Rose Meth

{{Short description|Jewish participant of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando uprising (1919–2013)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Rose Meth | honorific_suffix = | image =  | image_upright = | landscape =  | alt =  | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pronunciation = | birth_name = Ruzia Grunapfel | birth_date = {{Birth date|1919|10|11}} | birth_place = Zator, Poland | baptised =  | disappeared_date =  | disappeared_place = | disappeared_status = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2013|10|11|1919|10|11}} | death_place = Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York, US | death_cause =  | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | burial_place =  | burial_coordinates =  | monuments = | nationality = | other_names = | siglum = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | years_active = | era = | employer = | organization = | agent =  | known_for = Auschwitz Sonderkommando uprising participant | notable_works =  | style = | height =  | television = | title =  | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | movement = | opponents = | boards = | criminal_charges =  | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents =  | mother =  | father =  | relatives = | family = | callsign = | awards = | website =  | module = | module2 = | module3 = | module4 = | module5 = | module6 = | signature = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | footnotes = }}'''Rose Grunapfel Meth''' (October 11, 1919 – October 11, 2013)<ref>Family documents</ref> born as '''Ruzia Grunapfel''', also known as '''Reisel Grunapfel Meth''', was one of several Jewish participants in the October 7, 1944 "Sonderkommando uprising" of inmates in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

== Life ==

=== Auschwitz Uprising === Ruzia Grunapfel was born in Zator, Poland. She was sent to Auschwitz in the 1940s where she was forced to work in the Weichsel-Union-Metalwerke or Union Munitions Plant.<ref>Rittner & Roth. Different Voices (Paragon House: 1993) p. 132ff. {{ISBN|1-55778-503-1}}</ref><ref>Rittner & Roth. Different Voices (Paragon House: 1993); {{ISBN|1-55778-503-1}}</ref> Ruzia, along with a number of prisoners including Estusia (Ester) Wajcblum, Hanka (Anna) Wajcblum, Regina Safirsztajn, Ala Gertner, Hadassa Zlotnicka, Marta Bindiger, Genia Fischer, and Inge Frank, worked together to sneak the powder out in kerchiefs stuffed into a pocket or their bosom. If searched, they would dump the powder onto the ground and rub it into the earth with their feet.<ref>Guttman. ''Smoke and Ashes: The Story of Auschwitz-Birkenau'' (Sifriyat Poalim: 1957), pg. 133.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Berman |first=Rochel U. |title=Dignity beyond death: the Jewish preparation for Burial |last2=Greenberg |first2=Irving |date=2005 |publisher=Urim Publications |isbn=978-965-7108-66-6 |location=Jerusalem New York, NY}}</ref> The woman gave the gunpowder to Roza Robota, a prisoner who worked clothing-detail in Birkenau. Robota then gave the gunpowder to the Sonderkommando, a group of death camp prisoners who were forced to dispose of gas chamber victims in the crematoriums.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Prisoner Revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau|url=https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/auschwitz-revolt|access-date=April 22, 2021|website=www.ushmm.org|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Teaching about Women and Resistance|url=http://teaching-about-women-and-resistance.html/|access-date=April 22, 2021|website=teaching-about-women-and-resistance.html|language=en}}</ref>

On October 7, 1944, the Sonderkommandos used the gunpowder to blow up crematorium IV in Birkenau. Ala, Roza, Ester, and Regina were detained and tortured for their role in the plot. The women were publicly hanged in Birkenau on January 5, 1945. Ruzia survived and was forced to watch the executions. Hanka (Anna) Wajcblum also survived. The fate of the other female prisoners mentioned is unknown. Thirteen days after they died, Auschwitz was closed down by the SS, as they fled from the advance of Russian liberators. <ref>Rittner & Roth. ''Different Voices'' (Paragon House: 1993);{{ISBN|1-55778-503-1}}</ref> Ruzia was on the Death March from Auschwitz to Ravensbrück<ref>{{Cite web |title=Death March from Auschwitz |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/timeline-event/death-march-from-auschwitz |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en}}</ref> and was ultimately liberated in Neustadt-Gleve sub-camp of Ravensbrück.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Neustadt-Glewe – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools |url=https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/neustadt-glewe/ |access-date=2023-10-23 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

While in the camp, she traded bread for paper so that she could write notes while in Auschwitz, in order to bear witness later, heeding her father's admonition to remember what happened. Some of the surviving notes are in the archives at Yad Vashem.<ref>Rittner & Roth. Different Voices (Paragon House: 1993) p. 140. {{ISBN|1-55778-503-1}}</ref>

=== Post World War II === Grunapfel emigrated to the US in 1946 aboard the first civilian ship from Europe since the end of World War II. Subsequently, she settled in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, married Irving Meth, and raised three sons. She spent the last ten years of her life in Kew Gardens Hills, New York.<ref>{{Cite web|title=9 Years Ago For Stealing Explosives That Blew Up Crematorium {{!}} The Seattle Times|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19941006&slug=1934365|access-date=April 22, 2021|website=archive.seattletimes.com}}</ref>

She died in October 2013. In 2016 her children and grandchildren dedicated a song in her memory, "Rose Meth, The Unsung Heroine".

==References== <references/>

==External links== *[http://namesnotnumbers.org/student_research_Rose_Meth.html Bio and testimony of Rose Meth] *[http://www.cjnews.com/perspectives/opinions/wajcblum-sisters-auschwitz-saboteurs Rose G. Meth cited in testimony of Anna Heilman] *[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn86274 Oral history interview with Rose Meth, United States Holocaust Museum]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meth, Rose}} Category:1925 births Category:2013 deaths Category:People from Oświęcim County Category:20th-century Polish Jews Category:Polish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps Category:Auschwitz concentration camp survivors Category:Polish emigrants to the United States