Roza+Robota

Roza R obota was born in the year 1921 in Ciechanow, Poland where she had one brother and one sister. As she got older she became involved with the Ha shomer Hatzair Zionist-Socialist youth movement. This was a movement that protected young Jewish children.

At the age of 21 she was sent to a concentration camp where she was considered a “fit laborer” (Roza Robota: The Heroine of Birkenau, sjwalsh.hubpages.com) so she could stay alive if she worked in the “clothing-supply section of the concentration camp” (Rosa Robota Heroine of Auschwitz, datasync.com). She was sent with her family but unfortunately no member of her family was considered to be a fit laborer so they were all sent to the gas chambers were once it was their turn they were killed and then cremated along with people they did not even know. If you were not a fit laborer you were sent automatically to your death in the gas chambers. It was said that at one point the Auschwitz concentration camp was annihilating 46,000 people a day in the gas chambers.

Later when Roza started in the forced labor unit she was sent to the clothing-supply station where she had to sort through the personal belongings of the dead. “Over about a year and a half she obtained a relatively high status” (Roza Robota, jwa.org). She then was contacted by the Jewish underground asking her to help organize the smuggling of explosives from a factory that made detonators for artillery shells. Roza then started to organize a group of rebels. Between the women in the clothing-supply station and men in the crematorium they rallied enough people to organize a rebel group. These people had to be willing to risk their lives. They would have to get the gunpowder from the manufacturer then Roza would pass the gunpowder off to the Sonderkommando.

Sonderkommando would then smuggle the gunpowder out inside a wagon that was generally used to remove of the corpses of the people who had died that day or during the night. They would hide the gunpowder under the corpses to make sure they could not be detected from outside the wagon. This continued for a year and a half until they were fully prepared. Then the revolt started on October 7,1944. A few days later an investigation was held. The first group of people they arrested were tortured because they would not give up the names of the other helpers in the revolt. The investigators decided to send in an undercover agent. The undercover agent ended up finding more women rebels so they rearrested the first three women with the addition of Roza. After she was severely tortured she was able to see Noah Zabludowicz which she told him in her last breathing moments that she did not give up any of her comrades.

In conclusion, she was a very powerful and respected rebel of the Holocaust. She saved many lives by leading the revolt and by not giving into the torture and giving up the people of her organization. She lead a very terrifying life but not once did she give into the torment of the others.

Works Cited

// The International School for Holocaust Studies. // Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, 2014. Web. (Viewed on December 8,2014).

Patterson,Clinton, and James Patterson. //Resistance in the Holocaust.// Web. (Viewed on December 8, 2014).

//Rosa Robota Heroine of Auschwitz.// Rosa Robota Foundation, Inc.,1995. Web. (Viewed on December 8,2014).

//Roza Robota: The Heroine of Birkenau.// HubPages Inc., 2014 Web. (Viewed on December 8, 2014).

Shik, Na’ama. “Roza Robota.” //Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia.// 1 March 2009. Jewish Women’s Archive. Web. (Viewed on December 8, 2014).

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//This page has been revised 7 times. //

//The last revision was Dec 9, 2014 8:39 am by michellebozeman. //