ZOFIA GOŁĘBIEWSKA

On 9 June 1947 in Sępolno, the Municipal Court in Sępolno in the person of the Municipal Judge T. Mizgajski, with the participation of reporter K. Hadrian, interviewed the person specified below as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Zofia Gołębiewska
Age 58
Parents’ names Leon and Amelia, née Eis
Place of residence Sępolno
Occupation tradesman’s wife
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

From mid-April in 1940 until the end of the occupation, I was detained in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. For about one and a half years, the position of camp commandant was held by one Mandl, whose first name I do not remember. Previously she had been an official in the bunker – the punishment cell.

In the cold season, prisoners would put layers of paper under their feet for protection against the cold, as they frequently stood for several hours during roll call. Mandel walked around with her dog during roll call, and whenever she noticed paper under some prisoner’s feet, she beat the prisoners, ordered an additional punishment such as withholding food rations, and on top of that, she set her dog on them. Under Mandl as camp commandant, the roll calls were very long and punishments very severe. Trivial offences were punished by detention in the bunker, where prisoners were locked up in the dark for a dozen or so days. They were given a small slice of bread and a mug of black coffee in the morning, and about one and a half liters of bland soup every four days. While being detained in the bunker for eight days, I could hear the screams of prisoners who were being beaten in adjacent cells at night.

As for the actions of others, like Kock, Boden and Danz, I cannot provide any specific information.

More specific information about the actions of all the detainees can be provided by Marta Baranowska, residing in Bydgoszcz, Cieszkowskiego Street (School Inspectorate building).

The report was read out before signing.