Elsztajn, Hinda: Report regarding Nazi persecution

Papers of Hinda Elsztajn, 1956, comprise an interview transcript of Hinda Elsztajn, former inmate at Auschwitz and victim of Dr. Carl Clauberg, one of the infamous physicians of Block 10 who experimented on prisoners.

Mr and Mrs Elsztajn were Polish Jews living in Belgium. They were arrested in 1943 and transported to Malines. Mrs Elsztajn describes how people feared Commandant Schmidt of Malines and Breendonck. They were taken to Auschwitz where she was experimented on by Dr Carl Clauberg and with him were doctors Goebbels, Weber, Wirtz and Samuel, a German Jew, who tried his best for them, but was killed before Auschwitz was evacuated because he knew the secrets of Block 10 which housed women used in experiments. On 18 January 1945 they were evacuated from Auschwitz to Ravensbrück on foot in the extreme cold, then to Malchow towards Leipzig-Taucha on trains under continuous bombardment. On 25 April 1945 they were liberated by the Americans and Mrs Elsztajn was repatriated by plane to Belgium where she was reunited with her daughter.

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K Zeitlinger

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This interview transcript is part of a series of transcribed interviews collated by K. Zeitlinger of the Komitee Aide Israelite aux Victimes de la Guerre in Brussels, of former victims of Dr Clauberg's experiments in the infamous Block 10 at Auschwitz. Some 34 former victims, then resident in Belgium were approached. The interviews were undertaken by different individuals under specified conditions, one of whom was Ciechanowsky, who signed this one.