ELŻBIETA WONDRACZEK

Witness


Name and surname Elżbieta Wondraczek
Age 24
Parents’ names Józef and Anna, n ée Reichelt
Place of residence Nowy Targ, Kolejowa Street 1
Occupation clerk, Agricultural and Trading Cooperative in Nowy Targ
Criminal record none
Relationship to the parties none

Having been warned about the legal obligations regarding giving testimony under oath, the witness testifies as follows:

From those mentioned in the list, I recognize Theresa Brandl and Maria Mandl.

While I was waiting for a bath in the bathhouse, completely naked, I lit up a cigarette. Out of the blue, Brandl appeared. She beat and kicked me mercilessly all over my body. When she left without noting down my number, I put on my clothes and ran away. After a while Brandl came back with an SS man and looked for me, but no one betrayed me.

I worked in the kitchen, and our clothes got very dirty there, so they often had to be washed. During washing, the stripes and numbers got blurred. Brandl used to check whether the stripes and numbers were clear. During such checks, she often beat me when I didn’t have a number or stripe. Other prisoners were also beaten. She often checked the spare underwear and prisoners’ clothing, and took everything away.

Once I brought Maria Mandl a little soup for lunch in exchange for a small item in my wardrobe, and she beat and kicked me so badly that I barely managed to make it back to the kitchen. For some letter found in the kitchen, a punishment was imposed on all the kitchen employees. I think it was Mandl who ordered this. This punishment involved having to carry huge stones from 12.00 p.m. until 6.30 p.m., after which we would then have to crawl in the mud and do frog jumps holding stones in our hands above our heads. Mandl assisted in this punishment and mercilessly beat any prisoners who lost their strength. No more than 1/10 of the prisoners lasted until the end. Mandl had the general reputation of a dog.

Besides this, I encountered some German criminals in the camp: Drechsel, Weniger, Franz and SS man Perschel, who persecuted the Poles in particular. Of the people mentioned in the list of names I don’t recognize anyone apart from Mandl and Brandl.

The report was read out and signed.