Polish Mission for the Prosecution of War Crimes
Polish War Crimes, Liaison Group, Team Brunswick
Hildesheim, 17 October 1946
Present:
Investigating Judge: Major R. Zdankiewicz, District Court Judge
Reporter: U. Egler, secretary
In the case against: [Alice] Orlowski
There appears a witness, who having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and duly sworn, testifies as follows:
| Name and surname | Bolesław Mikoda |
| Age | 21 years old |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Marital status | unmarried |
| Occupation | unemployed |
| Relationship to the defendant | none |
| Criminal record for perjury | none |
| Present place of residence | Trillke-Werke camp, Hildesheim |
| Place of residence in Poland | Bielsko, 3 Maja Street 21 |
When the Germans had entered Bielsko, where I had lived before the war, my parents and I were arrested and incarcerated in the concentration camp in Mysłowice, where I stayed until September 1943. Next, I was transferred to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where I stayed up until May 1944. From Auschwitz I was deported to Groß-Rosen, and then to Dienfurt [Tiefenfurt? Parowa?] (near Wrocław). Later I was once again sent to Groß-Rosen, then to Dora [?], and finally to Bergen-Belsen, where I was liberated by the Allied troops. My father had died in the concentration camp just before we were liberated, but I don’t know the present fate of my mother.
In Auschwitz I worked in the so-called kommando. Then, I met one Orlowski, a German woman who supervised our camp. She wore an SS uniform and black boots, carried a gun at her side and always walked with a heavy stick in hand. I myself received a beating from her about ten times; she hit me either with the said stick or with her hand in the face. To this day I have a scar on my head left by this heavy stick of hers. (The witness shows a healed scar on his head, about half a centimeter long and half a centimeter wide).
I was beaten because Orlowski walked in on me while I smoked a cigarette or when she noticed that I stopped working to get some rest. Orlowski beat us very severely, and sometimes ordered an additional exercise, the so-called “fall down – get up”, and when you were already exhausted, she gave you an order to run, shouting, „Hau ab!” [get lost].
I very often saw Orlowski beat other Häftlings [prisoners], which she did with a stick or her hands, or else kicking them. One of my friends, Eugeniusz (I don’t remember his surname), a healthy boy of my age, was once severely beaten by her: she kicked him four times with great force in the side and hit him with that heavy stick. She gave him such a violent beating that on the following day Eugeniusz died in the Revier [camp hospital], where he had been forced to go immediately after the incident. I witnessed the beating from the distance of some 30 meters, but I was hidden – otherwise I would have been battered myself. The reason for the drubbing was that Orlowski walked in on Eugeniusz smoking a cigarette.
Apart from the above-described incident, I witnessed the beating of six other Häftlings (whose surnames I don’t know) who died as a result of it. They would die a day or two after the incident. Apart from what I witnessed myself, I heard from my fellow inmates about other Häftlings who had been battered to death by Orlowski, and allegedly there were many such cases. I didn’t witness them.
Orlowski beat Häftlings for the slightest offence and tortured them. During inspections of our rooms, all of us had to stand at attention when she entered the room, and she would beat us without mercy whenever she noticed any motion of hand or head made by any of the prisoners who lived in that room.
I recognized Orlowski – whom one of my friends had encountered here by chance at an electric bus stop – immediately and beyond any doubt as the same SS overseer from Auschwitz about whom I have just testified.
I am ready to be confronted with Orlowski and to repeat my testimony to her face.
The report was read out before signing.