On 21 August 1947 in Kraków, Appellate Investigating Judge Jan Sehn, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, on the written motion of the first prosecutor of the Supreme National Tribunal, dated 25 April 1947 (file no. NTN 719/47), in accordance with the provisions of and procedure provided for under the Decree of 10 November 1945 (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland No. 51, item 293), in relation to art. 254, 107, and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, interviewed as a witness the person specified below, a former prisoner of the Majdanek concentration camp, who testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Genowefa Zielińska |
| Age | 40 |
| Religious affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Citizenship and nationality | Polish |
| Occupation | office clerk at Textile Central in Szczecin |
| Place of residence | Szczecin, Baden-Powella Street 3, flat 8 |
I was interned at the Majdanek concentration camp near Lublin between 8 January 1943 and 15 July 1943. Among other places, I worked in the prisoners’ laundry (Häftlingswäscherei), which was located between fields I and II, near the old crematorium, and also with the gardening kommando and at the sewing room. In the course of my work at these kommandos, I came across Aufseherin [overseer] Hildegard Lächert. We did not know her by her name at that time and we called her “Bloody Brygida”. However, I remember her face very well and I easily recognized her in the photographs now on public display in Kraków. She is the person whose photograph has been shown to me now (a photograph of Hildegard Lächert was presented).
Lächert stood out as one of the most cruel Aufseherins. She always carried a whip and beat female prisoners indiscriminately. She would typically do this for no reason. For the slightest offenses, she tortured female prisoners unconscious. Having found a cigarette in the pocket of my apron, she summoned me to her room located at the laundry building and in the presence of SS man Hoffmann, who was known at Majdanek for his cruelty, beat me savagely and inhumanely in the face. She was beating me so hard that even Hoffmann had had enough and stopped her, grabbing her hand. After leaving Lächert’s room after this battery, my face was blue and swollen.
As regards Helena Kunze, a fellow prisoner of mine, who, if I am not mistaken, comes from the town of Mrozy near Warsaw, Lächert hit her in the head so hard that she knocked a hole in her skull. She only stopped beating her when Kunze passed out and fell. Only then did Lächert, smiling, leave the scene, leaving Kunze lying on the ground.
As regards the Jewesses she suspected of hiding valuables in natural bodily cavities, she searched them for these valuables and performed a gynecological examination with a stick. I witnessed examinations which Lächert carried out in that fashion.
Lächert was a well-known drunk. During the period when corpses at Majdanek were incinerated outdoors, she used to sit by the burning stacks, although she had not been assigned there. The stacks gave off such a terrible stench that it was unbearable across the entire camp. During a roll call, when female prisoners did not form an even row, she would even it up, beating prisoners indiscriminately with her whip.
Along with me, the following prisoners, among others, were interned at Majdanek: Kazimiera Kozłowska, Kraków, Berka Joselewicza Street (I do not remember the number), Stanisława Badowska, Łódź, Zacisze Street 6, flat 5, Urszula Skąpska from Poznań, Szamarzewskiego Street (I do not remember the number), and others, whose names I do not recall.
The report was read out. At that the interview and the report were concluded.