23 October 1943 | A transport of 1,800 Polish Jews arrived from Bergen-Belsen to Auschwitz. The SS sent them to the gas chambers immediately after selection. Men were directed to crematorium III and women to crematorium II. After a speech about the need for disinfection and after checking their documents before continuing their journey, the SS men led the women into the undressing room, where they were ordered to undress. This created confusion among the women, and the SS men stepped in between them and began to rip rings and watches from their hands. At that point, one of the women, who realized that they were in a situation with no way out, threw some of the clothes over the head of SS-Oberscharführer Josef Schillinger, grabbed his gun and fired three shots at him; she also shot SS-Unterscharführer Wilhelm Emmerich. The identity of the woman has not been 100% confirmed, yet some sources indicate that it was Franciszka Mann. Other women attacked SS men with their bare hands. The SS men called for help. When the reinforcement arrived, some of the women were shot, and the rest were herded into the gas chamber, where they were murdered. Josef Schillinger died on the way to the hospital in Katowice. Emmerich recovered but limped. More about this and other cases of organized resistance at Auschwitz in our podcast: youtube.com/watch?v=_7Pja9Kj…