On 22 August 1946 in Hrubieszów, at the Magistrates’ Court in Hrubieszów, Judge A. Targoński heard the person mentioned hereunder as a witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the provisions of Art. 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Weronika Jankowska |
| Age | 34 |
| Parents’ names | Władysław Jaroszyński and Franciszka née Ożóg |
| Place of residence | Rogatka village, Dubienka commune |
| Occupation | worker |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
The village of Rogatka where I come from had about 120 houses, including about 15 Ukrainian ones, and the rest were Polish. In February 1943, soldiers in green uniforms and black berets, headed by Gestapo men, surrounded the village and ordered us to load ourselves onto our carts immediately and leave. The carts were loaded with bundles and children were piled on, while the adults were taken to Matcze on foot, to the narrow-gauge railway station, from where we were taken to Hrubieszów and then by truck to Zamość. There trucks were so jam packed that the children almost choked. In Zamość, we were sorted into three groups: one for work in Germany, the second for Auschwitz, and the third, consisting of old people and children, for Warsaw. I was assigned to Auschwitz and my eight-year-old child was separated from me.
After two weeks, I was deported to Auschwitz in a group of about 700 people. We arrived at night. At daybreak, we were numbered, shorn and bathed in cold water, after which everything we had was taken from us and we were given striped uniforms, shirts and clogs. Some shirts were too long, while others were for children and therefore unwearable. The women who received small shirts were forced to wear the striped uniforms on their bare bodies.
Food consisted of rutabaga soup, served once a day. The soup was foul and it made us really thirsty, but there was no water. At breakfast, we received about one and a half glasses of bitter coffee, and for dinner a piece of bread with margarine or a bit of sausage. That’s how it was for the first three months, but later we were permitted to receive packages from our families or the Red Cross. If not for the packages, everyone would have starved. The commandant himself said that no one could survive the camp for more than three months.
At first I worked digging fish ponds – in marshland. The work was very hard, because we had to carry boxes with earth up a fairly high bank. Whoever paused for a moment out of exhaustion was soon beaten.
The sick, or even healthy but with a worse appearance, were sent to block 25, the “death block,” and from there they were taken to Birkenau, where they were incinerated in the crematoria. At the beginning, this was repeated every day, and later a bit less frequently. They carted people to the oven in one car, dead and alive. You could hear the screams of those who were taken to the oven alive, and this would make you feel faint.
We were often beaten, especially during work, and usually for no good reason. Once I saw a 14-year-old girl almost killed when a dog was set on her by a German guard for leaving her block. Some time later she died in the hospital.
I do not know the names of those who evicted us. In the Auschwitz camp, Adolf Taube selected people for the oven, and it was mostly he who abused us, beating us.
I have testified everything. The report was read out.