Escape attempt from Auschwitz–Birkenau

 www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Mala & Edek – A Tragic Auschwitz Love Story. By: Amanda Lees in 2023

https://www.amandalees.com/mala-edek-a-tragic-auschwitz-love-story

The Germans took Mala first to the notorious Fort Breendonk, then five days later she was transferred to Mechelen, where German authorities had turned the Dossin Barracks into a collection and deportation point for Jews. Mala worked in the registry.

On the 15 September 1942, the tenth deportation train left the Dossin Barracks destined for the East, on board were 1048 deportees, including Malka.

Dossin Barracks at Mechelen

After a nightmare journey lasting two days Mala was subjected to the normal selection at the Juden Rampe outside Birkenau. Mala was one of the 101 females considered fit for labour, whilst 717 were gassed immediately.

She was placed in the women’s camp at Birkenau and after undergoing the normal humiliations for new arrivals at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was tattooed on her forearm with the number 19880.

Housed in a wooden barrack, originally designed as a horse stable and because of her skill with languages, she was employed in the camp administration as a Lauferin, whose duties were as a messenger and interpreter.

At any rate, he had never before opened his heart to the extent which he did now. He had known her a long time, he said, he was very attached to her. They were living together and linked very closely, he found it difficult to part with her, particularly since she suffered from malaria.

He could not bear the mere thought that sooner or later she would have to share the fate of all the Jews. Now everything is fine, she’s even a favourite of Drechsler, everybody likes her. But when the moment comes, she will be the first to be sent to the gas chamber by Drechsler.”

On the eve of the planned escape Wieslar Kielar proposed a new plan whereby Edek and Mala escaped on the Saturday as planned, and that Wieslar would escape with another prisoner called Jozek on the Monday.

The uniform would have to be smuggled back to Birkenau in order for the escape to be repeated in the same manner, from the village of Kozy, objections and doubts remained, but this was agreed between Edek and Wieslar.

The escape took place on Saturday the 24 June 1944 around noon, with Edek dressed as an SS guard and Mala dressed as a male prisoner carrying a heavy lavatory pan.

But the SS men would not permit such a demonstration. They began to shout and the Camp Kapo understood them at once. Grasping Edek round the middle, he placed him back on the stool and loosened the noose.

The German finished reading the sentence in German and begun muddling it in Polish. He read fast and unintelligently. He was in a hurry. Edek waited until he finished. In a moment of utter silence he suddenly cried in a choking voice, “Long live Poland –“he broke off in the middle of a word. Quickly Jupp drew away the stool, and this time the noose was pulled tight.

Edek’s body tightened, twitched and then remained hanging limply, his head dropped to one side. He was no longer alive.”

While Lagerfuhrein Maria Mandel read out the sentence, Mala slashed her wrist with a razor blade. As blood poured from the wound Ruiters tried to grab the blade, but Mala hit him, which was the trigger that made the SS beat her severely, breaking her hand in an attempt to seize the razor blade.”

Mala was then put onto a handcart and taken to the Crematorium, where some sources say she died on the way. Other sources claim she was shot by the SS or was thrown into the crematoria alive. Mala though like Edek had kept her promise, she had not been taken alive by the executioner.

Mala is still remembered even to this day, and many Auschwitz survivors regularly gather to pay their respect to this brave woman, and a plaque has been placed on the house where her family lived in in Antwerp, scholarships and even a  B'nai B'rith lodge have been named in her honor.