Although Cywinska has had her testimony recorded in several venues, in this post I will stick to just one, for the sake of my own time.
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAvgktWbhs
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWwTzBqbHUI
Here are the important parts transcribed:
Spoiler
My father said that he was ordered to operate on a Nazi in Warsaw Ghetto. When he went there and he saw what they were doing with the Jews, the starving people, the jumping out of the buildings, uh on -- when the buildings were set on fire and machine gun down -- so he said we're going underground. And with nobody else goes except the family because he didn't want any squealers. So we were going in and out underground bringing in ammunition for rebellion and food and medicine and one day we got caught. As we were coming out of the store on the streets the Nazis were standing all around and we were caught and arrested and then sent home.
We were home eating dinner and my father was playing a piano, my mother played violin, I played anything they gave me. Drums. Anyway, my father was explaining the life of uh Chopin, and I was very engrossed in the romantic story when suddenly our doors were pushed open wide open and the Nazi were standing not 10 Nazis with their legs spread out and the guns aimed at us yelling at us, "Raus. Raus. Get out. Get out."
I was 10 years of age and I walked up to him, to the Nazis, and said, "You can't do this. My father will get you. This is our house." And the Nazi grabbed my father by the collar and took the gun barrel and smashed his face and he was lying down bleeding on the floor, so I ran behind my mother and hid. They marched us out in a in a wagon where they had wire windows. My mother started crying for pictures and for personal things. And the first time I ever heard the word, the Nazi said, "You vermin of the Earth Jew lover, get in there." And he pushed my mother in and all of us in that wagon.
Why they pour -- emptied the house of paintings and cards, chandeliers, and they then when it was empty they poured Gasolina all over and burned the house down. And we were taken to a jail house that was bombed. No water, no nothing. In that jail in the middle of the night my family was together, but they came and fetched me. They got me out and -- outside and marched to the woods.
[...]
Now they make us dig ditches. Night and day we dug ditches. No water. No food. If anybody died they just drag him and threw them in that ditch. When I was standing there -- after we finished digging ditches, I was standing there, my back to the ditch, and the Jewish lady had a baby. She was cooching the baby and she was kissing the baby and she was making the baby laugh. While while I noticed that her right heels the dirt was was moving so I went right behind her like this to stop her from falling with the baby.
When the machine guns went off and they shot everybody and her body fell on top of me. I was behind them so I didn't receive the bullet. They kept bringing in the Jews, lining them up, and machine gun them down, and they both thrown in the ditch or they fall in the ditch. Midnight came and I heard a beer barrel bolt or something in the woods. The Nazis were eating the dinner. It was getting dark. And I was lying there. The Nazis usually go by and see if anybody's alive, and then they shoot them. So I pretend open my mouth and turn my eyes up so that I'm pretending that I was dead.
[...]
We arrived in the in the area. The train suddenly stopped and we were all blindfolded and the Nazis were ordering people left right left right left right. I ended up on the right side with my mother father brother and cousins. And uh these [right hand] were the people that were going to work and these [left hand] are the people left that were going to be killed in the gas chamber immediately. As we were walking there were sticks on both sides and beautiful branches and I pulled one out and said, "Papa look. It doesn't have any roots." And he says, "No, they made it pretty so you can be happy because now you're going to get food and you're going to get a shower." Bath those days, and so forth, and as they marched us forward there was this huge gate saying "Arbeit macht frei" means "works makes you free".
So my father got excited more and more and uh, oh yes we're going to get food, and they marched us into a place just about the size of this. No roof. There were concrete wall concrete wall concrete walkway down and they ordered us to undress and I started a panic cuz I "Papa I'm not going to I'm not going to undress in front of them." So um he -- Nazi pulled a Jewish woman and stood her up and shot her and said, "Anyone else wants to not undress?" So we started scrambling to undress but couldn't get fast enough to to be undressed so they marched us down this walkway with orange gates and place was very close ceiling and my father said, "See see we're going to get a shower now, and so you go in and you get a shower and we get food and blah blah blah and you get to work."
When they shut the doors I panicked and started crying for my father and said, "Papa where are you where are you?" His hand reached to mine and he was grasping my hand and said, "It's okay, you're going to get showered don't don't get upset. You're going to get showered and we're going to eat." Suddenly I noticed that his hand was slipping out of my hand and his eyes were turning upside down and the people were panicked because whatever came out like those little lights there [pointed at ceiling] it was not shower it was gas. And I did not consume enough gas because the bodies fell on top of me and the first gas was the carbon monoxide. I just passed out.
The Jewish woman Gerta pulled me out of the gas chamber and by the legs and I was still breathing so she gave me mouth to mouth. And said [unclear] and said, "You're going to go to work." She took off my pretty clothes and took out of dead body a striped outfit and put it on me. She said, "The more you work, the more you live." So I stood there and you, "What do I do? What do I do?" And she said, "You go in there and you pull the bodies by the legs and put him on these racks, and then the man come and take him and dump him in the ditches or in the ovens."
So I was pulling out the bodies. I pulled out a little baby and was still breathing I thought, "Oh Gerta gave mouth to mouth. I'll do that to the baby." So I was holding the baby and kissing the baby I was so excited it was so cute and I was telling the baby that everything is going to be all right, blah blah blah, when I felt this cold instrument on my shoulder and the Nazi blew out the baby's head. And I was standing there holding the body bleeding, shaking, and Gerta said, "Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get to work. Don't get uh teary."
So I went in the gas chamber and pulled out my mother by her legs and I when I pulled her out I said, "Mama, I want to get out of here. I don't like it here. I want to go back to my school. I want to go back to my bedroom with my dolls and my playing instrument." And so forth and Gerta screamed at me, "She is dead. She can't can't do anything for you." And I said, "What is dead?" And that's how and so then she took the body of my mother away from me and put it on the rack and whatever they did with it I don't know.
I my work in Auschwitz was to to dispose of clothes. You undress everybody. The Jews came in. You take the jewelry, put it in a bucket. You take the underwear, and only the good silk ones this pile [right hand]. Blouses pants this [left hand]. And um you undress them.
And then I felt like screaming and saying, "You know that's not a shower." And one woman started to scream, "You're going to die! That's not a shower. They lie." So the Nazis were pulled her out against the wall and machine gun her down. She was nothing but hamburger. And said, "Everybody shut up!" So as I was pulling these bodies that was my job.
My next job was experimental ward where they take the Jewish men and you have to tie him to the Chair by arms, legs, everything, and they were experimenting how much stress a human being can take. So they would put gouged out the eyes, and cut the skin, do all pull out the nails, and I understand that soon as I saw white bubbles they cut out the skull. And soon as I saw the white bubbles uh going the the doc-- I'm supposed to call the doctor because that was the limit that the human being can take stress. That was the experiment. And I have to drag the man out if if he was dead. If he was alive I drag him out put him in the courtyard and the Nazis would just pistol shoot them if they're still alive. And I had to tie up next one.
As the time passed I was on the grounds um cleaning the grounds. My job was to sweep the ground, get rid of dirt. And as I was sweeping the grounds the Nazi was kicking a woman that was already swollen from starvation, bleeding through the mouth and ears, and he was kicking her in the breast, in the stomach, in the womb with his boots. And we're not supposed to speak up, and I spoke up and said, "What are you doing that she's already dying, you know?" And so I -- the Nazi ordered me to be punished for speaking to him. They take you out and tie your hands up like this, hang you up and torture you until you die. This one particular guy, 18 years old, was to beat me. To punish me and do that to me but he said, "I'm I'm not going to hang you. I'm going to beat you on the side ." His name was Hans, and "I want you to scream every time I hit the ground."
And so I screamed so that people would -- he would -- his colleagues would know that he was punishing me. He fell on top of me and started crying and asking forgiveness and said, "You know what?" Um, he said, "I don't want to do this. I don't want to be a Nazi but it's mandatory. My parents will be arrested and killed if I refuse." So he was lying on top of me and I turned on my back and looked to him blue eyes blonde hair. At that time I was running to -- day before I was running to the barracks and I was screaming, "I was shot." I was bleeding and I was shot, and I wanted the women to help me, and they all ended up laughing. So um I thought, "How can they laugh when I'm shot and bleeding?" And so they said they said to me, "You know what? You are a woman today. You got your period."
The reason I'm telling you that is because that's when I realized next day why I looked at Hans's blue eyes Nazi and I I fell in love. The first time as a teenager I felt the opposite sex. Hans kept uh giving me chocolates and food and apples and whatever he could get in his pockets he would bring me daily.
We were home eating dinner and my father was playing a piano, my mother played violin, I played anything they gave me. Drums. Anyway, my father was explaining the life of uh Chopin, and I was very engrossed in the romantic story when suddenly our doors were pushed open wide open and the Nazi were standing not 10 Nazis with their legs spread out and the guns aimed at us yelling at us, "Raus. Raus. Get out. Get out."
I was 10 years of age and I walked up to him, to the Nazis, and said, "You can't do this. My father will get you. This is our house." And the Nazi grabbed my father by the collar and took the gun barrel and smashed his face and he was lying down bleeding on the floor, so I ran behind my mother and hid. They marched us out in a in a wagon where they had wire windows. My mother started crying for pictures and for personal things. And the first time I ever heard the word, the Nazi said, "You vermin of the Earth Jew lover, get in there." And he pushed my mother in and all of us in that wagon.
Why they pour -- emptied the house of paintings and cards, chandeliers, and they then when it was empty they poured Gasolina all over and burned the house down. And we were taken to a jail house that was bombed. No water, no nothing. In that jail in the middle of the night my family was together, but they came and fetched me. They got me out and -- outside and marched to the woods.
[...]
Now they make us dig ditches. Night and day we dug ditches. No water. No food. If anybody died they just drag him and threw them in that ditch. When I was standing there -- after we finished digging ditches, I was standing there, my back to the ditch, and the Jewish lady had a baby. She was cooching the baby and she was kissing the baby and she was making the baby laugh. While while I noticed that her right heels the dirt was was moving so I went right behind her like this to stop her from falling with the baby.
When the machine guns went off and they shot everybody and her body fell on top of me. I was behind them so I didn't receive the bullet. They kept bringing in the Jews, lining them up, and machine gun them down, and they both thrown in the ditch or they fall in the ditch. Midnight came and I heard a beer barrel bolt or something in the woods. The Nazis were eating the dinner. It was getting dark. And I was lying there. The Nazis usually go by and see if anybody's alive, and then they shoot them. So I pretend open my mouth and turn my eyes up so that I'm pretending that I was dead.
[...]
We arrived in the in the area. The train suddenly stopped and we were all blindfolded and the Nazis were ordering people left right left right left right. I ended up on the right side with my mother father brother and cousins. And uh these [right hand] were the people that were going to work and these [left hand] are the people left that were going to be killed in the gas chamber immediately. As we were walking there were sticks on both sides and beautiful branches and I pulled one out and said, "Papa look. It doesn't have any roots." And he says, "No, they made it pretty so you can be happy because now you're going to get food and you're going to get a shower." Bath those days, and so forth, and as they marched us forward there was this huge gate saying "Arbeit macht frei" means "works makes you free".
So my father got excited more and more and uh, oh yes we're going to get food, and they marched us into a place just about the size of this. No roof. There were concrete wall concrete wall concrete walkway down and they ordered us to undress and I started a panic cuz I "Papa I'm not going to I'm not going to undress in front of them." So um he -- Nazi pulled a Jewish woman and stood her up and shot her and said, "Anyone else wants to not undress?" So we started scrambling to undress but couldn't get fast enough to to be undressed so they marched us down this walkway with orange gates and place was very close ceiling and my father said, "See see we're going to get a shower now, and so you go in and you get a shower and we get food and blah blah blah and you get to work."
When they shut the doors I panicked and started crying for my father and said, "Papa where are you where are you?" His hand reached to mine and he was grasping my hand and said, "It's okay, you're going to get showered don't don't get upset. You're going to get showered and we're going to eat." Suddenly I noticed that his hand was slipping out of my hand and his eyes were turning upside down and the people were panicked because whatever came out like those little lights there [pointed at ceiling] it was not shower it was gas. And I did not consume enough gas because the bodies fell on top of me and the first gas was the carbon monoxide. I just passed out.
The Jewish woman Gerta pulled me out of the gas chamber and by the legs and I was still breathing so she gave me mouth to mouth. And said [unclear] and said, "You're going to go to work." She took off my pretty clothes and took out of dead body a striped outfit and put it on me. She said, "The more you work, the more you live." So I stood there and you, "What do I do? What do I do?" And she said, "You go in there and you pull the bodies by the legs and put him on these racks, and then the man come and take him and dump him in the ditches or in the ovens."
So I was pulling out the bodies. I pulled out a little baby and was still breathing I thought, "Oh Gerta gave mouth to mouth. I'll do that to the baby." So I was holding the baby and kissing the baby I was so excited it was so cute and I was telling the baby that everything is going to be all right, blah blah blah, when I felt this cold instrument on my shoulder and the Nazi blew out the baby's head. And I was standing there holding the body bleeding, shaking, and Gerta said, "Get rid of it. Get rid of it. Get to work. Don't get uh teary."
So I went in the gas chamber and pulled out my mother by her legs and I when I pulled her out I said, "Mama, I want to get out of here. I don't like it here. I want to go back to my school. I want to go back to my bedroom with my dolls and my playing instrument." And so forth and Gerta screamed at me, "She is dead. She can't can't do anything for you." And I said, "What is dead?" And that's how and so then she took the body of my mother away from me and put it on the rack and whatever they did with it I don't know.
I my work in Auschwitz was to to dispose of clothes. You undress everybody. The Jews came in. You take the jewelry, put it in a bucket. You take the underwear, and only the good silk ones this pile [right hand]. Blouses pants this [left hand]. And um you undress them.
And then I felt like screaming and saying, "You know that's not a shower." And one woman started to scream, "You're going to die! That's not a shower. They lie." So the Nazis were pulled her out against the wall and machine gun her down. She was nothing but hamburger. And said, "Everybody shut up!" So as I was pulling these bodies that was my job.
My next job was experimental ward where they take the Jewish men and you have to tie him to the Chair by arms, legs, everything, and they were experimenting how much stress a human being can take. So they would put gouged out the eyes, and cut the skin, do all pull out the nails, and I understand that soon as I saw white bubbles they cut out the skull. And soon as I saw the white bubbles uh going the the doc-- I'm supposed to call the doctor because that was the limit that the human being can take stress. That was the experiment. And I have to drag the man out if if he was dead. If he was alive I drag him out put him in the courtyard and the Nazis would just pistol shoot them if they're still alive. And I had to tie up next one.
As the time passed I was on the grounds um cleaning the grounds. My job was to sweep the ground, get rid of dirt. And as I was sweeping the grounds the Nazi was kicking a woman that was already swollen from starvation, bleeding through the mouth and ears, and he was kicking her in the breast, in the stomach, in the womb with his boots. And we're not supposed to speak up, and I spoke up and said, "What are you doing that she's already dying, you know?" And so I -- the Nazi ordered me to be punished for speaking to him. They take you out and tie your hands up like this, hang you up and torture you until you die. This one particular guy, 18 years old, was to beat me. To punish me and do that to me but he said, "I'm I'm not going to hang you. I'm going to beat you on the side ." His name was Hans, and "I want you to scream every time I hit the ground."
And so I screamed so that people would -- he would -- his colleagues would know that he was punishing me. He fell on top of me and started crying and asking forgiveness and said, "You know what?" Um, he said, "I don't want to do this. I don't want to be a Nazi but it's mandatory. My parents will be arrested and killed if I refuse." So he was lying on top of me and I turned on my back and looked to him blue eyes blonde hair. At that time I was running to -- day before I was running to the barracks and I was screaming, "I was shot." I was bleeding and I was shot, and I wanted the women to help me, and they all ended up laughing. So um I thought, "How can they laugh when I'm shot and bleeding?" And so they said they said to me, "You know what? You are a woman today. You got your period."
The reason I'm telling you that is because that's when I realized next day why I looked at Hans's blue eyes Nazi and I I fell in love. The first time as a teenager I felt the opposite sex. Hans kept uh giving me chocolates and food and apples and whatever he could get in his pockets he would bring me daily.
No explanation is given for the first shooting execution. She said it was an execution of Jews despite her not being Jewish. She alone out of her family was selected for death, with no story of protest. Why this selection and execution would be necessary just before putting them on a train to the gas chambers will remain a mystery.
Cywinska said that at Auschwitz she saw the "Arbeit macht frei" sign, which if I'm not mistaken must mean they were in Auschwitz I. Another source gives the year as 1941, which agrees with this. (Timeline contradictions notwithstanding.)
Cywinska said her whole family was selected to the right side, which she described was "going to work", whereas the left side was "going to be killed". Then she contradicted herself by claiming she and her family were sent straight to the gas chamber. Possibly an element of truth slipping through here.
Cywinska said her own father was in the gas chamber with her. This goes contrary to my expectation (from other camps) that men and women would be segregated, at least to keep up the illusion of showering and to maintain order and calm.
How did Cywinska know the gas used on her was carbon monoxide? To my knowledge, only Zyklon B gassings are claimed for Auschwitz. Possibly this detail was given to her by someone who realized that she should have experienced cyanide poisoning.
How did carbon monoxide gas enter through holes in the ceiling? Her description of a gas chamber with ceiling holes could refer to Crematorium I, except they used Zyklon B there. To do a gassing with carbon monoxide would require inserting pipes into the holes and piping it in, I suppose.
Albeit ridiculous, her story of surviving the gas because bodies piled on top of her may be one of the more plausible parts of her story. Naked bodies could provide some protection in that way, and if the Nazis really had used gas chambers, then survivors would be a frequent phenomenon because of how short the gassing times were claimed to be.
Cywinska claimed there were women among the Sonderkommando? This is unheard of.
And all of this from the age of ten years? This woman seems like a total fraud.
Her story gets worse from there. Later on she reused "vermin of the Earth Jew lover" as coming from another person's lips.
Thomas Dalton pointed out major changes in Cywinska's story since she first told it, at the top of this article:
https://codoh.com/library/document/a-lucky-child/
Additional revisionist writings on Cywinska:
https://www.islam-radio.net/historia/hh ... winska.htm
https://www.islam-radio.net/historia/hh ... rvives.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20220120085 ... -cywinska/
