JANINA FABRYKIEWICZ

On 15 December 1971 in Iłów, Mławski county, Ryszard Juszkiewicz, judge of the District Court in Mława, with the participation of court reporter Ewa Jakubowska, heard the person named below as a witness. The witness was cautioned about the criminal liability for giving false testimony, after which the witness stated with her own signature that she had been cautioned about this responsibility (Article 172 of the Criminal Code). Next, the witness, [also] cautioned about her responsibility regarding the content of Art. 165 of the Criminal Code, testified as follows:


Name and surname Janina Fabrykiewicz
Maiden name Sokołowska
Parents’ names Wojciech and Wiktoria
Date and place of birth 6 September 1922 in Brzeziny, Dębica county
Place of residence Iłowo, [...], Mławski county
Occupation manual worker
Criminal record none
Relation to the parties none

Before the outbreak of World War II, I lived in Gostynin. After the end of the September campaign, I returned to my parents, who lived in the village of Niedziałki, in Mławski county; they were farmers. Until 1943, I lived at my parents’ farm, then I was appointed by the Arbeitsamt in Mława to work in Iłówo at the Węcławskis. They had German documents. While working in Iłowo, I visited my brother, Józef Sokołowski, who had been deported to Iłowo from the town of Niedziałki with his whole family. This was in 1944. My brother stayed in the [Iłowo] camp with his family for two months. At that time, there were Ukrainians from the Soviet Union, as well as Italians and Hungarians with their families. They were young men, dressed in civilian clothes. In addition, there was a separate barrack for small children. My sister-in-law and brother only showed me this from afar. There were children of different nationalities in the barrack. Where they came from, I don’t know. The whole camp was surrounded by wires, fenced off, but there was a hole in the fence and you could go through it. There were also guards, but they were mostly at the gates. I heard from my brother and sister-in-law that children were dying en masse as a result of malnutrition.

I don’t know what happened afterwards to the camp residents, because I stopped going there since my brother had been released from the camp, and also because in 1944 I was sent to dig trenches in Giżycko. There were several thousand people there. The attitude of the guards to us was cruel; many people were beaten by them, and some killed—those who tried to escape. I was beaten because I had been referred by a doctor to a lighter job because I had undergone surgery shortly before. The SS man didn’t acknowledge my explanation and I was beaten by him, he pounded me in the kidneys and cut my head.

The camp I mentioned above was located between Leśna and Jagiellońska Streets. I don’t remember the names of the camp’s officers.

At this, the hearing was concluded and the report signed after being read out.