[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 145 (Friday, October 7, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUSCHWITZ-BIRKENAU UPRISING AND THE HEROISM 
                             OF ROSA ROBOTA

  Mr. COATS. Madam. President 50 years ago today on October 7, 1944, a 
little-known but important event occurred.
  One that day, a group of sonderkommands--prisoners who fueled the 
crematoria at Auschwitz with human corpses--rose up against their Nazi 
oppressors in open revolt. The crematorium was blown up, several Nazi 
guards were killed and, as a result, hundreds of prisoners managed to 
escape.
  Madam President, while most people believe that the Jewish people in 
the camps of Nazi Germany went docilely to their deaths like lambs to 
the slaughter, truth is that many, including many heroic Jewish women, 
fought back courageously and, with great ingenuity, used every weapon 
at their disposal.
  In this case, four courageous women, led by 20-year-old Rosa Robota, 
stole minute quantities of gunpowder over the course of many months 
from the camp factory where they worked as slave laborers. From these 
small pilferings, which were passed on to the camp underground, 
primitive grenades were constructed and used in the uprising.
  For these acts, Rosa and her three companions, Ester Wajcblum, Ala 
Gertner, and Regina Safirztajn, were indescribably tortured for weeks 
by the camp Gestapo. Yet they revealed nothing about the other members 
of the underground.
  On January 6, 1945, all four were murdered in the last public hanging 
to occur before the Nazi camps were liberated by the Allies.
  Madam President, I wish to commemorate the heroism of Rosa Robota and 
her companions, and of all those who participated in the uprising at 
Auschwitz.
  While the event happened 50 years ago, it is important that we 
remember, and our children recognize, the terrible evil that was the 
Holocaust, so that they will have the courage to counter malevolence 
wherever it appears.
  Madam President, I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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