On 15 November 1946 in Katowice, the Investigating Judge of the District Court in Katowice, Artur Bubik, heard the person specified below without administering the oath. 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 Zofia Bratro
| Age | 40 |
| Parents’ names | Aleksander and Amelia |
| Place of residence | Katowice, Szafranka Street 9, flat 1 |
| Occupation | housewife |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I was a prisoner of the Auschwitz camp from 14 December 1942 to 17 January 1945, that is until the Russian troops entered. I worked in the so-called registration office for newly arrived women in Birkenau (Aufnahmebüro).
Each female prisoner had a registration card (Jewish women only had registration cards, while Aryan women had personal files from prisons, etc., because they came mainly from other prisons). Registration cards were not kept at the Aufnahmebüro, but were sent to the Main Prison Board in Auschwitz, a political branch. In the Aufnahme office there were only ledgers. Of course, only living prisoners were entered in these file records (for example those selected for gassing already at the ramp were never entered into the record).
In addition, there was also the so-called Schreibstube [camp administration office]. Records for each female prisoner were kept there. The same record cards were available to a senior block prisoner at each block. On these record cards that were sometimes transferred to us from the Schreibstube, there was the “SB” (Sonderabhandlung [special treatment]) designation, which indicated that these female prisoners were designated for gassing. Initially, the “SB” designations were used on the registration cards of Jewish and Aryan female prisoners, but later the gassing of the Aryan female prisoners ceased.
Women prisoners who were in the hospital (e.g. due to pregnancy and so on) and were designated to be killed with the use of phenol also had the “SB” annotations. I would like to mention that until 1943, there was a rule that female prisoners who came to the camp during pregnancy, or who became pregnant while in the camp, could not live. Even if a woman gave birth to a child, phenol was injected into the mother as well as the child. This was done either by the chief physician or a designated SS paramedic. Regarding the doctors, I recall Dr. Mengele and König.