Franceska who? you are probably asking just as I did when I read her story at The American Thinker. This lovely, Jewish/Polish lady was a rising talent in the ballet world of pre-war Poland. Alas, Poland was perhaps the worst place in which to be Jewish during WWII.
Apparently, after occupying Poland, the Germans set up a fake agency aimed at enticing the wealthiest Jewish families by promising them, for a fee, of course, visas to reach South America. The individuals concerned were rounded up prior to their supposed expulsion and sent on a train to Auschwitz. The women were separated from the men and were ordered to strip naked prior to being 'given a shower'. The beautiful and obviously intelligent Franceska Mann used her dancing skills to make something of a performance of her striptease and lulled the guards into carelessness. At which point she snatched the gun from a guard, shot him dead and wounded another. At this point the other women ran riot and the camp commander ordered the building to be surrounded and everyone inside to be shot. Obviously, there were few surviving witnesses but the main outlines of the event have gradually been confirmed after the war.
Sometimes, just sometimes, there are absolutely no words to describe the courage of this lady.
Franceska truly stayed beautiful in the face of evil right to the very end.
Posted by: Whitewall | Monday, 23 October 2017 at 18:04
You are right David - there are no words to describe the courage of this lady. Happened within living memory too - worth remembering.
Posted by: Uncle Mort | Monday, 23 October 2017 at 18:16
My father's mother's maiden name was Rosenberg, which was Franceska's maiden name. Since my paternal grandmother was the oldest of 13 children, there is a good chance that Franceska was her niece, which would have made her my father's first cousin. My father was born in Warsaw, Poland, and his whole family was living in Warsaw when the Nazis invaded.
Posted by: TheBigHenry | Tuesday, 24 October 2017 at 05:39
"Keep your good heart. Become a person who lets himself be guided primarily by warmth and humanity. Learn to think and judge for yourself, responsibly. Don't accept everything without criticism and as absolutely true... The biggest mistake of my life was that I believed everything faithfully which came from the top, and I didn't dare to have the least bit of doubt about the truth of that which was presented to me. ... In all your undertakings, don't just let your mind speak, but listen above all to the voice in your heart."
An authoritarian pervert sees the light.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss
SoD
Posted by: Loz | Tuesday, 24 October 2017 at 09:39