Resistance (24 page)

Although the three women had been released and returned to their pre-uprising jobs, the authorities intensified their scrutiny over the three munitions employees and others. A number of spies and informers were planted among the gunpowder workers. Both the collaborators and resisters knew how important secrecy was. When Ada Halperin had delivered powder to other prisoners, she had not even known the names of her contacts. At one point, too, she was accused of sabotaging the production of gunpowder. Fortunately for Ada, her kapo, a man named Willi, stood up for her and convinced their German boss that Ada had committed an honest mistake. This incident ended with a severe beating but no further consequences.
⁴¹

Naturally, after the October 7th Kommando uprising, everyone—the rebels, the authorities, and the collaborators—were all more suspicious of each other. Everyone waited for a mistake, a slipup. It was a subtle but extremely uneven confrontation. On the one side were the all-powerful oppressors and their collaborators and on the other side were the inmates, for whom the slightest misstep could easily lead to loss of lives, not only theirs but anyone connected to them.

During the investigation, a frequent visitor to the barrack where the three gunpowder women lived was Eugen Koch. Half Jewish, Koch came to the camp from Czechoslovakia. His official position was that of an assistant kapo. He had a smile glued onto his face, and that, along with his subservient behavior toward the Germans, made some prisoners suspicious. Early on, Israel Gutman was among those who identified Koch as a double agent.
⁴²

Eventually, it was clear to others that this frequent visitor to this barrack had attached himself to the three recently returned prisoners, Alla Gaertner, Ester Wajcblum, and Regina Szafirstein. Of the three, Koch seemed to favor Alla. Alla's friend, Herta Fuchs (nee Ligeti), felt uncomfortable about Koch's courtship. She tried to warn her friend about her ever-smiling suitor. Herta's hints had no effect on Alla; she was already under the spell of Koch. When Herta shared her concern with an underground comrade, he warned Herta not to interfere. He insisted that Herta could be in danger. Others also expected trouble. They were suspicious of Koch's gifts—the chocolates, the cigarettes, and all the attention that came with it. But neither could they openly voice their objections.
⁴³
In the meantime, Alla herself began to feel that she might have divulged too much to Koch. Without offering clear-cut explanations, she confided in her friend Herta that she was afraid. Herta told Alla, “Whatever is going to happen to you, it is not right if you pull others down with you.”
⁴⁴

What some had predicted happened. Alla Gaertner, Ester Wajcblum, and Regina Szafirstein were rearrested. Once more they were taken to the political Block 11, in Auschwitz. There in the notorious bunker, each of them was subjected to torture. Two days after the arrest of these three women, Roza Robota was also brought to Block 11. The rumor was that Alla had mentioned Roza Robota as her contact.
⁴⁵

This time the Germans had gathered more concrete evidence. Still, they wanted more. Of the four Jewish women, Robota was
most knowledgeable about the underground operations. The Germans seemed to know this. Robota admitted to smuggling the gunpowder, but mentioned only Wrubel as her contact. She knew that Wrubel was already dead. She did not apologize for her actions.
⁴⁶
Similar behavior has been reported about other imprisoned and tortured Jewish resisters. The rumor was that Robota refused to divulge secrets. Frustrated, the Germans intensified their efforts to extract information from her. Concurrently, they continued to search for additional clues from a range of other suspects.

On the outside a growing number of the “free” Jewish resisters were bracing themselves for the worst. How long could Robota withstand the torture? For Israel Gutman, this was the greatest fear—not death, but his ability to withstand torture. Breaking down would lead to the murder of his comrades. He seriously considered committing suicide.

Time passed. Gutman and Laufer waited as they contemplated their next moves. Both knew that their suicide would protect the lives of others. These two young resisters were filled with anxiety and indecision.

It seems that the only one who was sure that she would not divulge any secrets was Roza Robota. Each one of her smuggled messages assured her comrades that they had nothing to fear. In fact, there were loopholes in the German thoroughness. The Germans had missed a significant connection between Robota and Helen Spitzer-Tichauer, known as Zippi (
figure 4.3
).

Zippi was a Slovakian prisoner who had arrived at Auschwitz in the first transport of Jewish women, in the spring of 1942. By 1943, Zippi had become the official graphic designer of the women's camp in Birkenau. As a graphic designer, Zippi had access to secret information. This in turn made her a desirable contact for all kinds of resistance groups. In addition to affording her access to secret information, Zippi's position included some privileges. She had the freedom to move around in most parts of the camp, provided that an SS guard accompanied her. She liked to emphasize that she lived and worked “in the prisoners' office (
Heftlings Schreibstube
) and was known as
Zippi Aus der Schreibstube.
” In Birkenau she had a separate design office, known as
Zeichenstube
. Anna, a Polish prisoner who was in charge of the Block, knew that Zippi had contacts with individuals connected to the camp's underground movements and assumed that Zippi belonged to the underground. But these two women never talked about it. It was much safer not to know, and not to discuss, such topics.

FIGURE 4.3
Helen Spitzer-Tichauer, known as Zippi, painting letters on the Luxor Palace in Bratislava, 1938. (Courtesy of Helen Spitzer, private collection)

Zippi sometimes worked through the night, which was when visitors often came to see her. One evening Roza Robota visited Zippi's office and introduced herself as a fellow member of the Hashomer Hatzair. Robota reminded Zippi of their having once met at a Hashomer Hatzair meeting before the war. Zippi recalled that, after this brief introduction, she and Robota spoke a little.

Then Roza said that she would visit me again. When she left, I thought that the whole visit was a pretext for something else, but it didn't matter to me. A few days later, she brought me an apron. . . . Our uniform dress was a blouse and a skirt . . . only some of us had aprons. She brought me a nice apron, made out of black cloth. It was a little thing, but I appreciated it. Two weeks later she came again, with another apron, casually telling me: “I want you to have this new apron.” I told her that I didn't need it, that the one I had was enough. Disregarding my comment, she said, “Give me your old apron and I'll give you the new one.” . . . After
that she continued to exchange my apron for a new one . . . she did this every two weeks. These were beautifully made aprons . . . also occasionally, Robota would ask me to put someone in a better job, and I did it. She would ask me for other favors, and I tried to help. In fact, I encouraged her to ask me. . . . It was not hard for me. . . . In retrospect, it seems that Roza Robota made contact with people by supplying them with these nice aprons. I never spoke about this to anybody before. . . . After a while I would ask myself, “Why she was so anxious to have my old aprons?” Much later, I discovered that along the edges of the aprons were those little layers . . . maybe, she stored her merchandise in the aprons until she delivered them? No one would have bothered her while she carried aprons. Who knows, I might have carried the powder on me. . . . After two weeks, she came to take my apron. It just could be that way. I was probably like a live bomb! Is it possible that when she brought the apron, she had the powder in it? Could it just have been that way? But it doesn't make sense; why would she bring it to me? Some women wrote about the aprons' pockets. I remember only the special folds at the edges of these aprons.

Were these folds unusual features of these aprons? I asked her. Zippi did not think so. “That's all I know, really. . . . This was the genius of that woman, that I did not suspect her . . . There are all kinds of versions about this uprising by the Jewish Sonderkommando . . . we know that many facts had died with those who were involved, and who might have told but did not.”
⁴⁷

After the Kommando uprising, Zippi stayed away from Roza Robota and was thankful that the Germans seemed to be ignorant about her connection to her.

To ease tensions, Jacob, the kapo of the political Block 11, was willing to arrange a meeting between Robota and one representative of the underground. To neutralize the guard, Jacob needed sausages and plenty of vodka. The group selected as their representative Noah Zabludowicz, whom Robota knew from Ciechanow. When the vodka made the guard drunk and sleepy, Noah was admitted into the prisoners' cell. He could not recognize his old comrade. Her torturers had left no part of her body unscathed. Only when Robota began to speak did she begin to resemble her old self. She told Noah that she wanted to live, but was determined not to mention any names. No one should doubt her. She would not yield to the enemy. She knew that the Germans would soon
execute her. She could not protect herself. All she could do was to protect others. On leaving the bunker, Noah knew that though this woman had ceased to resemble a human being, she was the most humane and magnanimous person he had met.

The public hangings of Alla Gaerten, Roza Robota, Regina Szafirstein, and Ester Wajcblum took place on January 6, 1945. To ensure the presence of the entire Auschwitz/Birkenau slave labor force, this event was divided into two shifts. The women moved to their assigned places, silently looking straight ahead. The accused and the surrounding crowds were treated to the hysterical screaming of SS man Hofler, culminating in his warning: “All traitors will be destroyed in this manner!”
⁴⁸
The executions themselves happened under a cover of sullen silence. Only once was this utter silence broken—by Roza Robota's cry of “Nekama!”—“Revenge!”
⁴⁹

The deaths of these four resisters put to rest anxieties and fears of the inmates who were involved in the Kommando revolt. Had any of their names been revealed to the German authorities, each of them would certainly have shared the fate of the four women. The silence of these four Jewish women and the silence of their comrades, who were murdered in the bunker of Block 11 in Auschwitz, saved at least the lives of eighteen known Jewish participants.

Because these four victims and those who died under brutal interrogations in the infamous bunker took many secrets with them, uncovering the details is a complex process. A look at the reactions of two Auschwitz/Birkenau prisoners to the Kommando revolt yields at least some tentative insights. Wieslaw Kielar, like so many of the Polish political prisoners, was involved in the Auschwitz/Birkenau underground. Kielar's resistance contacts reached beyond Polish groups, as did his friendships and relationships. He fell in love with a Jewish prisoner, and despite his efforts to save her, she was gassed. Kielar was shattered by this loss but managed to receive some comfort from his many underground friends. Kielar and his comrades were constantly dreaming and planning all kinds of moves, including plans for escapes. He knew that a campwide uprising at Auschwitz/Birkenau was being planned.

On October 7, 1944, Kielar was with his work group outside the camp when he heard rifle shots, followed by sounds of explosives. Soon his attention was caught by smoke over a crematorium chimney. Initially, he thought that these sounds had been caused by an air attack. Next he saw a large group of SS men rushing
in the direction of the burning crematorium. Bullets were flying around. For safety Kielar hid in a nearby truck. From his place, he must have seen that the crematorium IV roof was on fire. At one point, he thought that what he heard had to do with the uprising. He wondered whether partisan groups might have come to aid the camp's uprising. Kielar was pleased with this scenario—the prisoners working in unison with outside partisans.

When the shooting subsided, Kielar thought that the partisans had left. Disappointed that this had turned out to be a short-lived disturbance, he left the truck in which he had been hiding. He and his fellow workers were ordered to arrange themselves into an orderly group. Their kapo proceeded to count them and was satisfied that their number was correct. The group was ordered to turn back. On the way Kielar and his comrades heard that the shootings and fires had been caused by the Kommando revolt. Kielar checked this information with his special contact, probably a Jewish prisoner. From him he heard that this, indeed, had been the Kommando uprising. He was also told that an informer betrayed these Jewish resisters and therefore they had started their uprising early. This confusion in timing and communications diminished the uprising's effectiveness. Only crematoria IV and II had a chance to fight. Kielar was upset by the tragic outcome of this revolt and the tremendous loss of life.