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JEWISH RESISTANCE ORGANISATIONS

THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN AUSCHWITZ

THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT IN AUSCHWITZ

JEWISH RESISTANCE ORGANISATIONS

Although the first Jews were deported to the camp as early as in the summer of 1940, at that time they could not develop a resistance movement due to the especially brutal treatment and extreme mortality. In the first few months of operation of Auschwitz, all the Jews brought in transports together with Poles were separated at registration and sent directly to the penal company in Block 11. There they were commissioned for labour that required great exertion and murdered after a short time. The few documents preserved from the time prove that the Jewish inmates frequently tried to escape. Yet all attempts ended in failure. Some must have been acts of despair: hopeless attempts at avoiding the beatings of the Kapo, while others were provoked by SS guards who in return for ‘thwarting an escape’ received official praise in the commander’s orders, or a few days’ leave. The only traces of attempts of organised activity among the Jews can be found in the logbook of the bunker of Block 11: eight Jews from the penal company were incarcerated in detention cells, most probably for the purpose of investigation. After the completion of the investigation they were all murdered.

Source: A-BSMA

An excerpt from the Block 11 bunker logbook, where a note ‘8 Juden’ (eight Jews) can be found under the date 8 July 1941.

A huge hole in the ground, with prisoners working on three levels. The lowest level is a pit filled with water. Prisoners are digging in the ground with shovels. One of the kapos is beating a prisoner who is struggling in the water. An SS man is towering over the group, the other is pushing the prisoner down into the pit with a kick.

Source: A-BSM Collections

Władysław Siwek, Digging the Foundations for Block 15, Oświęcim 1948 (the painting shows inmates from the penal company).

The situation did not change significantly after the mass deportations of Jews to Auschwitz began in the spring of 1942. Most of the newly arriving Jews were taken to the camp at Birkenau, already opened at that time, where the catastrophic living conditions and hygiene resulted in high mortality. The situation was exacerbated even further in the summer due to an outbreak of typhoid epidemics. In these conditions, setting up and stabilisation of any resistance movement organisation among the Jewish inmates was impossible.


It was only early in 1943 that clandestine groups, initially only a few, began to develop in different parts of the camp among those people deported from the ghettos who, for a long time shared the same fate. They also emerged among inmates with a similar political views who made each other’s acquaintance in the camp. The organisations that must be recognised as the most active are the ‘Ciechanów group’ (Polish Jews deported from the area around Mława and Ciechanów in spring 1943) led by Mordechaj Bielewicz-Hilleli, which stayed in touch with two other structures: Jews working at the Union and DAW factories, and a group in the men’s camp in Birkenau consisting of Polish, French, and Slovak Jews.

The testimony of Emanuel Mink, Auschwitz prisoner No. 28413, deported to Auschwitz on 30 March 1942 from the camp in Drancy:

…from the very beginning of my stay in the camp, I participated in the operation of the camp’s Resistance Movement. As far as I’m concerned, I developed especially intensive activity in 1944, when I was transferred again to Birkenau. The first stage of our activity was to set up contacts with comrades and to learn who could be counted on. Every one of us had contact with a group of inmates to whom potential commands could be passed. I contacted an inmate called Ludwik, whose last name I don’t remember, who was a Schreiber [scribe, translator’s note] at DAW (during my stay in Auschwitz). Members of such a group were obliged to help one another as far as current conditions allowed. We also shared political information which we received from the outside, etc. …


Information about my involvement in the resistance can also be given by Cyporta Gutnik. … She was a representative of the French group in the women’s camp in Birkenau. It was precisely to her and to the management of the women [‘s section, translator’s note] that I communicated specific tasks.

Source: Emanuel Mink, APMA-B, Collection of Testimonies, vol. 63, p. 150.

The testimony of Dora Kaftal, Auschwitz prisoner No. 79506, deported to Auschwitz from the ghetto in Terezín on 20 May 1944:

I probably owed it [the position of block housekeeper] to fellow male and female inmates connected to the Czech or Czechoslovak resistance. As I have mentioned, these people took care of me. When I was leaving Kleine Festung, the local fellow inmates (as far as I remember a Pole called Ludmiła and a Czech Jew Andula), made me understand that if I were in a difficult position in Auschwitz, I could count on the help of their colleagues who stayed there and were linked to them in clandestine activity. When I asked who specifically I could turn to should the need arise, they told me ‘They will tell you.’ During my entire time in Auschwitz, I clearly felt that I could count on help from the resistance movement at any time.

Source: Dora Kaftal, A-BSMA, Collection of Testimonies, vol. 134a, p. 174.

There was also a clandestine left-wing Jewish organisation in Monowitz. It was mostly initiated by the Polish, Austrian, and German Jews. Its leadership consisted of communists who set the tone for the organisation which maintained secret contacts with the resistance outside the camp and also with the organisation operating in the main camp of Auschwitz. One of these activists was Kurt Posener, who—due to his communist activity and Jewish origin—was arrested and incarcerated first in Buchenwald concentration camp, and later transferred to Auschwitz III-Monowitz where he held the post of the block scribe and was among the aforementioned organisers of the communist resistance.


Jewish resistance organisations also developed in the sub-camps of Auschwitz. The one that developed in Jaworzno, in the Neu Dachs sub-camp, must be counted among the most important. Its members, in consultation with Poles and prisoners of other nationalities, participated in the preparation of a mass escape in October 1943, which unfortunately ended in denunciation and the execution of the majority of those arrested.

Franciszka Zajdman née Różany, an inmate of Gleiwitz II camp in Gliwice:

Throughout my stay in Gliwice, I worked on the aforementioned evaporator [German: Verdampfer Aparat, which transformed oils into soot]. I continued sabotage all the time. Every hour I had to draw up reports about the volume of soot produced. Higher temperatures were required for high output. I lowered the temperature so that instead of soot the machine produced unprocessed oils, and I poured them down the waste, especially at night (as the options were limited by day). When the supervising foreman approached my machine, I quickly lifted the handles of the device, increasing the temperature so that the flames were high, but the thermometer displayed low heat. Then I reported that the machine had crashed, and it happened that the machines were decommissioned. In this way, instead of 5 kg, the production of soot amounted to 1.3 or 1.5 kg. I forged the reports. …


With time, I also introduced another inmate, Tola Bekier, to the sabotage. From now on, during the night shift, we took buckets of unprocessed oils out. Once the hot oil poured out and I burned my hand badly. I emphasise that sabotage could be conducted in this manner, as there were always certain oily by products that were poured out to a specially prepared tank.

Source: Franciszka Zajdman née Różany, A-BSMA, Collections of Testimonies, vol. 39, p. 44.

Independent of clandestine Jewish groups in various parts of the men’s camp, there was also a group of Jewish women operating in Auschwitz especially active in the Kommando operating in the Union Werke arms factory. The Polish Jews working there—Regina Szafirsztajn, Ela Gertner, Estera Wajcblum, and Róża Robota—participated in the stealing and transferring of explosives to the Sonderkommando inmates preparing a rebellion.

Portrait photograph of a young woman wearing a decorated hat. Smiling, face and gaze turned slightly to the right. Shirt collar turned up over the top of the jacket. Light hair.

Source: A-BSMA

Estera Wajcblum.


Portrait photograph of a young woman. Smiling, face and gaze turned towards the lens. Dark hair, combed back, blouse decorated with small flowers. Smile on her face.

Source: A-BSMA

Róża Robota.


Portrait photograph of a young woman. Face and gaze turned towards the lens. Dark hair decoratively styled upwards. Shirt collar turned up over the top of the jacket.

Source: A-BSMA

Ela Gertner.


Situational photograph of a young woman. Round face, serious expression. Half-length dark hair. Gaze fixed to the side of the lens.

Source: A-BSMA

Regina Szafirsztajn.


An exerpt from the testimony of Leon Szwengler:

I was working as a bricklayer on the construction site of barracks for the warehouse. On our way to work we were passing by the factory of Union Werke. We established contact to women working there. I remember the name of a young Jewish girl from Warsaw- Estera. […]. Through Berdard Świerczyna I received from the resistance movement an order to bring to the camp the explosives produced in the factory. Estera was also a member of the resistance. She was commissioned to deliver the explosives from the factory. In the previously appointed place under the fence she was hiding small packages with explosives for me. At first, the explosives were wrapped up in paper, later on they were delivered in small medicine flasks. My duty was to transfer the delivery to the young Russians working with me in the work unit and they handed it out to Jews. The letter passed the delivery finally on to the members of the Sonderkommando in Birkenau. […] The action took two months. During that time, we delivered to the camp half a kilogram of explosives. Prisoners were making petards out of it, as the Sonderkommando was preparing an uprising.

Source: Leon Szwengler, A-BSMA, Collection of Testimonies, vol. 45, p. 11.