short vlog explaining about the Crematorium Revolt in 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau where the Sonderkommandos (Jewish men, who worked the crematoriums, were smuggled gun powder from a few Jewish women who worked in the munitions factory in the camp. Two of the women were CODA sisters (Esther and Anna) and had Deaf parents from Poland who had been exterminated. The revolt succeeded in destroying one of the ovens. The surviving Sonderkommnados were captured, interrogated for names, and shot. The four women were captured, raped and tortured for more names involved in the revolt. They only revealed names of people who were already captured or killed. Anna, the younger sister was hid and protected, the other 4 were hung. Roza Robota prclaimed right before being hung “Be strong and be brave.”
Anna survived and lives in Canada – she wrote a memoire with many details about growing up with Deaf parents, her father’s wood workshop, and their household as well as her experiences in the camps and the revolt – see Never Far Away. Also go to http://www.rit.edu/deafww2 and click: Deaf Europeans + Holocaust then US Holocaust Memorial Museum for image of Anna and Esther’s Deaf parents, Jacob and Rebeka, and click survivors (scroll down) for a summary of Anna’s story as well as a powerpoint about her. Other links
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/aurevolt.html
PEOPLE OF TH HandEYE -…first, last, and all the time” – g. veditz 1910 