Their Last Stand

60 Years Since the Auschwitz Uprising

By Leah Goldstein

Cremation of bodies by the Sonderkommando, Auschwitz, Poland, c. 1944. The photograph was taken in secret by the Sonderkommando and smuggled out of the death camp by members of the Polish underground

In the fall of 1944, with the Soviet army approaching the gates of German-occupied Europe, just one Nazi killing center remained in operation—Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest camp complex built by the Germans, and comprised a concentration camp, a forced-labor camp and an extermination camp. From 1942 until the end of the summer of 1944, hundreds of thousands of Jews were transported there from across Europe. Upon arrival they underwent a selektion process, most being deemed “unfit” for forced labor and sent immediately to the gas chambers. The victims were told that they would be showering to get clean, and ordered to undress. Then they were herded by the hundreds into the sealed chamber, and gassed to death.

One of the most gruesome jobs forced upon those who were not sent for immediate execution was that of the Sonderkommando. These were the prisoners who cut the women’s hair (before or after gassing), brought out the corpses from the gas chambers, removed gold teeth and fillings, and transferred the bodies for cremation. Some Sonderkommando cleaned the gas chambers, while others sorted the victims’ personal possessions, preparing them for shipment to Germany. After a few months of such horrific work, they were themselves executed and replaced by new prisoners.

In his introduction to Gideon Greif’s remarkable account of the Sonderkommando (We Wept Without Tears, Yad Vashem and Yediot Aharonot, 1999), Auschwitz survivor and current Academic Advisor to Yad Vashem Professor Israel Gutman quotes former concentration camp prisoner Christina Zywulska. In a chance meeting, one of the Sonderkommands asked Christina why she looked at him so disparagingly—was it his beard or his haircut? “‘Your work,’ she answered.

“He moved towards the window and began to explain with shocking emotion… as if each word he uttered would influence his fate: ‘You think that I volunteered to get this work, but you must know that we were chosen and forced to do it. Even though we were starving, we tried to hide… but they found us, and we had no choice… And the work—if you do not go insane on the first day, you just carry on…Believe me, I do not wish to enjoy life; I have no-one left, all my family were gassed. I live only to seek revenge and to relate these things…’ He pointed his finger upwards: ‘To you the Sonderkommando are terrible people—I promise you that we are like every other human being; just far, far more miserable.’”

During the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Gutman testified to “an extensive international underground in existence” at Auschwitz, whose members “engaged in mutual help, in giving a slice of bread to the needy, in rescuing a man who was already amongst the condemned… in providing medicines… in securing lighter work for a person who was on the brink of death.” Gutman belonged to the movement’s Jewish division, and related that in 1944 the underground had prepared a plan to blow up the camp and escape.

One of Gutman’s associates, Roza Robota, was given the dangerous task of obtaining gunpowder from Jewish girls who worked in a munitions factory in the Auschwitz complex. Under the constant watch of SS guards, the girls smuggled out small quantities of gunpowder in their clothes, which was then passed along to the Sonderkommando. On a specific date, they were to use their homemade explosives to destroy the gas chambers and crematoria, and launch the uprising. However, hearing that their unit was due to be annihilated, members of the Sonderkommando at Crematorium IV decided they could wait no longer. On 7 October, they set fire to the building and attacked the guards with the tools at their disposal. Seeing the flames, their fellow inmates at Crematorium II went into action, killing a few of their guards. Hundreds of prisoners escaped, but were all soon captured and, along with an additional group who participated in the revolt, executed. Roza and three of the girls from the munitions factory—Regina Safirsztain, Ella Gartner and Estucsia (Esther) Wajsblum—were brutally tortured, but refused to name any of their co-conspirators. Just before the four women were hanged in front of the camp population, Rosa urged: “Hazak Ve’ematz,” – Be strong and have courage.

Just weeks after the uprising, with the Allied armies closing in, Himmler ordered the remaining crematoria dismantled. By the time the Russians reached Auschwitz on 27 January 1945, the SS had abandoned the complex, having tried to destroy the evidence of their horrific crimes. From the ruins of the crematoria, however, some of the Sonderkommando’s diaries were retrieved; in them, they described the daily anguish of being in constant contact with murder. The heroism of their actions in their remaining days testifies not only to their agonizing existence, and also to their will to demonstrate to the world that even under the direst of circumstances, their spirits would not be defeated.

Copyright ©2004 Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority