Ala Gertner

Ala Gertner (12 March 1912 – 5 January 1945), referred to in other sources as Alla, Alina, Ella, and Ela Gertner, was one of four women hanged in the Auschwitz concentration camp for her role in the Sonderkommando revolt of 7 October 1944.

Life Gertner was born in Będzin, Poland, one of three children in a prosperous Jewish family. Before the German and Slovakia invasion of Poland, she attended the gymnasium in Będzin. The city was located in the industrial region of Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in south-western Poland on the border with Germany.

Geppersdorf labour camp The German military took over Będzin on the first day of the invasion, burned the Grand Synagogue down within a week, and began massive resettlement actions. On 28 October 1940 Gertner was ordered to report to the train station in nearby Sosnowiec, where she was taken to a Nazi labor camp in Geppersdorf (now Rzedziwojowice), a construction site where hundreds of Jewish men were used as forced laborers on the Reichsautobahn section (now Berlinka) and where women worked in the kitchen and laundry. Gertner, who was fluent in German, was assigned to the camp office, where she met prisoner Bernhard Holtz whom she would marry in the Będzin Ghetto in the following year. Other sources give 6 January as the date of the execution. This was the last public hanging at Auschwitz: The heroism of the four women was recognized in 1991 with the dedication of a memorial at Yad Vashem.

This is the text of Gertner's last known letter:

Kamionka 15 July 1943 Dearest Sarenka,

Suddenly I’m here at the post office. The mail is going out today and how could I not write to my Sarenka? Just now, my husband, little Bernhard was here. He looks good and feels well. I’m curious about how you are, how your health is. We are well and plan to go to the camp. Today is a gorgeous day, we are in the best of spirits and have great hopes for the future…Don’t worry, girl, it’ll be fine. Be brave, stay well. Warm regards from my entire family and our Bernhard.

Kisses, your little Ala