BRONISŁAWA BRZOZOWSKA

Warsaw, 12 October 1948. A member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, Judge Halina Wereńko, interviewed the person specified below as a witness, without swearing her in. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Forename and surname Bronisława Antonina Brzozowska
Names of parents Jan and Józefa Trzonkowska
Date of birth 14 April 1906
Religious affiliation Roman-Catholic
Education fifth grade at elementary school
Nationality Polish
Place of residence Białobrzegi, Nieporęt county
Occupation farmer

In 1939, when the Germans arrived, they occupied the barracks in Białobrzegi. In April 1940, I was hired in the laundry house there. In the autumn of 1941, the barracks were fenced with barbed wire and the first transport of Soviet prisoners of war arrived, comprising some 500 people. Later, in the spring of 1942, more transports arrived and epidemics of bloody dysentery and typhus broke out. Initially, the provision of food was not bad, [but] when a large number of prisoners of war arrived, it was at starvation level. At that time, I could see that vegetables were being boiled for them: swedes, beetroots, potatoes, to which horsemeat or margarine was sometimes added, but only half a kilogram was put in a large pot at best.

The prisoners of war were very exhausted; I saw some fall down and die on the spot. The death rate was high. I saw corpses being transported away. I also saw German soldiers beating and even stabbing prisoners of war with their bayonets. Russian prisoners of war were in the camp throughout 1941 and 1942. In 1943, transports of Italian prisoners of war arrived; by then there were no Russian prisoners of war, except for those who had volunteered to work for the Germans. In the spring of 1944, Italian prisoners of war were transported away and only the Russian prisoners of war who worked for the Germans remained in the camp.

At that the report was concluded and read out.