On October 7, 1944, Jewish Sonderkommando prisoners revolt at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau death camp. They attack the guards, offer armed resistance, and set fire to Crematorium IV after learning that the Nazi authorities are preparing to liquidate about 300 people from the unit.
Sonderkommando are prisoners forced to work around the gas chambers and crematoriums - removing the bodies of the murdered and burning them. Because of their role as witnesses to the mass extermination, they are subjected to periodic “reduction“ of the composition. About 200 members of the unit were killed in September 1944, and the next selection provoked immediate resistance.
The gunpowder was carried by female prisoners
The preparations for the uprising lasted for months. Esther Weitzblum, Ella Gertner and Regina Safirstein, who worked in a weapons factory in the Auschwitz complex, exported small quantities of gunpowder. Rosa Robota passed it on to the resistance and to the Sonderkommando prisoners. The women hid the explosives in their clothes and carried them under constant guard.
When the SS arrived on October 7 to separate the prisoners selected for “transport”, they were attacked with hammers and axes. "They threw themselves at the guards with hammers and axes and managed to wound some of them," wrote former prisoner Zalmen Leventhal in a testimony kept by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.
The SS put down the uprising in hours
The prisoners set fire to Crematorium IV, and a group from Crematorium II also joined the fight and attempted to escape. The SS surrounded the area and opened fire. Some of the escapees were chased and killed outside the crematoriums.
Descriptions of the event differ on how Crematorium IV was destroyed. The American Holocaust Museum links the gunpowder used to a plan to blow up the building, while the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum describes arson that rendered it unusable. Both sources confirm that the crematorium was destroyed during the uprising.
According to the American Holocaust Museum, nearly 250 prisoners died during the fighting, and another 200 were shot after it was suppressed. Yad Vashem lists a total of 451 Sonderkommando members killed. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum also gives the number as 451.
The women who brought the gunpowder were also executed
After the uprising, the SS uncovered the gunpowder supply channel. Rosa Robota, Esther Weitzblum, Ella Gertner, and Regina Safirstein were arrested. Despite interrogations and torture, Robota did not reveal the names of other participants. The four women were hanged publicly on 6 January 1945, a few weeks before the camp was liberated.
The uprising failed to spark a general uprising in Auschwitz, but it remains the most significant armed attempt at resistance by prisoners at the camp. The destroyed Crematorium IV never resumed operation.
Sources: bbc.com, tagesschau.de