Surviving Treblinka

by Samuel Willenberg, Wladyslaw T. Bartoszewski (Editor)

Between 1941 and 1943 some 900,000 Jews were sent by the Nazis to the extermination camp at Treblinka in Poland. Only a mere 70 survived the war. This memoir by one of those survivors, now living in Israel, describes Treblinka from his arrival there in 1942. He illustrates in detail the physical conditions of transport to, and life at, the camp, the brutality of the Nazis and the Ukrainian collaborators and the heroism of the inmates. Willenberg's grisly special duties as one of the camp's labour forces are described, as well his observation of the incongruities of camp life: the orchestra playing music to drown the screams of the dying, the forced community singing to make local inhabitants think that the place was nothing more than a labour camp. It culminates in a description of the organization and execution of the uprising on 2 August 1943, when a small group of prisoners, including Willenberg, succeeded in escaping from the camp after setting fire to it.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction, Memoir, World War II, Biography Memoir

210 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1989

Reviews

[Mark Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this work thoroughly as part of the research for my own book, Treblinka Survivor. It is a tough book and tough character who wrote it. I also interviewed Mr Willenbrg when he was one of four living Treblinka survivors in 2007. Now, as I write this, he is one of only two. Only 68 Jews survived this hellish place, out of 850,000 people who were brought to Treblinka to die.

This is a rare and fascinating piece of raw history and a must-read for those interested in the detail of perhaps the most murderous place the world has ever known, and what really happened during one of the most daring and courageous escapes of the Second World War.

Shocking and devastating in its honesty.

[Rema · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be much easier to find than it was. Fascinating account of life in one of the death camps.