Mala Zimetbaum

2 Camp life
Zimetbaum spent nearly two years in Auschwitz-
Birkenau as Inmate No. 19880. Due to her prociency in
languages Dutch, French, German, Italian, and Polish
she was assigned work as an interpreter and courier.
Although she had a relatively privileged position, Zimet-
baum devoted herself to helping other inmates. She in-
terceded to have inmates sent to easier work when she
suspected they were not t for harder labor. She sneaked
photographs that inmates relatives had sent them out of
the les and to the inmates as they were not allowed to
have them in the camp. Zimetbaum also got food and
medicine for people in need, cheered people up, and en-
couraged them. She was trusted by sta and prisoners
alike.

3 Failed escape from Auschwitz-

Mala Zimetbaum Birkenau

Malka Zimetbaum, also known as Mala Zimet-

baum or Mala the Belgian (26 January 1918 - 15
September 1944), was a Belgian woman of Polish Jew-
ish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-
Birkenau concentration camp and the resistance she dis-
played at her execution following the escapes failure.

1 Early life and deportation

Mala Zimetbaum was born in Brzesko, Poland, the

youngest of ve children; during her childhood the family
relocated to Belgium. In school as a child, she excelled in
mathematics and languages.
At age 24, she was arrested in the third Antwerp raid
of 1112 September 1942 and sent to the Dossin Bar-
racks sammellager in Mechelen. On 15 September 1942
she was put aboard (Belgian) Transport 10 bound for the
Auschwitz concentration camp. After the initial Selek-
tion she was sent on to the womens camp at Birkenau.
Her registration number was 19880. Edward Edek Galiski

1
2 5 TESTIMONIAL ACCOUNT

A Pole, Edward Edek Galiski, who was in love with Galiski jumped into the noose before the verdict was
Zimetbaum, planned to escape from the camp with read, but the guards put him back on the platform. Gal-
his friend Wieslaw Kielar (Auschwitz survivor and au- iski then shouted something to the eect of Long Live
thor of autobiographical book Anus Mundi: 5 Years in Poland!" The word Poland caught in his throat because
Auschwitz[1] ). The plan fell through when Kielar lost a just then, a guard tipped the stool so that he could hang.
pair of SS guards uniform pants needed as a disguise for One person told all the other prisoners to take their hats
their escape. Galiski told his friend that he would es- o as a respect to Galiski and they all did, to the fury of
cape with Zimetbaum instead and would later nd a way one guard in particular.
to send the uniform back to Kielar for his subsequent es-
Meanwhile, Zimetbaum took a razor blade out of her hair
cape. and slit the veins on the inside of her elbows.
Zimetbaum wanted to escape so that she could inform the Accounts vary as to what happened next. Some people
Allies of what was going on at Auschwitz and thus save report she said they would soon be liberated. Others re-
lives. She is said by some sources to have been the head port she shouted at and slapped the guard, proclaiming
of a resistance group. that she was dying a hero while he would die a dog. Still
The plan was as follows: Galiski would dress up as an SS others state that she shouted at the assembled prisoners
guard and escort Zimetbaum through the perimeter gate, to revolt, that it was worth risking their life and if they
pretending he was escorting a prisoner to install a wash- died trying it was better than the situation they were in
basin. Zimetbaum would be carrying a large porcelain now in the camp. She slapped a guards face with her
washbasin in a way that hid her hair, so the guards they bloody hand and he grabbed her arm and broke it. The
passed would not know it was a woman he was escorting. camp sta jumped on her, knocking her to the ground,
Galiski would show them a forged pass, and they would and taped her mouth shut.
be let out. Zimetbaum would be wearing a pair of overalls
An SS ocer named Maria Mandel said that an order
over a dress that could pass for a mens shirt when insidefrom Berlin had come to burn Zimetbaum alive in the
the overalls. When they got far enough away, Zimetbaum
crematorium. They put her on a wheelbarrow and se-
would dump the washbasin, remove the overalls, and wear lected several prisoners from the front of the group of
the dress, and they would pretend to be an SS guard and
onlookers to take her to the nearby camp inrmary. The
his girlfriend on a walk. nurses bandaged her arms as slowly as possible, trying
The plan was put into action in June 1944, and the cou- to make her die as quickly as possible. Zimetbaum said
ple succeeded in escaping to a nearby town. After their weakly to the assembled prisoners, The day of reckoning
escape, Galiski hid nearby as Zimetbaum went into a is near.
store to try to buy some bread with gold she and Galiski On the way to the crematorium, Zimetbaum told the
had stolen from the camp. The passing German patrol women pulling the handcart she was on that she knew
became suspicious and arrested Zimetbaum. Galiski she could have survived, but she chose not to because she
watched from a distance as Zimetbaum was arrested. wanted to follow what she believed in.
Knowing she would be killed for the escape, he turned Accounts of her death dier. Some said she bled to death
himself in to the German patrol since they had promised on the cart. Others report that a guard took pity on her
not to separate.
and shot or poisoned her in the crematorium. Still others
Zimetbaum and Galiski were taken to Block 11 in the observe she had poison on her and took it before she could
main camp at Auschwitz, a punishment barracks known be burned alive.
as the Bunker, where they were placed in separate cells. The prisoners forced to cremate the corpses had been in-
Galiski was eventually put in a group cell with another formed that Zimetbaum was arriving, and they made spe-
man. Galiski scratched his and Zimetbaums names and cial preparations. They prayed and cried as they burned
camp numbers into the cell wall. A friendly guard passed her remains. The prisoners who had pulled the handcart
notes to them through a hole in the wall between the cell then went back to the barracks and told other prisoners
they were in and an empty one. Sometimes Galiski and what they had witnessed.
Zimetbaum would whistle to each other down the hall.
When outside for exercise, Galiski would stand near the
window he thought was Zimetbaums cell window and
sing an Italian aria. 5 Testimonial account
Information regarding Zimetbaum was made available to
4 Execution the public in the ocial testimony of Mrs Raya Kagan,
delivered on 8 June 1961, during Session 70 in the trial
[2]
Galiski and Zimetbaum were taken out to be executed of Adolf Eichmann, in Jerusalem.
at the same time, in the mens and womens camps, re- After World War II, little is known of the surviving mem-
spectively. bers of the Zimetbaum Hartman family. Zimetbaums
 3

siblings, Gitla, Marjem, and Salomon Rubin, survived the
Nazi Holocaust. It is also known that Gitla migrated to
and died in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and that her direct de-
scendants are all aware of Zimetbaums legacy.
6 Sources
Captured SS deportation les for Belgium as well as
numerous photographs and personal records. Jew-
ish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, Docu-
mentation Centre. Mechelen, Belgium.
Love in the Shadow of Death. Episodes from
Auschwitz. The story of Edek and Malas escape
from Auschwitz presented as a graphic history.
Mala Zimetbaum at Find a Grave
Tragic Love at Auschwitz: The love story be-
tween Mala Zimetbaum and Edek Galinski together
with their eventual failed escape from Auschwitz.
Google Cultural Institute.

Der erste Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess. Fritz

Bauer-Institute (in German). Berlin. 2004.

Gutman, Israel (1990). Mala Zimetbaum.

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (in Hebrew). New
York: Macmillan. 4: 1037.

Huber, Grard (2006). Prface de Simone Veil.

Book Review: Mala. Une femme juive hroique dans
le camp d'Auschwitz-Birkenau (in French) (ditions
du Rocher ed.). ISBN 2-268-05863-8.

Sichelschmidt, Lorenz (1995). Mala. Ein Leben und

eine Liebe in Auschwitz (in German). Bremen. ISBN
3-924444-89-7.

7 References
[1] Kielar, Wieslaw (November 1980). Anus Mundi: 1,500
Days in Auschwitz/Birkenau (1st ed.). Times Books;.
ISBN 978-0812909210.

[2] Ocial Testimony of Mrs. Raya Kagan. Transcripts of

the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, Session 70. Jerusalem. June
8, 1961.

8 External links
Mala Zimetbaum. Holocaust Survivors and Re-
membrance Project: Forget You Not.

Sichelschmidt, Lorenz. Mala - A Fragment of a

Life. ideajournal.

Esrati, Stephen G. Malas Last Words. ideajour-

nal.

Bios. Women of Valor: Partisans and Resistance

Fighters.

Online Multimedia Learning Center. Museum of

Tolerance.

Sichelschmidt, Lorenz. Companion photographs

of Mala Zimetbaum. ideajournal.com.
4 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text
Mala Zimetbaum Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mala_Zimetbaum?oldid=748949809 Contributors: IZAK, Davidcannon,
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