Mala Zimetbaum

Malka Zimetbaum, also known as "Mala" Zimetbaum or "Mala the Belgian" (26 January 1918 – 15 September 1944), was a Belgian woman of Polish Jewish descent, known for her escape from the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. She is also remembered for her lifesaving acts in favor of other prisoners during her captivity at Auschwitz and for the resistance she displayed at her execution following her being recaptured, when she tried committing suicide before the guards were able to execute her, then slapped the guard who tried to stop her, before eventually being killed. She was the first woman to escape from Auschwitz.

Early life and deportation Mala Zimetbaum was born in Brzesko, Poland in 1918, the youngest of five children to Pinhas and Chaya Zimetbaum. In school as a child, she excelled in mathematics and was fluent in several languages. Galinski had worked as a mechanic before being imprisoned, a job which brought him in contact with civilians working around the camp and with the women's prison where he met Zimetbaum. The plan fell through when Kielar lost a pair of SS guard's uniform pants needed as a disguise for their escape. Galiński told his friend that he would escape with Zimetbaum instead and would later find a way to send the uniform back to Kielar for his subsequent escape.

Levi said, "In the summer of 1944 [Zimetbaum] decided to escape with Edek, a Polish political prisoner. She not only wanted to reconquer her own freedom; she was also planning to document the daily massacre at Birkenau." and Serras remembered Zimetbaum for saving numerous other women by erasing their numbers from condemned lists and arranging for extra food for them.

Information regarding Zimetbaum was later made available to the broader public in Kagan's official testimony, delivered on 8 June 1961 during Session 70 in the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

After World War II, little is known of the surviving members of the Zimetbaum Hartman family. Zimetbaum's siblings, Gitla, Marjem, and Salomon Rubin, survived the Nazi Holocaust. It is also known that Gitla migrated to and died in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and that her direct descendants are all aware of Zimetbaum's legacy.

Mala, The Music of the Wind In January 2002, a musical based on the life of Zimetbaum, titled Mala, The Music of the Wind, opened at the Pallas Theatre in Athens, Greece, starring Greek pop singer Anna Vissi. It was written by Nikos Karvelas. A single and the complete 27-song soundtrack were later released on CD.

The Last Stage

The Last Stage is a 1948 feature film set in the Auschwitz concentration camp, directed and co-written by Wanda Jakubowska. of the film was published in the Haaretz newspaper.