Edek Galiński indeed arrived with the same transport as Wiesław Kielar in June 1940 and worked in a locksmith shop under Edward Lubusch’s command. Edward Lubusch was one of the rare sympathetic SS guards who did everything in his powers to make life in Auschwitz somewhat bearable for the inmates under his charge. For his lenient attitude and his constant clashes with the camp authorities, Lubusch was sent to a penal camp for the SS in Stutthof-Matzkau which was focused on “re-education” of such kindhearted guards; however, according to Wiesław Kielar’s testimony, “the result was… exactly the opposite. Not only his attitude towards prisoners had not changed, but he actually treated them more leniently still.”
Edward Lubusch indeed agreed to provide Edek Galiński with an SS uniform and a gun and thus made Edek and Mala’s escape possible. Even though Edek and Mala didn’t betray a single person to the SS interrogators and Lubusch remained safe from the prosecution, he deserted shortly after the couple’s execution. As he tried to contact the Polish Home Army—Armia Krajowa—he was captured by the German forces and sentenced to death. As the German army desperately needed manpower to protect itself from the Allies, instead of executing Lubusch, they sent him, along with other such “criminals,” to the defense of Berlin from the Soviet Army. But even then Lubusch managed to desert after obtaining false papers and escaped to Poland, where he lived until his death in 1984.
Wiesław Kielar, who became a filmmaker and an author, indeed wrote a book about his experiences in Auschwitz and about Edek’s and Mala’s escape, which was titled Anus Mundi. While writing this story, I relied mostly on his account of events as it provides an insider’s look into what was truly going on in the hellish world of Auschwitz-Birkenau. I strongly recommend everyone read this first-person account if you wish to see the story unveiled through Wiesław’s eyes. Wiesław indeed donated Edek’s and Mala’s locks of hair, which he’d kept for years, to the State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the sad memento remains on display to this day, just like the inscription that Edek had made in his holding cell in Block 11 while awaiting his verdict. If you ever visit Auschwitz, make sure to ask your guide to show it to you.
The Sonderkommando did revolt against the SS in October 1944, managing to destroy Crematorium IV and kill and injure several SS men. The revolt was suppressed, but the gassings soon stopped and the remaining Sonderkommando men, who were fortunate to escape the execution, survived the camp. You can read more about their ghastly experiences and the revolt itself in Filip Müller’s account, Eyewitness Auschwitz. The character of the fictional Filip, Kostek’s friend, is based on the very real Filip Müller.
The story of a successful escape of a block clerk known to the reader simply as Rudek is also based on a true story. The character of Rudek is based on a real Auschwitz survivor Rudolf Vrba, who escaped from Auschwitz in April 1944 after losing his beloved from the Family Camp to the gas chambers (the scene with their farewell is based on his memories) and managed to smuggle countless documents Filip Müller had given him to Jewish leaders in the hope of preventing the Hungarian Jews from being deported. However, partly due to the bureaucracy and partly due to the public’s disbelief that such atrocities could have been taking place in Auschwitz, no significant action was taken and most of the Hungarian Jews still perished in Auschwitz’s gas chambers. You can read more about Vrba’s personal experiences and his escape in his memoir, I Escaped from Auschwitz.
The character of Stasia, the Polish doctor and a camp resistance member, is based on a real Auschwitz survivor, Gisella Perl. A Romanian-Jewish gynecologist, she was deported to Auschwitz and saved many lives by performing abortions on female prisoners as pregnancy was virtually a death sentence in Auschwitz-Birkenau. As pregnant women were either subjected to horrific experiments and later murdered or gassed upon arrival, Gisella Perl did everything in her powers to save those expectant mothers’ lives even though the conditions of the camp hospital barracks were far from sanitary and she lacked the bare necessities she’d ordinarily use for work. She survived the camp and described her experiences in her memoir, I Was a Doctor in Auschwitz, which was published in 1948.
All of the other historical figures that feature in the story, such as Lagerführerin Mandl, Obersturmführer Hössler, Lagerführer Schwarzhuber, Kapo Jupp, Otto Moll, Antoni Szymlak, Alma Rosé, and Mala’s friend and colleague Zippy are based on their descriptions provided by camp survivors. You can read more about them in H. Langbein’s study People in Auschwitz.
Mala’s past, upbringing, and the history of her deportation are also all true to fact. Upon her arrival in Auschwitz, she was indeed appointed as a Läuferin (runner) and an interpreter and worked for the camp administration. Her resistance activities are also based on survivors’ recollections, just like her selflessness and desire to help anyone she could. According to survivor Anna Palarczyk, “resistance in Birkenau was to help each other survive. And Mala was eager to help; that was deeply rooted in her ethics.”
Unlike most privileged prisoners who only cared about their own well-being and survival, Mala did everything in her powers to improve other inmates’ situations. Lorenz Sichelschmidt reports in his study, Mala—a Fragment of a Life, that Mala fed starving prisoners: “Now and then Mala brought me some bread, a little honey, a carrot. Without that, I would have died” (testimony of R. Liwschitz); Mala helped lift the prisoners’ morale by supplying them with vital information: “She supplied us with newspaper clippings which we read before passing them on” (testimony of R. Liwschitz); but, most importantly, Mala helped procure much-needed medicine for sick inmates, which was quite often a matter of life and death in Auschwitz-Birkenau: “I hurried to the lavatory, the usual place for secret meetings. Mala was waiting there. ‘Greetings from your friend,’ she said. ‘She is ill; she needs medicine, Digitalis or Cardiazol.’—‘I don’t have any,’ I said desperately. ‘I shall try and get some but no one dares to smuggle anything into Birkenau…’—‘I will,’ Mala interrupted me with a handwave, and she did” (testimony of R. Kagan).
When Mala managed to persuade Maria Mandl to allow her to work as an inmate functionary who assigned recovered inmates to different work details, she saved many more lives with her action, according to multiple survivors. “It did not matter whether they were Jews or Poles or whatever. Whenever possible, she sent the weaker ones to a place where the guards were not that strict or work was not that heavy, so that these people had at least a small chance to survive” (testimony of Anna Palarczyk). Another survivor, Margita Švalbová, also testified to Mala’s courageous actions and her belonging to the camp resistance: “In order to save human lives, to caution against dangers such as selections or roll calls, and to thwart particular directions of the SS, we had confidantes in almost every block. That is why Mala could act in such a highly courageous way—which means that she must have ranked high with the resistance.”
But I think it’s Giza Weisblum’s, another survivor’s, assessment that summarizes Mala’s character most perfectly: “Mala was known as a person ready to help. She used to act in the way she regarded as appropriate, and, regardless of nationality or political affiliation, helped everyone as best as she could.”
Thank you so much for reading the story of this courageous young woman and a brave young man who defied fate itself and inspired many others to open resistance with their brave action. Let us never forget their heroism.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I want to thank the wonderful Bookouture family for helping me bring Mala and Edek’s story to light. It wouldn’t be possible without the help and guidance of my incredible editor Christina Demosthenous, whose insights truly bring my characters to life and whose support and encouragement make me strive to work even harder on my novels and become a better writer. Thank you Kim Nash, Noelle Holten, Ruth Tross, and Peta Nightingale for all your help and for making me feel welcome and at home with your amazing publishing team. It’s been a true pleasure working with all of you and I already can�
�t wait to create more projects under your guidance.
Mom, granny—thank you for always asking how my novel is doing and for cheering me up at every step. Your support and faith in me make this writing journey so much easier, knowing that you always have my back and will always be my biggest fans. Thank you for all your love. Love you both to death.
Ronnie, my love—all of this wouldn’t be possible without you. Every time you meet a new person, the first thing you say about me is “my fiancée is a great novelist, you simply must check out her books!” I always grumble that you’re embarrassing me with all that attention, but inwardly I’m so very grateful for you being so very proud of me. Thank you for all your support and for putting up with my deadlines and all that research information I keep dumping on you. You are my rock star.
A special thanks to my two besties, Vladlena and Anastasia, for their love and support; to all of my fellow authors whom I got to know through Facebook and who became my very close friends—you all are such an inspiration! I consider you all a family.
And, of course, huge thanks to my readers for patiently waiting for new releases, for celebrating cover reveals together with me, for reading ARCs and sending me those absolutely amazing I-stayed-up-till-3am-last-night-because-I-just-had-to-finish-your-wonderful-book messages, for your reviews that always make my day, and for falling in love with my characters just as much as I do. You are the reason why I write. Thank you so much for reading my stories.
And, finally, I owe my biggest thanks to all the brave people who continue to inspire my novels. Some of you survived the Holocaust, some of you perished, but it’s your incredible courage, resilience, and self-sacrifice that will live on in our hearts. Your example will always inspire us to be better people, to stand up for what is right, to give a voice to the ones who have been silenced, to protect the ones who cannot protect themselves. You all are true heroes. Thank you.
Published by Bookouture in 2021
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Copyright © Ellie Midwood, 2021
Ellie Midwood has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-80019-497-7
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Girl Who Escaped from Auschwitz: A totally gripping and absolutely heartbreaking World War 2 page-turner, based on a true story Page 32