Sent to the Auditor General in Brussels
Brussels, 17 September 1945
Commissioner for State Security [Alfons] Bellens Kingdom of Belgium
State Security
Main Office for War Crimes
Interview report no. 300/45
The events described took place between September 1944 and January 1945 at Birkenau.
Continuation of interview reports [missing] 7 and 300 drafted by the Main Office for War Crimes on 13 September 1945.
Accusation against unknown persons and a known person, surname Mengele, German national, on account of ill-treatment of prisoners.
Pursuant to a complaint filed by Elisabeth Bed, born 12 March 1905 in Amsterdam, Dutch national, residing at 65 rue de Roosendael in Forest.
Subject: interview with the plaintiff.
PRO JUSTITIA
On 13 September 1945 at 6.30 p.m., I, Alfons Bellens, Commissioner for State Security, officer of the auxiliary judiciary police and [assistant] to the Auditor General, am interviewing our inspector Adelin Verbanis, who reports in French:
On 13 September 1945 at 5.00 p.m. I heard Elisabeth Bed, born 12 March 1905 in Amsterdam, of Flemish nationality, wife of Lucjan Pekel, residing at 65 rue de Roosendael in Forest, who testified as follows in French: I arrived at Birkenau concentration camp on 5 September 1944 from the Vught camp in the Netherlands. The unloading took place at night some few hundred meters from the camp. We were ordered to leave all of our belongings on the train. First the men were separated and a selection was carried out (for the gas chambers). Then we [the women] were taken to the camp, where we had to stand for several hours without any food. Then we were taken to the showers, where all of our clothes and valuables were taken away. We were then registered, and I received no. A-25194. From there we went to the Political Department to determine our prisoner category (fiche). This record [concerning one’s] arrest included [one’s] precise identity and other explanations that I cannot recall exactly. I was then taken to the quarantine block no. 29. I remained there until 5 October 1944, [at which point I had to] be placed in the hospital due to illness. I stayed in the Revier for six weeks and was then sent to block 37, i.e., the kommando block.
I initially did light work, tidying up, which was hard labor for me nonetheless, having just left the hospital. Then I was transferred to the external kommando, and you had to walk from five to seven kilometers to get to your work place. We had to work all day and had almost no break at noon to eat. In this kommando we were beaten by the kapos, SS men, and block leaders, who treated us very badly. Unfortunately I don’t know their names, indeed I can’t even provide detailed descriptions of what all these cruel people and bandits looked like. At any rate, it’s important for me to report the female block leader from block 29 in lager BII in September 1944. This woman was very malicious and she beat the prisoners without a reason. She was quite tall, aged around 38, corpulent, chestnut-haired, a pretty, rather full face. Her appearance was quite appealing.
The head of a room in the same block was a younger girl, around 18, of average height, quite corpulent, blonde, with a round peasant face and blue eyes. A doctor would come, who was responsible for the selections. He was known as Mengele. He picked me once, while I was in hospital, to be sent to the gas chamber. Although he did not beat people, he always found a way to take children away from their mothers and send them to the gas chamber and from there to the crematorium. I cannot provide a description of his appearance because I avoided him like the plague.
There was also a kapo from the textile mill (block no. 15) – short, around 155 cm tall, aged around 35, with a small face. She was very vicious and beat us with a whip. When I was working at the textile mill we were punished and we had to stand for a five to six-hour roll call in the snow. This was a few days before Christmas. One girl froze because she stayed on the ground.
I remained in the labor kommandos until 25 December 1944, when I had to go to hospital again, and I remained in the Revier until liberation on 27 January 1945. After the Russians came, I was moved to the hospital in Oświęcim, where I remained until 20 May. I was then sent to Bielsko (Poland), to a collection point, to be shipped back home. After a few days, we were transferred to Pilsen and handed over to the Americans, who took us to Belgium by airplane on 3 June. I was back in Brussels that same day and I was released from the repatriation center on rue de Vautour.
I demand that those who treated me badly during my imprisonment be persecuted.
The report was read out and signed.