Mala Zimetbaum

Mala Zimetbaum

Malka Zimetbaum, also known as "Mala" Zimetbaum or "Mala the Belgian" (January 26, 1922, Brzesko - September 15, 1944, KZ Auschwitz), was a young Belgian woman of Polish Jewish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp and the resistance she displayed at her execution following the escape's failure.

Early life and deportation

Mala Zimetbaum was born in Poland, the youngest of 5 children. In her childhood the family relocated to Belgium. In school as a child, she excelled in mathematics and languages. She was arrested in the third Antwerp raid of 11–12 September 1942 and sent to the Dossin Barracks sammellager in Mechelen. She was 20.

On 15 September 1942 she was put aboard (Belgian) Transport 10 bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp. After the initial Selektion she was sent on to the women's camp at Birkenau. Her registration number was 19880.

Camp life

She spent nearly two years in Auschwitz-Birkenau as Inmate No. 19880. Due to her proficiency in languages – French, Dutch, German, Polish, and Italian – she was assigned work as an interpreter and courier.

While she herself had a relatively privileged position, she devoted herself to helping other inmates. She interceded to have inmates sent to easier work when she suspected they were not fit for harder work. She sneaked photographs that inmates' relatives had sent them out of the files and to the inmates as they were not allowed to have them in the camp. Mala also got food and medicine for people in need, cheered people up and encouraged them. She was also trusted by staff and prisoners alike.

Failed escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau

Edward Galinski

A Pole, Edward "Edek" Galiński, who was in love with Mala, planned to escape from the camp with his friend Wieslaw Kielar, (Auschwitz survivor and author of autobiographical novel 5 Years in Auschwitz). The plan fell through when Kielar lost a pair of SS guard's uniform pants needed as a disguise for their escape. Edek told his friend that he would escape with Mala instead, and would later find a way to send the uniform back to Kielar for his subsequent escape.

Mala wanted to escape so that she could inform the Allies of what was going on at Auschwitz and thus save lives. She is said by some sources to have been the head to a resistance group.

The plan was as follows: Edek would dress up as the SS guard and escort Mala through the perimeter gate, pretending that he was escorting a prisoner to install a washbasin. Mala would be carrying a large porcelain washbasin in a way that hid her hair, so that the guards they passed would not know it was a woman he was escorting. Edek would show them a forged pass and they would be let out. Mala would be wearing a pair of overalls over a dress that could pass for a men's shirt when inside the overalls. When they got far enough away, Mala would dump the washbasin, remove the overalls and wear the dress, and they would pretend to be an SS guard and his girlfriend on a walk.

The plan was put into action in June 1944, and the couple succeeded in escaping to a nearby town. After their escape, Edek hid nearby as Mala went into a store to try to buy some bread with gold she and Edek had stolen from the camp. The passing German patrol became suspicious and arrested Mala. Edek watched from a distance as Mala was arrested.

Knowing she would be killed for the escape, he turned himself in to the German patrol since they had promised not to separate.

Mala and Edek were taken to Block 11 in the main camp at Auschwitz, a punishment barracks known as "the Bunker," where they were placed in separate cells. Edek was eventually put in a group cell with another man. Edek scratched his and Mala's names and camp numbers into the cell wall. A friendly guard passed notes to them through a hole in the wall between the cell they were in and an empty one. Sometimes Edek and Mala would whistle to each other down the hall. When outside for exercise, Edek would stand near the window he thought was Mala's cell window and sing an Italian aria.

Execution

Edek and Mala were taken out to be executed at the same time, in the men's and women's camp respectively.

Edek jumped into the noose before the verdict was read, but the guards put him back on the platform. Edek then shouted something to the effect of "Long Live Poland," the "Poland" catching in his throat because just then, a guard tipped the stool so that he could hang. One person told all the other prisoners to take their hats off as a respect to Edek and they all did, to the fury of one guard in particular.

Meanwhile, Mala took a razor blade out of her hair and slit the veins on the inside of her elbows.

Accounts vary as to what happened next: Some people say she said that they would soon be liberated. Some say she shouted at the guard she slapped that she was dying a hero while he would die a dog. Some say that she shouted at the assembled prisoners to revolt, that it was worth risking their life for and that if they died trying it was better than the situation they were in now in the camp. She slapped a guard's face with her bloody hand and he grabbed her arm and broke it. The camp staff jumped on her, knocking her to the ground, and taped her mouth shut.

An SS officer named Maria Mandel said that an order from Berlin had come to burn Mala alive in the crematorium. They put her on a wheelbarrow and selected several prisoners from the front of the group of onlookers to take her to the nearby camp infirmary. The nurses bandaged her arms as slowly as possible, trying to make her die as quickly as possible. Mala said weakly to the assembled prisoners, "The day of reckoning is near".

On the way to the crematorium, Mala told the women pulling the handcart she was on that she knew she could have survived, but she chose not to because she wanted to follow what she believed in.

Accounts of her death differ. Some said she bled to death on the cart. Some say a guard took pity on her and shot or poisoned her in the crematorium. Some say she had poison on her and took it before she could be burned alive.

The prisoners forced to cremate the corpses had been informed that Mala was arriving, and they made special preparations. They prayed and cried as they burned her remains. The prisoners who had pulled the handcart then went back to the barracks and told other prisoners what they had witnessed.

Testimonial account

Information regarding Mala Zimetbaum was made available to the public in the official testimony of Mrs Raya Kagan, delivered on June 8, 1961, during Session 70 in the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

After World War II, little is known of the surviving members of the Zimetbaum Hartman family. Mala's siblings, Gitla, Marjem and Salomon Rubin, survived the Nazi holocaust. It is also known that Gitla migrated and died in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and that her direct descendants are all aware of Mala's legacy.

Mala, the musical

Inspired by the real story of Mala, famous Greek composer Nikos Karvelas composed the musical Mala - I Mousiki Tou Anemou (Mala, Music Of The Wind), with Greek superstar Anna Vissi on the part of Mala.

"Mala" was originally put on stage on January 19, 2002 starring Anna Vissi. Nikos Karvelas was the inspiration and creator of the whole play. His goal was to give a true representation of the concept that for so many he had in his mind, after traveling for many years and reading and studying historical work. The final result was a triumph and a completely "different" Karvelas was vindicated by the long queues outside Pallas theatre.

In the performance, Anna Vissi was surrounded by 60 more distinguished actors (amongst them: Leonidas Kakouris, Aias Manthopoulos, Katerina Didaskalou, Elena Tirea, Stavros Giagoulis, Mihalis Anthis, Zoi Nalpandi, Elpida Braoudaki, Panos Metaxopoulos, Stelios Nikolaidis, Niki Palikaraki, Eleni Georgy, Alberto Eskenazi) and an orchestra of 40. Mala is the largest theatrical production ever in Greece. The Greek audience had the opportunity to watch a performance with all the elements of a superproduction, something that till then one only had the privilege to experience abroad. Mala is about a true love story, which takes place during World War II.

Initially, a CD single of Mala was released in Greece and Cyprus, containing four tracks, which went gold in Greece and platinum in Cyprus, and later the complete album of the soundtrack was released containing 27 tracks, all written and produced by Nikos Karvelas himself, while the orchestration/instrumentation was done by Giorgos Niarhos. It was certified double platinum.

Sources

• Fritz Bauer-Institute, Der erste Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess, Berlin 2004 (web resource, in German).
• Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance, Documentation Centre, Mechelen, Belgium [1] The museum holds the captured SS deportation files for Belgium as well as numerous photographs and personal records.

References

• Gutman, Israel, Mala Zimetbaum, in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, New York: Macmillan (1990), vol.4, p. 1037 (Hebrew edition)
• Gérard Huber: Mala. Une femme juive héroique dans le camp d'Auschwitz-Birkenau. Préface de Simone Veil. Éditions du Rocher, 2006 ISBN 2268058638 (in French) [2] Book Review (in French)
• Lorenz Sichelschmidt: Mala. Ein Leben und eine Liebe in Auschwitz. Bremen, 1995, ISBN 3924444897 (in German)

External links

• Mala Zimetbaum from Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"
• Mala - A Fragment of a Life by Lorenz Sichelschmidt
• Mala's Last Words by Stephen G. Esrati
• Women of Valor: Partisans and Resistance Fighters
• Museum of Tolerance: Online Multimedia Learning Center
• Companion photographs - by Lorenz Sichelschmidt at www.ideajournal.com Photographs of Mala Zimetbaum
• Episodes from Auschwitz: Love in the Shadow of Death. The story of Edek and Mala's escape from Auschwitz presented as a graphic history.

Persondata
Name	Zimetbaum, Mala
Alternative names
Short description	Belgian Jew Resistance member
Date of birth	January 26, 1922
Place of birth
Date of death	1944
Place of death	Auschwitz concentration camp