Hela Felenbaum-Weiss

Hela Felenbaum-Weiss , née Felenbaum (born January 2, 1924 in Lublin , Poland , † 1988 in Gedera , Israel ), was one of the seven women who survived the Sobibór extermination camp in Poland. After the Sobibór uprising , she first joined the partisans and received military awards for her participation in the battles with the Red Army in World War II .

Escape

Hela Felenbaum-Weiss arrived in Sobibor on December 20, 1942 on a horse-drawn carriage. There she pretended to be a knowledgeable laundry ironer during the “selection” in front of the gas chambers and was then employed in the laundry sorting barracks. There she had to sort the murdered woman's laundry from the gas chambers. She also worked in the knitting room and had to darn socks, but also iron and wash laundry. She also had to work in the garden for growing flowers for the SS men .

Felenbaum-Weiss fled with two other women ( Zelda Metz-Kelbermann and Estera Raab ) from the camp during the uprising on October 14, 1943. She joined the partisans and was awarded the Medal of Bravery and the Red Star. She received five other awards from the Red Army from October 1, 1944 to May 8, 1945 for her participation in battles during the Second World War.

Next life

She married a soldier in Czechoslovakia . Together with her husband she emigrated to Israel, where she became the mother of three children.

literature

• Jules Schelvis : Sobibór extermination camp. Unrast, Hamburg, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-89771-814-6 .

Web links

• Testimony of Hela Felenbaum-Weiss (1968) transcribed by Miriam Novitch, Haus der Ghettokkampf (English; accessed on October 22, 2009)
• Survivors of the death camp Sobibór (English)

Individual evidence