Rose Gluck-Warfman (1916-)

Top Left: Rose Warfman

Rose Gluck, daughter of Pinhas (Paul) Gluck-Friedman and Henia Shipper, was born in Zurich, Switzerland on 4 October 1916. Her father was a direct descendant ot Hasidic Masters, going back to the Magid Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the disiple and successor of the Baal Shem Tov.

Her parents had moved from Tarnow, Poland, to Belgium and then to Switzerland during WWI. They moved to Germany and finally to France in 1921, settling in Strasbourg. After moving to Paris, she studied to be a nurse. Before the start of WWII, she worked at the COJASOR, a Jewish social service organization.

During WWII she joined her sister and brother-in-law, Antoinette and Rabbi David Feuerwerker in Brive-la-Gaillarde. Together, they worked with Edmond Michelet (future Senior Minister of Charles de Gaulle) in Combat, a major movement of the French Resistance. Her name in the Resistance was Marie Rose Girardin.

Rose was arrested in the Synagogue of Brive in March 1944. She was taken to Drancy internment camp where her sister was able to send her a nurse uniform. She was wearing that uniform on 29 April 1944 when she was put on Convoy 72 to Auschwitz where the number 80598 was tattooed on her arm. Underneath there is a triangle, meaning she is a Jew. Serge Klarsfeld described the convoy:

"This convoy takes 1004 Jews, and includes 398 men and 606 women. Among them were 174 children below 18. The poet Itzak Katznelson (Itzhak Katzenelson) is among the deportees of this convoy, as well as many Poles, arrested as he was in Vittel, after having been transferred from Poland. There are families: the children Dodelzak, Ita 12, Georges 3 and Arkadius 3 months; the Rottenberg, Naphtalie 7, Nathan 5, Esther 4, Frantz 2,... On arrival at Auschwitz, 48 men were selectioned with the numbers 186596 to 186643 and 52 women, whose numbers are around 80600. In 1945, there were 37 survivors, including 25 women."

The infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, singled her for survival and later operated on her without anesthesia. She survived three selections in Auschwitz, and was later transferred to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp which she found was worse than Auschwitz. There she worked 12-hour shifts on an assembly line in a munnitions factory.

Even in concentration camp, she did passive resistance. In Birkenau, she was assigned to a group of 50 women who were knitting. A kapo made them knit undershirts for German newborns. She worked hard, and was given as a role model. Then winter came, they were asked to knit socks for men (Germans). Her vengeance was to make big knots inside to render them unusable.

Her camp was liberated by the Russian Army in June 1945. After the War, she returned to Paris where she became the one and sole employee of the new Israeli Airlines, El Al. She was involved in the adventure of the Exodus (ship) (Exodus1947). Together with Abbé Alexandre Glasberg, she made the false identity cards for the passengers.

Rose married Nachman Warfman, with whom she had three children: Bernard, Salomon David, and Anne. She moved to Manchester, England, to be close to her children, her grandchildren and her great grandchildren.