The Ballerina Who Shot Nazis outside the Gas Chamber

A Polish-Jewish dancer Franceska Mann or Franciszka Mannowna was imprisoned in the Warshaw Ghetto before the Second World War. Probably due to her alliance with the Horel Polski Adffair, Mann was transferred out of Poland and sent to Auschwitz.

The Jews were made to believe that they have reached Bergau and were each led to the undressing room adjacent to the gas chamber. In October 1943, Mann allegedly teased two guards, Josef Schillinger and Wilhelm Emmerich while undressing. She hit Schillinger with her shoe and took out his gun and fired twice into the stomach, and one shot to the leg of Emmerich. No women escaped after.

The revolt did take place according to the reports from December 1943 which stated that Rudolf Grimm and Fritz Lackner received a medal for stopping the revolt. However, there was no specific document detailing what happened.

Dr. van Pelt argued three factors to consider regarding that incident. Jerzy Wesoloski, an Auschwitz escapee reported in 1944 that women were involved in the revolt and SS Schiller died, though it was not identified who killed him.

On March 14, 1946, Rudolf Hoss made a statement that women revolted that time.

And in April 1945, Stanislaw Jankowski stated that a woman grabbed a revolver and shot Schillinger.

>It was in 1946 that Eugen Kogon first made mention of a dancer in the revolt. Though it is not easy to prove that it was Mann, what is known as a fact is that a woman rebelled against the Nazis.
Wieslaw Kielar, an Auschwitz survivor mentioned in his memoir that the story became a legend. It reminds everyone that we are all mortal, and we can die. Mann’s story became popular and has been adapted in films.