999, page 37
127 “If you have some scarves . . .”: Malvina Kornhauser née Gold (Mira). USC
128 “drat-maimed world”: Schwalbova, p. 204.
128 “This was not human”: Edith.
130 Lia decided to go on a hunger strike: Ibid.
130 “personal protest of girls . . .”: Ibid.
131 Jolana Grünwald’s and Marta Korn’s names: AU “Death Books,” Sterbebücher. We analyzed the original list and created our database comparing the death records at both Yad Vashem and Auschwitz in 2014. It is possible that additional records have been discovered since then.
131 The destruction of the women’s: Despite repeated attempts to find the women’s camp Auschwitz death records through Ravensbrück Archives and Museum, there do not seem to be any comprehensive record of women’s deaths, as per Danuta Czech’s research.
132 2,977 prisoners died in March: 580 were Russian POWs. Czech, p. 151.
132 the total camp population: 1,305 were Russian POWs. Czech, p. 131.
132 “August 15, 1942 . . .”: Czech, p. 157.
Chapter Fourteen
133 “one girl, Ruzena Gross . . .”: Margaret Rosenberg (Becker), USC. Ruzena Gross was twenty-six years old and from Humenné. She died on October 18, 1942. All “Death Books” Sterbebücher, kept by the political department in camp, were only “partially preserved.” This forty-six-volume record consists of sixty-nine thousand “prisoners who were registered in the camp and who died between July 29, 1941 and December 31, 1943.” Those prisoners’ names can be found on the Auschwitz prisoner digital data base on the museum website. In 2014, we typed in every girl’s name from the March 25, 1942 Poprad list found at Yad Vashem into the Auschwitz and Yad Vashem databases.
134 the daughter of one of Humenné’s rabbis: Margaret Rosenberg (Becker), USC.
136 “I love the Lord . . .”: Psalm 116: 1–2.
137 On Easter Sunday: Czech, p. 153.
Chapter Fifteen
139 Stefánia Gregusová: “Forged Document,” YV.
139 Bertel Teege was told: Helm, p. 185.
140 There is scientific evidence: fetal maternal microchimerism was discovered in the 2000s. Multiple sources inform this section: Martone, Scientific America; Zimmer, New York Times; and Yong, National Geographic.
140 Take the bamboo plant: Zimmer, National Geographic; and Biswas, Frontiers in Plant Science.
141 “it was snowing”: Linda Breder (Reich), USC.
141 It took fifty girls: Tsiporah Tehori (Helena Citron), USC Shoah Testimony No. #33749.
142 “If you were too careful . . .”: Magda Blau (Hellinger) p. 20.
145 “We will have a vacation . . .”: Irena Ferenick (Fein), USC.
Chapter Sixteen
147 There was a price to pay: Pavol Mešan, interviews with the author.
147 The first transport had not: Jarny; also: When asked at his trial why he had sacked Konka, Alexander Mach replied “for health reasons.” However, Dieter Wisliceny, Eichmann’s lieutenant, whose job was
adviser on the Jewish question in Slovakia, testified in 1946 that “as far as I know, Konka was unexpectedly removed. He was allegedly implicated in some corruption affairs, and investigations were still pending.” Rajcan.
149 výnimka: based on the actual výnimka for the Stein family in Žilina, dated “25.VII.1942” and signed by Anton Vasek, Chief of the Jewish Department 14, “King of the Jews,” provided by a grandson of Stein of family survivors, Peter Svitak.
149 about four hundred: Šimkuli, p. 117.
150 He asked Mr. Baldovsky: It is not confirmed, but it seems likely that the Gross family would have also asked Mr. Baldovsky to rescue Adela, as well. The families knew each other well and were very close. Edith Grosman, interview with the author, 8 Jan. 2018.
153 Edith and Lea must: Edith Grosman, interview with the author, 8 Jan. 2018.
155 “I stole everything”: Edith Valo (Friedman), USC Shoah Testimony No. 17457.
157 The last in the row: Prisoners confirm that the dead women were counted. That data does not seem to have survived the war.
158 With the job of selecting women: Mauer testimony and Helm, p. 189.
158 being sent to the “sanatorium”: Mauer testimony.
158 By the end of April: Czech, p. 161; Posmysz, Zofia, was #7566, a gentile from Oswiecim who was arrested for handing out pamphlets against the Nazis. She was interned in Auschwitz in June 1942. Her memoir is a powerful testament of gentile prisoners.
160 “For the Families Who . . .”: Linda Breder (Reich), USC Shoah.
160 By now, some of the girls: Irena Ferenick (Fein), USC Shoah.
Chapter Seventeen
162 “began to curse the fact . . .”: Bauer, cited in IFZ, MA 650/1, T75–517 German Imteligence Report, April 1942
163 Suzie Hegy: Born in 1924, and eighteen years old when she was deported on May 28, 1942 to Lublin. Source: YV, document archives No. 12013.
163 By April 29, 1942: Czech, pp. 148–60 (Please note, Czech cites 999 young women on the first “official” Jewish transport, I have amended that with the correct number of 997.)
163 the knots in the wood: Mauer.
164 after fifteen minutes: Helm, p. 189. Czech, “By the end of April 1942, there were 14,624 men in Auschwitz: 3,479 Slovak Jews; 1,112 French Jews; 287 Czech Jews and 186 Russian POWs—the other 9,560 were gentile and political prisoners, for the most part,” p. 161.
164 Between May 5 and 12: Gilbert, pp. 45–46.
164 “looking pale and disturbed”: Helm, p. 189.
164 Meanwhile, in Slovakia: Jarny.
165 “It is the basic principle . . .”: Vrba, p. 52
165 The atmosphere in the... gallery: WL and Kamenec, pp. 127–28.
165 “Slovak Jews worked happily . . .”: Ibid.
165 Over the next few months: Dr. Pavol Mešan, interview with the author, and Kamenec.
168 “There was something funny . . .”: All the women on that transport with Vrba were separated from the men at the concentration camp of Majdanek (Lublin, Poland) and sent on to Bełec, where they were gassed with the fumes of exhaust pipes and their bodies burned in open trenches. “Crematoriums were still in the blueprint stage.” Vrba, pp. 52–55.
168 “I saw heart-wrenching misery . . .”: Jarny, “Tiso was hanged in 1946, in spite of protests from the Vatican and from the U.S.”
Chapter Eighteen
171 “The Wine of Solitude”: Irène Némirovsky was a French author whose manuscript Suite française was posthumously discovered by her daughter, Denise Epstein, and published 64 years after her mother was deported to Auschwitz. On July 11, 1942, she wrote in her diary: “The pine trees all around me. I am sitting on my blue cardigan in the middle of an ocean of leaves, wet and rotting from last night’s storm, as if I were on a raft, my legs tucked under me! . . . My friends the bumblebees, delightful insects, seem pleased with themselves and their buzzing is profound and grave . . . In a moment or so I will try to find the hidden lake.” She was arrested moments later. Irène Némirovsky died in Birkenau on August 17, 1942.
171 on the Fourth of July: The Nazis loved to use important dates for their actions, as I have noted Jewish holidays were especially dangerous. I noted this because I find it ironic that the anniversary of America’s independence coincided with the first selection on the unloading platform.
Czech also notes here that “by August 15, 1942, only 69 of the men are still alive; within six weeks, more than two thirds of the men die.”
171 “Old people, children . . .”: Schwalbova, p. 207, and Czech, “the women were tattooed 8389–8496; the men 44727–44990,” p. 192.
172 Gertrude Franke and Helene Ott: Elling, p. 137 and Mauer testimony.
172 “Once the Jewish transports . . .”: Höss.
Chapter Nineteen
This chapter derives its information from survivor testimonies: Edith, Helena, the kapos Luise Mauer and Bertel Teege, and the excellent work of Sara Helm in her book Ravensbrück.
175 “crazy conditions”: Edith.
177 “Your brother is no longer alive!”: Aron Citron arrived in Auschwitz on June 30, 1942, with 400 other men who had been transferred from Lublin. Czech notes at the bottom of page 189 in Auschwitz Chronicle that by “August 15, 1942, i.e., 61/2 weeks later, only 208 of them are still alive. About half of the deportees, 192, die.” Helena uses the name Moshe in her USC Shoah testimony, but in the Auschwitz death records it was her brother Aron Citron (#43934) who is listed as having died on July 25, 1942. He was eighteen years old.
178 day that Himmler visited: compiled from Longerich, Helm, and Czech, p. 198.
178 at roll call the next morning: Multiple witness testimony has been compiled from: Joan Weintrab (Rosner), Linda Breder (Reich), Edith Grosman, and the kapos Bertel Teege and Luise Mauer.
179 Pointing to her five assistants: Mauer testimony. Mauer was not released until the end of 1943, Czech, p. 199.
181 twenty Jehovah’s Witnesses: Czech p. 199.
181 Höss repeatedly complained: Helm, p. 238.
181 “vent their evil on prisoners”: Ibid.
182 At the end of the day: cited in Czech, APMO/ Höss Trial, vol. 6, p. 85 and pp. 237–38; Höss diary, p. 199.
Chapter Twenty
184 the equivalent of 319 football fields: The size of Birkenau is 171 hectares (422 acres), Auschwitz Museum.
185 green wooden barracks: AU, Block 22B memories, testimony of Anna Tytoniak (#6866).
185 During the transfer: Czech, p. 211.
188 “It was just horrible . . .”: Linda Breder (Reich), USC Shoah.
188 New arrivals suffering: Edith Grosman, interviews with the author; and Bertha Lautman (née Berkowitz), USC.
188 “Many committed suicide . . .”: Edith Grosman, ibid.
Chapter Twenty-one
189 The town of Holí: Holí.
190 “People ask if what is happening . . .”: Ward.
190 “They don’t look embarrassed to death”: Fialu, 7 November 1942.
190 One gentile pensioner: SNA.
191 On the same day that President Tiso: Czech, pp. 217–18.
191 at least twenty-two women: YV, Czechoslovakian Documents Archive No. 12013.
191 As eighteen-year-old Frida Benovicova: Rena Kornreich reported the first selection in her memoir Rena’s Proimse. In 2017, Frida and Helena’s posthumous niece, Eva Langer, made a connection between the story in Rena’s memoir and the story that had been smuggled out of camp by someone who knew the girls and also witnessed their selection in the first prisoner selection in the women’s camp.
Chapter Twenty-two
193 “rats like large cats”: AU, Block 22B memories, testimony of Anna Tytoniak (#6866).
196 Juana Bormann: Gelissen.
199 eight-year-old nephew, Milan: Museum of Jewish Heritage, collection: 2000.A.368
199 “Some even wore stockings”: Edith.
200 “the most important thing . . .”: Höss.
200 “flinched from nothing”: Ibid.
200 Being granted a functionary position: Functionaries who survived often kept their experiences in the camps and their positions a secret so they would not be ostracized after the war. Survivors who emigrated to Israel and had worked as functionaries were especially careful.
201 “hard and indifferent armor”: Schwalbova, p. 206.
Chapter Twenty-three
203 On September 2: Czech, “Of the 1,000 men, women, and children on the transport from Drancy, France, that arrived on Sept 2, 1942, 12 men and 27 women are registered into camp.” p. 232.
204 “not quite alive”: Isabella Leitner, quoted in Shik, p. 5.
204 “the spirit God breathed . . .”: Gelissen, p. 139.
204 “They were all driven . . .”: Kremer, Krakow Auschwitz Trial, cited in Czech, p. 233.
205 a perfect storm for an epidemic: Raoult Didier, Max Maurin, M.D., Ph.D.
205 “In Auschwitz, whole streets”: Kremer diaries quoted in Czech, pp. 230–37.
205 “The girls’ camp suffered the most . . .”: This section compiles information from Rudolf Vrba, p. 361, Manci Schwalbova, p. 208, and Joan Weintrab (Rosner), USC Shoah.
206 The ill and dying: Manci Schwalbova p. 204.
208 by October, Jews would not be allowed: Ibid.
210 By the end of Sukkot: Ibid., with Czech: Block 25 was the Jewish hospital ward.
Chapter Twenty-four
216 Selections were “all the time”: Edith.
Chapter Twenty-five
216 Epigraph: Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, Block 22b—Memories.
216 “mother camp”: Term given by Rudolf Vrba in his memoir.
217 every day, new girls: Vrba.
219 And here the story divides: As with many of the testimonies, dates are often confused. There was no calendar for prisoners to refer to, and as the years pass, the personal narratives sometimes have mistakes in their chronology—that does not make the testimony inaccurate, it usually means the incident happened at a different time. It still happened.
221 He had one leg shorter: Eta Zimmerspitz Neuman (#1756), interview with the author.
221 “According to their mood . . .”: Edith Grosman, interviews with the author.
Chapter Twenty-Six
224 Within eight weeks: Dr. Pavol Mešan, interview with the author.
225 “deeply interfere[d] with state finances”: Kamenec and Bauer.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
232 On December 1, 1942: Czech. On December 1, 1942 “the occupancy level of the women’s camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau is 8,232,” but on that same day women are being tattooed 26,273–26,286—where had they all gone? Over six thousand women and girls had been selected over the three days of selections in October, but there were no solid population tallies at month’s end, and selections continued to take their toll on the population, as did the epidemics of typhus, meningitis, and murder.
232 “deep Kabbalistic significance”: Rabbi David Adler, email correspondence.
233 “humanity through the act of rest”: The irony is that the camps were designed to work prisoners to death under the banner of “Work Makes One Free,” a lie for Jewish prisoners. Rabbi David Wirtschafter.
234 “There is no God”: quoted in Rudolf Vrba, pp. 171–72.
234 “world without fighting . . .”: Ibid.
235 “Chickens meant more than people”: Marta Marek née Mangel, family archives.
236 The next morning: Linda Breder (Reich), USC.
Chapter Twenty-eight
239 A holiday card: The Jewish History Museum Document Archive Collections: 2000.A.371.
240 Herman Hertzka: YV, Image nos. 17–18.
241 “January 1, 1943 . . .”: Museum of Jewish Heritage, Collection No. 2000.A.382.
241 “You certainly received our card . . .”: Museum of Jewish Heritage, NY, 2000.A.382
243 Transmetatarsal amputation: Adam, Frankel. Irena Fein never mentions the amputation in her personal testimony. After liberation, she and Edith were on the soccer field in Humenné. They were barefoot, and Edith asked her what happened to her toes. This was the story Irena told.
Chapter Twenty-nine
A collection of testimonies from Edie F. Valo (#1949), her sister Ella F. Rutman (#1950), Joan Rosner (#1188), Sara Bleich, Ria Hans, Manci Schwalbova, and Edith (#1970).
253 “We are writing you every 10 days . . .”: Museum of Jewish Heritage, collection: 2000.A.377.
253 “My dears, / First I would like . . .”: YV, record O.75, file 770. Image: 67; text: 4.
254 the latest transport from Greece: Czech, p. 356.
254 “We congratulate your birthday!”: Edith is one of the survivors who remembers Helena being in the white kerchiefs in 1942, which means Helena’s first day was not on Franz Wunsch’s birthday on March 21, 1943. She was already working there and in love with him by then. Since it is likely that she sang to him on more than one occasion, I have written this scene based on her testimony that she sang to him on his birthday. The kapos and SS enjoyed forcing prisoners to perform for them, so it seems likely that she sang for him more than once. It should be noted that prisoners often felt ashamed and humiliated at being forced to perform in a place where so many people were dying and suffering. Rena Gelissen née Kornreich’s experience of performing informs this perspective.
255 “in the end I honestly loved him”: From the documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and “The Final Solution” produced by the BBC; additional information in this section was compiled from USC Shoah transcripts and personal testimonies.
255 The occupancy level of the women’s camp: Czech, p. 361
256 With the typhus epidemic: Ibid., and Höss.
257 ingredients they needed to make raisin wine: Following a kosher recipe online, I observed the fermentation process for two weeks.
unfortunately, I ended up making vinegar. I tried another recipe, but got more vinegar.
257 Dr. Clauberg had a different idea: Margaret Kulik (née Friedman) USC Shoah Testimony.
258 Block 10: Czech, p. 366.
258 This second year’s Seder: At the same time, the last Seder in Warsaw was being held in a bunker in the ghetto. It was not just the eve of Passover; it was the eve of the liquidation of Warsaw’s Jewish ghetto.
Chapter Thirty
261 crossing its path: Because two cards covered similar news, excerpts from both have been combined for the reader. YV, record O.75, file 770. Nos. 21 and 33, letters to Simon Hertzka (Lenka’s brother).
261 “Magduska’s mother . . . is very sick”: YV, record O.75, file 770. Photo, No. 70; text, No. 48.
262 “Dreschler was ugly”: Edith Grosman.
265 Zimmerspitz sisters: Compiled from their cousins Eta Neuman, née Zimmerspitz, and her daughter, Ariela Neuman; and the USC Shoah testimonies of Ruzena Gräber Knieža and Frances Kousel-Tack.
