Mala Zimetbaum

Then on 15 September 1942 she was put aboard (Belgian) Transport 10 bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she arrived two days later.

[1][2] Due to her proficiency in languages – Dutch, French, German, Italian, English, and Polish – she was assigned work as an interpreter and courier.

In his book The Drowned and the Saved, Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi said, "In Birkenau she acted as an interpreter and messenger and as such enjoyed a certain freedom of movement.

"[2] Although she had a relatively privileged position, Zimetbaum played an active part in the camp's underground and devoted herself to helping other inmates.

[4] The plan fell through when Kielar lost a pair of SS guard's uniform pants needed as a disguise for their escape.

Galiński, watching from a distance as Zimetbaum was arrested, turned himself in to the German patrol since they had promised not to separate.

Zimetbaum and Galiński were taken to Block 11 in the main camp at Auschwitz, a punishment barracks known as "the Bunker", where they were placed in separate cells.

Meanwhile, Levi and Auschwitz survivor Raya Kagan both reported that Zimetbaum had gotten hold of a razor blade and, at the foot of the gallows, cut the artery on one of her wrists.

Still others stated that she shouted at the assembled prisoners to revolt, that it was worth risking their life and if they died trying it was better than the situation they were in now in the camp.

An SS officer named Maria Mandl said that an order from Berlin had come to burn Zimetbaum alive in the crematorium.

On the way to the crematorium, Zimetbaum told the women pulling the handcart she was on that she knew she could have survived, but she chose not to because she wanted to follow what she believed in.

The prisoners forced to cremate the corpses had been informed that Zimetbaum was arriving, and they made special preparations.

Despite the differences between versions of what transpired at the public executions, all firsthand testimonies and autobiographies were united in their description of Zimetbaum as a courageous Jewish woman that remained unbowed by camp life and aided other prisoners.

Frydman credited Zimetbaum with saving her life by erasing her tattoo number from an execution list,[5] and Serras remembered Zimetbaum for saving numerous other women by erasing their numbers from condemned lists and arranging for extra food for them.

[6] Information regarding Zimetbaum was later made available to the broader public in Kagan's official testimony, delivered on 8 June 1961 during Session 70 in the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

[8] The Last Stage is a 1945 feature film set in the Auschwitz concentration camp, directed and co-written by Wanda Jakubowska.

[2] Seventy two years after it was first shown in Poland, it was screened as part of the Israeli Polish Zoom Archived 2019-09-05 at the Wayback Machine events, a project of the Polish Institute Archived 2019-09-15 at the Wayback Machine in Tel Aviv and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland.