On October 23, 1943, at just 26 years old, ballerina Franceska Manheimer-Rosenberg, also known as Franceska Mann, killed Nazi guard Joseph Schillinger and injured two others at Auschwitz.  

Mann was born in Warsaw, Poland, and became a beautiful and talented ballerina thought to have the most potential among her generation of dancers in Poland. When Mann was hiding in Warsaw, she and a few thousand other Jews were tricked by Germans in what is known as the Hotel Polski Affair. They were promised that they would be taken to Switzerland and exchanged with the Allies in return for German prisoners of war. However, their trains’ last stop was actually Auschwitz, where they arrived on October 23, 1943. The women were told to remove their clothing, which they had been wearing since they had left Poland, so they could be sanitized before crossing the border. At this point Mann cleverly realized the ruse and began to formulate her attack.  

With most of the witnesses left dead, multiple interpretations of Mann's revolt formed. One version of the event details how Mann began her insurgence by performing a sexual dance for three Nazi guards. According to this version, she enticingly removed her clothes and then her shoes, which distracted the guards enough for her to hurl her high heel at senior squad leader Walter Quakernack. She grabbed his firearm after he fell to the ground in anguish. She then shot Nazis Joseph Schillinger and Wilhelm Emmerich. Schillinger died a few hours later and Emmerich was left with a permanent limp.  

Another version of the event describes how when ordered to strip completely, Mann threw her bra at a guard’s head and hurled herself onto him, enabling her to grab his firearm and shoot at the guards.  

Mann’s rebellion incited the hundred other female prisoners around her to attack the few dozen Nazi guards. Reinforcements charged into the scene. One account details that the women were gunned down, while another claims they were forced into the gas chamber. The hundred women, including Franceska Mann, were killed that day in Auschwitz after their uprising.  

Sources: 

Aderet, Ofer. “The Jewish Dancer Undressed Slowly. Then She Shot an SS Soldier to Death” Haaretz, August 27, 2019; https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-08-27/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-jewish-dancer-undressed-slowly-then-she-shot-an-ss-soldier-to-death/0000017f-dbf8-df62-a9ff-dfffe9ec0000.   

“Franceska Mann.” Wikipedia, Accessed February 2, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franceska_Mann.   

“Hotel Polski.” Accessed February 5, 2023; https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hotel_Polski.  

“On This Day, in 1943: Polish Ballerina Franceska Mann Shot an SS Officer on Her Way to the Gas Chamber.” Kafkadesk, October 17, 2022; https://kafkadesk.org/2020/10/23/on-this-day-in-1943-polish-ballerina-franceska-mann-died-at-auschwitz/.