Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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George Vine - July 5, 1983

What's her name, what's her name?

Rosa Robata.

Mm-hm.

She was smuggling ammunition out. She worked in a, in a, in a uh, ammunition factory. And she smuggled in her clothing and got ammunition. We brought it into the men's camp and we made bombs out of it. Because we were planning, or when I say we I shouldn't say we because I was too young and uh, I wasn't involved in the underground, but my friends were, my Landsmann friends were. Because we were the oldest in Auschwitz so we were--and if we survived, there was a little bit of respect even from the Gestapo. Even them, they look at our number and they says, "77,000, my God, you lived for three years here?" And they, they, they, they just felt that the few guys here well, let 'em live, they're gonna get killed anyhow at the end of it, so let 'em live if they can make it 'til now. So the longer you were, it was like any prison system, you know, you, you, you become an old prisoner and you know the ways around, how to survive and you find ways and means. And I think that once we survived the first two years uh, then, then--as long as we didn't--weren't picked up by Mengele in selektions to go then, then we had a cha... a fighting chance to survive. So this girl--one of the inmates was caught and she turned her in, another Jewish girl, she knew everything. She knew all the names of the underground in Auschwitz, all of them.

They tortured her? Did they to get the...

They took her into Block Eleven, which was a torture chamber. Because we were so long in Auschwitz and we had connections that's why we could be in the underground and various different leaders in the camp. In that cell eleven where all those tortures were going on, was another inmate. And he used to be a, a uh, what do you call these guys who are very strong and they perform all kinds of feats with bending irons and, and, and what have you. They, they, they uh, used to travel around all over the circus and they were--muscle people, you know, muscle men. I mean that was a show, you know, they would put up a show in the city, go around and they were very strong people. And they would show you how they can take big irons and, and twist it round, and he was the leader, the head man of that chamber, fine man, fine man because I was once uh, uh, uh, innocently accused of, of smuggling. Which I have not, somebody else did and I took the rap for it. And I got twenty-five ???, which meant that uh, that you have to report, several months later, to that, to that chamber there, and he was the leading man and two Kapos would put you down, put your pants down and they would give you twenty-five, uh...

Lashes?

Lashes, yes. And this guy would whisper in my ear, and he says, "George don't give them the satisfaction," he didn't know it was George, just uh, came out that I was Jewish because every Jew had a, a star. And he says to me, "Don't give them the satisfaction, I'll give you a loaf of bread, don't cry. Don't, you know, don't give 'em the satisfaction." And so, I just bit my tongue and I didn't, this same guy, let in one of my Landsmann in Jerusalem. Matter of fact, I just looked at a picture before you came in, I'll show it to you. A picture of him, he was uh, one of the main witnesses, Eichmann trial. And he smuggled them in down, in the basement, Rosa Robata was hidden down there. He says, the sight that he saw he never seen before. He saw a, a beaten up bunch of flesh all torn up no face, no nothing there. And she told him, she said, "Noah," Noah is his name, "don't worry about it, I didn't say anything to nobody. But I want you to do one thing for me, take revenge." The next morning they called in everybody in Auschwitz and they hung her in front of us. She never divulged nobody--not one person. As a matter of fact, he heard maybe about it, several weeks later these Jewish people blew up the crematorium. Unfortunately, due to circumstances they planned the, the, the cit... uh, time of blowing up the crematoria was to be three weeks later. But the group that was working the crematoria they used to clean 'em up every three months. They found out that they gonna uh, liquidate 'em. So they realized that all of a sudden they don't have nothing left to live so they blew the crematoria prematurely, and they caught them all and they hung them, unfortunately. But that ammunition that she stole they used and they killed a few uh, Gestapo at the time, when they hung her she spit at the face of the Gestapo, and then of course, she just yelled out, "take revenge" and she died.

And you saw this? Uh, you saw her being...

Every inmate had to stand up there yeah, and watch the hanging. This was not the first hanging that we saw but, we had a special feeling for her because she was one of our close, close uh, family, so to speak, and from our town, we were like a family, you know, that's how close we are, we are 'til today. A few people who survived are very, very close, through the years. So when we talk about heroism, about our people. There were many ways that we have shown that our will to resist and I think that, to be able to survive Auschwitz for three years is a resistance. It was very easy to give in. It didn't take long. All you had to say one morning here I cannot do it anymore. And now tomorrow nobody had to touch you, you just died during the night, you were finished. I think people uh, every single day, strong people that it just got to them. And they just couldn't go on anymore, there's no future--for what? So tomorrow they should pick me up and send me in the gas chambers, the--as you know there were so many different facets to this tragedy. But one of the facets is that I think people should be aware of is when you get a death sentence in this country you have courts and various different ways to fight and maybe the sentence will be commun... uh, cc...commuted. Or maybe instead of being hung or electrocuted for a crime maybe you get life. The fear that you live every day, knowing that tomorrow you gonna die. This is one of the greatest I think uh, cruelest things to do to a human being. Is to sentence them to die and not to tell him when he's gonna die. And I think that this was one of the worst enemies that we had in Auschwitz. Or, for that matter, any place where the Germans uh, uh, uh, occupied uh, innocent people was the fear of knowing that you are sentenced to die, the hopelessness. And yet, the strength that we have shown to resist, to build the underground in Auschwitz under the conditions where my God if they would catch you look what they did to that poor woman, they, they chopped her up to pieces. They, they tortured her to, to the most inhuman ways that uh, I think can be done to people. But we be able to keep our dignity. We were able to keep our sanity and we were able to survive. And I think that this shouldn't be taken lightly either.

One thing that I didn't understand exactly, there was uh, the woman who turned in Rosa uh, did you, did she know, you sa... she didn't know though the entire underground, did she?

She didn't know...

She just knew of her...

She just knew that she was doing, certain, no. It wasn't a deliberate turning her in. I should, I should uh, uh, elaborate on that. She was caught and she was tortured. Who are the people who are stealing the ammunition with you? So she just named these people. That...

Because that's all she knew.

That's all she knew.

She didn't know the whole under...

No, 'til they finally, 'til they tortured her 'til she died, you know. But that's all she knew. She couldn't do anything here. But Rosa Robata was the leader and she is the one who accompanied every underground official in uh, Auschwitz. And yet, she gave her life uh, maybe they would have killed her anyhow but, nevertheless, she was tortured and yet, she did not divulge--none of the people. These people were petrified; there was a period while they were interrogating them. They knew that they had guns and that, that all kinds of stuff.