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Revolt at Auschwitz!

Sonderkommando Revolt – Auschwitz – Birkenau

7
October 1944

Sonderkommando burning corpses in an open air
pit at Birkenau</td>
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The Sonderkommando or
("Special Command Units') were Jewish prisoners who were forced to work
in the death camps at the grisly
task of burning of the corpses of those already murdered by the Nazi's.

For periods lasting from two
to four month's these units worked under hellish conditions until they
themselves were liquidated by the Germans, and the first task of their
replacements was to dispose of the bodies of the previous group. Since a
Sonderkommando usually comprised men from incoming transports, their second
task often consisted of disposing of the bodies of their own families.

At Birkenau their duties
included guiding the new arrivals into the gas chambers, removing the bodies
afterwards, shaving hair, removing teeth, sorting through possessions,
cremating the bodies, in the crematoria or open air pits and disposing of
the ashes.

At
the end of June 1944 the Sonderkommando was moved from Barracks No 13
in Section BII d, to live in the attacks of Crematoria Nos II, III and IV.
Among the prisoners were nineteen Soviet Prisoners of War from Majdanek
who incited members of the Sonderkommando to revolt.

A group of
leaders was formed consisting of Jozef Deresinski, Zalman Gradowski, Jankiel
Handelsman, Ajzyk Kalniak, Lajb Langfus, Zalman Lewental, Lajb Panusz and
Jozef Warszawski, whose real name was Jozef Dorebus.

Israel Gutman
"Today"</td>
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The
Sonderkommando resistance leaders made contact with some Jewish girls
who worked in the munitions factory Weichsel – Union Metallwerke,
which was located near the Auschwitz main camp. Salmen Lewental one of the
Sonderkommando leaders kept a written record in a small notebook
which was buried in a jar under the earth, which was found after the war.

Two other
leaders of the Sonderkommando Israel Gutman and Jehuda Lerner began
to receive small quantities of explosives from the girls employed in the
munitions factory, hidden in a false bottom of a food tray.

Israel Gutman recalled one smuggling attempt:

“When I was standing near my friend he told me there was a
search going on. He told me that he had not time to put the explosives in
the saucers and that the explosives were on his body in a cigarette package.

SS listing from October 7, 1944 detailing
current strength of Jewish Sonderkommando referred to as "stokers"</td>
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I knew quite well that not only we would be killed as
retaliation, but all the underground of Auschwitz was jeopardised. When they
carried out the search they felt that I was trembling and they then searched
me very thoroughly.

When they didn’t find anything then they didn’t really look
at my friend. Somehow or other they skipped him. Since I was a little
excited they thought that I was the one who had explosives and not him.”

On the 7
October 1944 the camp underground military leaders sent an urgent warning to
the resistance cadre at the crematoria that they had learned the SS were
going to liquidate the Sonderkommando shortly.

On that fateful
morning the Senior Sonderkommando man at Crematorium IV was ordered
to draw up lists for evacuation of three hundred men on the same day, out of
the total complement of eight hundred and seventy –four men.

Filip Muller a member of the Sonderkommando described what
happened next:

“Towards mid-day Scharfuhrer Busch, Unterscharfuhrer Gorges
and several other SS men and guards arrived in the yard in front of
crematorium IV. All prisoners were ordered to line up, with the exception of
fourteen who were away on their various jobs and who, in any case, were not
affected by the selection.