LUNEBURG: In plain unemotional language Dora Szafran Pretts, 22-year-old Jewess from Warsaw told the Belsen trial court here today [Sept 25] how she had seen Juana Bormann, one of the accused, urge her Alsatian dog to choke a woman to death. She also described how 21-year-old Irma Grese — the worst of the women guards according to the prosecution — shot two girls as they lay on the ground after jumping out of a window to avoid the gas chamber.

This and the arrival at Luneburg of Frau Kramer, wife of the former Commandant of the Belsen camp … were the highlights of the eighth day of the trial. … The proceedings opened with Dora Szafran identifying Juanna Bormann — a diminutive woman with a wrinkled face and greying hair — as one who boasted to another leader about setting a dog on an internee. Bormann’s eyes were glued on the witness as she related the incident “when the dog went for the woman’s clothing, she rebuked it and said ‘at her throat’ commanding it to choke her to death,” said the witness. … Witness said she had been through 15 or 20 selections for the gas chamber … she could not remember the exact number. …

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2020