Polish War Crimes, Liaison Group, Team Brunswick
Hildesheim, 17 October 1946
In attendance:
Investigating Judge: Major R. Zdankiewicz, District Court judge
Reporter: U. Egler, secretary
Case against: [Alice] Orlowski
The witness appears, who, having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and legally sworn, testifies:
| Name and surname | Andrzej Tarnowski |
| Age | 27 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Marital status | single |
| Occupation | policeman |
| Relationship to the suspect | none |
| Convicted of perjury | no |
| Current place of residence | Trillke-Werke camp, Hildesheim |
| Place of residence in Poland | Stanisławów, Sapieżyńska Street 22 |
On 10 October 1941, I was arrested by the Gestapo in Stanisławów and interned at the local prison for refusing to join the local police force, which did the German’s bidding. I remained imprisoned until the end of January 1943, and then, on 2 February 1943, I was transported to the Majdanek concentration camp. I was interned at Majdanek until 29 July 1943, when I was moved to a concentration camp in Germany.
At Majdanek, I fulfilled the function of cleaner at a block, and while there I came across Orlowski, a German SS woman, who was in charge of the Wäscherei [laundry]. Orlowski wore an SS uniform and black high boots and she had a gun fixed to her belt. She usually carried a whip, alternatively a rod.
Orlowski was blonde and had a rather florid face (we called her carroty), she was tall and of medium build, aged around 28 at that time. I heard her speaking a little Russian.
She beat me once with a whip when I was working with the so-called Gärtnerei [gardening] kommando and tried to talk to some civilian who had just arrived there. She hit me with a whip, four or five times, and I would have been beaten more severely, or even been killed, if I had not escaped, since Orlowski was capable of beating people to death if they did not run.
On three occasions, I witnessed such tortures. I saw Orlowski inhumanely beat my acquaintance from Stanisławów, with whom I had started to talk, us being some 25 meters apart, over the fence (I was at the men’s camp and she was at the women’s camp, situated next to ours). Orlowski started dealing her whip blows. Then, when the whip wrapped the victim’s neck, Orlowski brought her down and started to trample on her with her heels. I do not know what eventually happened to this woman. When I returned to the block, the commandant had already been notified – apparently by Orlowski – that someone had tried to make contact with the women’s camp. I had to confess and I got around 50 lashes for that.
As regards the (three) cases of battering and torturing prisoners, let me explain that in two of these cases I saw Orlowski brutishly beat two women, and both went down to the ground. I suspect that both of them died. In the third case, I also saw Orlowski torturing and harassing one Polish woman for saying “good morning” to a fellow prisoner who was just passing by. In the evening, I found out that the beaten woman had died.
Orlowski beat people all the time and there were so many of them that it is difficult to enumerate all the cases.
I remember Orlowski so well that I would recognize her any time.
Let me explain that I know that Orlowski has been arrested, but I have not seen her here yet.
That is all. The report was read out before it was signed.