Leib Langfus

Leib Langfus, or also Leyb Langfus, was one of the victims of Auschwitz-Birkenau. A rabbi and Dayan (rabbinical judge) in Maków Mazowiecki he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, where he was forced to work as a Sonderkommando. After the war, a diary he kept was unearthed in the grounds of Birkenau - that was later to be published with a number of other diaries, under the title, The scrolls of Auschwitz. (Between 1945 and 1980, a total of eight caches of documents were found buried in the grounds of Crematoria II and III in Auschwitz-Birkenau.) The accounts written by Langfus are considered one of the most important historical documents dealing with subject of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, and the Holocaust in general.

Leib Langfus was born in Warsaw and studied in the Tzusmir Yeshiva. After marrying the daughter of Dayan Shmuel Yosef Rosental of Maków Mazowiecki (in the mid-1930s), he assumed his father in law's post following the latter's death. He eventually became the Rabbi of the town and was known as "Der Makover Dayan".

In November 1942 the Jews of Makow-Mazowiecki were deported to Mlawa, and from there, in early December, to Auschwitz. Langfus, his wife and one son were among the group - his wife and son were gassed immediately upon arrival.

Forced into the Sonderkommando, Langfus was required to prepare women’s hair for shipment to Germany. While his faith in God remained unshakable during his time Auschwitz-Birkenau (he considered his fate and that of his fellow Jews to be God's judgment), he was an active member of the Sonderkommando underground that eventually blew up one of the crematoria in Birkenau.

According to fellow prisoner Zalman Levental (whose diary was found in 1962), Langfus was one of the underground activists and planners of the revolt in the crematoria. It is believed he was executed on Nov. 27, 1944.

After the war, a number of manuscripts were found, describing the deportation from Makow as well as the work of the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1943 to November 26, 1944. Eventually, historian Bernard Ber Mark (and after his death his wife) - identified the works as being authored by Leib Langfus. (One of the abbreviations - AJRA- was determined to stand for Aryeh Yehuda (his Hebrew first names) Regel Arucha (Long Foot)- which is the translation of the Yiddish/German "Langfus").

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