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Treblinka Death Camp "Remember Me"
The following list shows details of the people who were deported to Treblinka death camp, and were either murdered or survived. The list is not a list of names, but names where generally some details are known, albeit brief. A limited list of full names, with no biographical details, only will follow in due course:
Alphabetical Listing of Treblinka Survivors and Victims ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reizl Abramowicz
Educated in Korczak’s orphanage. She worked there and was deported to Treblinka together with Korczak, the other staff and the children.
“Dr" Adrian A member of the camouflage team, expert in speculation
Robert Altschul
Born 24 July 1916 deported from Prague to Terezin, and then onto to Treblinka on the 8 October 1942. Probably died in the uprising on 2 August 1943
Anisfelt
Director of the Jewish Gymnasium in Czestochowa before the war. During the German occupation he was a member of the Judenrat in the Czestochowa ghetto. He was responsible for the Jewish police in the ghetto.
He wrote a diary and shortly before he was deported 4 volumes of his writings were hidden in the ghetto. Sadly after the war nothing was found. He was deported with other members of the Czestochowa Judenrat and the ghetto police force to Treblinka on 4 October 1942.
Czeslaw Augustyniak
Survived the revolt and the war and emigrated to Sweden.
Lilly Bachner
Deported from the Terezin Ghetto on Transport BT-687 to Treblinka in xxxxx 1942
Kurt Bachner
Deported from the Terezin Ghetto on Transport BT-687 to Treblinka in xxxxx 1942
Eugen Back
Born 26 November 1917. Deported from Terezin to Treblinka on the 8 October 1942. Two meters tall, he was known as “Eiffel Tower”. He was shot at the Lazarett.after falling ill with typhus.
Dr. Beck
A prisoner Doctor who worked in the infirmary in the living barracks which was established in the autumn of 1942.
Oskar Berger
Businessman from Czechoslovakia. Moved to Kielce during the early part of the Second World War. Deported to Treblinka with his wife and son in late August 1942, his wife and son were killed on arrival. In September 1942 he escaped from Treblinka hidden in a box-car taking clothing to the Reich. Arrested again he was taken to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, where he remained till liberation.
Yechiel Berkowicz
Escaped from Treblinka with Abraham Bomba, and Yechezkel Cooperman, after hiding in piles of clothing..
Aaron Berliner
Deported from Czestochowa –, a member of the Judenrat, he worked as a tinsmith after being rescued at the undressing barracks.
Meir Berliner
From Argentina who was visiting Warsaw with his wife and daughter when war broke out. They were sent to Treblinka despite their Argentinean citizenship. The wife and daughter were taken straight to the gas chambers, while Berliner was selected for labour. Berliner stabbed to death SS-Oberscharfuhrer Max Biala on 11 September 1942.
For this piece of heroism he was hacked to death with a shovel by SS- Unterscharfuhrer Miete.
Siegfried Bernstein
Born on the 27 May 1888. A musician from Cottbus in Germany. In April 1942 he was deported to the Warsaw ghetto and from there to Treblinka.
Icchok Bernsztein
A journalist who worked with the biggest daily newspapers in Poland “Hajnt” and “Moment”. He was a literature reviewer and author of biographic studies about famous Jewish writers.
In the Warsaw ghetto he worked with Ringelblum on his archive, and was deported to Treblinka in 1942.
Petr Birnbaum
Born 28 May 1923. Deported from Olomouc to Terezin and from Terezin deported to Treblinka on BU147 on the 8 October 1942.
Moshe Blanket
A friend of Abraham Krzepicki, who arrived in Treblinka, but was unable to be rescued , and Abraham was unable to say goodbye to him.
Adele Blau
Born 18 February 1888 in Vienna. Deported from Vienna to Kielce with her husband Karl. From Kielce deported to Treblinka, committed suicide in Sobibor death camp in 1943.
Karl Blau
Born 15 February 1892 in Vienna. Deported to Kielce on 19 February 1941 with his wife Adele. Blau and his wife were recognised by Commandant Stangl and selected to live, the only husband and wife partnership in Treblinka.
Blau was feared and hated because of his collaboration with the SS, after serving in the Lower Camp, they were transferred to the Upper Camp. Described as corpulent and bandy-legged. Blau was taken to Sobibor death camp to help clear up after the revolt in October 1943, and he and his wife committed suicide there.
Aharon Blaufuks
Born in Warsaw in 1894 a Jewish artist who was deported to Treblinka and murdered in 1942
Zelomir Bloch
A photographer from Slovakia who was deported to Treblinka on a transport from the Polish town of Deblin, following his previous deportation from his native town of Presov.
Bloch had seen military service as he was an officer in the Czech army, prior to the occupation by the Germans. Richard Glazar one of the survivors described him as a “good looking man of medium height with brown hair and a moustache, a strong square face and muscular body”.
At Treblinka he was appointed foreman of the labour detail which sorted out the clothing confiscated from the murdered Jews. One day in March 1943, due to a missing bundle, Zelo was transferred to the Totenlager by SS-Oberscharfuhrer Kuttner. This was a blow to the underground movement in Treblinka, as Zelo played a leading role in the planning of the revolt in Treblinka. Zelo fought in the uprising but died on the 2 August 1943
Efaam Bodnik
From Nowy Dwor and brother of Leibish, one of four people working in the smithy.
Leibish Bodnik
From Nowy Dwor and brother of Efaam, one of four people working in the smithy
Alfred Boehm
From Czestochowa, a childhood friend of Samuel Wilenberg, they lived on Fabryczna Street. German born Alfred moved to Czestochowa as a child in the 1930’s with his Polish born parents and little sister.
Alfred was deported to Treblinka from Czestochowa with his whole family, mother, father and sisters who were murdered on arrival, whilst he was selected to live. Alfred served as an aide to Alfred Galewski, the Jewish Lageraltester, and then was employed in cleaning up the camp.
To achieve this Alfred Boehm pushed a small pram around the German and Ukrainian quarters collecting rubbish from the whitewashed barrels the Germans had provided, which was then taken to the Lazarett and burnt. Alfred was killed on the 2 August 1943 next to him was his upturned pram.
Abraham Bomba
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka in September 1942. Worked as a barber in the Upper Camp escaped with Berkowicz and Cooperman, reached Warsaw with help from farmers and from there stayed in hiding in Czestochowa until liberation and was featured in the 1985 film “Shoah” by Claude Lanzmann
Berl Borenstein
From Legionowo
Moshe Boorstein
He escaped from Treblinka with Simcha Laski in a box-car taking clothes out of the camp. Near Lukow, in late July 1942. Both Laski and Boorstein reached the Warsaw Ghetto on the day of the “Children’s Aktion”.
Gustav Boraks
Born in 1901 in Vienun a small town near Lodz, he was a barber by profession, married with two children – Pinhas and Yossef. After being arrested and sent to Cracow – his wife obtained his release by trading her fur coat for his life.
Boraks and his family were deported to Czestochowa ghetto with his family, and from there they were all deported to Treblinka. Boraks and his family arrived in Treblinka on Yom Kippur 1942, along with his brother and sisters, who were all sent to the gas chambers, apart from himself. Boraks worked as a barber and in the camouflage detail. Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944 and was a witness in the John Demjanuk trial in Israel which began in 1986.
Eliyahu Boraks
Born in Kalisz in 1918. Member of the Ha-Shomer ha – Tsa’ir youth movement and joined a Zionist pioneering training programme.
At the outbreak of the war, he was drafted and served in the Polish Army. In 1940 he went to Vilnius. He was on the main steering committee of Ha-Shomer ha- Tsa’ir from 1941. In December 1941 he went to Warsaw, then returned to Vilnius and onto Bialystok. He was active in the ZOB and commanded a combat unit, and was deported in February 1943 from Bialystok to Treblinka.
Tadeusz Bornsztein
Born in Tomaszow in 1919, a Jewish artist by profession. Deported and murdered in Treblinka in 1942.
David Brat
Worked with Richard Glazar in Sorting Barracks A in the “Mens Coats Type II, described by Glazar as having buck teeth and a bony nose.
Hennoch Brener
Survived Treblinka and after the war emigrated to the United States of America
Egon Breslauer
Born on 22 October 1889. Merchant in Cottbus – Germany. In April 1942 deported to the Warsaw ghetto with his family, and from there to Treblinka
Lotte Breslauer
Born 13 July 1897 named Lotte Pakulla. The wife of Egon Breslauer – together with him and their daughter Ursula deported to the Warsaw ghetto in April 1942. Deported from Warsaw to Treblinka.
Ursula Breslauer
Born on 9 May 1930 in Cottbus, daughter of Egon and Lotte Breslauer. Deported from Cottbus to the Warsaw ghetto in April 1942 and subsequently deported to Treblinka
Brojer
Worked in the camouflage commando
Brothandel
Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944
Hans Burg
Born 19 March 1925
Deported from Prague to Terezin and from there to Treblinka on 8 October 1942
Lolek Bursztein
He escaped from Warsaw to Opatow. Arrived in the same transport from Czestochowa as Samuel Willenberg. He was gassed the same day he arrived.
Gisza Galina Bursztyn
Born in 1877 in Pultusk near Warsaw. Before the war she lived in Warsaw at 47 Mila Street. During the “Great Action” in the Warsaw ghetto she was taken away from a bunker and was deported to Treblinka
Hillel Cajtlin
Born in 1872. Writer and ,publicist, also noted journalist particularly for the “Haynt” – one of the biggest pre-war daily newspapers, which was published in Yiddish.
He wrote a great deal, even during the war – among other things he translated the Book of Psalms into Yiddish – but his literary legacy was lost.
Perla describes him thus:
"Hillel Cajtlin hauled himself on to the deportation cart, completely covered in his prayer shawl, he wanted to be buried in his tallit in the Jewish way.
It was a shocking sight – a cart full of women and children, all being taken to their death, and among them a tall, lone old man, with a long snow white beard, shrouded in his prayer shawl.
On this occasion the old writer came back from the Umschlagplatz."
Sick and very weak, he spent some time in the Jewish hospital. With the evacuation of the hospital during the deportation action, Hillel Cajtlin was among those sent to Treblinka on Wednesday 5 August 1942.
Chezkel / Chaskel
Hated official informer, a former butcher from Warsaw. A young man under 30 – the Germans nicknamed him “Hermann." Caught typhus but was cared for under orders in the infirmary. On the afternoon of the revolt, a prisoner dropped a twenty dollar gold coin, this was noticed by Chezkel who turned the prisoner over to Kuttner, who shot him at the Lazarett, this was mistaken by some, who thought this was the pre-arranged signal for the revolt.
Bencjon Chilinowicz
A journalist he worked with the daily newspaper “Moment." He was an expert about the Polish parliament. In the Warsaw ghetto he worked with other journalists. Deported to Treblinka with his whole family in 1942
Dr. Julian Chorazycki
Born in 1885 and admitted to medical practice in 1911. Was a well- known laryngologist in Warsaw. He was 57 years of age when he was deported to Treblinka, where he was selected by the SS to head their own clinic – The Revierstube.
A former captain in the Polish army Chorazycki was involved in the camps underground from the very beginning. As the Revierstube was near the Goldjuden barracks he was entrusted with obtaining weapons for a possible revolt, from that source.
SS- Untersturmfuhrer Kurt Franz burst into the clinic and found a substantial sum of money and after a brief struggle, Chorazycki took poison. Kurt Franz beat the lifeless Chorazycki with a whip and tried to revive him, but he died and his body was taken to the Lazarett.
Chaim Ciechanowski
Survived Treblinka and immigrated to Argentina. Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944
Lejzer Ciechanowski
Survived Treblinka and immigrated to Argentina. Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944
Cienki Brothers
Two brothers from Miedzyrzec Podlaski deported to Treblinka during the second action on 6-9 October 1942 together with about 7000 other Jews from Miedzyrzec and surroundings. They managed to escape from the camp and returned to Miedzyrzec Podlaski where they informed the Judenrat about Treblinka and the fate of the deportees. The head of the Judenrat informed the local Gestapo about them, and they were shot by the Gestapo.
Because some of the Miedzyrzec Jews heard about Treblinka some of them decided to escape from trains in subsequent deportations.
Dr Lipman Comber
Young Jewish historian before the war connected with the Jewish Science Institute in Vilna. In the Warsaw ghetto he was the leader of the dormitory for poor children. Deported to Treblinka in 1942
Yechezkel Cooperman
Escaped with Abraham Bomba and Yechiel Berkowicz
Aniela Cukier
Born in Warsaw in 1910. A Jewish artist was deported and killed in Treblinka during 1942
Josef Czarny
Born on 27 July 1926 in Warsaw. His mother and father died in the Warsaw ghetto, Czarny went to the Umschlagplatz in Warsaw because he was starving and the Germans had promised bread and jam to anyone who volunteered to work in the east.
Czarny sorted clothes and then became a Hofjuden, serving Kurt Franz, and looking after the chicken coops. He survived the revolt and settled in Israel. He gave testimony in the John Demjanuk trial which began in 1986.
Aaron Czechowicz
Arrived in Treblinka on 9 September 1942. He was one of the survivors who gave evidence to the Central Commission of Investigation of German Crimes in Poland in 1946. Settled in Caracas Venezuela.
Nachum Diamant
Escaped from Treblinka with Wladyslaw Salzberg in the summer of 1942. He returned to the Kielce ghetto where he informed the Judenrat about the truth about Treblinka. His fate is unknown.
Jakob Domb
In Treblinka he drove a wagon to collect rubbish in the lower camp. While driving near the extermination area on the day of the uprising, he shouted out in Hebrew to prisoners working across the fence “ End of the world today, the day of judgement at four o’clock”.
He survived the revolt and after the war immigrated to Israel. Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944
Ruth Dorfman
Remembered by Samuel Willenberg in the barbershop prior to being gassed.
Alfred Dzialoszynski
He lived in the same barrack as Samuel Willenberg
Ebert
An engineer and his son from Warsaw who worked with Jankiel Weirnik on the construction of the new gas chambers, killed by the SS.
Edek
Edek wasa a fourteen year old boy, who arrived at the ramp in Treblinka carrying his accordion, and was selected by the SS to play for them.
Played a part in obtaining a spare key for the camps armoury, by shoving a metal fragment in the lock. The SS had to remove the door, and thus the opportunity presented itself to make a mould of the lock.
Daniel Eichner
Brother in law of Zygmunt Strawczynski murdered in 1942
Israel Einshindler
Originally from Lodz worked with Oscar Strawczynski in the sorting yard. Einshindler escaped from Treblinka in a box car taking clothes away from the camp
Jacob Eisner
Escaped from Treblinka with Moshe Rappaport in January 1943. After the war immigrated to Israel
Nachum Eljaszewicz
A tinsmith from Czestochowa whom Strawczynski brought into his workshop to assist him he later caught typhus, but recovered.
Lila Ephroimson
Women’s Kapo in the Totenlager, Sonia Lewkowicz the sole survivor of the group of women who worked in this part of the camp, gave highly favourable testimony on Ephroimson’s behaviour as women’s Kapo.
Pinchas Epstein
Born on the 3 March 1925 in Czestochowa.
Epstein was deported from Czestochowa on 22 September 1942 with his family, his younger brother David was also selected for labour but killed by an SS man ‘s rifle butt.
Epstein spent almost eleven months in the Totenlager carrying corpses. After the revolt he managed to return to Czestochowa, managed to obtain Aryan papers and obtained work in Germany.
After the war he arrived in Israel in July 1948, and Pinchas Epstein testified in the John Demjanuk trial in 1986.
Moshe Ettinger
Yehiel Reichman recalled how Moshe Ettinger from his town wept and could not forgive himself for remaining alive while his wife and son had died.
Leon Finklestein
Was deported from Warsaw ghetto in the first transport to arrive in Treblinka on 23 July 1942. His wife was a gentile in Warsaw who after the revolt brought clothes and papers to Leon whilst he hid in the forest.
He was one of thirteen survivors who gave evidence in 1946 to the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland.
Szmul Fojgenbaum
Lived in the Warsaw ghetto – deported to Treblinka in 1942
Adolf Freidman
Adolf Friedman was in his thirties from Lodz, joined the Treblinka underground group called the “Organising Committee”. Several testimonies placed him in Palestine and the Foreign Legion before the war, whilst in Treblinka he headed a work team at the Sorting Square.
Transferred to the Totenlager with Zelo Bloch, Freidman became a member of the body burning team. He was killed during the revolt.
Hans Freund
Born 18 March 1907. Deported from Prague to Terezin and on the 8 October 1942 deported from Terezin to Treblinka. A textile worker by profession, he probably died during the revolt. His wife and son were gassed on arrival at Treblinka
Marie Freund
Sister of Sigmund Freund. 82 years of age, deported from Terezin to Treblinka in September 1942
Pauline Freund
Sister of Sigmund Freund. 80 years of age, deported from Terezin to Treblinka in September 1942
Pawel Frey
Born 27 July 1913 deported from Prague to Terezin and subsequently deported to Treblinka on 8 October 1942.
Fuchs
Prior to deportation to Treblinka he worked for Polish Radio. Worked in the extermination area, in the kitchen, peeling potatoes. Also played the clarinet as a member of a small orchestra that played from time to time during the roll calls there.
Chaim Fuks
Born in Opoczno – the son of Natan and Dwora Fuks – deported to Treblinka where he perished.
Willi Furst
Born 11 November 1910 in Ostrawa. Deported from Ostrawa to Terezin and subsequently deported to Treblinka on 8 October 1942. He was known as “Little Willy” from the Goldjuden Kommando, who had been a hotelier from Moravian Ostrow, as confirmed by Richard Glazar and SS-man Franz Suchomel
Engineer Alfred Galewski
Some mystery surrounds the true identity of the Jewish Camp Elder of Treblinka
Marceli Galewski
Galewski hailed from Lodz and was an engineer by profession. Remembered by Richard Glazar as “a man in his forties, tall, slim, with dark hair. He looked and behaved like a Polish aristocrat – a very remarkable man”.
Born on 10 October 1899 in Kutno, he graduated from the Warsaw Polytechnic School in 1928 with a degree in electrical engineering. In 1929 he married in Warsaw Jadwiga Litauer, nee Kobryner, a widow. They had a daughter Romana
Bernard Galewski
Another branch of the family is represented by Dr Stefan Galewski, a physician residing in London. He left his native Lodz in 1935 and migrated to London via Switzerland.
According to him the Treblinka hero was his cousin Bernard Galewski, born in Lodz around 1900. He studied civil engineering in Germany, lived in Lodz and was married.
When the Germans set up a ghetto in Lodz, Galewski and his family fled to Warsaw from where he was deported to Treblinka in 1942.
Galewski was selected for work and was appointed Jewish Camp Elder. He was involved in the Treblinka underground movement from the beginning and helped plan the revolt
Galewski escaped from Treblinka during the revolt but after he had gone a few kilometers he felt he did not have the strength to go on, and took poison, and died on the spot, on the 2 August 1943. In 1945 Galewski along with Dr Chorazycki was posthumously awarded the Cross of the Valiant by the Minister of Defence General Rola - Zymierski
Alfred Galewski
As remembered by Treblinka survivors Samuel Willenberg and by Samuel Rajzman. Samuel Rajzman was deported to Treblinka on 17 September
While undressing I saw Engineer Galewski, of Warsaw, a friend of mine, among the workers. Galewski asked one of the Ukrainian guards to assign me to the workers brigade.
Aron Gelberd
Aron Gelbard was deported to Treblinka from Czestochowa in October 1942 and he escaped after nineteen days on 21 October 1942. When he was 8 kilometers from Treblinka he was caught by Ukrainian farmers. They stripped him of his outer clothing and left him, but somehow he reached Czestochowa. Immigrated to Israel after the war.
Gershonowitz
Father of one of Samuel Willenberg’s friend Harry Gershonowitz, who was hiding on the Aryan side. The elder Gershonowitz was deported to Treblinka with his wife, from Czestochowa.
Shlomo Gilbert
Born in 1885. Writer of novels and essays – many written in the Warsaw ghetto. He was deported to Treblinka with his daughter and gassed. None of his works were found after his deportation.
Yirmiyahu Gitler
Attorney from Czestochowa – member of the Czestochowa Judenrat. Deported to Treblinka on 4 October 1942
Jakov Glatstein
A musician, voice coach and conductor of the Bunds Tsukunft youth movement’s children choir during the German occupation. He took part in cultural activities in the Warsaw ghetto and organised choral groups of refugee children. He composed the melody to Itzhak Katznelson’s poem “Yats’a Yehudi le – Rechov” – A Jew went out to the Street”. He was deported to Treblinka and killed.
Richard Glazar
Born on 29 November 1920 in Prague, as Richard Goldschmidt. He was accepted at the University of Prague in June 1939 reading economics.
In November 1939 the Germans closed all the Universities and Richard went to live in the country to work for a farmer. On 2 September 1942 he was ordered to report to the Mustermesse – a huge exhibition hall in Prague, and from there he was deported to Terezin, the huge transit ghetto north of Prague.
After only one month in Terezin he was transported to Treblinka on Transport BU, an ordinary passenger train. His transport number was 639 and it left Terezin on 8 October 1942. His transport arrived in Treblinka at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on 10 October 1942
Selected to live, along with a number of other Czech Jews such as Karl Unger, Rudi Masarek, Hans Freund , Robert Altschul. Glazar worked mainly sorting clothes, in Sorting Barracks A , and in the camouflage commando.
He participated in the Treblinka revolt and managed to escape with Karl Unger. Together they made their way across Poland, captured at Nowe Miasto nad Pilica and taken to Tomaszow Mazowiecki, where they continue with their story that they are Czech workers, working for the Organisation Todt.
They are both accepted as gentiles, and are sent to Czetochowa to a transit camp, and then on through Moravia and Austria to Mannheim. They work for the factory Heinrich Lanz Incorporated, until they were both liberated by the American forces. After the war Glazar returned to Prague, but escaped to Switzerland with his family, after the 1968 revolt, where he became an engineer. He wrote about his time in Treblinka, and his escape in the book “Trap with a Green Fence”.
He also took part in the film “Shoah” by Claude Lanzman. After the death of his wife, he committed suicide in 1998.
Elka Godin & Shmuel Godin
Deported from Warsaw – killed at Treblinka. Grandparents of the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
Artur Gold
Born 1897 in Warsaw. Son of Michal and Helena Melodist.
Studied in London. In 1922 he established a jazz band with his cousin Jerzy Petersbuski, which became very popular. Recorded for “Columbia Records” in Hayes, near London. From 1929 performed in the famous “Adria” in Warsaw. During the 1930’s composed popular songs like “Autumn Roses”
Lived and worked with his brothers Adam and Henryk, also musicians at 122 Chmielna Street in Warsaw. In 1940 he was forced to move to the Warsaw ghetto, where he performed in “Nowoczesna”
In 1942 he was transported to Treblinka where he was forced to play for the SS, and to form a small orchestra, which played at roll calls and gave special concerts to the SS and prisoners. Gold was murdered in Treblinka during 1943.
Szymon Goldberg
Born in 1914 in Warsaw, a cabinet –maker by profession he worked in the Totenlager for four months. Deported from Radomsko.
He escaped during the uprising and met with the survivor Oscar Strawczynski in the forest ten months later. Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944. He died in 1976
Goldberg
Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944
Karol Goldberger
Born 4 May 1922
Deported from Olomouc on 30 June 1942 to Terezin, and on 8 October 1942 from Terezin to Treblinka.
Abraham Goldfarb
At the end of August 1942 the Germans carried out the expulsion of Jews from Miedzyrzec. Abraham Goldfarb arrived in Treblinka on 25 August 1942.
He worked in the Totenlager, helping to build the “new” gas chamber and carrying corpses to the mass graves. Escaped during the revolt walking in the direction of Sokolow- Podlaski, hid in the forest . Immigrated after the war to Israel he died in the 1970’s
Ewa Goldgorn
Deported to Treblinka together with her mother Rysia and her Grandmother Zina Grinfeld
Heniek Goldman
Deported from Czestochowa in the same transport as Samuel Willenbeg – he was gassed immediately.
Jakob Goncarski
Deported from Czestochowa.
Selected to live as a worker – sorting clothes.
Zygmunt Gostynski
Escaped from Treblinka and immigrated to Israel
Sonia Grabinski
Escaped from Treblinka and immigrated to Israel
Passed away in 2007
Meir Grinberg
Meir Grinberg was the Kapo of the “Blue” group and the son of a scribe
Each evening at the end of the workday when all were locked into the barracks he would stand and pray the Evening Service and end with El Male Racbamim for those that had been killed that day. Then the Jews in the barrack would say Kaddish.
The SS men would come and stand near the barrack and listen to the pleasant voice of Meir and his prayers to the memory of those whom they had killed.
Tanhum Grinberg
Born in Blonie Poland in 1913 served in the Polish Army. In 1941 he was “relocated” to the Warsaw ghetto with his mother, three younger brothers and a sister.
A shoemaker by trade, he worked in Schultz’s shop in the ghetto. One day when he came home from work, he found his apartment empty. His mother, brothers and sisters had all been taken away. Soon thereafter, Grinberg himself was deported to Treblinka.
Worked as a shoemaker, he was active in the underground and advised Rakowski the temporary Camp Elder that the stolen grenade would not work, and it was put back inside the armoury. After the revolt and his successful escape he hid in the little town of Sterdyn and later joined a partisan unit.
He was a witness at the Treblinka trial in Dusseldorf in 1965, giving evidence against Kurt Franz After the war he settled in Israel and was killed in an automobile accident in 1976.
Eliahu Grinsbach
Escaped from Treblinka
Immigrated to Israel became an electrician
Yosef Gross
Escaped from Treblinka
Immigrated to Israel became a machinist
Adam Grunberg
Born in 1919 in Warsaw
Deported from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka where he perished in July 1942
Josef Gutman
Born in Warsaw in 1919
In July 1942 he was deported from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka where he spent two weeks. In the camp he carried bodies of the dead people from the reception area to the mass graves.
After two weeks he escaped together with four other prisoners in a box car carrying clothes of the murdered Jews to Lublin. After returning to the Warsaw ghetto he tried to inform the ghetto inhabitants about Treblinka but most of them did not believe him.
During the Warsaw ghetto uprising he was deported to the Jewish Labour camp at Poniatowa, but he escaped from the train and spent several months in hiding in Warsaw. From Polish friends he obtained “Aryan” papers and was sent to Vienna as a Polish forced labourer. In Austria he was liberated and after the war he returned to Warsaw
Leon Haberman
An artisan from Warsaw, who joined the Organising Committee. Worked In the SS Laundry
Sheindl Hechtkopf
Born in Zamosc in 1911.
In 1932 she moved to Warsaw with her family and she finished her law studies. During the war, she ran a soup kitchen which served as a meeting place for underground members. She organised educational courses for workers and activity programs for children.
She was a member of the Dror youth movement and the Jewish Fighting Organisation in the Warsaw ghetto. On 6 September 1942 during the aktion dubbed the cauldron – kesl in Yiddish, she was arrested and sent to Treblinka on 10 September 1942, where she was killed on arrival.
Salomen Helman
From Warsaw he worked in the Totenlager
Izak Helfing
Deported on 24 August 1942 from Kielce to Treblinka. Helfing recalled the arrival at the death camp – “At Treblinka the women were the first to be sent to the gas chambers. Then a certain Freidman cut a Ukrainian in his throat with a razor blade. The guards at once opened on fire, and many were killed or wounded.
Helfing worked in the Totenlager burning corpses. He escaped from Treblinka and survived the war
Heller
Male prisoner in charge of the kitchen in the Totenlager
Abraham / Adam Herszaft
Born in 1886. He studied art in Warsaw and Paris, a graphic artist and painter. His work was displayed at various exhibitions in Warsaw, Lodz and Kattowice from 1907 onwards. He was transported to Treblinka where he was murdered in 1942.
Maniek Herszkowicz
Formerly the owner of a cannery in Lodz. Together with Oscar and Zygmunt Strawczynski decided to escape through the roof window of the blacksmith shop, but the attempt was aborted.
Herschkowitzes
Father and son who escaped from Treblinka with Abraham Krzepicki in September 1942
Dr. Margarethe Hilferding
Born on 20 June 1871. She was the first female member of the “Wiener Psychoanalytische Vereinigung” and an activist of the Social – Democratic Party in Vienna.
From Vienna she was deported to Terezin and from there she was deported to Treblinka on 27 September 1942 where she was murdered.
Szloma Himmelblau
Born in 1912 in Czemierniki – Lublin region. The son of a rabbi from Czemierniki ,during the war he was a teacher in the orphanage in the Parczew ghetto (Lublin District).
During the deportation action in 1942 he and his family hid from the Germans although he possessed an ID card that showed he was working for the Judenrat. When he discovered that the children from his orphanage were going to be deported he left his family and accompanied the children to Treblinka.
Walter Hirsch
A Czech Jew, he was the composer of the camp song “ Fester Schritt”
It went something like this:
Let us strengthen our steps and strides And direct our gaze ahead With steadfast spirit ever loyal Eyes aiming at the wide world The brigades march to work
So we are now in Treblinka And our fate – tarara……… So we are now in Treblinka And our time is short
We listen to the commandant’s tone of voice And heed even the look in his eye Our every pulse and step is harnessed as one To the demands of the burden and the duty
Work here is the meaning of everything Just like obedience and duty We shall continue, continue to bear the load Until the moment a bit of luck winks at us Ho,ha……
He died in the revolt.
Jozef Rubin Imich
Born in Lodz.
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka in October 1942
Laja Ludwika Imich (nee Kwasner)
Born in Lodz.
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka in October 1942
Elena Leon Ishkah
Deported from Skopje to Treblinka
Survived.
Hershel Jablkowski
From Stoczek .
A quiet and reliable man, who later became the camp’s master-smithy. He arrived in Treblinka on 18 June 1942 – a month before the first transport arrived. According to Hershel – the first transport arrived on Tisha B’Av in 1942 – 23 July 1942 He participated in digging the first mass grave – at that time there was no bulldozer. Later as a smithy he was employed in building the “bath-house” whilst it was still one camp.
The day before the first transport arrived the Totenlager was segregated from the Lower Camp. Survivor Oscar Strawczynski learned about the arrangements and procedures in the Totenlager mainly from Hershel. Jablkowski worked for many months in the workshop as a smithy whilst Strawczynski worked as a tinsmith.
As a skilled tradesman, Jablowski was sent to Camp 1. Hershel later made a beautiful iron decoration that was put on top of the camps main gate, which took considerable effort. Before the revolt he spent all day sharpening knives and axes and turning metal files into daggers
Jacob Jakubowicz
Escaped from Treblinka
Gustawa Jarecka
She wrote novels and translated world literature into the Polish language. In the Warsaw ghetto she was a clerk In the Judenrat and she worked with Ringelblum on his archive. She was deported with her two children to Treblinka on 18 January 1943
Gustav Jordan
Born in 1869 Deported on 19 July 1942 from Hamburg – Volksdorf to Terezin and from there to Treblinka.
Herschel Kaczkewicz
Deported from Czestochowa. Caught typhus recovered, but was killed at the Lazarett.
Matilda Kamchi
From Bitola – Macedonia. She was deported to Treblinka in March 1943
Chaim A. Kaplan
A leading Warsaw educationalist who kept a famous diary, was deported to Treblinka with his wife and murdered there. The diary was published after his death and was titled “ Scroll of Agony”
Shmuel Kaplan
Born in Warsaw in 1907. He was among the founders of the Ha- No’ar ha Tsiyoni branch in Warsaw. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War he became the chairman of the movement’s national leadership in Poland. Kaplan was one of the initiators of the kibbutz established in the ghetto, which was housed at 27 Dluga Street. In July 1942 he was deported to the Treblinka death camp. Just before he was about to be taken to his death, he attacked his guards and killed them, an act for which he was killed instantly.
Hanna Katznelson
Wife of Yitzak Katznelson. Deported to Treblinka with her two sons Ben-Tsion, and Binyomin on Friday 14 August 1942
Felga Kisielnicka
Born in Kaluszyn Poland. Deported from Kaluszyn with her whole family to Treblinka in late 1942
Klajnman
Worked in the Camouflage commando
Klein
Worked in the Camouflage commando
Heinrich Kleinnmann
The foreman of the camouflage commando, a former Czech civil servant – a quiet, polite, bespectacled man
Michael Klepfisch
Born in Warsaw. An airplane mechanic by profession and with his technical skills he worked on producing weapons in an underground workshop.
Member of the Bund and the Jewish Fighting Organisation in the Warsaw ghetto. He also was engaged in procuring arms on the Aryan side of Warsaw along with other underground members, and smuggling the arms into the ghetto.
Denounced by a Pole to the Germans he was deported to Treblinka, but he managed to escape and return to the Aryan side of Warsaw. After receiving instruction from the Polish underground on weapon making, he returned to the ghetto on 17 April 1943, two days before the ghetto uprising. During the uprising he fought in the combat squad
Klin
Worked in the Camouflage commando. Escaped from Treblinka, but died from starvation in a bunker at Wengrow.
Itzik Kobyla
From Warsaw. A well- known informer, as remembered by Yankiel Wiernik..
Stanislaw Kon
Stanislaw Kon was born in 1910 in the little town of Praczka in Poland. He settled in Lodz where he worked as a building constructor.
He served in the Polish army for eighteen months – until his discharge in 1933 – although he regularly participated in military exercises until the outbreak of the Second World War, when he was recalled to active service. His outfit held out for 20 days before being overrun by German tank troops. After Poland’s surrender he made his way home and on 1 October 1942 Kon, his young wife and her mother were deported to Treblinka.
Kon’s wife and his mother-in –law went straight to the gas chambers, but Kon was selected for slave labour, carrying corpses and sorting clothes of the murdered victims. He actively participated in the Treblinka uprising, and he was able to escape from the death camp.
Kon gave evidence in 1944 recorded by Soviet Senior Lieutenant Blinov and in 1946 he provided further testimony to the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. He then immigrated to Israel
Nathan Koninski
Educator, head of a children’s home in the Warsaw ghetto. Did not abandon his pupils but went with them to the Umschlagplatz, and then onto Treblinka on Saturday 8 August 1942
Abram Koltun
Deported from the Wisznice ghetto to Treblinka in 1942
Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Dr Henryk Goldsmidt, doctor, writer renowned educator. He was an innovator in the field of education, particularly in the care of orphans and street urchins.
Worked at the Berson and Bauman’s hospital for many years. In the ghetto he continued to head an orphanage. During the deportation he refused to stay in the ghetto and abandon his charges.
The deportation from the orphanage to Treblinka took place on Thursday 6 August 1942. The orphanage was situated at 92 Krochmalna Street, and the journey to the Umschlagplatz was described by Perla:
"Janusz Korczak holding a child by the hand led the way. With him were the women childminders in white aprons and behind him 200 children, clean and tidy, their hair combed going to their slaughter."
The elderly Doctor, he was born in 1867 was accompanied on the children’s last journey by his long time assistant Stefania Wilczynska.
Zvi Korland or Kurland
A Jew who was about fifty, and had been a wood merchant in Warsaw, was the Kapo at the Lazarett. He helped prisoners undress, before they were shot by the SS or Ukrainians stationed there.
Richard Glazar described him;
“Looking out over small round lenses in metal frames are eyes that must have seen a lot and have come to understand a lot. His nose is somewhat bulbous, a few of his teeth are missing, his cheeks are sunken, and his face seems to have been coloured by the sand that has been burned dark and mixed with ashes.
The whip that hangs from his belt always seems to be getting in the way – somehow it gets between his legs, which are clothed in pants made of a coarse material, and felt boots. And since he is of such a small stature the end of the thing drags across the floor”.
Samuel Willenberg recalled him:
At the Organising Committee meeting, held late at night by the light of fires burning the bodies of hundreds of thousands of those dearest to us, we unanimously approved the decision to launch the uprising the next day, 2 August 1943.
I will never forget white haired Zvi Korland the eldest amongst us, who with tears in his eyes, administered to us the oath to fight to our last drop of blood, for the honour of the Jewish people."
Zvi Korland was killed during the uprising on 2 August 1943
Berl Kot
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka, an excellent mechanic and welder. The ramp where transports arrived was renovated with particular care. Its entire length was made as smooth as a table top, paved over and secured with barbed wire, this work was done by Berl Kot.
He also constructed a special iron cupboard in the administration offices which could be used to incinerate secret German documents in the event of the camp coming under attack.
Kronenberg
A journalist who had worked for Chwila, a Polish –language Zionist daily which was published in Lwow until the war. He was dark all over, complexion, hair, eyebrows and moustache. His face was full, his gaze wise. He was one of the first organisers of the camp underground and Galewski trusted him completely.
Kronenburg suffering from typhus was taken by Miete to the Lazarett, and at the Lazarett begged Miete not to kill him, and told him about the underground. Korland and Willenberg made a sign that Kronenberg was mad, and a Ukrainian guard shot the former journalist.
Abraham Jacob Krzepicki
Abraham Jacob Krzepicki was in his early twenties when war broke out in 1939. He was drafted into the Polish army and was taken prisoner by the Germans. After his release, he settled in Warsaw. On 25 August 1942 he was deported to Treblinka. He managed to escape 18 days later and returned to the Warsaw ghetto. He joined the ZOB – The Jewish Fighting Organisation – in the ghetto and was killed in the ghetto uprising in April 1943.
He was a member of a Hanoar – Hatzioni group headed by Jacob Prazker. During the shelling of the Brush Makers shop he was wounded in the leg. His comrades had to evacuate the burning building and were forced to abandon him and the other wounded fighters.
The leaders of the ghetto underground – under the historian Emanuel Ringelblum – entrusted Rachel Auerbach with the task of recording the testimony given by Krzepicki between December 1942 and January 1943. Krzepicki’s report was the first eyewitness account of the crimes perpetrated at Treblinka. The manuscript in Yiddish, was buried in the rubble of the ghetto along with other documents from the second part of the Ringelblum archives. It was recovered on 1 December 1950 by Polish construction workers beneath the ruins of 68 Nowolipki Street .
Kuba
An intellectual from Lodz, as recalled by Oscar Strawczynski. Barrack Elder of Barrack Number 2. Informer to the SS he was killed by the prisoners during the uprising on 2 August 1943, in the ghetto workshop area.
Wilhelm ( Jakob) Kubek
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka, and was one of Samuel Willenberg’s best friends. After he contacted typhus he was shot at the Lazarett.
Arie Kudlik
Fountain pen expert - often exchanged expensive gold- nib models, for a juicy sandwich. Escaped from Treblinka – together with other survivors produced a map of the camp. A copy of this map was given to the Central Jewish Historical Committee. He was one of the survivors who gave evidence in 1946 to the Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944
Kuszer
Worked in the Totenlager, attacked SS- Oberscharfuhrer Matthes and was killed.
Lachman
We were literally starving. Escaped from Treblinka and survived the war.
Mojzesz Laks
Deported from Mojzesz to Treblinka. Whilst in Treblinka he together with Marian Platkiewicz in secret produced a map of the camp. A copy of this map was given to the Central Jewish Historical Committee. He was one of the survivors who gave evidence in 1946 to the Central Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Immigrated to Israel
Natalia Landau
Born in Warsaw in 1907. An artist by profession deported and killed in Treblinka in 1942.
Simcha Laski
Deported from Warsaw to Treblinka at the end of July 1942. He managed to escape after four days. He escaped from Treblinka with Moshe Boorstein in a box-car taking clothes out of the camp. Near Lukow, in late July 1942. Both Laski and Boorstein reached the Warsaw Ghetto on the day of the “Children’s Aktion”.
Mosze Chaim Lau
The last Rabbi of Piotrkow Trybunalski. Deported to Treblinka in 1943 where he perished.
Henryka Lazowertowna
Born in 1910. She was a young Polish – Jewish writer of poetry. Whilst she had the chance to leave the ghetto, she refused to leave her mother.
In the ghetto she worked with Ringelblum on his archive. She was deported together with her mother to Treblinka in 1942.
Dr Marius Leichert
From Wengrow. A physician and a former reserve officer in the Polish Army. A leading member of the Organising Committee, Dr Leichert was killed during the revolt on 2 August 1943
Zalman Lenge
Weddings in the extermination area were performed according to Jewish law, under the direction of the prisoner Zalman Lenge, a porter from Warsaw, who at these ceremonies assumed the duties of cantor and rabbi
Dr Irena Levkovski
Worked with Dr Chorazycki, in the infirmary. Pumped out Dr Chorazycki stomach, after he had swallowed poison, to no effect.
Abraham Lewin
Born in 1893 in Warsaw, he came from a strictly Orthodox Hasidic family. His father Shabtai was a scholar and a rabbi and his grandfather a ritual slaughterer.
As a child he went to heder, the traditional Jewish school, from where he proceeded to a yeshiva. At the age of 20 he gave up wearing the traditional dress of the orthodox Hasidim. He had already shown a pronounced scholarly bent and at the beginning of the academic year 1916-17, although he did not possess any formal qualifications, he was appointed to teach Hebrew, Biblical Studies and Jewish Studies at a private Jewish secondary school for girls, the Yehudia School.
Lewin married Luba Hotner, a teacher of Hebrew at his school, and she bore him a daughter Ora in 1928. Abraham Lewin kept a diary, which was published after his death, called “A Cup of Tears”.
Lewin was active during his time in the ghetto, he continued to lecture and teach to adult and youth groups on topics of Jewish history and literature. He was also active in the Jewish Self-help Organisation and he was a member of the directorate of the underground archive, entitled Oneg Shabbes, founded by Emanuel Ringelblum. Abraham and his daughter were deported to Treblinka in early 1943
Julian Lewin
He was born in 1917 in Lodz. An avant-garde- artist he perished in Treblinka
Luba Lewin
Born in 1900 nee Hotner. Wife of Abrahim Lewin and mother of Ora. Deported to Treblinka after a blockade on 30 Gesia Street on Wednesday 12 August 1942, where she was killed.
Ora Lewin
Born on 13 August 1928. Daughter of Abraham and Luba Lewin. Deported to Treblinka together with her father in early 1943.
Chaim Cheel Lewkowicz
Chaim and his wife Freda owned a house and a little grocery/ butcher shop at 56 Bodzentiskya Street in Kielce – Poland.
There they lived together with their children Lajzer, Mania, Rifka and Shaindel. A younger brother died at an early age. One sister was shot by the Nazis, for trying to smuggle food back into the ghetto. The whole family was deported to Treblinka when the Kielce ghetto was liquidated.
Marek Meyer, another brother, survived the war and now lives in Canada.
Source: Freda Lewkowicz, Montreal, Canada
Freda Lewkowicz
Freda, the wife of Chaim Lewkowicz from Kielce, who was murdered in Treblinka with her family.
Source: Freda Lewkowicz, Montreal, Canada
Sonia Lewkowicz
Born in 1922. Deported to Treblinka – she worked in the Totenlager and escaped in the revolt. Settled in Israel she became a secretary
Samuel ( Standa) Lichtblau
Born 3 May 1909. Deported from Ostrawa to Terezin and subsequently from Terezin to Treblinka on 8 October 1942.
He worked in the garage and was responsible for sabotaging the large fuel tank which he carried out on the day of the revolt, which caused significant destruction of both the buildings and the fences. He died during the revolt- his wife and daughter were also killed in Treblinka.
Jacob Lichtenstern
Friend of Abraham Krzepicki, who was a member of Ha- Tehiyah, passed up on the chance to escape.
David Lieberman Born in Czestochowa on 31 December 1925. From a very large family- .his father collected for charity. Deported to Treblinka he escaped after 11 days and went back to the ghetto in Czestochowa. He survived the war.
Abraham Lindwaser
Born in 1909. He was deported to Treblinka from Warsaw on 28 August 1942. He worked as a dentist in the Totenlager. He escaped during the revolt and he hid in the woods, then volunteered to serve in the Polish army. He emigrated to Israel in 1948 and he died in March 1977.
Ester Lubling
Daughter of Moshe Y Lubling and his wife Zelda. She perished at Treblinka together with her parents in 1942. Ester was twelve years old when she was murdered.
Moshe Y Lubling
Moshe Lubling was born in the town of Wolbrum in Upper Silesia, Poland.
He lived with his wife Zelda and two children, Pinchas and Ester in Katowice and Sosnowice, where he was the founder and chairman of several Zionist chapters – Poali- Zion and Aoved.
He and his family found themselves in the Czestochowa ghetto at the beginning of the war. In Czestochowa he organised the slave workers and became the chairman of the famous Workers Council in the ghetto. The council functioned as an intellectual centre for the resistance as well as negotiating with the Judenrat and the local Gestapo for better conditions for the workers.
A testimony about Moshe Lubling’s leadership was given by Tzvi Rosenvayn in CzestochowaYidn pp 47-51 (The Hunger Strike in the Czestochowa Ghetto”) a supplement book to Hurban Czestochowa. The article was translated by Mark Froimowitz for the Yizkor project.
According to these two books and several other eyewitness statements Moshe Lubling was offered to be rescued by the Polish underground, the night before the final liquidation of the ghetto, but refused. In the ghetto he organised acts of resistance and many times he was arrested by the Gestapo.
During the liquidation of the ghetto on Yom-Kippur 1942 Moshe and his son Pinchas were kept as slave-workers at Huta Czestochowa, while his wife and daughter were sent to Treblinka, where they were gassed upon arrival. During the second aktion in October – Moshe Lubling was deported to Treblinka.
Upon his arrival he was kept alive as a Goldjuden to sort the possessions of the murdered Jews. According to the testimony of Shalom Kon / Stanislaw Kon in Sefer Milchamot Agetaot (The Wars of the Ghettos), Moshe Lubling was among the original four plotters of the revolt.
After the gruesome experiences of the daily life in Treblinka, the four plotters of the underground met by night around Dr Chorazycki plank bed and discussed their plans. Their first problem was how to obtain weapons and explosives which were needed for a successful escape.
The four men were: Zelo Bloch, Dr Chorazycki, Zvi Korland and Moshe Lubling. Moshe Lubling did not survive the revolt in Treblinka, but a letter that was smuggled from Treblinka reached his son Pinchas, who was left in Czestochowa, that mentioned the forthcoming revolt.
The letter is a historical document of unparallel significance - see Lieber Brener’s testimony in Hurban Czestochowa. In 1961 Yad-Vashem awarded Moshe Lubling a citation for his heroic resistance against the Nazis.
Since his death, his heroic life was documented in several published testimonies about the Czestochowa Ghetto and the death camp Treblinka. His son Pinchas survived the Holocaust and immediately emigrated to Israel where he served in the IDF and later became one of the executives of Hanut.
Pinchas was 81 years of age, at 2005 and lives with his wife in Rannana, Israel. Moshe Lubling has two grandchildren – Moshe and Dr Yoram Lubling.
Zelda Lubling
Wife of Moshe Y Lubling, nee Fisch. Zelda perished at Treblinka together with her daughter Ester in 1942. Moshe was murdered during the revolt on 2 August 1943 Source: Dr Yoram Lubling
Rudek Lubrenitski
A driver mechanic who worked in the SS Garage from Plotzk. He sabotaged the engine of the SS armoured car that stood near the garage on the day of the revolt. Rudek was also in charge of the distribution of weapons stolen from the camp armoury.
Rudek and Standa Lichtblau set fire to the gasoline store at the garage which caused explosions and a huge fire., which spread to the surrounding area. They were both shot at and killed by Ukrainian guards.
Wolf Luksemburg
Born in 1936 in Deblin. Deported and killed in Treblinka in 1942
Anshel Medrzycki
Escaped naked from Treblinka with Abraham Krzepicki. Both returned to the ghetto in Warsaw.
Chesia Mendel
According to SS- man Suchomel. Chesia Mendel was the only true blond in the camp. Everyone agreed that she stood out for her intelligence and she was proud and bold. She was Kapo Rakowski’s girlfriend who became pregnant by him and had an abortion.
She was the daughter of an industrialist in Galicia, very well educated. She was murdered, along with the other remaining prisoners, by the SS- men Mentz and Bredow and an unidentified SS Unterfuhrer from the Treblinka labour camp, when the camp was finally liquidated in November 1943.
Marcus
A youth from Warsaw, who worked as a putzer, - cleaners who shined the boots and cleaned the uniforms of the SS camp staff. It was this group of 4 boys led by Marcus, the shoeblack were assigned the task of removing weapons form the armoury, needed for a successful revolt.
They filled sacks with grenades, firearms and ammunition, the sacks were then passed out through the window and loaded onto carts, which were then taken to the garage, where the weapons were hidden, until the time was right to distribute them.
Dr. Estera Markin
A teacher and psychologist – before the war she taught philosophy and psychology at various grammar schools in Warsaw. In the Warsaw ghetto she worked for “Centos” an organisation which helped children. She was the leader of the shelters for children in the ghetto. Deported to Treblinka in 1942.
Rudolf Masarek
Born on 10 September 1913. Deported on the 10 August 1942 from Prague to Terezin, and subsequently from Terezin to Treblinka on 8 October 1942. Rudolf was a 28 year old “half Jew” who had served as a lieutenant in the Czech army, he had been married to a Jewess and he chose to accompany her “ to the east”.
She was sent to the gas chambers, whist he was selected to work, he eventually became a “Hofjuden”, who looked after Kurt Franz’s dog. According to Richard Glazar, Masarek played a key role in the planning and execution of the Treblinka uprising. Stanislaw Kon remembered that Masarek manned the rebels one machine gun and fired away at the Nazis from the roof of the camps pigeon house. Masarek was killed in the uprising.
Mechele
One of five prisoners who worked in the Totenlager, who dug a tunnel from their living barracks near the camp outer fence. The escape was carried out on 31 December 1942, five men escaped through the tunnel and crossed the fences. A Ukrainian guard noticed the escape and opened fire.
Three men, one of them Mechele, who came from Warsaw, was recaptured and brought back to the camp, and was the last prisoner to be hung in front of all the prisoners in the Totenlager. As he was about to be hung, he called out “ Down with Hitler. Long live the Jewish people”.
Frederike Meier
Born on 17 January 1877. Deported from Vienna to Terezin and from there sent to her death in Treblinka in 1942
Meir
Kapo of the Blues, the working group on the ramp and reception area. Willenberg described Kapo Meir , a plump, humpbacked redhead, was an Orthodox Jew.
Professor Merring
Professor Merring was Samuel Willenberg’s former history teacher in Czestochowa. His wife and daughter perished at Treblinka. Professor Merring caught typhus but recovered, but was unable to survive, a selection based on performing exercises, and was shot at the Lazarett.
Chaim Mika
Chaim was a building contractor from Nowy Dwor, who supervised work when two new wells were dug – one in the Ukrainian courtyard and one in the Jewish ghetto. This was not an easy task in Treblinka because the terrain was sandy. He also supervised the the construction of cellars for storing ice and potatoes.
Jakub Miller
From Wlodzimierz Wolynski. He escaped with Kalman Teigman
Moniek
Warsaw born Kapo of the Hofjuden, who later joined the Organising Committee of the underground.
Daughter of Mindel Murzan – Sztroman deported to Treblinka on 6 August 1942
Salomon Nehama
Neumark
A foreman in the sorting yard and a decent young man from Czestochowa, with whom the Strawczynski brothers become quite friendly with.
David Nowodworski
In January 1940 he returned to Warsaw and became involved in underground activities, with the Ha- Shomer ha Za’ir. He built a radio and listened to the broadcasts of the Free World providing material for underground newspapers.
During the “Great Action” he was deported to Treblinka and escaped during the first week of August 1942, returned to the Warsaw ghetto, and informed the inhabitants of the true nature of “deportation to the east”. One of the organisers of the ZOB, during the Warsaw ghetto uprising in April 1943 he commanded a combat squad in the Toebbens and Schulz factories area.
On 29 April he and his comrades escaped from the ghetto via the sewers to the Aryan side of Warsaw, where he joined the partisans. He returned to the ghetto and left again with a number of other fighters, but the group was betrayed and in the ensuing battle with the Germans, all the fighters were killed.
Avraham Ostrzega
Born in 1889. A Jewish artist who perished in Treblinka.
Moshe Pacanowski
Escaped from Treblinka. Settled in Israel
Palacz
Described by Oscar Strawzcynski:
“From the distance I see my neighbour Palacz being led to the Lazarett, from where shortly afterwards a shot is heard. Palacz a rather weak delicate young man, evidently could not pass the training”.
Paulinka or Perla
The women’s Kapo in the Lower Camp who was notorious for her poor treatment of women prisoners and her informing to the Germans. She betrayed at least six Jews to Kuttner. After the revolt she was found, with her head shattered on the path to the Totenlager.
Leon Perelstein
A prisoner who escaped from Treblinka with Galewski – Perelstein related that after they had gone a few kilometers, Galewski felt he could not go on. He took some poison out of his pocket, swallowed it and died on the spot.
Marian Platkiewicz
From Warsaw deported to Treblinka. Worked in the potato group and on the day of the revolt put grenades and detonators in the buckets they used for potatoes. Later emigrated to Israel.
Shimon Pohorile
Attorney from Czestochowa, member of the Judenrat. Deported to Treblinka on 4 October 1942
Moshe Porzecki
I arrived in Treblinka in a transport of 6000 men, women and children
Posner
A Kapo in the wood-cutters commando, lied about two missing workers, who were recaptured and killed, Posner was beaten for lying.
Henryk Poswolski
Deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. Escaped from Treblinka, emigrated to Brazil.
Emil Pottner
Born 1872 in Salzburg Austria. A famous Jewish painter who was deported to Treblinka in 1942 where he perished.
Henrik Rabinowicz
A Jewish artist who perished in Treblinka
Jacob Rabinowicz
A journalist deported from the Warsaw ghetto who escaped from Treblinka and returned to the Warsaw ghetto. As a result of Rabinowicz ‘s report on the extermination in Treblinka, the Jewish Labour party Bund sent a few emissaries to Kosov and to Sokolow- Podlaski, which were in the immediate vicinity of Treblinka, to test the veracity of the report. In Sokolow- Poslaski the Bund emissaries met with another escapee from Treblinka by the name of Azriel Wallch, who confirmed Rabinowicz’s report.
Jerzy Rajgrotzki
From Siedlce originally, he settled in Warsaw where he worked as a draftsman. Deported to Treblinka where he spent eleven months in the Totenlager, carrying bodies to the mass graves. In October 1942 he joined the orchestra in the Totenlager, and also worked in the kitchen, in the Totenlager. Escaped during the revolt, and he eventually settled in Germany.
Samuel Rajzman
Samuel Rajzman was born in the little Polish town of Wengrow in 1902. Before the war he lived with his wife and young daughter in Warsaw, where he was employed in an export-import business.
On 21 September 1942 he was deported to Treblinka, his wife had been deported to Treblinka two weeks earlier. His daughter was deported from Warsaw to Poniatowa Labour camp where she perished. Selected to sort clothes, then cleaning eyeglasses, telescopes and microscopes, and shipping them off to the Reich.
Rajzman was an active participant in the planning of the revolt, and on the day of the revolt he Was transferred to the branch -cutting commando, and he led a group fighters. He fled the camp and spent a year hiding in the forest., in 1944 he wrote one of the first reports about Treblinka which was published in the Lublin literary weekly Odrodzenie.
Photographed at the Treblinka survivors reunion in 1944. He was the only witness to testify about Treblinka at the Nuremburg war crimes trials, where his testimony made a shattering impression.
After the liberation he worked as a director of personnel with the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in Germany. Later he moved to Paris and in 1950 emigrated to Canada settling in Montreal. He was one of the prime witnesses at the Dusseldorf trials and witness for the prosecution at the Fort Lauderdale trial of former Ukrainian guard Fedor Federenko.
Benjamin Rakowski
From Jedrzejow:
"A young intelligent fellow who had owned a farm before the war. He was an impressive figure, tall, well built and strong. Rakowski was appointed Camp Elder to replace Galewski whilst the latter caught typhus, and was invited to join the Organising Committee.
Rakowski had many enemies and he was betrayed by someone, who reported to the Germans, that Rakowski had a canteen filled with gold."
Richard Glazar recalled:
"Miete was seen leading Rakowski – who towered over him – past us and up to the infirmary. This time he had a small escort of guards with him.
Supposedly they had searched Rakowski bedroll and found large amounts of money and gold."
Rakowski was shot at the Lazarett
Moshe Rappaport
Deported to Treblinka from Czestochowa, with his pregnant wife and eleven year old son. Aron Gelberd and the sorting commando team saved Moshe when he arrived at the camp. Escaped from Treblinka with Jacob Eisner in January 1943. Settled in the United States of America
Razanowicz
From Warsaw, known by Yankiel Wiernik. Worked on the construction of the “new” gas chambers, killed by the SS.
Anna Reichman
Born in Lodz. From 1941 she was together with her brother Yechiel in the ghetto of Ostrow Lubelski. In October 1942 she was deported with her brother to Treblinka.
Yechiel recalled the journey:
"On the train to Treblinka, my sister begged me to give her some food because we had very little food with us. They cheated us. We were told that they are taking us to Russia for work, and it will take many days until we reach our destination.
I did not give my sister Anna any food.
She accepted my reasoning and was willing to suffer and hold off her thirst and craving for food.
Alright, I will do without the food as long as we will come to a place and survive.
She was so weak upon arrival that they sent her to the gas chambers straight away."
Yechiel Meir Reichman
Deported from Ostrow Lubelski with his sister Anna in October 1942. Selected initially to sort clothing, he then volunteered to become a barber, who cut women’s hair in the gas chambers. Reichman then volunteered to work as a dentist , and survived a spell in the infirmary with a high fever
He escaped during the uprising and settled in Montevideo, Uruguay
Dr Reislik
Doctor in the infirmary
Dr Reisman
From Tomaszow. Doctor in the infirmary
Richter
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka. Escaped from the camp and returned to the “Small Ghetto” in Czestochowa and told the inhabitants of what was happening in Treblinka. On the day the ghetto was liquidated, in early October 1942, he tried to kill the German officer Rohn, who was in charge of the expulsion action.
Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Rogowy
Born in 1898 in Lodz. He was one of the founders of Poalei Agudas Yisroel. Was involved in the publication of the newspaper Der Yiddishe Arbeiter, edited Dos Yiddishe Tageblatt and Bet Yakoov.
In the Warsaw ghetto he was a member of the Judenrat. On 1 August 1942 he was sent to Treblinka where he died together with his wife and nine children.
Berek Rojzman
Born in Grojec near Warsaw. He lost his whole family in Treblinka. Brought up to be a butcher, he married in 1938 and then bought his own butchers shop. Berek joined the Polish army in August 1939.
Deported with his wife and son to Treblinka, in November 1942 they were killed on arrival. He was rescued from death by someone in the Red Command, by a friend he knew, and he joined the Red Command all that winter. After that he was assigned to agricultural work – gardening and the planting of vegetables. He was assigned to get rid of the Ukrainian guard on one of the watch towers near where he worked. He stayed in a shelter in the forest near the village of Otwock.where he later met his second wife.
Henny Rosenbaum
Born on 18 January 1880 in Raesfeld Germany. In 1942 she was deported together with her daughter Herta to Terezin. From there both were deported to Treblinka on 2 November 1942
Herta Rosenbaum
Born on 28 February 1911 in Raesfeld, daughter of Henny Rosenbaum. Deported with her mother to Terezin. On 2 November 1942 Herta and Henny were deported to Treblinka where they both perished.
Eliahu Rosenberg
Born on 10 May 1921 in Warsaw. He grew up in an Orthodox home, he lived with his parents and sisters, attending private school until the outbreak of the Second World War.
His father, who ran a mirror factory was murdered by the Germans one winter night in 1941, while out buying milk. Deported to Treblinka in September 1942 he last saw his mother and three sisters on the train, selected to live he first worked as a corpse carrier, and later he became one of the “shower cleaners”.
On the day of the revolt his job was to put a blanket over the barbed wire, so the prisoners could climb over to freedom. Rejected by one partisan group he joined another. He enlisted in the Polish army and was discharged in November 1946. Rosenberg gave testimony at both the Adolf Eichmann and John Demjanjuk trials in Israel.
Max Rosenblat
Deported from Radom to Treblinka, when he was three or four years of age. Rosenthal was one of those photographed at the Treblinka reunion in 1944.
Zelig Rotbard
Vice President of the Czestochowa Judenrat. Deported to Treblinka on 4 October 1942
Matel Rotstein
Born in 1920 in Cmielow, Poland. Daughter of Shmuel Kohn and Elka. Housewife who also worked in her father’s shop. Deported to Treblinka in October 1942 where she perished.
Slamek Rozenblum
Rozenblum lived in the Warsaw ghetto, and he worked with Kalman Teigman at Okecie airport, before being deported to Treblinka. There he was selected to work and he assisted with the gassings in the Totenlager.
Yehiel Rozencwajg
A poet and Hebrew teacher from Warsaw. His wife, son, his aged father in law, his two brothers in law, his sister in law and their children were all sent to Treblinka
Lejbel Rozental
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka
Roman Rozental
Born in Lodz in 1897. A Jewish artist who was deported and killed in Treblinka in 1943.
David Rubinowicz
Born in 1927 in Kielce. He wrote a diary of his experiences as a teenager during the German occupation. He left the notebooks of his journal in an attic where he hid with his father. He was deported to Treblinka in 1942 where he perished. His diary was published in Hebrew in 1964
Dr Rybak
He took over the position as doctor at the Camps German Infirmary after the death of Dr Chorazycki. Oscar Strawcynski described him as follows:
"Dr Rybak was elegantly dressed, always in a good mood, he worked fast with zest. He participated in all the receptions and entertainments, and even managed to fall in love with a young dentist from Bialystok.
Following the example of Kapo Yurek and informer Chaskiel, he went so far as to celebrate a wedding with great ceremony, music and dancing, naturally with the help and approval of the Germans."
Welwel Rzondzinski
Born in 1903 in Kaluszyn, Poland. During the war he lived in the Warsaw ghetto. Together with his whole family he was deported to Treblinka
Sadowsky
A businessman from Warsaw
Israel Sudowicz
An agronomist from Warsaw, who was responsible for the vegetable gardens in the camp. Sudowicz was also one of the first members of the Organising Committee, and he supervised the removal of weapons from the camp armoury.
Szachno Efroim Sagan
Born in 1892. One of the leaders of the Po’alei Zion Left – the Zionist –socialist organisation in pre-war Poland. In the Warsaw ghetto he was the organiser of the Judische Soziale Selbshilfe and member of the Jewish political underground in the ghetto. He also organised the secret Yiddish schools in the ghetto. Deported to Treblinka with his family on 5 August 1942
Salve
Salve was an opera singer from Warsaw. Sang at concerts performed by Gold and his orchestra.
Salzberg
A clothing merchant from Kielce, a very intelligent and experienced man of about forty who worked in the tailor shop. His two sons were with him in Treblinka, Heniek, about 12, who polished boots in the SS barracks, and Velvi, about 15, who worked in the Jewish laundry.
Salzberg was one of the first members of the Organising Committee, and was in charge of the ghetto area during the revolt. Heniek and Velvi Salzberg
Wladyslaw Salzberg
Deported from Kielce to Treblinka, he escaped from Treblinka and retuned to Kielce where he informed the Judenrat about the fate of the deported Jews.
Salo Sauer
Worked in the Goldjuden commando
Schermann
There were two red-haired Schermann’s who were musicians, one who played the violin.
Schiffner
A German Jew from the Sudetenland
Milos Schmolka Born on 26 August 1919. Deported from Kolin to Terezin and on 8 October 1942 deported from Terezin to Treblinka
Wolf Schneiderman
Escaped from Treblinka. Photographed at the Treblinka reunion in 1944. Emigrated to America after the war. Became a butcher in New York City.
Schnitzer
One of the musicians in the small band that had been organised in the camp right from the beginning.
Renee Schonbron
Born in Warsaw. A Jewish artist who was deported and murdered in Treblinka in 1942.
Schutzer
A cellist from Warsaw, also known as the “Warsaw Warbler”.
Lazar Sharson
The only prisoner who managed to escape when five prisoners dug a tunnel on 31 December 1942, from the Totenlager.
He returned to the Warsaw ghetto, joined the underground and at the time of the Warsaw ghetto uprising commanded a group of fighters, and fought amongst the ruins until September 1943.
Shtayer
Shot and wounded by Franz on the ramp, witnessed by Oscar Strawczynski
Joseph Siedlecki
Served in the Polish army when the second world war started. Deported from Warsaw to Treblinka with his wife of six weeks in July 1942. He was selected to work and she was gassed on arrival.
First he worked in the Red Commando, he was known as Langer (long one), as he is over 6 feet tall. Later he was appointed to the disinfection room, where he had to disinfect the hair right after shaving, and pack it to be sent to Germany. He participated in the revolt, and escaped to Warsaw, and he managed with gentile papers to work with a Polish construction firm attached to the German army.
He emigrated to America and became a maitre’d hotel at Grossinger’s Hotel in Upper New York state.
Silverberg
Deported from Czestochowa. Worked with Strawzcynski in the workshops. Became a foreman, killed at the Lazarett.
Singer
Singer was the Camp Elder of the Totenlager, from Austria. Suspected of informing on the prisoners to the Germans. He was killed during the revolt
Dorka Solnicka
One of the children at Korczak’s orphanage in Warsaw. Deported to Treblinka on 6 August 1942 where she was gassed.
Henryk Sperling
Deported from Czestochowa in September 1942. Escaped and emigrated to Glasgow, Scotland
Spiegel
A professional singer who had appeared in the Prague theatre.
Guba Steinowitz
Cousin of Kalman Teigman – who with his father worked in the Totenlager.
Stern
Stern was a strong young man from Warsaw who worked as one of the Goldjuden. He was accused of speculating with the Ukrainians, he was shot at the Lazarett by Kurt Franz.
Peter Sternberg
Born on 17 December 1923. Originally a Jew from Austria, he settled in Prague. Deported from Prague on 2 July 1942 to Terezin, and subsequently deported to Treblinka on 8 October 1942.
Oscar Strawczynski and Zygmunt Strawczynski
Born in Lodz Poland in 1906. He was the oldest son in a large family of seven children. He received his primary school education in Lodz, he also attended a Polish private school, as well as a Yiddish Heder. He completed his formal education at about fourteen years of age, then he started work in his fathers tinsmith shop.
Oscar Strawczynski learned his trade from his father – he became a skilled and accomplished artisan who took great pride in his work. He served in the Polish army between the years 1927-29 and he married shortly after this to Anka, and he had two children Guta and Abus.
Oscar Strawczynski with his family arrived in Treblinka from Czestochowa on 5 October 1942. His wife and children and parents were gassed on arrival.
Oscar was first put to work sorting the clothes of the murdered Jews, but was then appointed to work in the camps blacksmith shop. He is photographed at the Treblinka reunion in 1944
Zygmunt Strawczynski
Zygmunt his brother arrived in Treblinka on 10 October 1942, his wife and daughter were gassed on arrival, on a transport from Radomsko. They had left Czestochowa, but had been arrested at Radomsko. They both worked together in the blacksmith shop.
Participated in the planning of the revolt and escaped during the revolt on 2 August 1943. After the revolt they hid in the surrounding forest area and made contact with local partisans. Gave evidence to the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland in 1946.
Oscar Strawczynski testified against the SS camp staff at the Dusseldorf trial during 1964/5 He remarried and emigrated to Canada with his whole family, settling in Montreal.
Oscar Strawczynski wrote an unpublished account of his time in Treblinka. He died in 1966 leaving a wife and three children. Zygmunt Strawczynski died in Montreal Canada in 1975
The Strawczynski Family
Oscar lost his immediate family at Treblinka.
His wife Anka, his two children Guta and Abus, plus his parents Yoseph and Malke were all killed on their arrival at Treblinka on 5 October 1942
Gella Streim
Born in 1881. Deported on 25 October 1941 from Hamburg – Volksdorf to Lodz and then onto Treblinka
Bronka Sukno
Deported from Warsaw she arrived in Warsaw on January 18 1943. She was selected to live by SS- man Suchomel, after a brief stint at sorting clothes,the same day she was transferred to work in the SS laundry. After the war settled in Israel.
Wolf Szejnberg
Escaped from Treblinka. Settled in France
Jacob Szmulowicz
Escaped from Treblinka. Settled in Israel
Wigda Szepektor
Deported from the Wisznice ghetto to Treblinka in 1942
Chaim Sztajer
Worked in the Totenlager. Escaped from Treblinka, settled in Australia. Attended the Demjanjuk trial in Israel in June 1987
Kalman Teigman
Born on 24 December 1922 in Warsaw. In the ghetto he lived with his family on Twarda Street. Kalman worked at Okecie airport together with his comrade Slamek Rozenblum, and at the Astra- Werke from where he was deported to Treblinka on 4 September 1942, with his mother Tema.
Teigman worked mainly at sorting the belongings from the murdered Jews. On the afternoon of the revolt Kalman was at the workshop refurbishing aluminium utensils. He knew he was to receive arms at the garage, and he ran towards the garage, but he could not reach it due to the fire. He turned around and ran in the direction of the Lazarett, towards the second gate. There he simply climbed over the fence.
Teigman gave testimony at the Eichmann trial in Israel in 1961, where he made a telling statement. “ Your Honours – The way in which facts are being presented here, one might come to the conclusion that the 700,000 Treblinka deportees were not gassed by the SS men, but all simply committed suicide”. Living in Israel
Tema Teigman
Mother of Kalman Teigman Born in 1903. Deported together with her son, arrived in Treblinka on 5 September 1942 and died the same day.
Chaim Tik
Worked in the blacksmith shop
Moritz Tolpel
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka. “Scheissmeister” – dressed in a black robe, and a tall Rabbi’s hat.
Symcha Trachter
Born in 1893. A Jewish artist from Lublin. Deported from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka in 1942 where he perished.
Clara Tuch
Born in 1875. Deported together with her husband Theodor on 19 July 1942 from Hamburg –Volksdorf to Terezin and then to Treblinka
Dr. Theodor Tuch
Born in 1865. Deported together with his wife Clara on 19 July 1942 from Hamburg- Volksdorf to Terezin and then to Treblinka
Eugon Turowski
Born in 1914. At Treblinka he worked in the metal workshop and made a key to the armoury. Gave evidence to the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. Settled in Israel, now deceased.
Karl Unger
Born 15 April 1921 in Olomucz – Czechoslovakia. Deported in June 1942 from Olomucz to Terezin, and on 8 October 1942 deported to Treblinka.
He was taken to Treblinka in a passenger train, together with his great friend Richard Glazar. He worked in the sorting and camouflage commandos, his parents and younger brother were gassed in Treblinka.
Unger participated in the Treblinka uprising and escaped with Richard Glazar. Together they made their way through Poland, where they were arrested and sent as foreign –workers to Manheim, Germany, via Czechoslovakia and Austria. After the war he emigrated to America, where he lived until his death
Marie Veinles- Chaikin
A Jewish artist who perished in Treblinka
Born on 24 January 1909. Deported from Ostrava on 22 September 1942 to Terezin, and then onto Treblinka on 8 October 1942. Nicknamed Honza
Azriel Wallach
Escaped from Treblinka, met with Bund Emissaries to inform them about the fate of Jews deported to the death camp.
Wallbanczik
A member of the camps underground, a young man from Warsaw who shot and wounded Kurt Kuttner, which triggered off the uprising, earlier than planned.
Jakir Warszawski
Jewish author wrote in Hebrew. In the Warsaw ghetto he maintained a diary. Deported to Treblinka in 1942 – he took his diary with him
Szyja Warszawski
Deported to Treblinka arrived on 23 July 1942, the first transport from the Warsaw ghetto to the camp. He was one of 13 survivors who gave evidence to the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland in 1946.
Jankiel Waserman
Deported from the Wisznice ghetto to Treblinka in 1942
Boris( Kazik) Weinberg
Deported from Warsaw and arrived in Treblinka on 4 September 1942, following the suspension of transports, whilst the camp was re-organised. Worked in the sorting clothes commando – witnessed the killing of SS-man Max Biala.
Weinrib
A member of the Czestochowa Judenrat – liaison man with the local Gestapo. Killed in 1942
Ilik Weintraub
He worked in the Totenlager and was shot by SS-Scharfuhrer Matthes while transferring bodies from the gas chambers to the mass graves, during the winter 1942/43. Weintraub had stopped for a moment to drink some water from the well
Wladislaw Weintreub
Born in Lowicz in 1891. Deported to Treblinka in 1942 where he perished.
Wiener
Jankiel Wiernik
After completing a term of service in the Tsarist army he settled in Warsaw, where he became a building contractor. On 23 August 1942 he was deported to Treblinka.
Wiernik played a crucial role in the Treblinka uprising being part of the underground in the Totenlager. Employed as a carpenter, he was the only prisoner able to maintain contact between the conspirators in the Lower Camp and their counterparts in the Totenlager
He gave evidence to the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. He eventually settled in Israel where in the early fifties he built a large scale model of the Treblinka camp, which for many years was on display at the Ghetto Fighters House. He died in 1972
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka where she perished, the younger sister of Samuel Willenberg.
Samuel Willenberg
Samuel Willenberg was born in Czestochowa in 1923, where his father taught art at the Jewish Grammar school. His mother, a Russian of Orthodox faith and aristocratic background, had settled in Poland during the revolution.
At sixteen, upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Willenberg volunteered for the Polish army. He was wounded at Chelmno. The Willenberg family was broken apart in Czestochowa, when the two sisters were arrested. Samuel Willenberg went to the Opatow ghetto, from where he was deported to Treblinka in October 1942.
He soon became active in the underground and he worked in the sorting yard and camouflage commando. Although wounded in the uprising, he was shot in the leg, he managed to escape into the woods and eventually reached Warsaw, where he was eventually re-united with both his father than his mother.
He participated in the Polish Uprising in August 1944 and fought with the partisans in the Kampinos Woods. After the liberation of Poland he joined the Polish army and served as a captain until 1947. In 1950 he left Poland and settled in Israel, with his wife and mother. Author of Surviving Treblinka, he is still alive in Poland, painting and making sculptures.
Tamara Willenberg
Deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka where she perished, the younger sister of Samuel Willenberg.
Simcha Wilk
From Warsaw. A carpenter, who was quite militant, as recalled by Oscar Strawczynski. Itka Wlos
25 years of age. Deported from Sokolow Podlaski on 22 September 1942, with her family, she perished in Treblinka.
Wolowanczyk
Oscar Strawczynski related:
"Wolowanczyk was a notorious figure in the Warsaw underworld. He was tall and blond, around twenty years of age, very strong, energetic and extremely tough. Used to box with Kurt Franz."
Wolowanczyk participated in the revolt. Oscar Strawczynski says it was this man that shot Kuttner, which signalled the start of the revolt
Yurek
Kapo of the Red Commando, responsible for the undressing barracks. Oscar Strawczynski related:
“Corrupt and debauched, no deed was too foul for him. He works his whip frequently and with gusto on Jewish heads. As foul and corrupt as he was, his language was even worse.”
Ephraim Zagan
Born in Krakow in 1892. At the outbreak of the Second World War he refused to be evacuated from Warsaw, like many others, who moved eastwards to areas occupied by the Soviets.
He was a firm supporter of the Jewish underground, a leader of the Jewish Social Aid Institution ZTOS and his name appears in all the initial reports of the Anti- fascists Bloc. During the “Great Action” in the summer of 1942 he was deported at the end of July or the beginning of August to Treblinka, where he was murdered.
On 18 April 1945 he was posthumously awarded the Virtuti Millitari, Fifth Class, by the Polish army High Command.
Yitzchak Zeidman
A Jew from Czestochowa, saved by Aron Gelberd and the Sorting commando team, when he arrived at the camp.
Gertrude Zeisler
Austrian Jewess who was deported in 1941 from Vienna to the Kielce ghetto. At the end of August 1942 she was deported from Kielce to Treblinka. After the war her relatives published her letters, sent from the Kielce ghetto to Switzerland.
In the letters she described her life in the ghetto. The book was titled “ I did not survive – Letters from the Kielce Ghetto. Edited by G. Hoffer, Jerusalem – California 1981.
Zelichower
From Danzig. Was a worker in the wood-cutters commando. Shot by the SS after Berliner.
Dr Zimmerman
Was the Kapo of the Dentists in the Totenlager. According to Lindwasser a Kapo deserving of commendation.
Jakob Zonszajn
Deported from Siedlce. His wife Cypora gave their daughter Rachela to Polish friends who cared for the child, and Rachela survived the war. Cypora committed suicide in Siedlce
Joseph Zymerman
Survived Treblinka, emigrated to America. Lived in New York, passed away
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Some rare photos are available for viewing on the Remember Me Gallery page
Sources:
Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka – by Yitzhak Arad, Indianna University Press Bloomington and Indianapolis 1987. Surviving Treblinka by Samuel Willenberg, Basil Blackwell 1989. Trap with a Green Fence, by Richard Glazar, Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press. The Death Camp Treblinka, by Alexander Donat, New York Holocaust Library 1979. Into that Darkness, by Gitta Sereney, London McGraw- Hill Book Company 1974. The Trial of Ivan Terrible, by Tom Teicholz, Futura Publications 1990. A Cup of Tears by Abraham Lewin, Fontana Paperbacks London 1990. Treblinka Ein NS-Vernichtungslager im Rahmen der Aktion Reinhard – by Dr Manfred Burba, Gottingen 2000. Kronika Ghetta Warszawskiego – Warszawa 1988. Jewish Gen. Ghetto Fighters House. USHMM. Yad Vashem.
Private Sources / Testimonies
Unpublished memoirs – Oscar Strawczynski. K Urbanski Kieleccy Zydi Kielce. Testimony of Jozef Gutman- The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Private correspondence between Kalman Teigman and the author. Freda Lewkowicz, Montreal, Canada. Dr Yoram Lubling.
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