A standing-room only crowd at the Chabad UF Jewish Student Center listened intently on Monday as Holocaust survivor Irene Zisblatt told of how she came face to face with death at the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
One of 1,500 in her barracks selected for the gas chamber, Zisblatt, 13, fought for her life when she realized everyone would not fit inside the underground room. Using all her strength and digging her fingernails into the chamber door, she avoided getting pushed back inside.
As the gas began to flow, an SS soldier was ordered to shut the door. Unable due to Zisblatt’s presence, he threw the young girl to the side, slammed the door and ran to safety to avoid the gas.
Zisblatt ran back up the ramp from the gas chamber and found a small place to hide.
“For that moment, I had hope,” she said with vigor.
She was discovered shortly after by a Sonderkommando, a prisoner forced to perform various duties, including bringing the dead bodies from the gas chambers to the crematoriums.