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Heroes of Israel

Ala Gertner

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Who

Ala Gertner · Heroes of Israel

What

One of four women hanged at Auschwitz for smuggling the gunpowder that blew up Crematorium IV in the Sonderkommando revolt.

When

12 March 1912, Będzin, Poland — 5 January 1945, Auschwitz

Where

Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland

Biography

Ala Gertner is recognized among Israeli contributors to Heroes of Israel — One of four women hanged at Auschwitz for smuggling the gunpowder that blew up Crematorium IV in the Sonderkommando revolt.

How & why

Ala Gertner was born into a prosperous Jewish family in Będzin and deported to Auschwitz in 1943, where she worked in the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke munitions factory. With Roza Robota, Regina Safirsztajn and Estusia Wajcblum she smuggled out small quantities of gunpowder, passed along a chain of women to the Sonderkommando — the prisoners forced to work the crematoria. On 7 October 1944 they used it to blow up Crematorium IV.

The four women were tortured and hanged before the assembled camp on 5 January 1945, three weeks before liberation. They gave no one away.

Sources & external links

Verify and go deeper with these external references.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ala_Gertner

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Contributions & Sources

One of four women hanged at Auschwitz for smuggling the gunpowder that blew up Crematorium IV in the Sonderkommando revolt.

1944

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ala_Gertner