Mala cinnamon tree

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Mala cinnamon tree

Malka ("Mala") Zimetbaum (born January 26, 1918 in Brzesko , Austria-Hungary ; died September 15, 1944 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a Belgian Jew of Polish origin and resistance fighter in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , where she was murdered in 1944 .

Life

Mala Zimetbaum was born as the daughter of Pinkas and Chaya Zimetbaum in southern Poland , but grew up in Belgium , where her family moved in the 1920s. She was the youngest of five siblings. In Antwerp , where the family finally settled in 1928, she joined a Jewish organization as a youth. Even during her studies she worked because her blind father could no longer support the family; first she worked in the fashion industry, then as a translator for a jeweler.

In Auschwitz

After the German occupation of Belgium in May 1940 , Mala and her family went underground. On July 22, 1942 she was on the Gestapo arrested and initially to Fort Breendonk , then the transit camp Mechelen spent (Malines) before it in September 1942 after Auschwitz deported where they have the prisoner number received 19,880th She survived the selection and was sent to the Birkenau women's camp , where she was used as an interpreter (i.e. in a relatively privileged position) and also did office work because of her multiple language skills - she spoke German, French, Dutch, Italian and Polish. One of her tasks was to assign prisoners who were released from the prisoner infirmary as healthy to work details, and to warn sick prisoners of impending selections. A fellow prisoner who survived Auschwitz and who testified as a witness in the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial in 1964 described her in court as follows:

“Well, I've known Mala Zimetbaum since 42. That was an extraordinary personality, this young woman. Because she had a good post, and unlike the others who wielded that power, she was good, compassionate, always helped everyone, and looked at like an angel. [She was very aware] what the situation of the Jews in the camp means. And we were told that their escape with a Pole named Edek was not a normal escape. "

Edek Galiński
A plaque in Antwerp

The last sentence alludes to the fact that Mala, who did not take advantage of the advantages offered to her over the other prisoners and who had the trust of her fellow inmates, played an important role in the camp resistance. On June 24, 1944, she fled Auschwitz together with her Polish lover, the “ political prisoner ” Edek Galiński, disguised in an SS uniform, trying to smuggle out lists of deportees to which she had access, around the world to inform of the events in Auschwitz. But on July 6, she was caught with Edek on the border with Slovakia , brought back to Auschwitz in Block 11 and, after intensive interrogation by the Political Department, sentenced to death by hanging because of her attempt to escape . Nonetheless, she was subsequently locked in the punishment bunker, where she was badly mistreated, including by Wilhelm Boger . Nevertheless, as one of the inmates recounted in retrospect, her demeanor was strong and composed:

“And the mala herself came to us in the little barracks. And then I was able to talk to her. And she was proud and calm. And how they were asked, 'How are you Mala?' she said: 'I'm always fine', although she knew what her end would be. "

Her planned execution on September 15, 1944 was staged as an example by the camp administration; General roll call was ordered for the entire women's camp to be executed. But Mala had secretly obtained razor blades and managed to use them to open her wrists just before the execution. When an SS guard took the blades away from her, she hit him in the face with her bleeding hands and shouted: “I will die as a heroine, you will die like a dog!” The symbolism of the scene is very strong because it was now stuck to the face the Nazi's blood, as well as on his hands. As a result, Mala was brutally mistreated, beaten and kicked by the guards, who were maddened by this act of self-confident resistance by a Jewish woman. At the same time the order was issued to burn them alive in the crematorium. A fellow inmate reports:

“Then she was led around the camp and thrown into a small box. When she was brought to the crematorium in the box, she passed our office door. It was just a lump. She just groaned. "

Eyewitnesses unanimously report that, contrary to orders, Mala found death before she was cremated: some claim that an SS man had previously shot her out of pity; Others say that she was still bleeding to death on the cart in which she was being dragged to the crematorium; According to another version, she was able to take her own life through poison that she was carrying with her.

Survival

In 2002 in Athens , the Musical "Μάλα. Η μουσική του ανέμου “(Eng .: Mala, The Music of the Wind ) premiered by Nikos Karvelas , which deals with the love story between Mala Zimetbaum and Edek Galiński. Anna Vissi played the main role .

On February 9, 2007, the play Mala Zementbaum by Armin Petras and Thomas Lawinky premiered at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, which poetically picks up on the life story of Mala, albeit strongly alienated.

swell

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of birth after Auschwitz trial , p. 775 f .; deviating there is also “16. January ”and“ 1922 ”respectively.
  2. ↑ Auschwitz Trial , p. 13862.
  3. ↑ Auschwitz Trial , p. 13895.
  4. ↑ Auschwitz Trial , p. 13863.
  5. ↑ Auschwitz Trial , p. 13864.
  6. ↑ Waltraud Schwab: On the 100th birthday of Mala Zimetbaum: The heroine of Auschwitz. In: taz.de . January 26, 2018, accessed September 15, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Sofsky : The order of terror. The concentration camp. Frankfurt / Main 1993, pp. 254, 367.
  8. ↑ Auschwitz Trial , p. 19448.
  9. ↑ “Μάλα, Η Μουσική Του Ανέμου” Νίκου Καρβέλα, με την Άννα Βίσση - Ανεπίσημη Ιστοσελίδα. (No longer available online.) Homepage of the musical, archived from the original on October 29, 2007 ; Retrieved September 15, 2019 (Greek). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geocities.com
  10. ↑ Eberhard Spreng: “Mala Zementbaum” - Armin Petras and Thomas Lawinky wrote a piece together. In: Deutschlandfunk broadcast “Culture Today”. February 10, 2007, accessed September 15, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Cinnamon tree, mala
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zimetbaum, Malka (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1918 or January 26, 1918 or 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Brzesko , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH September 15, 1944
Place of death Auschwitz , occupied Poland