Two Canadian Residents Identify Maidanek Guards

Two Toronto sisters have returned home after testifying at the trial in Dusseldorf of former guards at Maidanek, a Nazi prison camp in Poland. “It was very important for me to go there. It was a duty,” Leah Givner, 54, said on her arrival from West Germany with her sister Mary Awronski, 59.

They said the satisfaction of identifying and confronting their Nazi tormentors served to compensate them for the pain of visiting Germany and telling the story of their imprisonment. In testimony, they identified four of their former guards among the 14 defendants. They recognized but were unable to positively identify a fifth defendant. All of the 14 are accused of murdering thousands of Jews and other prisoners at the camp.

The sisters identified defendant Hildegard Laechert, 57, nicknamed “Bloody Brigitta” by the inmates, as one of the most hated Maidanek guard Mrs. Laechert is charged with 1183 murders. Mrs. Awronski and her sister were prisoners for about 10 weeks at Maidanek. Their mother, their sister and two daughters died in the camp.

One of the defendants, identified by Mrs. Givner, was Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan who was denaturalized by a U.S. court and deported from Queens, N.Y. to Germany. Mrs. Givner stopped in front of her and said immediately: “This is Kobyla. I know when I see those evil eyes. I shall never forget them.” Kobyla is the Polish word for “more.” Mrs. Ryan was called this for her habit of violently kicking prisoners.

Mrs. Awronski talked to a group of German school children who came to observe the trial with their teacher. She pointed out that they had met with a warm reception. “The people in Germany were very friendly. They gave us such respect it was really something.” All the defendants, she pointed out, are free on bail.