People named Franceska Mann

Famous Ballerina. Franceszka Mann Born Franceska Manheimer 4 February 1917 Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland Died 23 October 1943 (aged 26) Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland Other names Lola Horowitz surname also spelled as Man, Mannówna, or Rosenberg-Manheimer Occupation Actress, dancer Spouse(s) Marek Rosenberg Franceska Manheimer-Rosenberg (4 February 1917 – 23 October 1943), better known as Franceska Mann, was a Polish Jewish ballerina who according to some accounts had killed a Nazi guard while a prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp, Josef Schillinger, and wounded at least one other, Wilhelm Emmerich [de], initiating an uprising among female Jewish prisoners before she was killed, presumably by gunfire. In the most popular version of the event, but never verified, Mann is said to have performed a striptease for members of the Nazi regime and once down to naught but high heels took one of her shoes and stabbed Walter Quakernack in the face with the heel-piece, causing him to drop his firearm, which she then used to shoot Schillinger and Emmerich. Schillinger ultimately died from his wounds several hours later while Emmerich was left with a permanent limp. According to another account, however, she was a Nazi collaborator who was executed by the Polish underground in the Fall of 1942. Life Franceska Mann was a young dancer residing in Warsaw before the Second World War. She studied dance in the dance school of Irena Prusicka. Her friends at that time included Wiera Gran and Stefania Grodzieńska. In 1939 she was placed 4th during the international dance competition in Brussels among 125 other young ballet dancers. She was considered one of the most beautiful and promising dancers of her generation in Poland both in the classical and modern repertoire. At the beginning of the Second World War, she was a performer at the Melody Palace nightclub in Warsaw. She was a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto. She is mentioned in Filip Mueller's eyewitness account Eyewitness Auschwitz as well as in the account of Jerzey Tabau, a former Birkenau prisoner. Tabau's report was filed for the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as Document L-022. On October 23, 1943, a transport of around 1,700 Polish Jews arrived on passenger trains at the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, although they had been told that they were being taken to a transfer camp called Bergau near Dresden, from where they would continue on to Switzerland to be exchanged for German POWs. One of the passengers was Franceska Mann. She had probably obtained her foreign passport from the Hotel Polski on the Aryan side. In July 1943, the Germans arrested the 600 Jewish inhabitants of the hotel and some of them were sent to Bergen-Belsen as exchange Jews. Others were sent to Vittel in France to await transfer to South America. According to some versions, the new arrivals were not registered but were told that they had to be disinfected before crossing the border into Switzerland. They were taken into the undressing room next to the gas chamber and ordered to undress. Other versions of the story mention the events that follow taking place at either the selection ramp or a labor area of the camp. Regardless of location, what is confirmed is that she fatally wounded the roll call officer Josef Schillinger, using a pistol (many accounts say his own) and fired two shots, wounding him in the stomach. Then she fired a third shot which wounded another SS Sergeant named Emmerich. According to Tabau, the shots served as a signal for the other women to attack the SS men; one SS man had his nose torn off, and another was scalped. However, accounts vary: in some Schillinger and Emmerich are the only casualties. Reinforcements were summoned and the camp commander, Rudolf Höss, came with other SS men carrying machine guns and grenades. According to Filip Mueller, all people not yet inside the gas chamber were mowed down by machine guns. Other mentioned outcomes are the Jewish women being herded into the gas chamber, taken outside and executed, or Franceska taking her own life with the stolen pistol. Due to various conflicting accounts, it is unclear what truly happened next; the only things that are certain are on that day Schillinger died, Emmerich was wounded, and all the Jewish women were killed.

Franceska Mann of Pasadena, Los Angeles County, CA was born on July 29, 1900, and died at age 97 years old on March 31, 1998.