On This Day…………………

On 23 October 1943 a transport of 1,800 Polish Jews arrived from Bergen-Belsen to Auschwitz.

They all had passports allowing them to emigrate to South America.

The SS sent them to the gas chambers immediately after selection, men were directed to crematorium III and women to crematorium II. 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 very fast and killed all the women. Schillinger died on the way to the hospital in Katowice. Emmerich survived, but was disabled. 

The identity of the women has not been 100% confirmed, yet some sources indicate, that it was Franciszka Mann.