Auschwitz Woman Stripped Naked and About to be Gassed Kills SS Guard

De-classified report documenting atrocities at Auschwitz

Incident #48
Informant remembers that in ‘Nov 43 there occurred the celebrated incident when a notorious S.S. SCHARTFUEHLER, SCHILLINGER, one of the worst murderers and henchmen in BIRKENHAU, was shot dead with his own revolver by a French Jewish actress who had already been stripped naked and was about to be gassed.  Incidentally, informant states that men in the KWARANTENENLAGER were able to witness the almost daily spectacle of open lorry loads of naked women who were being carried from the adjacent FRAUENLAGER for liquidation in the gas chambers.

In May 31, 1945, a 33 year-old Polish man told British intelligence about a  Jewish woman’s final act of resistance in the undressing room of crematorium II in Birkenau, the antechamber to the gas chamber.  In November 1943, the woman, stripped naked and about to be sent to the gas chambers, realized the danger she was in.  She seized the pistol of the SS soldier, Josef Schillinger, and shot him dead.  She shot another SS soldier, Wilhelm Emmerich.  The SS suppressed the mutiny and killed all the women.

The woman is believed to be a French actress named Franceska Mann, although this hasn’t been positively verified.  This brave act of resistance was discovered by The Archive Muckrakers,  who obtained a copy of a rarely viewed 10 page report, which was found in a U.S. Army intelligence file and was declassified in 2010.  There is a slightly more detailed description of this account at the Auschwitz-Birkenau website.

Yesterday , January 27, was Holocaust Remembrance Day.  It was on this day in 1945 that Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Soviet forces. My husband’s uncle, who died last year, was a Holocaust survivor.   The number 128103 was tattooed on his left arm by the Nazis.  He participated in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and was imprisoned at three concentration camps – Madjanek, Auschwitz.  He was liberated from Buchenwald.

This April 19, 2012, when I light a candle for Yom Hashoah, I will also be thinking about Franceska Mann, a brave tragic actress, and the millions of innocent people lost and the millions of descendents who were never to be.