The first woman to escape Auschwitz

Mala Zimetbaum was the first woman to escape from Auschwitz, though she was later recaptured. She worked as an interpreter/messenger for the Nazis, which allowed her to live for two years in the camp. She used her privileges to help the people there - she snuck food/letters into the camp, falsified the lists of people sent to the gas chambers in order to save as many lives as possible and tried to save women from harsh work in order to save their lives.
Early Life
Mala Zimetbaum was born January 26th 1918 in Brzesko, Poland. When she was eight she moved to Antwerp, Belgium. At age 24 she was captured and sent away to Auschwitz along with other Belgian Jews. She was later sent on to Birkenau, the women’s camp, where she would spend 2 years as Inmate No. 19880.
Accomplishments
Due to Mala’s proficiency in French, Dutch, German, Polish, and Italian, she worked as an interpreter and messenger. She devoted her time in Auschwitz-Birkenau to helping other inmates at the camp. Mala at Auschwitz-Birkenau helped many of her fellow inmates, she would intercede to have inmates changed to different jobs when she felt they wouldn’t be able to withstand the long days of hard manual work. She even went as far as editing the lists of those who were to be gassed. She would switch identity cards of those selected for the gas chamber with people who already died. Mala sneaked photographs from inmates’ families, and she even got food as well as medicine for the people in need. It became very clear she was trusted, well loved and respected by everyone in the camp, staff and inmates alike. In 1944, 12,000 Jews arrived from Hungary daily and were sent to be gassed. Mala and her lover Edward Galinski planned an escape to not only get their freedom back but to spread the word to the Allies through documentation of the slaughter happening in Birkenau. One of her most notable accomplishments was her escape from the concentration camp. She was the first ever woman to escape from Auschwitz.
Importance
Mala’s acts of resistance not only saved lives but they helped maintain morale among the people that were forced to endure the horrors of Auschwitz. She used her privileges for the good of others rather than trying to benefit only herself. Mala acted with courage until the very end of her life, she inspired people to preserve through the cruel and unjust camp life. There were multiple testimonies of Mala’s acts of testimonies that all mention or note how much of a role model and/or inspiration she was to many of the female inmates. Mala was a very brave and inspiring woman who should be recognized and remembered for her heroic acts.
Death
In June 1944, Mala Zimetbaum and Edward Galinski successfully escaped Auschwitz together, and fled to a nearby town. Unfortunately, two weeks later, custom agents arrested Mala at a local store on the Slovak border while trying to buy food. Mala and Edward promised each other they wouldn’t leave each other after their escape, so Edward turned himself in as well. They were brought back to the camp, and there they were interrogated by Wilhelm Boger, also known as the “devil of Auschwitz”. He wanted to know who helped them escape, but they refused to talk. They were both sentenced to death by public hanging. Before her death, Mala made one final act of defiance -. while standing on the hanging blocks, she pulled out a razor blade hidden in her hair and slit her own wrists and slapped a guard who spoke harshly to her.
Mala refused to let the Naziz decide her fate. Her last words were “I will die a heroine, but you will die like a dog!” As for Edward, he kicked over the stool rather than listen to the obligatory reading of his sentence. A guard was heard to say as her body was dragged to the crematorium that he hoped she was still alive so she would burn to death.
The cruelty of people in war is truly terrifying, but her act of courage and resistance shows that the Natzis could destroy her life but could not destroy her spirit. Up to the very last moments of her life, Mala, who was 26 years old at the time, remained a heroine.
Sources
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