On 21 December 1971 in Mława, Antoni Lamperski, prosecutor for the District Court in Mława, with the participation of court reporter Teresa Zimnowłocka, heard the person named below as a witness. The witness was warned of the criminal liability for giving false testimony, after which the witness stated with his own signature that he had been cautioned about this responsibility (Article 172 of the Criminal Code). The witness, [also] cautioned about his responsibility regarding the content of Art. 165 of the Criminal Code, then testified as follows:
| Name and surname | Marian Knappe |
| Parents’ names | Franciszek and Maria née Kostka |
| Date and place of birth | 22 March 1916, Sambor |
| Place of residence | Świdwin, [...] |
| Occupation | doctor |
| Criminal record | none |
| Relation to the parties | none |
In July 1943, I found myself in Iłowo, Działdowski county, having been transported from Nowogródek. I was placed in the Durchgangslager, but due to my training, I served as a doctor in the camp. The transit camp was organized by the German authorities for the sick, foreigners unable to work, and for people transported from the eastern areas for forced labor in Germany. It was therefore a typical transit camp for this second group of people. They stayed in the transit camp a few days at the most after registration and a health check-up.
The health check-up was reduced to delousing. In the case of disability, this person would remain in the camp. According to its purpose, the camp didn’t have a fixed number [of prisoners]. Apart from the sick, those totally incapable of work, in my opinion, numbered about a hundred people [in the camp], except that in the camp there was a barrack for those suffering from tuberculosis—I am not counting those in the number of the hundred people that I gave.
Patients with tuberculosis, fenced off in the camp, didn’t have any contact with the other residents. The mortality rate in the tuberculosis ward, [or] rather in the tuberculosis barrack, was large and only half survived up to the liberation. From a medical point of view, this barrack was not suitable for patients, mainly because the patients were crowded together regardless of their stage of tuberculosis, and the nutrition was poor. Since the nutrition was modest even for healthy people, it was totally inadequate for people with tuberculosis. As a physician, I had to treat them with kind words and temporarily with a modest assortment of medicines to treat the symptoms.
The camp was, of course, guarded. Due to my function, I had the opportunity to leave it only if I obtained a pass. I received these from the camp commandant, named Morwiński, temporarily, depending on my needs, for a few hours. The guard service was carried out by gendarmes who had no connection with the local police station, in my opinion they were a separate camp guard unit. They were mostly older people, unable to serve on the front. The camp, like everyone else, was surrounded by barbed wire, guarded day and night.
Returning to the children’s camp, it was located in the camp in a brick building, located parallel to the street running towards the forest. The building contained several rooms, a kitchen and other auxiliary rooms. In all the rooms, in my estimation, there were about 50 children’s cots. At the time [of my] arrival, about 30 infants were residing in the children’s room. The infant camp was commonly known as the ‘Lazaret’ [‘the infirmary’]. Both Poles and Germans referred to the children’s camp in this way.
At the outset, I would like to point out that due to the passage of time I am not able to provide the number of people who passed through the children’s camp, but one thing is certain—none of the children were sent to Germany or were taken away on the spot. Even if very large losses were recorded during a certain period, they were only caused by mortality. The highest mortality rate in the camp was recorded in the summer of 1943. I cannot give precise numbers because I didn’t keep any records, but [this mortality rate] was very high. The main reasons for this were the poor housing conditions—no possibility to isolate healthy children from the sick, lack of qualified staff, temporary unavailabilities, especially at the beginning of my work, of medical and dietary forms of treatment.
In my opinion, among these general reasons I should include the next most important factor, namely the role played by the sister in charge, the German Oberschwester Matylda, who was a law unto herself. Where she came from and what her surname was, I don’t know, in any case she was a person who played a serious, negative role during the existence of this camp. First of all, she didn’t carry out any orders issued by the camp authorities and by myself as a doctor, but instead she tended to break them, and at the same time she lacked professional training. The behavior of Oberschwester Matylda left a lot to be desired, and generally taking her actions into consideration I would go so far as to say that she was the one who contributed to such a high infant mortality rate. This was also connected with the morality of Oberschwester Matylda. Well, in the context of general shortages of medical resources, Sister Matylda robbed the camp first aid kit (of the Lazaret), selling the medicines for personal profit. My wife, who was in charge of the first aid kit, had the biggest problems in this area. Refusing to issue medication, she was systematically exposed to harassment on the part of Sister Matylda. She was a person of such an evil and narrow nature that even the German camp authorities hated her. Nevertheless, she was there and served until the end. On the eve of the liberation, she was evacuated along with the retreating German troops. The degree of hate towards Matylda may be evidenced by the fact that the camp’s staff tried to prevent her from escaping so that she could answer for her deeds.
Although no one informed me officially about the purpose of the existence of the children’s camp, it was clear from the circumstances and the general conduct of the authorities that the children staying in the camp were to be used to boost the population of the German nation due to their losses during the war. First of all, apart from Sister Matylda who was a law unto herself, the German authorities, including the district doctor of Germany from Mława, who supervised the Lazaret, sought to create the best conditions objectively possible. In addition, there was an obligation to address the children in German only. This was unrealistic in practice, because apart from Sister Matilda, the staff consisting of Poles or Russians didn’t know German.
During my duties as a doctor, I delivered several babies from women of Polish and Russian nationality, who had come to the camp only to give birth and then returned to work after the puerperium period. The child would remain in the Lazaret. The mothers were not deprived of the hope of their child’s return. They were simply misled. I suppose they were aware of the purpose of the camp, but they didn’t have any chance to fight back. The mothers tried to keep in contact with the staff by making contact by post. From the letters it was possible to discover that the mothers were in forced labor in East Prussia. Pregnant women were generally brought by their employer and in isolated cases by the police. Above each child’s cot there was a sign indicating, among others, the name, surname and date of birth of the child. No changes were made to the name and surname on the premises of the Lazaret, although there may have been errors in the proper entry of the surname resulting from linguistic difficulties. I would like to emphasize that the mothers’ feelings on being parted from their children was influenced to a large extent by the fact that their children were being looked after by non-German staff.
As for the burial place, it is difficult to say whether it was the Roman Catholic or Evangelical cemetery. This could [be clarified] in my opinion by the carter, whose name I don’t remember.
Camp documentation was kept, but only by the Germans.
Due to the passage of time, I can’t determine the number of infants who were in the Lazaret at the time of liberation. The children were taken in by the military commandant.
The underwear and bedding was sufficient.
The report was read out.