performing our bodily functions. There were 44 people in our cell. By chance
we had two bottles. We filled them with urine and emptied them through the
window. Not until the 13th did they allow us to go to the ubikacja once a day,
under guard. We had to unbutton our trousers and go to the toilet like that.
We could not even relieve ourselves. On the 13th they began allowing food
to be brought in. For lunch (from 13 November on) we went to the prison.
The food was supplied by the Polish Red Cross — proper, ample lunches. It was
only on the 15th that a horse dealer brought us straw so we could make ourselves
a pallet to lie on. Until then we had slept on the cement floor full of
water. On the 12th it turned out that we were hostages. Everyone’s dream was
to get to the prison: (1) because of the fear of execution; (2) because there you
could go to the ubikacja. The torture was worthy of the High Inquisition.
The task was carried out by specialists only: (1) hour after hour, they made
threats of execution; (2) every day they made sure that innocent people were
shot; (3) the beating was carried out with much ‘love;’ (4) night and day, the
cries of the tortured and the sound of steel whips on naked flesh [. . .] I saw
with my own eyes people standing [. . .] with mutilated skin and bloody slabs
of flesh — holes as big as a fist in their bodies [. . .] — hips, buttocks, back —
victims fell unconscious on the stone[?] floor with [. . .] sophisticated massacre
[. . .] went. 5 [. . .] [3] All the walls were splattered with blood. No one
was allowed to help the tortured, nor even hold up anyone who passed out.
The sessions were [. . .]. It is easy to imagine the [. . .] state we were in. Apart
from Gestapo, the ‘specialists’ included auxiliary police, Volksdeutsche. Not
everyone could stand the pace. A man named Zarse[?]⁸⁹⁷ came and told me
he was completely shattered and could no longer bear the sight of the butchery.
He ran away. From 16 to 17 November the Gestapo held a farewell evening
[. . .] brought in some Polish schoolmistresses, raped them, then took them
to the nearby Koło forest and shot them. I thought I heard my wife weeping
and lamenting — by that time, my mother and my wife were already in
prison. On the 17th the Gestapo left to make ‘guest appearances’ in Łódź and
Kraków. On the 17th we were moved into the prison. We considered it a [. . .]
even though the regime was very harsh, especially from 14 December, when
the control of prisoners was assigned to a special prison guard unit.
897 Reading uncertain.
