Mala Zimetbaum

Malka Zimetbaum, also known as "Mala" Zimetbaum or "Mala the Belgian" (26 January 1918 – 15 September 1944), was a Belgian woman of Polish Jewish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

She is also remembered for her lifesaving acts in favor of other prisoners during her captivity at Auschwitz and for the resistance she displayed at her execution following her being recaptured, when she tried committing suicide before the guards were able to execute her, then slapped the guard who tried to stop her, before eventually being killed.

She was the first woman to escape from Auschwitz.

Mala Zimetbaum was born in Brzesko, Poland in 1918, the youngest of five children to Pinhas and Chaya Zimetbaum.

He was born on October 5, 1923.

At age ten in 1928, she moved with her family to Antwerp, Belgium.

In school as a child, she excelled in mathematics and was fluent in several languages.

She left school to work in a diamond factory after her father became blind.

He was one of the first inmates at Auschwitz, having been sent there in June 1940 from Tarnów prison as a political prisoner.

At Auschwitz he received the very low camp inmate number 531.

Galiński initially planned to escape from the camp with his friend Wieslaw Kielar, an Auschwitz survivor and author of the autobiographical book Anus Mundi: 5 Years in Auschwitz.

Galinski had worked as a mechanic before being imprisoned, a job which brought him in contact with civilians working around the camp and with the women's prison where he met Zimetbaum.

The plan fell through when Kielar lost a pair of SS guard's uniform pants needed as a disguise for their escape.

Galiński told his friend that he would escape with Zimetbaum instead and would later find a way to send the uniform back to Kielar for his subsequent escape.

At age 24, she was either captured by Germans on July 22, 1942 or arrested during the third Antwerp raid of 11–12 September 1942.

She was first sent to the Dossin Barracks sammellager in the Mechelen transit camp.

Then on 15 September 1942 she was put aboard (Belgian) Transport 10 bound for the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she arrived two days later.

After the initial Selektion she was sent on to the women's camp at Birkenau.

Levi said, "In the summer of 1944 [Zimetbaum] decided to escape with Edek, a Polish political prisoner. She not only wanted to reconquer her own freedom; she was also planning to document the daily massacre at Birkenau."

Zimetbaum wanted to escape so that she could inform the Allies of what was going on at Auschwitz and thus save lives.

She is said by some sources to have been the head of a resistance group.

The escape was planned for Saturday June 24, 1944, when guard would be lighter due to the weekend.

On the planned date, the couple succeeded in escaping to a nearby town.

Galiński donned an SS uniform obtained from Edward Lubusch; Zimetbaum obtained a blank SS pass and dressed as a prisoner being led to work.

They were caught after two weeks, on July 6, 1944, in the Żywiec Beskids mountains at the Slovakia border.

Galiński had hidden nearby as Zimetbaum went into a store to try to buy some bread with gold that she and Galiński had stolen from the camp.

A passing German border patrol became suspicious and arrested Zimetbaum.

Galiński, watching from a distance as Zimetbaum was arrested, turned himself in to the German patrol since they had promised not to separate.

Zimetbaum and Galiński were taken to Block 11 in the main camp at Auschwitz, a punishment barracks known as "the Bunker", where they were placed in separate cells.

Zimetbaum spent nearly two years in Auschwitz-Birkenau as camp inmate number 19880.

Due to her proficiency in languages – Dutch, French, German, Italian, English, and Polish – she was assigned work as an interpreter and courier.

Other sources state that she was also fluent in Yiddish.

In his book The Drowned and the Saved, Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi said, "In Birkenau she acted as an interpreter and messenger and as such enjoyed a certain freedom of movement."

Although she had a relatively privileged position, Zimetbaum played an active part in the camp's underground and devoted herself to helping other inmates.

Levi said that Zimetbaum "was generous and courageous; she had helped many of her companions and was loved by all of them."

She interceded to have inmates sent to easier work when she suspected they were not fit for harder labor.

She also warned prisoners of coming selections in the infirmary, encouraging them to leave to save their lives.

She sneaked photographs that inmates' relatives had sent, out of the files and to the inmates as they were not allowed to have them in the camp.

Zimetbaum also got food and medicine for people in need.

Zimetbaum had a non-Jewish Polish lover at Auschwitz, Edward "Edek" Galiński.