There were 60000 people there. The commandant pledged with the Red Cross to spare his and his wife and child’s lives if he would disobey the order and not burn the people. The Red Cross took care of that and that’s how we were saved.
[signature] Winer Mirka