Roza Robota Padlet by HAILEY ORTIZ GARCIA

Roza Robota Family Story

119330_5 — 2023-12-07 18:51:54 UTC

Robota was born in 1921 in Ciechanow, Poland. This is where she was active in the Ha-Shomer ha-Za’ir youth movement before joining the movement’s underground in the Ciechanow ghetto. In 1942 she was deported with her family to Auschwitz. There she lost her entire family in the selektsia (selection) process where inmates were sent directly to their deaths or into forced labor. Robota was initially imprisoned in the first women’s camp, but was transferred to Birkenau when the women’s camp was relocated there in August 1942.

What did Roza Robota resist?

119330_5 — 2023-12-07 18:56:09 UTC

Roza Robota was one of the organizers of an operation to hide explosives for use by members of the Sonderkommando (Jewish forced-labor unit of concentration camp prisoners) This happened on October 7, 1944. She as well as others would hide gunpowder under their fingernails to cause explosions.

Who did Roza R. meet during the holocaust?

119330_5 — 2023-12-07 18:58:38 UTC

Robota made contact with three Jewish women prisoners who worked in the section of the factory responsible for producing gunpowder, where all the laborers were Jewish women. These three prisoners (Ala Gertner, Regina Safirsztajn, and Ester Wajsblum) smuggled the explosives in match boxes at tremendous risk to themselves.

Did she get caught? / How did she die?

119330_5 — 2023-12-07 19:00:14 UTC

She was arrested when she was 23, along with other women (Ala Gertner, ester Wajcblum, Regina Safirsztajn) , prisoners involved in the explosion and was continuously tortured and interrogated. She was hanged in the presence of other prisoners, singing “Hatikvah” in her final moments. Her heroism is remembered as on of the most courageous acts of Jewish women prisoners during the Holocaust.

Roza Robota

119330_5 — 2023-12-07 19:14:45 UTC

Gunpowder

119330_5 — 2023-12-07 19:15:45 UTC

1199175 — 2023-12-08 18:45:56 UTC

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119330_5 — 2023-12-08 18:50:21 UTC

Rosa Robota's last words

119330_5 — 2023-12-08 18:55:56 UTC

"Nekamah" ("Vengeance!"), or "Be Strong" is said to be shouted right before she died. Others say they heard her say "Chazak V'amatz" – "Be strong and have courage", the Biblical phrase that God uses to encourage Joshua after the death of Moses.