October 1943. Auschwitz.

 

October 1943. Auschwitz. A Jewish dancer, Franceska Mann, disembarks from the train and enters a dreadful universe. The Nazis tell her to strip, don a uniform, and join the queue. She does as she is told, but her decision is already taken.

She begins to undress, slowly and deliberately. She is being watched by the guards. Their eyes wander, their attention lapses. That's all she wants. In an instant, she seizes a pistol from Josef Schillinger and kills him. No hesitation. Another bullet strikes Wilhelm Emmerich. He screams. He bleeds. The fiction of control collapses.

Franceska is shot dead. But in that split second, something occurs. Another woman notices. She doesn't remain passive. She resists. A few others follow. It's brutal. One Nazi loses his scalp. Another loses his nose. They all perish, but for one instant, they weren't captives. They were warriors.

This was not a rescue. No rescue was coming. But it was fighting back. Powerful and desperate. Franceska did not easily give up. She made a lot of noise. She injured them. And in a place designed to break people, that fighting spirit counted for a great deal. Sometimes that's all you have. And sometimes that's enough.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chilling last words of killer before he is given lethal injection in brutal execution

Image
  Jeffrey David Matthews, indicted in 1994 for the murder of his 77-year-old great uncle Otis Earl Short, delivered his final sentence before receiving a lethal injection at Oklahoma State penitentiary A man on death row finally answered for the shooting of his elderly great uncle when he was executed to the loud bangs of his fellow inmates, but his last words left a disturbing chill in the execution chamber. Jeffrey David Matthews, indicted in 1994 for the murder of his 77-year-old great uncle Otis Earl Short, delivered his final words before receiving a lethal injection at Oklahoma State penitentiary. Moments before his death, Jeffrey grinned at his family members and said: "I think that governor's phone is broke. He hadn't called yet." Former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry had previously granted two stays of execution for Jeffrey upon pending investigations regarding his claims of innocence. A third was granted only because defence attorneys repudiated motions to sub...
Read more

Remember Marcelle Aboudy

Image
 Marcelle Aboudy was born on January 27, 1930, in Marseille, France, to Jewish parents. Sadly, their names are not known today. Marcelle was a smart student and an active member of the Jewish scouting group called the Eclaireurs Israélites de France (EIF). While in the group, she became close friends with another scout named Anita Sidi. Their friendship was strong—and it is because of Anita, who survived the Holocaust by using a fake name and forged documents, that we know anything about Marcelle’s life. Anita later shared her memories and photographs, helping to keep Marcelle’s story alive. In early 1944, Marcelle was taken from her home and sent to Auschwitz. She was only fourteen years old when she was killed in the gas chambers shortly after arriving. Marcelle’s life was taken far too soon, but she is remembered through the stories told by those who loved her and by those who work to make sure people like her are never forgotten.
Read more

In February 1944

Image
 In February 1944, an American soldier found a tiny Yorkshire Terrier in an old, empty trench in the jungles of New Guinea. The dog was later named Smokey. She ended up with Corporal William Wynn from Ohio, who bought her from other soldiers for just 2 Australian pounds. For the next two years, Smokey stayed by his side during the war in the Pacific. Smokey took part in 12 rescue and photo missions by air and sea. She often rode inside a soldier’s backpack while bullets flew around them. She survived more than 150 air attacks and two big typhoons in Okinawa. Smokey even made parachute jumps from about 9 meters high using a special tiny parachute. Wynn said Smokey once barked and acted nervous right before a bombing, warning him just in time—and possibly saving his life. One time, Smokey saved a huge amount of work at an airfield. There was a need to lay a cable underground, which would’ve meant digging a long trench and moving 40 warplanes. Instead, they found an old, narrow pipe. ...
Read more

Gary Cooper with his mum at the Brown Derby 1955.

Image
 I’m always keenly interested in the parents of famous movie stars and was delighted to come across some information on those of Gary Cooper. Gary’s father, Charles, was born in Bedfordshire England in the year the American Civil War ended, in 1865. Charles was noted as having an excellent legal mind and, aged only 19, convinced his own parents to let him and his brother, Walter, cross the Atlantic to start a new life in America. Shortly after they arrived the more adventurous Charles left Walter in New York while he continued to Montana. While in Helena he studied law and passed the bar. He would become a State Supreme Court Justice. A visit from his parents at the studio. While there he met the lady who was to be his wife and mother of Frank James, who would adopt the Hollywood name of Gary, and another son, Arthur. Alice, born in 1873, had also emigrated from England, the county of Kent. Both parents lived to see their son become a huge movie star. Upon the retirement of Charles...
Read more

Remembering Josephine Myrtle Corbin (1868–1928)

Image
 Josephine Myrtle Corbin was born in Lincoln County, Tennessee, in 1868 with a rare condition called dipygus, which gave her four legs and two pelvises an incredibly rare congenital anomaly. Despite the challenges she faced, Josephine lived a remarkable life.  As a teenager, she briefly appeared in public exhibitions, known as the “Four-Legged Girl from Texas.” While curiosity drew attention to her unique anatomy, her story also became an important medical case for 19th-century doctors. But Josephine was more than her condition. She married Dr. Clinton Bicknell and went on to have at least four or five healthy children, living a life that was full of love and family. After her early exhibitions, she chose a relatively private life, prioritizing her family and personal dignity. Josephine passed away in 1928 at the age of 59. Her family took care to protect her memory and her body from exploitation, ensuring that she would be remembered for who she was, not just how she looked....
Read more

If German soldiers in WWII ran out of bullets, what did they do to survive?

Image
 A German soldier had only 4 quick ways to remain alive when ammunition stopped of which none was the best. Retreating was the wisest solution. In case a unit was out of bullets, the commander would call a quick retreat to a more secure position where the fire line would be covered by friendly forces or heavy fire. The men were hastening along, and wished a supply train was running.In case of retreat, the second option was hand-to-hand fighting, which was referred to as Nahkampf. Bayonets were found in German rifles, yet the weapon against which the enemy was afraid of was a shovel, a kind of entrenching tool. The shovel was sharpened and served the purpose of a little axe in trenches or buildings by the soldiers. They held back the last grenades to this last effort at defence. Third, they picked up ammunition on the battlefield. Crawling up to fallen German men was a dangerous affair but they also picked shells of fallen enemies. It was better to have a Russian or American rifle w...
Read more

Rudolf Vrba was only a teenager who was shipped to Auschwitz in 1942.

Image
 He was a Slovakian Jew and was compelled to work within the camp and what he witnessed was intolerable: a huge number of people were herded into gas chambers and murdered daily. By 1944, Vrba and one more inmate, Alfrfred Wetzler, had come to the understanding that the Nazis were planning their second mass extermination, this time of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews. In the event that no-one raised the alarm, those individuals were done. The two men did it on April 7, 1944. The latter concealed themselves in a stack of timber when one of the counts of prisoners was in progress that lasted days. When the guards had lost hope of finding them, they climbed fences, and around guns, and started a two-week long gory trek through the mountains. Each step was death should they be detected. They reached Slovakia alive. It was there they prepared a 32-page report, the VrbaWetzler Report. It presented maps, gas chamber details and hard evidence of Auschwitz. It was smuggled to the lea...
Read more

What was the first scandal in the history of cinema?

Image
 It came from actress Hedy Lamarr in the film Ecstasy also called Symphony of Love (Czech production 1933) which caused the first scandal in the history of cinema. Austrian actress Hedy Lamarr was naked, running through the trees and diving into a river. Then, there was a simulation of a sexual act. All from a great distance. It lasted only ten minutes but an American government commission was scandalized. The film was taken out of circulation and most of its copies were burned. Partly because of the scandal Hedy was beaten by her husband, a weapons manufacturer, who spent more than $300,000 to incinerate other copies available in Europe. Disguised in her maid's clothes Hedy fled to Paris and then to the United States. To make Hedy Lamarr look like she was having an orgasm director Gustav Machaty stuck a pin in her buttocks... continue reading 
Read more

One case that still haunts me is the strange story of the “Eight Day Bride.”

Image
 In 1947, Christina Kettlewell’s body was found in a shallow stream near the Severn River, while the cottage where she was staying burned down during her honeymoon. The case uncovered a tangled story of a secret marriage, life insurance, a possible love triangle, emotional distress, and even attempts to end her life. Christina had vanished from her family home for two weeks before secretly marrying Jack Kettlewell, a war veteran. Photo: Christina and Jack (top), Ronald Barry (bottom) Christina’s family was suspicious of Jack’s close friend, Ronald Barry, who joined them on the honeymoon. Barry was a ballroom dancer and owned the cottage where the couple stayed. Investigators found that Barry had strange financial ties to the couple—he was even listed as a beneficiary on their life insurance. Christina had written letters that showed signs of emotional struggle. But in the end, the exact cause of her death was never clear, and the case remains unsolved. The cottage has since been re...
Read more

One of the most powerful photos that were taken during World WarII

Image
 One of the most powerful photos that were taken during World WarII is about that dry, weak man who is being put upon by the Nazis. They laughed at him, not knowing--or perhaps they could know quite well--that it was not any prisoner. He was Jakov Josifovich Džugašvili, the eldest son of JosephStalin. His biography is full of allusions to tragedy and inhumanity. Jakov never had cordial relation with his father. He shot himself after a bad argument between them. He was only wounded, and the reaction of Stalin did not leave but harsh: he could not even shoot straight. At the time the war had broken out, Jakov was a lieutenant in the artillery of the Red Army. He was taken war captive by the Germans in the year 1941. They believed that he might be a useful bargaining tool. At some time, they volunteered to trade him with Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, the German commander who was taken captive at Stalingrad. Stalin not only refused, but also wrote, I do not sell a man the service of ...
Read more