Gisi Fleischmann

Gisi Fleischmann (1894 – 18 October 1944) was a leader of the best known Holocaust era Jewish rescue group: the Bratislava Working Group. Mrs. Fleischmann was murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Working Group's co-leader was Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl. Thanks to the efforts of the Working Group, which bribed German and Slovakian officials and paid negotiated ransom to the Germans, the mass deportation of Slovakian Jews was delayed for two years, from 1942 to 1944.

At Rabbi Weissmandl's initiative the Working Group was also responsible for the ambitious but ill-fated Europa Plan which would have seen large numbers of European Jews rescued from the Nazi and Fascist murderers. An agreement was negotiated with the Nazis in late 1942 and one to two million dollars ransom was required to stop most transports. The Germans asked for a 10% down payment. Unfortunately the down payment was never made.

The Working Group also played a central role in distribution of the "Auschwitz Report" in spring 1944. Rabbi Weissmandl's version ultimately reached George Mantello in Switzerland via Budapest. He immediately published the report's summary. That triggered a major Swiss grass roots protest in the Swiss press, churches and streets. It was a major factor leading to President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and others threatening Hungary's Fascist regent Horthy with post-war retribution if he did not immediately stop the transports. This significantly influenced Horthy to stop the transports. At the time about 12,000 Jews a day were transported from Hungary to Auschwitz. Consequently Raoul Wallenberg was able to go to Budapest, where he and other diplomats like Carl Lutz, Angelo Rotta and others rescued large number of Jews.