Anna Heilman
December 1, 1928 (Warsaw, Poland) –
May 1, 2011 (Ottawa, Canada)
Anna Heilman was one of the prisoners from Auschwitz who plotted to blow up the crematoria. She was born in Warsaw, Poland on Dec. 1, 1928 and passed away on May 1, 2011 in Ottawa, Canada.
“Anna was one of the last living survivors of the plot to blow up Crematorium IV at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The plot was part of the plans for the October 1944 Sonderkommando Uprising.
Auschwitz-Birkenau had four crematoria, which were used to destroy the bodies of those murdered in the gas chambers. The Sonderkommando were slave workers at the crematoria. So as to leave no witnesses, the SS periodically executed the entire complement of the Sonderkommando, and replaced them with “fresh” slaves.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was both a vast death camp and a huge industrial complex. Anna and her older sister Estusia were slave laborers at the Union Munitions plant at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Though regularly searched, and subject to instant execution if caught, Estusia, Anna, and a small number of other Jewish women played key roles in obtaining and providing explosives to the men of the Sonderkommando. The Sonderkommando made ‘grenades’ out of shoe polish cans filled with gunpowder from the Union munitions plant. The Uprising took place on October 7, 1944. It was quickly put down. All of the Sonderkommando were killed, but not before their crude bombs severely damaged Crematorium IV. It was never used again, saving many lives.”
For more information, please visit the official website AnnaHeilman.net.