7 October 1944 | Jewish prisoners of the Sonderkommando at the German Nazi Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp organized a revolt. They set crematorium IV on fire, causing serious damage, as well as attacked the SS men in the vicinity. 1/5
A group of prisoners from crematorium II (approximately 80) cut through the barbed wire fences enclosing of the crematorium as well as the adjacent women’s camp and fled in a southerly direction. SS units gave chase and caught up with them some 1.5 km from the crematorium. 2/5
Around 250 Jewish prisoners were killed during the revolt, including resistance leaders and organizers of the revolt, including Załmen Gradowski (in the picture) and Józef Deresiński. The SS lost three men killed and more than ten wounded. 3/5
As an immediate result of the repressions after the revolt 200 Sonderkommando prisoners were killed. Four Jewish female prisoners who had smuggled gunpowder from Union-Were munition factory to the Sonderkommando prisoners were later hanged in a public execution. 4/5
Ca. 5 October 1942 | A horrible massacre took place in the female sub-camp of KL #Auschwitz in Budy. German female functionary prisoners and SS guards used rods, axes and rifle butts & murdered around 90 prisoners, French Jewish women.
The penal company for female prisoners in Budy, about 7 km. from Auschwitz, was created in June 1942 in reprisal for an escape from Auschwitz by a Polish female prisoner. 400 women of various ethnic backgrounds were imprisoned there in horrible conditions.
The camp administration investigated the massacre, but failed to discover the cause. Commandant Rudolf Höss defined the massacre as “a revolt instigated by prisoners who used stones and clubs in an attempt to terrorize the capo and make their way out of the camp.”
21/22 September 1940 | 2nd transport from #Warsaw arrived at the German #Auschwitz camp with 1705 people, including: Władysław Bartoszewski (4427), Stanisław Dubois (3904), Konstanty Jagiełło (4507) oraz Witold Pilecki (4859). 1/5
Władysław Bartoszewski was a prisoner of Auschwitz. After his release, a Home Army member, an activist of "Żegota" Council, participant of the Warsaw Uprising; historian & writer; Chairman of the International Auschwitz Council, Founder of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. 2/5
10 June 1942 | A group of prisoners of the penal company at #Auschwitz who were digging the main draining ditch at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, decided to escape. About 50 Poles started to run, only 9 managed to flee the pursuit. Some were later captured. | Thread 1/10
Aleksander Buczyński, on the 4th day after the escape he was captured by German gendarmes near Mysłowice. During the investigation he was incarcerated in Block 11. He was executed on 14 July 1942. | 2/10
Tadeusz Chróścicki managed to swim across the Vistula river and after a long march, thanks to assistance provided by the Poles encountered on the way, he crossed the border of the General Government. He remained in hiding in Radom. He survived. | 3/10
26/27 April 1943 | Three Poles escaped #Auschwitz: Edward Ciesielski (12969), Witold Pilecki (4859) & Jan Redzej (5430). #Pilecki was one of the co-founders of military resistance inside the camp. After the escape, he wrote an elaborate report about German crimes in Auschwitz.
Telegrams sent from #Auschwitz on April 17, 1943 informing about the escape of Thomas Serafiński (Witold Pilecki) and Johann Retko (Jan Redzej) as well as Edward Ciesielski.
This is how Witold Pilecki described his escape in his report.
16 April 1947 | SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss, the first commandant of the German #Auschwitz camp was hanged after he was sentenced to death by the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw.
Rudolf Höss was born in Baden-Baden on 25 November 1901. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and the SS in 1934. He started his career in Dachau in December 1934, then he worked in KL Sachsenhausen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Hö… 2/9
In May 1940 Rudolf Höss was appointed by Heinrich Himmler as the commandant of a new concentration camp created in occupied Polish territory annexed to the Third Reich - #Auschwitz. 3/9
7 April 1944 | Two Slovak Jews Rudolf Vrba (b. 1924, no. 44070) and Alfred Wetzler (b. 1918, no. 29162) escaped from the German Nazi Auschwitz camp. Read their story in this thread ⬇️
In the second half of the 1943 Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler decided to escape. In the BIII sector, so-called Mexico, which was under construction at the time, they spent many days preparing a hiding place (bunker) for themselves.
Their activity was not discovered by the SS men, as the area was surrounded by a multitude of different construction materials, with which they could conceal the works conducted by them.