Sadowska, Rajzla

Rajzla Sadowska was a Polish Jew deported to Auschwitz. During the investigations leading up to the Frankfurt Auschwitz show trial, she testified that at one point while at Auschwitz, she suffered such a serious work-related accident that she could not work anymore. She feared “selection” and then gassing, but instead she was taken to the camp hospital until she made a recovery. Then the infamous Dr. Mengele conducted very painful experiments on her, after which she was hobbled, yet instead of getting gassed now, she was again nursed back to health. No one ever asked her for any proof of her injuries. After the war, she immigrated to Israel, but quickly decided the climate in Israel wasn’t to her liking, so she moved to Germany instead, which shows how deeply traumatized she was by the horrific things perpetrated by Hitler’s Germany.

This testimony is a typical and rather common example of an inmate trying to turn a positive, exonerating experience of healthcare provided at Auschwitz into an incriminating one, throwing in horror clichés about Josef Mengele for good measure, which are all untrue.

(For more details, see Rudolf 2023, pp. 490f.)