Women’s Resistance at Auschwitz
Due to the ongoing situation in Israel, our keynote speaker is unable to join us for the Holocaust Education Month launch event scheduled for November 9th, 2023, at the Canadian Museum of History. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the launch event with plans to reschedule in the spring of 2024.
We will keep you posted, and any reservations made will be maintained.
We look forward to welcoming you at that time.
An evening with an Ottawa connection not to be missed!
CHES is proud to host the opening event for Holocaust Education Month 2023 on November 9th at 7:00pm at the Canadian Museum of History. Register now.
The launch coincides with the annual commemoration of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which was the violent turning point in state-sponsored attacks on the Jews of Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia.
This year’s launch event will focus on the untold story of the women’s underground resistance operation in Auschwitz-Birkenau and will feature the screening of Sabotage, the outstanding documentary created by Nia Aharoni, an award-winning Israeli filmmaker.
Sabotage utilizes animation, archival footage, and live testimony to dramatize a story of women’s courage and sisterhood that features Estucia Wajcblum, a member of the resistance group which smuggled gun powder to the Jewish men of the Sonderkommando. During the Auschwitz uprising on October 7th, 1944, the men used the gun powder to blow up Crematorium IV. Click here to see the trailer for the Documentary Sabotage.
Anna Wajcblum Heilman, Estucia’s sister, recorded in her diary the day-to-day routine of the camp and the many little moments of camaraderie and friendship forged between young women under harsh circumstances. Sabotage is based on Anna’s diary, now housed at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. The diary became a book entitled Never Far Away and won a City of Ottawa Book Award in 2002.
Anna Wajcblum Heilman emigrated to Ottawa with her husband and two daughters in 1960. She was a well-respected social worker and supervisor at the Children’s Aid Society and lived in Ottawa until her death on Yom HaShoah in 2011. Anna was an advocate for Holocaust education and participated in March of the Living in 1994.
“Anna’s narration as she recounts her love for her sister and the courage of the young women and the stunning animation by Avi A. Katz are profoundly moving,” said Janet Kaiman, Anna’s neighbour and friend and a member of the CHES Event Committee.
Sabotage Launch Event Article by Muriel Korngold-Wexler 
