NOTES
1.
Wadowice, Poland, 23 miles WSW of Cracow. Pope John Paul II as born there,
as Karol Wojtyla, on May 18, 1920.
2.
Belzec extermination camp, located 120 km. southwest of Warsaw, built for the
exclusive purpose of murdering the Jews of southeastern Poland. It was in operation between March 17, 1942 and June 1943, and claimed an estimated 600,000
Jewish lives in its six carbon monoxide chambers. ( Konnilyn Feig. Hitler's Death
Camps, The Sanity of Madness, New York: Holmes & Meier, 1979 pp. 276-277.).
3.
SS Rapportführer Tauber is mentioned by Sara Nomberg-Przytyk in her memoir, Auschwitz: True Tales from a Grotesque Land. ( Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, p. 53).) He "was famous in Auschwitz for his ability to kill a person
in two motions," knocking the prisoner unconscious with a blow to the head, then
strangling the prisoner with pressure of his foot on the prisoner's throat..
4.
Dr. Josef Mengele, highest ranking doctor of Auschwitz..
5.
Estusia, Esther Wacjsblum, sister of Anna Heilman, referred to in other sources as
Toszka. Testimony of Marta C., "New Testimonies: Women's Resistance in
Auschwitz," The Voice of Aushcwitz Survivors in Israel No. 34, April 1986, p. 11.
6.
Weichsel Union Werke Factory in Auschwitz I produced rockets and munitions,
among which were shell fuses. ( KL Auschwitz as Seen By the SS;. State Museum at
Oswiecim, p. 185.).
7.
Regina is mentioned in Amidst a Nightmare of Crime: Notes of Prisoners of Sonderkommando Found Auschwitz. State Museum at Oswiecim, 1973, p. 155, and
in Marta C.'s testimony..
8.
This was probably Roza Robota, who worked in the Effektenlager (warehouses
where confiscated clothing and personal possessions of prisoners were sorted) at
Birkenau (BIIg) sorting clothing, which adjoined the area of Crematorium IV.
She transferred the gunpowder to the prisoner Wrobel, a member of the Resistance movement who worked in the Sonderkommando. ( "Diary of Salmen
Lewental," Amidst a Nightmare of Crime, p. 155.) Israel Gutman describes another
girl, Hadassah, who he says was the courier who would bring the gunpowder to
him or to a prisoner named Yehuda. ( Israel Gutman, Smoke and Ashes: The Story of
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Israel: Sifriyat Poalim, 1957, p. 151).
9.
Roza Robota was 23 years old, from Ciechanow, Poland, an active member of the
Zionist Organization, HaShomer HaTzair. She was an early, active recruit to the
Resistance organization in Auschwitz. ( Gutman, p. 155.) Alla Gaertner was
deported to Auschwitz from Sosnowiec, Poland, and was a work foreman in
Auschwitz. (Conversation with Rose Meth, 5/15/90.).
10.
"All our Kommando had always been of the opinion that we were in a much greater
danger than all the other prisoners in the camp, much more even than the Jews in
the camp. We believed that the Germans would want at all costs to obliterate all
traces of their crimes committed till now. They would not be able to do this
otherwise than by killing our entire Kommando, leaving not a single one alive . . ."
( "Diary of Sahnen Lewental," Amidst a Niqhtmare of Crime, pp. 154--155.).
11.
In the revolt of the Sonderkommando on October 7, 1944, Crematorium II was
exploded. ( Gutman, pp. 153-154 and conversation with Tsippi Tichauer,
-141-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Different Voices:Women and the Holocaust.
Contributors: Carol Rittner - Editor, John K. Roth - Editor.
Publisher: Paragon House.
Place of publication: St. Paul, MN.
Publication year: 1993.
Page number: 141.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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