Remembering the brave: Roza Robota, Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner, and Regina Safirsztain

From the Jewish Women's Archive: On January 6, 1945, some two weeks before Auschwitz-Birkenau was evacuated, Rosa Robota, Ala (Ella) Gertner, Regina Safirsztajn, and Ester Wajsblum were hanged in the presence of the other prisoners. Two were executed at night (Ala Gertner and Roza Robota) and two by day (Ester Wajsblum and Regina Safirsztajn). In their final moments, they cried out for vengeance and sang the “Hatikvah” national anthem. Theirs was the last execution in the camp. Their heroic stand is remembered as one of the most courageous acts of Jewish women prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau. #HolocaustEducation #RosaRobota #RozaRobota
On October 7, 1944, the revolt of the Sonderkommando broke out. In its aftermath, a sweeping investigation was carried out by the camp’s Gestapo-Political Department. Roughly three days after the revolt, on about October 9 or 10, the investigators reached Ala Gertner, Regina Safirsztajn, and Ester Wajsblum and arrested them for interrogation.
The three were brutally tortured but did not reveal the names of the other male and female prisoners who had taken part in the smuggling of the explosives. After several weeks of interrogation, the women were released and returned to their work at the factory.
The Germans brought in an undercover agent named Eugen Koch, a half-Jew from Czechoslovakia, ostensibly to head one of the work squads. Koch was able to discover the names of other women prisoners who had taken part in the smuggling, leading to the rearrest of the three original women prisoners, together with Robota.
The Jewish underground in the camp was gripped by fear, in particular, due to the arrest of Robota, who knew the names of many of their members, especially the inner circle, and some of their methods of operation.
Although Robota, Gertner, Safirsztajn, and Wajsblum were subjected to severe torture they did not divulge the names of their comrades in the revolt.