Safirsztajn smuggled gunpowder into the camp to help the Sonderkommando blow up Crematorium IV during an October 7, 1944 revolt. She was tortured and eventually executed by hanging along with her three conspirators in the last public hanging at Auschwitz.∼Regina, whose surname is sometimes given as Safir, Safirstein, or Saphirstein, was born in Bedzin, Poland. After the Nazi invasion of her homeland, she was deported to Auschwitz and selected to work in the Union Munitions factory. The room of the factory she and a select group of women worked in was notable for being the only place in the camp where inmates had access to gunpowder. Regina was recruited by her friend Ala Gertner to join the resistence movement, and together with Róza Robota, Hanka and Ester (Estusia) Wajcblum, Hadassah Zlotnicka, Inge Frank, Genia Fischer, Marta Bindiger, Ruzia Grunapfel, and several other women, worked for over a year, at great personal risk, in setting aside a small amount of gunpowder each day and passing it along in a smuggling chain leading to a group of men in the Sonderkommando, who were planning a revolt. Nothing was ever suspected during all of this time, in spite of the extremely great risk these women took each time they smuggled the gunpowder out at the end of each day and passed it along bit by bit. On 7 October 1944, Crematorium IV was blown up, although the uprisings in the other crematoria were put down before they were able to get that far. In retribution for what had happened, every third Sonderkommando was shot. An investigation into how this could have happened went on for weeks, and the gunpowder was finally traced back to the Union Munitions factory. All of the women working in the factory were interrogated and tortured, and eventually Regina, Ala, Estusia, and Róza were betrayed. (Unfortunately, of these four brave women, the least biographical information seems to be available about Regina.) Although they in turn were tortured and interrogated even harder over the next few months, they refused to give in and reveal any more information or names other than the names of Sonderkommandos who had been killed already. Regina and the other three women were publicly hanged on 5 January 1945, two weeks before the camp was evacuated. She was about 29 years old. Their last words, according to survivors, were said to be either "Be strong!" or "Revenge!" In 1991 a memorial at Yad Vashem was dedicated to the four of them, recognising their act of heroism.
Safirsztajn smuggled gunpowder into the camp to help the Sonderkommando blow up Crematorium IV during an October 7, 1944 revolt. She was tortured and eventually executed by hanging along with her three conspirators in the last public hanging at Auschwitz.∼Regina, whose surname is sometimes given as Safir, Safirstein, or Saphirstein, was born in Bedzin, Poland. After the Nazi invasion of her homeland, she was deported to Auschwitz and selected to work in the Union Munitions factory. The room of the factory she and a select group of women worked in was notable for being the only place in the camp where inmates had access to gunpowder. Regina was recruited by her friend Ala Gertner to join the resistence movement, and together with Róza Robota, Hanka and Ester (Estusia) Wajcblum, Hadassah Zlotnicka, Inge Frank, Genia Fischer, Marta Bindiger, Ruzia Grunapfel, and several other women, worked for over a year, at great personal risk, in setting aside a small amount of gunpowder each day and passing it along in a smuggling chain leading to a group of men in the Sonderkommando, who were planning a revolt. Nothing was ever suspected during all of this time, in spite of the extremely great risk these women took each time they smuggled the gunpowder out at the end of each day and passed it along bit by bit. On 7 October 1944, Crematorium IV was blown up, although the uprisings in the other crematoria were put down before they were able to get that far. In retribution for what had happened, every third Sonderkommando was shot. An investigation into how this could have happened went on for weeks, and the gunpowder was finally traced back to the Union Munitions factory. All of the women working in the factory were interrogated and tortured, and eventually Regina, Ala, Estusia, and Róza were betrayed. (Unfortunately, of these four brave women, the least biographical information seems to be available about Regina.) Although they in turn were tortured and interrogated even harder over the next few months, they refused to give in and reveal any more information or names other than the names of Sonderkommandos who had been killed already. Regina and the other three women were publicly hanged on 5 January 1945, two weeks before the camp was evacuated. She was about 29 years old. Their last words, according to survivors, were said to be either "Be strong!" or "Revenge!" In 1991 a memorial at Yad Vashem was dedicated to the four of them, recognising their act of heroism.
