Anna Heilman Video | Interviews

Anna Heilman, born Hana Wajcblum (1 December 1928 - 1 May 2011), referred to in other sources as Hanka or Chana Weissman, was one of the surviving Auschwitz ex-prisoners who were in on the plot to blow up the crematoria. She, her sister Estusia, and other women smuggled gunpowder out of the Union munitions factory and passed it from insider to insider until it reached the Sonderkommando. The women involved in the gunpowder smuggling chain include Roza Robota (who had direct contact with the men of the Sonderkommando), Ala Gertner, Regina Szafirztajn, Rose Grunapfel Meth, Hadassa Zlotnicka,... MORE

Anna Heilman, born Hana Wajcblum (1 December 1928 - 1 May 2011), referred to in other sources as Hanka or Chana Weissman, was one of the surviving Auschwitz ex-prisoners who were in on the plot to blow up the crematoria. She, her sister Estusia, and other women smuggled gunpowder out of the Union munitions factory and passed it from insider to insider until it reached the Sonderkommando. The women involved in the gunpowder smuggling chain include Roza Robota (who had direct contact with the men of the Sonderkommando), Ala Gertner, Regina Szafirztajn, Rose Grunapfel Meth, Hadassa Zlotnicka, Marta Bindiger, Genia Fischer, Inge Frank, Ilse, and Antichka. Anna was born on December 1, 1928 into a middle class assimilated Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, to Jakub and Rebeka Wajcblum, who were both deaf. They had 2 children before Anna: first Sabina, then Estusia (all 3 of their children had normal hearing). Jakub was born in Warsaw in 1887. He owned a factory (Snycerpol) in Warsaw that employed deaf workers to make wooden handicrafts. He went to the Paris World Exposition to exhibit the factory's products in 1936. His products were also shown at the New York World's Fair in 1939. Rebeka LESS