Today in Labor History, May 16: Romani Resistance Day, commemorating the Roma people who fought the fascists during World War II. The date was chosen due to a Holocaust survivor stating that on 16 May 1944, there was a rebellion of Roma detainees at the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp. However subsequent research by the Auschwitz Museum discovered that this date was most likely incorrect. It was actually in early April that a number of Roma prisoners refused orders from the SS to leave to work in Germany. Instead, a Polish prisoner was ordered to make a list of Roma able to work to be transported later. By 2 August 1944, those Roma able to work had been transported elsewhere, when the SS came to take the others to the gas chambers. The prisoners armed themselves with crowbars and fought back, but were eventually overcome and gassed.

#WorkingClass #LaborHistory #nazis #genocide #holocaust #roma #Aushwitz #resistance #fascism #rebellion

(5/5) After the war, Witold Pilecki allied himself with the Polish government in exile and campaigned against the Soviet installed communist government. He was arrested May 8, 1947, tortured, convicted in a show trial, and executed on May 25, 1948.

#Resistance
#antifascism
#anticommunism
#Holocaust
#Aushwitz
#WW2
#Poland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki

(4/n) Witold Pilecki joined the Warsaw Uprising which began August 1, 1944. After October 2 of that year, he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He was imprisoned at the Oflag VII-A POW camp until liberation on April 29, 1945.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki#Auschwitz

#Resistance
#antifascism
#Holocaust
#Aushwitz
#WW2
#Poland

(3/n) Witold Pilecki prepared a report on the crimes of the Nazis in Auschwitz hoping to convince the Home Army to liberate the camp, but this was not felt feasible. Pilecki joined the Kedyw sabotage unit, which disseminated anti-Nazi propaganda, & armed resistance against the occupying German forces & Polish collaborators.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki#Auschwitz

#Resistance
#antifascism
#Holocaust
#Aushwitz
#WW2
#Poland

(2/n) Information provided by Witold Pilecki was vital intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki & two fellow inmates escaped Auschwitz on the night of April 26, 1943. Despite being wounded by gunfire from Nazi soldiers, he made his way to a Polish resistance safehouse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Pilecki#Auschwitz

#Resistance
#antifascism
#Holocaust
#Aushwitz
#WW2
#Poland

(1/n)
The resistance movement in Auschwitz:

Polish Cavalry Captain Witold Pilecki knowingly let himself be caught by German police in order to infiltrate Auschwitz. While an inmate, Pilecki organized the Military Organization Union (Związek Organizacji Wojskowej, ZOW). In 1942, ZOW was also using a home-made radio transmitter built by camp inmates to report on camp conditions, arrivals, & deaths.

#Resistance
#antifascism
#Holocaust
#Aushwitz
#WW2
#Poland

https://lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_16_ruch_oporu/

Today in Labor History December 16, 1942: Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler ordered that Roma people be sent to Auschwitz for extermination.

#roma #nazis #Aushwitz #himmler #genocide