Young Resisters: Kitty Hart-Moxon by Addie Crush

Before the Camp

crusha25 — 2025-04-17 13:32:51 UTC

Kitty was born on the first of December in 1926 in Beilsko, Poland. According to her, she had a great childhood. She and her family had to flee to Lublin when the German armies invaded, and they were forced to live in a ghetto. They tried to escape twice and succeeded on the second attempt. They were able to move to a nearby village, though conditions there weren’t much better. After that, they started moving around some and eventually made it back to Lublin.

Act of resistance

whitem25_1 — 2025-04-17 14:01:03 UTC

Kitty Hart-Moxon showed forms of resistance in small but defiant ways. One of these many ways was when she and her family escaped the Ghettos to temporary freedom. Her family had recently moved to the city of Lublin for safety after the Germans invaded Poland. But Lublin was soon taken over by the Germans, and the Jewish population of the city was pushed together into a Ghetto. Kitty's father had quickly realised they HAD to get out of the Ghettos before it was officially sealed up. Her family teamed up with one of the priests in town, and that priest then gave the family fake documents saying that the family was Polish forced laborers. The family was split up and she and her mother were transported to Germany.

How She Resisted

crusha25 — 2025-04-17 18:54:56 UTC

Resistance can be defined as purposely not doing something, doing the opposite of what someone else wants to be done, or pushing back against a movement. As shown by the definition, resistance can take many forms. Typically, when one imagines Holocaust resisters, they might imagine groups of people charging at the Nazis, guns blazing and eyes wild. The most common acts of resistance, however, are more subtle. Kitty Hart-Moxon exemplifies a less obvious resistance. Kitty’s defiance against the adversity she faced during that time is resistance in itself. Every second that she was hunted for being a Jew and not getting caught can be considered an act of resistance. The most enduring things she did, however, were her actions after she had left the concentration camps and ghettos for good. Immediately after Kitty moved to the UK, she was shocked by how no one would listen to her and her stories of the horrors she endured. Many people told her that they did not want to know what had happened. It did not take long for Kitty to decide that she would do everything she could to prevent people from living in ignorance any longer. Kitty started giving speeches, speaking out loud enough that it would be impossible to ignore her. Eventually, people heard what she was saying and asked her to come and spread her message to their schools and universities. Every time Kitty sheds light on the monstrous things that were done at the concentration camps, she resists those who tried to break her and countless others.

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 16:12:17 UTC

I Am Alive is one of two books written by Kitty Hart-Moxon detailing her experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The other book, Return to Auschwitz, has a documentary based on it.

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 16:21:09 UTC

People had many questions about the tattoo that Kitty had gotten at Auschwitz of the number that was treated as her name. Kitty got so tired of people asking her if it was her boyfriend's phone number that she eventually got a plastic surgeon to simply cut it off her arm. After her mother died, Kitty did the same for her. Above is a picture of her mother's tattoo.

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 16:27:22 UTC

Kitty has given many speeches about her experiences with the Holocaust and her time at Auschwitz-Birkenau. She firmly believes that it is important that everyone knows exactly what happens, and continues to do everything she can to make sure that they do.

Auschwitz and After

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 16:30:28 UTC

In order to survive, Kitty and her mother had to separate from her father and join a group of Polish laborers who were forced to work in Germany. They were eventually betrayed by one of the other workers and sentenced to be executed for a number of crimes, including simply being Jewish. Their sentence changed, however, and they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a concentration camp, instead. Kitty was sixteen then. When she and her mother arrived, they were tattooed with the numbers that would be their new names. Kitty was now known as 39934. For months, she worked in hard labor and witnessed thousands of people being sent to their deaths. Eventually, Kitty and her mother were evacuated to another camp, but were later driven out, and she and hundreds of other women were forced to trek through the wilderness. Eventually, they made it to Trautenau, another concentration camp. Once there, they were loaded into rail cars. For six days and seven nights, they suffered through horrific conditions, many of them suffocating in the almost airtight cars. The few who survived the journey said that they would rather be shot than go back in. Soon after, they were finally liberated. At long last, that was the last they had seen of concentration camps. After a long struggle, Kitty and her mother were able to get jobs as interpreters for the US Forces, British Military Government, and then for Quaker Relief Teams. They spent a year and a half in Displaced Persons camps before, finally, they were given permits to go to the UK.

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 16:41:03 UTC

One Day in Auschwitz is a documentary where Kitty walks around the ruins of Auschwitz-Birkenau and tells two teenagers about what it was like to spend so much time there, and what it took to survive.

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 18:21:36 UTC

Kitty's mother, Rosa Felix, played a great role in Kitty's survival. Being a well-spoken woman, she was the one who convinced a priest to get them forged papers that led to them posing as Polish laborers. While in Auschwitz, she was able to get Kitty a job around the sick people, which was safer as far as jobs go. Kitty's mother had also been chosen to be evacuated, and she convinced a woman in charge to let Kitty be evacuated as well. Rosa was also a survivor of the Holocaust.

Quotes About What it was Like in Auschwitz

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 18:53:37 UTC

"In Auschwitz, the obedient prisoner who stuck to the rules lived for three to six weeks. Camp food could not sustain life for long. The camp soup was laced with a poison, a form of bromide."

"You had to search each one for valuables – gold, jewellery, currency. But to be found with a single valuable item was punishable by death. Any currency found was of no value to us and we used it as toilet paper. We ate from rotting piles of food that littered the place – though this was forbidden."

"You could see it in people's vacant expressions when they gave up – by the way they shuffled and stooped. You distanced yourself from these people, believing it was contagious. It was a ruthless place, the most unequal society in the world."

Why She was Important

crusha25 — 2025-04-19 19:36:43 UTC

The harsh truth is that the shadow of the Holocaust can never truly be gone. This is the reality of all the terrible things in the world. As long as they have existed, traces of them will remain for long after, like a stain that can never completely be washed out. Fortunately, the same is true about the impact those who resisted have made, and continue to make. People like Kitty Hart-Moxon, who continue to tell of how it was to survive this, are vital to the effort of preventing a second disaster like the Holocaust. Only once we truly realize the gravity of how horrible it was can we really stop it from happening again. It is largely due to Kitty’s effort that we know so much about the Holocaust today. Kitty was one of the first survivors to speak up about her experiences in Auschwitz, and she has provided a lot of information that the rest of the world would not have otherwise if it were not for her. Kitty has made a great impact on how accurately we remember the Holocaust, and we must remember it as accurately as possible. The Holocaust was devastating and undeniably hard to talk and learn about, but that is exactly why we must do so. Kitty continues to make a lasting impact on society because of the speeches she gave raising awareness about the horrors of the Holocaust, and this will continue to help us avoid another disaster like it in the future.

2025-04-19 22:04:09 UTC

This is a picture of Kitty with her brother Robert. Her brother didn't die fighting at Stalingrad.

Kitty In front of Auschwitz

2025-04-19 22:15:00 UTC

This is Kitty returning to Auschwitz (A killing camp) years after the holocaust ended.

Return to Auschwitz

2025-04-19 22:21:18 UTC

Return to Auschwitz is a book written by Kitty Hart Moxon. The book talks about what Kitty had to witness and go threw at this killing camp.

Before and after camp.

2025-04-19 23:02:12 UTC

Kitty was born on December 1st, 1926, in Beilsko Polan. She lived happily with her parents and older brother before the war. But after a few years, Kitty and the rest of her family fled from Lublin when the Germans invaded. When they got to Lublin, her family was forced into a Ghetto. Her dad soon realized they had to escape before the Ghetto was closed off. So the family, with the help of a nearby priest, made fake documents, making the family pose as Polish forced laborers. The family soon escaped but had to slip up for safety reasons, so Kitty went with her mother, and they were transported to Germany. Kitt and her mother started to work at IG Farben industrial concern in Bitterfeld, but were betrayed by a Polish worker and were imprisoned and sent to die. But on the day of their execution, the soldiers shot into the air, making an example of them and showing other prisoners what would happen if they didn't comply.