Franceska Manheimer-Rosenberg (4 February 1917 – 23 October 1943), better known as Franceska Mann, was a Polish ballerina who, according to some accounts, killed a Nazi guard, , while a prisoner at the
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
and wounded at least one other, . Her actions are said to have sparked an uprising among fellow female Jewish prisoners before she herself was killed.
In the most popular but unverified version of the event, Mann is said to have performed a
striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "ex ...
for Nazis at the camp and, once down to naught but high heels took one of her shoes and stabbed
Walter Quakernack Walter Konrad Quakernack (9 July 1907 – 11 October 1946) was a German Oberscharführer in the SS during the Nazi era. His SS membership number was 125266. He was tried for war crimes at the second Belsen Trial and executed. Quakernack is menti ...
in the face with the heel, causing him to drop his firearm. She then used it to shoot Schillinger and Emmerich. Schillinger died from his wounds several hours later while Emmerich was left with a permanent
limp
A limp is a type of asymmetric abnormality of the gait. Limping may be caused by pain, weakness, neuromuscular imbalance, or a skeletal deformity. The most common underlying cause of a painful limp is physical trauma; however, in the absen ...
.
Life
Franceska Mann was a young dancer residing in Warsaw before the Second World War. She studied dance in the dance school of Irena Prusicka. Her friends at that time included
Wiera Gran
Wiera Gran, real name Dwojra Grynberg (20 April 1916 – 19 November 2007) was a Polish singer and actress of Jewish ancestry.
Wiera Gran had a low alto voice even in early 1934, when at the age of 17 when—using the pseudonym Sylvia Green—s ...
and
Stefania Grodzieńska
Stefania Grodzieńska (2 September 1914 – 28 April 2010) was a Polish writer, stage and theatrical actress during the Interbellum; dancer, radio announcer, and satirist known as the First Lady of Polish Humor.
Biography
Grodzieńska was born i ...
. In 1939 she was placed 4th during the international dance competition in Brussels among 125 other young ballet dancers.Terpsychora i lekkie muzy, Bożena Mamontowicz-Łojek, Polskie Wydawn. Muzyczne, 1972 She was considered one of the most beautiful and promising dancers of her generation in Poland both in the classical and modern repertoire.
At the beginning of the Second World War she was a performer at the Melody Palace nightclub in Warsaw. She was a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto. In several publications she is mentioned as a German collaborator.Agata Tuszyńska, Oskarżona – Wiera Gran, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2010. Her name is associated with the " Hotel Polski affair".
She is mentioned in Filip Mueller's eyewitness account ''Eyewitness Auschwitz'' as well as in the account of Jerzey Tabau, a former
Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
prisoner. Tabau's report was filed for the
International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded ...
as Document L-022.
On October 23, 1943, a transport of around 1,700 Polish Jews arrived on passenger trains at the death camp at
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
, although they had been told that they were being taken to a transfer camp called Bergau near Dresden, from where they would continue on to Switzerland to be exchanged for German
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
s. One of the passengers was Franceska Mann. She had probably obtained her foreign passport from the Hotel Polski on the Aryan side. In July 1943, the Germans arrested the 600 Jewish inhabitants of the hotel and some of them were sent to Bergen-Belsen as exchange Jews. Others were sent to Vittel in France to await transfer to South America.
According to some versions, the new arrivals were not registered but were told that they had to be disinfected before crossing the border into Switzerland. They were taken into the undressing room next to the gas chamber and ordered to undress. Other versions of the story mention the events that follow taking place at either the selection ramp or a labor area of the camp. Regardless of location, what is confirmed is that she fatally wounded the roll call officer '' Oberscharführer'' Josef Schillinger, using a pistol (many accounts say his own) and fired two shots, wounding him in the stomach. Then she fired a third shot which wounded another SS Sergeant named Emmerich.
According to Tabau, the shots served as a signal for the other women to attack the SS men; one SS man had his nose torn off, and another was scalped. However, accounts vary: in some Schillinger and Emmerich are the only casualties. Reinforcements were summoned and the camp commander, Rudolf Höss, came with other SS men carrying machine guns and grenades. According to Filip Mueller, all people not yet inside the gas chamber were mowed down by machine guns. Other mentioned outcomes are the Jewish women being herded into the gas chamber, taken outside and executed, or Franceska taking her own life with the stolen pistol. Due to various conflicting accounts, it is unclear what truly happened next; the only things that are certain are on that day Schillinger died, Emmerich was wounded, and all the Jewish women were killed.
According to
Jan Grabowski
Jan Grabowski (born 1962) is a Polish-Canadian professor of history at the University of Ottawa, specializing in Jewish–Polish relations in German-occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust in Poland.szmalcownik, who turned in a Polish resistance member to the Germans and was shortly thereafter, in the autumn of 1942, executed by the Polish underground. GOOGLE TRANSLATION: "The Underground State noticed the threats related to the activities of the Jewish szmalcownicy (szmalcownicy) quite early. ... The most famous were the Warsaw dancer Franciszka Mann and the Gestapo agent Lolek Skosowski, both of whom were liquidated by an underground court sentence two days after handing over the Home Army liaison "Hipolit" to the Germans" The Auschwitz Museum confirms the account of women shooting the two SS guards on 23 October 1943. It’s believed it was Franciszka Mann but the identity of that women is not 100% verified.https://twitter.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1584275740119293952