The video was recorded by the Pilecki Institute as part of the “Witnesses to the Age” project.
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Our today’s interviewee:
Joanna Muszkowska-Penson (born in 1921 in Warsaw), physician and professor of medical sciences, prisoner of KL Ravensbrück, activist of the democratic opposition in the Polish People’s Republic. During German occupation she was a member of the Union of Armed Struggle [Związek Walki Zbrojnej]. Her unit had a secret headquarters at Mokotowska Street in Warsaw. She was arrested after an underground liaison, who was captured by the Germans, was discovered to carry a list of addresses in his pocket, which included the address at Mokotowska Street. She was detained at the Pawiak prison and brutally interrogated by the Gestapo at Szucha Avenue in Warsaw. Several months later she was transported to KL Ravensbrück, where she was imprisoned from September 1941 to the liberation of the camp on 30 April 1945 (today we observe the 76th anniversary of this event). She recalls the everyday life in the concentration camp for women - terrible hygiene conditions, constant close proximity of death, cruel overseers who also happened to be beautiful women, and back-breaking labor. The most horrific element of this reality was the death sentences passed by Berlin; Joanna Penson never talked to the women who knew they were going to be executed the next day - it was too difficult for such a young girl.
Copyright by Instytut Solidarności i Męstwa im. Witolda Pileckiego.
29 апр 2021
