On 23 June 1947 in Koronowo, the Municipal Court in Koronowo in the person of Judge J. Bielecki interviewed the person specified below as an unsworn witness. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations and of the wording of Article 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the witness testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Władysława Pużanowska |
| Age | 39 |
| Parents’ names | Teofil and Maria, née Wesołowska |
| Place of residence | Koronowo, Rynek Street 12 |
| Occupation | accountant |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relationship to the parties | none |
I was denounced by Tadeusz Michalski (who is now under sentence of death) for listening to broadcasts and spreading news from a foreign radio station. As a result, I was arrested on 12 April 1940 by the Gestapo in Koronowo, and transported to the camp in Ravensbrück on 16 April 1940. At the time, a German named Koegel was the commander of the camp, and Maria Mandl oversaw the dark cell. A German woman, Langefeld, was the chief female supervisor.
The conditions were relatively tolerable at the time, seeing as Langefeld herself did not torment the prisoners. However, these conditions completely changed when in the late autumn of 1941 or in the early spring of 1942, Maria Mandl became the chief supervisor.
She was a typical sadist, personally and arbitrarily administering punishments for the slightest offences – sometimes even when the prisoners were not at fault. She had a particular method of punching the person’s face and kicking them when they had fallen to the ground. The sight of blood simply sent her into a rage.
Such behavior was brought on in various ways. For example, some inadvertently loosened hair was a sufficient reason to get beaten up and kicked. When it was still very cold, we had to stand barefoot from 4.00 a.m. through the entire roll call, until about 6.00 a.m. If a prisoner put a piece of paper under her feet (this was done usually by older women), Mandl punched and kicked her senseless. For such an offence, the beaten victims were additionally carried away to a dark cell or the penal block. Around June or July 1942, while conducting a body search of the prisoners who had been working by the camp gate, Mandl found a single mangelwurzel on one of the Polish women (I don’t remember her name) and gave her a horrible beating. Afterwards, we carried the unconscious victim to the penal block.
The SS women, emboldened by Mandl’s conduct when she was in command, started mistreating us more severely than before. Mandl particularly tormented the members of the Bible Students. They were placed in a special block, received no hot meals and only half a portion of bread. In 1942, when the Bible Students did not appear at roll call one day, Mandl ordered degenerate prisoners to drag them to the yard and pour water over them, while it was still cold outside. They were assigned the hardest labor. Many of them died at that time.
Mandl was enraged every day and caused fear around the whole camp whenever she appeared, since not a day went by without her seeking out a couple of victims. In August or September 1942, Mandl was transferred to the camp in Auschwitz, which was greeted with relief by all prisoners. Langefeld came back and conditions improved to a degree.
I was detained in the camp until April 1945.
I do not know the names Elfriede Koch [Kock], Erina Boden and Luise Danz.
The report was read out before signing.