162:(the Jewish confessional prayer) before dying. Suddenly, a young man jumped up on the bench, and began shouting that it was not possible they were going to die, that such a terrible thing could not happen in this world. Mesmerized, the victims listened to his speech, but within minutes all of them, including the speaker, were led to their deaths.
177:"We should be alone, without a family, without relatives, without friends, without a place we might call our own, condemned to roam the world aimlessly. For us there would be neither peace nor rest of mind, until one day we would die in some corner, lonely and forsaken. Therefore, brothers, let us now go to meet death bravely and with dignity!"
76:, Langfus was required to prepare women's hair for shipment to Germany. While his faith in God remained unshakable during his time Auschwitz-Birkenau (he considered his fate and that of his fellow Jews to be God's judgment), he was an active member of the Sonderkommando underground that eventually blew up one of the crematoria in Birkenau.
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shoved them even more forcefully into the bunker. The screams and sobbing of the children were deafening until death silenced them, at which moment an expression of satisfaction slipped over the faces of their tormentors. Langfus concludes his account with a question: "Have they never had any children?"
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following the so-called
Children's Aktion there on November 5. When the Sonderkommando man approached a child to undress him, his sister tried to stop him, shouting: "Let go, you Jewish murderer! Don't lay your hands stained by Jewish blood on my beautiful brother .... " Another child cried: "But you
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After the war, a number of manuscripts were found, describing the deportation from Makow as well as the work of the
Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1943 to November 26, 1944. Eventually, historian Bernard Ber Mark (and after his death his wife) - identified the works as being authored
42:. (Between 1945 and 1980, a total of eight caches of documents were found buried in the grounds of Crematoria II and III in Auschwitz-Birkenau.) The accounts written by Langfus are considered one of the most important historical documents dealing with subject of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and
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In a chapter titled "Di 600 Yinglekh" (The 600 Youngsters), he describes the horrifying spectacle of 600 children being pushed savagely and cruelly to their death in the gas chamber. Some pleaded with the
Sonderkommando prisoners to save them. Others appealed to the SS men who instead of replying
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On another occasion he describes a group of Polish and Jewish prisoners being led to the slaughter. A Polish girl left the group and asked the
Sonderkommando prisoners to tell her people that she and her comrades had died a hero's death. The Poles sang their national anthem, while the Jews sang
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on duty and told him to his face that the
Germans would not succeed in their plot to murder the Jewish people, and that they would pay tenfold for each Jewish soul they murdered. Afterward the rabbi, together with the whole group, recited the prayer
62:. After marrying the daughter of Dayan Shmuel Yosef Rosental of Maków Mazowiecki (in the mid-1930s), he assumed his father in law's post following the latter's death. He eventually became the Rabbi of the town and was known as "Der Makover Dayan".
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In his account of the deportation from Makow-Mazowiecki, Langfus senses the fateful severing of contacts with the world at large: "They are so lonely in the middle of the planet earth which belongs to everyone, everyone except them, the
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His last entry reads: "Now we are being taken into the zone. The last 170 remaining of us. We are certain we are going to meet our death. 30 people have been selected to stay in
Crematorium Number V. Today is November 26,
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According to fellow prisoner Zalman
Levental (whose diary was found in 1962), Langfus was one of the underground activists and planners of the revolt in the crematoria. It is believed he was executed on November 27, 1944.
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by Leib
Langfus. (One of the abbreviations - AJRA- was determined to stand for Aryeh Yehuda (his Hebrew first names) Regel Arucha (Long Foot)- which is the translation of the Yiddish/German "Langfus").
174:, who describes Langfus and his fellow prisoners' last moments. Stepping out of line to rebuke the SS officers for lying to them about their fate, Langfus addressed his fellow doomed prisoners:
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are a Jew! How can you lead dear Jewish children to be gassed so that your life may be spared! Is your life in the company of murderers more worthy than the lives of so many Jewish victims?"
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He tells the story of the rabbi's wife from
Strapivka who arrived at Auschwitz from Koszo, Hungary, in May 1944; while waiting in the stripping room she asked God to forgive the
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and went to his death. The author comments: "This spiritually exalted moment, without a precedent in human life, validates the eternal spiritual steadfastness of
Judaism."
69:, and from there, in early December, to Auschwitz. Langfus, his wife and one son were among the group - his wife and son were gassed immediately upon arrival.
38:. After the war, a diary he kept was unearthed in the grounds of Birkenau - that was later to be published with a number of other diaries, under the title,
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151:. "A terrible and cruel fate has ordained that the lyrical sounds of these different anthems mingle in this accursed corner of the globe."
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Yad Vashem Studies 20 (1990): 273–312; Entries 1 through 6 are from Natan Cohen's article, translated from
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Elsewhere he describes yet another moving scene, this time not involving Sonderkommando men.
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Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp edited by Yisrael Gutman, Michael Berenbaum, P. 527
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Moshe Friedman, who arrived at Auschwitz during Passover of 1944, approached the
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http://marchoftheliving.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/A-Tale-of-Two-Anthems.pdf
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he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, where he was forced to work as a
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Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp edited by Yisrael Gutman, Michael Berenbaum
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Diaries of the Sonderkommandos in Auschwitz: Coping with Fate and Reality,
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Yad Vashem's Encyclopedia of Ghettos During the Holocaust, P.451
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Langfus also appears in the biography of fellow Sonderkommando,
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In November 1942, the Jews of Makow-Mazowiecki were deported to
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concerning their fate, while he himself had fled to Palestine.
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who waited passively for their execution, some reciting
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Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp
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Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers
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193:Bernard Ber Mark, 1985: The scrolls of Auschwitz
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30:. A rabbi and Dayan (rabbinical judge) in
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