"THE RACE" ~ 6 February 1943

230 women of the French Resistance were arrested and sent to Auschwitz on the Convoi des 31000. Fourteen of them died in "the race" on 6 February 1943 ... they had only been in Auschwitz for 11 days. The following is cited from Danuta Czech’s archival research Auschwitz Chronicle:

"The camp management orders a general roll call in the women’s camp in Birkenau, to begin at 3:30 a.m. All female prisoners are herded onto the field in front of the women’s camp, where they are detained on the open, snow-covered grounds, inadequately clothed and without food, until 5:00 p.m. They must return to camp at a run. At the camp gate stands female SS supervisors and SS men, who goad the returning prisoners with cudgels. Those who are unable to run because of age, weakness, or disease are selected and led to Block 25, where they wait for shipment to the gas chambers. A squad of stronger women is formed, which must gather up the corpses of the prisoners who met their death … approximately 1,000 women." (Source: Czech 324)

• Yvonne B.
• Eugenia Beskine
• Sophie Czeposka-Brabander
• Noemie Lesterp-Durand
• Sophie Richet-Gigand
• Aminthe Auger-Guillon
• Yvette Sardet-Guillon
• Eugenie Korzeniowska
• Bertha Lescure-Lapeyrade
• Simone Blanche Julie Brunet-Mitternique
• Pauline Lafabrier-Pomies
• Constance Rappenau
• Jakoba van der Lee
• Alice Lubroso-Viterbo