Newsgroups: alt.revisionism Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Mala Zimtebaum - Defiance at Auschwitz Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca Followup-To: alt.revisionism Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA Keywords: Auschwitz,Zimtebaum Archive/File: camps/auschwitz auschwitz.03 Last-Modified: 1993/08/20 "The self-sacrifice of 24-year old Mala Zimetbaum in 1944 should also be remembered. She gave courage to the inmates who had been taunted by the SS on arrival with `from here one leaves only through the chimney.' Polish born, a refugee in Belgium at the outbreak of W.W. I, Mala had been deported in 1942, and because she was proficient in languages, was made a runner (lausferin) by the SS command. She took advantage of the opportunity to move in relative freedom and carried news and messages from incoming transport to the camp underground. She planned an escape with a Polish prisoner, stealing the permit that would be needed to get past the guard. They were absent from the roll call on the night of the escape, and almost got through the outer gate but were recognized at they slipped by the last obstacle. Under torture, Mala refused to reveal accomplices. On the way to the gas chamber she slashed her wrists with a blade she had stolen from the kitchen. The guard, infuriated, ordered that she be burnt alive; she responded by crying out: `Murderers, the day of reckoning is near.' Her mouth was taped and she was hustled, barely conscious, into the crematorium. After the war, the city of Antwerp placed a plaque on the house where she had lived that read: `Mala Zimitbaum, Symbol of Solidarity. Murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz. 1920-1944.' <11> <11> Gis Weisblum, cited in Yuri Suhl, "They Fought Back," pp. 182-188 Extracted from--------------------------------------------------- "THE REDEMPTION OF THE UNWANTED", Abram L. Sachar (New York: St. Martin's/Marek, 1983. -----------------------------------------------------------------
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