The heroine of Auschwitz
The Nazis Knew my Name
By Magda Hellinger Gallery Books, £16.99
Reviewed by Madeleine Kingsley
AT THE age of 25, in March 1942, the late Magda Hellinger was deported to Auschwitz so early in its killing incarnation that “selections” on arrival had not yet begun. Still, the brutality to come pervaded the dirt-floor mattress and the “putrid brew” of rotting vegetable soup. Two days earlier, Magda was the proud possessor of furcollared coat and muff and had been sitting contentedly in the family living room in Michalovce in Slovakia.
The second of five children whose father had taught Jewish history, Magda was one of almost a thousand young Slovakian women on the second ever death-camp transport. Her survivor memoir, The Nazis Knew my Name, co-written with her daughter Maya Lee and David Brewster, strikes a singular note among Shoah testaments because Magda was picked out by the SS not for gassing but for prisoner block leadership and was ultimately responsible for all women in the camp.
Magda — or inmate 3218 as she answered to at roll call — was a born organiser. In her home town she had created a kindergarten from scratch, based entirely on donations of furniture and equipment. Another gift that would sustain her through three years of living hell was the blessing given to her by the revered Belzer Rabbi who foretold when she was eight: “this girl has a special mission in her life. She is going to save hundreds and hundreds of Jewish souls.”
Magda does not appear as the most emotionally charged Holocaust witness — perhaps because she managed to remain stoic even when her heart bled. But nor does she seek praise for the actual hundreds of lives saved and many more given extra food or clothing. Without compromising her humanity, Magda used and often risked her position to hide the frailest prisoners, protecting them from selection. She boldly and successfully protested about conditions for children, procured fresh dresses for frozen and tattered inmates and a violin for Bar's poems are very touching, they exhibit her tremendous strength while coping with the disease. virtuoso new arrival, Alma Rose, who Orit Spira
The Israel Cancer Association survived as orchestral leader until Excerpts from letters of English high school teachers:
On behalf of all my class, I would like to thank you for sharing with us succumbing to illness in April 1944. the beautifully breathtaking poems of Bar Sagi. May her memory live on with every soul her poems reach, just as it did with us. Magda had a small group of
When I gave my students the poem “Just Me,” they were stunned at the brilliance of her poetic writing, finding her gift to write miraculous for her age. They were also amazed at the complexity this poem brings,
yet,wat thoe smame teimen, horw erellataabletiit vwaes fosr ttherm.aThney sallferred and opened up about their own thoughts at first, identifying with the poem, to work in the and then, we began trying to imagine why or how did Bar feel as she was writing this.
Krupps factory where
We will never forget this most precious and beautiful unique voice. she knew the labour turnover to be low. Most What is left when a man passes away? Bar Sagi left us a collection of beautiful poems which are hard to ignore. These poems are alive, they fill the reader with thoughts and emotions, they can be understood by
andsadiulgts, ntheyiwfilil tceacah ynountgslteyrs,tosunhderestanhd theifdeelinags teens of another person. Reading good literature can help make people better.
Andhyeti,mgy hfavousritue ismAutobmiograephyr) outbreak Bar's poems are undoubtedly this kind of literature.
(P.S. of scarlet fever from the SS, using her “friendofsrevhereincpe
“See me soar and spread my wings” is a great testament to a young teenager’s sensibility still in that period of life which by convention,
fo”r thwose mietmhbers tofhthe ehumnan coomtmuonitrymio-st and out precious to us, we call childhood. However, her oeuvre is much more
ous guard Irma Grese than that: in part because her illness gave her tremendous insight into the most foundational and essential impulses of the human personality,
deeplytaos poscsibole. nMyvwoirdns cacnoenlyhbe peoorr ortfahint raefltections and in part because of her burning vitality and desire to live life as fully and of the intensity of her words and spirit. But if one thing stands out
moMre thaan ganydotaher sin hher overuse, lit dis thme excraucinatinagagnd e for me incredible tension conveyed between a diseased and feeble body, and a
the roll calls herself. brilliantly healthy, rational and beautiful mind. Consequently, not one
sick inmate was discovered — which would have meant the gas chamber— during the entire sixweek epidemic.
There were times when to save a life or prevent harsh reprisals for stealing SS property, Magda would deliver a sharp slap to a prisoner and, after the war, there were several attempts to accuse her of collaboration. No charge ever stuck, for many more leapt to her defence.
One survivor recalled how Magda had found a prisoner doctor to remove her mother’s infected tonsils with a sterilised knife, thus saving
Bar was born and brought up in Rehovot. True to her name she was of Nature’s fair her from being gassed. Another said bloom, social, creative and energetic. From a young age she loved books passing many hours in the library. Her first school years were spent in the US and so her dominant Magda “was like our mother… she language became English. Bar acquired a veritable library stocked with hundreds of volumes and wherever she went she took a book with her. Besides reading, she practiced tried to protect us”. horse riding, ice-skating and gymnastics.
On turning eleven Bar come down with cancer and despite a stubborn struggle could not be saved, dying four years later. During her illness books were a source of great
She is portrayed in the book’s pleasure for her and the means by which she could disconnect from the daily hardships of the disease. She expressed her passion for reading by writing books, short stories and epilogue as “always hopeful and poems of her own. The poems were mainly composed during the last two years of her life and bring a glimpse of her thoughts and feelings during that difficult period. Her optimistic” through one of the longest heart’s desire was to become a writer and for that reason we chose to publish her poems and her stories.
Yael Sagi, 27.4.17 stays in a concentration camp.
Bar wrote about herself a few months before she died:
Neither saviour nor missionary,
“Bar Sagi is a 15-year-old girl, who has an imagination that is maybe a bit too big. Her greatest wish is to live a healthy, happy life, and to meet people from her stories. She “she was simply someone who saw lives in Israel with her family and her two cats, who she loves. She hopes one day to be better at writing, and read all the good books in the world.” opportunities and had the fortitude
Bar's book "Dreamworld" is to appear. It is a story of magic, intrigue, mystery and love. to navigate the conflicting emotions
₪ 88 מחיר: of fear and hope”.