|
Contributed by Henryk Świebocki
|
|
Page 1 of 4 Cases of resistance on the ramp and in the gas chambers The majority of the Jews deported to Auschwitaz were murdered immediately after arrival and therefore did not have any chance or even any time to organize resistance. Nevertheless, there were cases in which they mutinied and put up a fight.
A transport of Jews arrived from Bergen-Belsen in October 1943. The SS sent them to the gas chambers immediately after selection. In the undressing room of crematorium II in Birkenau, the antechamber to the gas chamber, one of the women realized the danger they were in and seized SS man Josef Schillinger’s pistol. She shot him and wounded him badly, and also shot a second SS man, Wilhelm Emmerich. This was a signal for other women to attack the henchmen. However, the SS suppressed the mutiny and killed all the women. Schillinger died on the way to the hospital. Emmerich survived, but was disabled. There were cases in which Jews being led to their death escaped from the crematoria and gas chambers. Several hundred men, women, and children from a transport brought from Hungary attempted to escape on the night of May 25/26, 1944. They hid in the nearby woods and in ditches. The SS tracked the fugitives down and killed them.
|
Resistance 