25. When the Sonderkommando Decided on Resistance
Freight trains packed with prisoners arrived at Auschwitz from 1942 to late 1944, where most perished. Of roughly 1,300,00 sent to the camp, about 1,100,000 perished. Most were Jews – of 960,000 Jews who arrived at Auschwitz, 865,000 were gassed on arrival. Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp where the Sondkerkommando toiled, was where most of the atrocities took place. Until they were eventually liquidated, the Sonderkommando were employed in a variety of ghoulish tasks. They had little choice other than do as they were told, or face immediate execution.
The Sonderkommando guided new arrivals to the gas chambers. They removed their bodies afterwards, shaved their hair for use as felt, pulled out their gold teeth, went through their possessions, cremated the corpses, and disposed of the ashes. In the fall of 1944, as the time of their liquidation drew near, the men of Auschwitz’s 12thSonderkommando decided on resistance, rather than go quietly to their deaths. They planned to launch a revolt, destroy the gas chambers, and blow up the crematoria. So they turned to the women of the neighboring camp for help. They found volunteers eager to help with the plan to strike back against the Nazis.
