Letter V, no date[1]
Dear Boys!We take this opportunity and want to present to you the situation which takes place in our camp now – These are events not only related to us, but to all in the camp, you who may be witnesses should know it and remember it – They send away all the time transports of Polish political prisoners to ammunition factories, imagine this, those women imprisoned for cause, for the organization or only for being politically active Poles, who now have to make bullets for enemies. May these bullets end up in the hearts of their loved ones? – Only one group of prisoners who came in transport from Generalgouverment to Ravensbrück camp on September 23rd, 1941, is not sent away, which means ours. Do you know about medical experiments conducted in the camp? From that transport of prisoners, from August 1st, 1942, till March 1943, they operated on 71 healthy and primarily young women. 5 of them died as a result of the operations; the rest survived; some of them, however, was disabled and will never be able to walk normally – after a couple of weeks of break they wanted to renew operations in March. After we staged a protest, they somehow stopped – the camp authorities, whom we asked why they continued experimental surgeries on us, responded that they knew nothing about it, that it is about taking measurements or medical examination, and familiar twisted lies. However, we did not give up. And lately, when they tried to take some of us for operations, we refused. Somehow, they did not punish us after that, and things calmed down eventually until August 15th. On that day, they called ten from our transport (only three were new, others had been operated on previously, some of them three times) supposedly to do a checkup before sending them to work. They did not take us; we know their tricks; our girls said they would not go, then they ran away once and a second time, and finally, the camp police pulled them out from a block and put them under arrest in two prisons cells five girls in each. The next day August 16th, five of them were operated on in a bunker still wearing dresses, uncleaned, and taken by force by SS men who kept their legs and hands, and the German nurse gave the girls needle shots. All women from our block, for our “mutiny” by keeping inside and not giving away those girls who tried to escape the operations, were punished by being locked up in the block and its shutters closed, without food and water for three days in total darkness. After eleven days, the group of five not operated on were released from the arrest and returned to the block. The other group of five prisoners who had undergone surgery were carried to “rewire” (the camp hospital – translator’s comment), where two of them were operated on again.[2] For now, the situation looks as we describe here – those girls after surgery, have both legs kept in plasters, probably bones operations, we are not sure what type of operations were conducted on us either. Yet we expect that they may take us any moment. We will not go willingly but overpowered; we will be subjected to it. We realize that our attitude will not rescue us from the surgeries, but at least it gives us moral satisfaction; we are not going and never go willingly to be operated on for experiments supposedly helping our enemy. Since May, there have been no executions since the last transport out of the camp left to “unknown,” So far, it is quiet. Our mood is good so far. We get German newspapers from which, as far as they allow in it, we can figure out what a global situation is. We are not sure what your perception of what is written in the letter is, but for us, the information must reach our Motherland through you so that we might demand compensation in the future. So, our dear, please accept the greetings from your compatriots. You have no idea how much joy makes the thought that someone’s friendly spirits are relatively close to us. Keep in good health.
[1] The letter is written by Wanda Wojtasik–Półtawska, probably between the beginning of September and 15th September 1943. The timing of it is proved by the information in the letter about the repeated operation (according to the roster of operated women attached to letter no. XII, the process took place on August 31st, 1943) on two prisoners in the group of five operated on August 16th, 1943, in the bunker. Yet missing is information about the second operation done on another prisoner from that group on September 15th, 1943.
[2] According to the roster mentioned above (August 31st, 1943), Halina Piotrowska was operated. However, along with the name of Helena Piasecka is noted the date of the following surgical operation on September 31st, 1943. Since September has thirty days, there must be some mistake in the note – her surgery took either on September 30th, 1943, or, most probable, on August 31st, 1943. About both operations, the author of the letter informs above.