Revolt '43

" You're already dead, you just can't die "—the words of the internal dialogue of consciousness echoed with determination in the mind of prisoner Richard Glazar. The question was asked: " So what are you afraid of? " " The moment when I'll be naked "—came the answer. " You see, you've been here too long, you've waited too long, you've seen too much... " [9;92]. Such reflections likely occurred in the minds of all prisoners sentenced to temporary confinement in the death factory—Treblinka II. But only a few were able to overcome their fear, coupled with their disbelief in the wisdom of resistance. After all, in the final stage of preparations for the revolt, out of approximately 840 prisoners, fewer than sixty were involved, while the command consisted of 10-12 people: those highest in the camp hierarchy formed the Revolutionary Committee [6;39-40. Also:9;92-93.More:14].

In the first months of 1943, the terror previously used by the camp services weakened somewhat: " Recently, the workers have been staying in one place longer, and this was extremely beneficial for us, " wrote Jachiel Rajchman in his memoirs. " This way we had the opportunity to get to know each other better. We are gaining trust in each other and are beginning to consider ways to get out of here " [10;84.Also:4;4]. At that time, transports of people sentenced to death in their masses were increasingly rare, and the camp authorities sought to justify the camp's continued existence [15;16]. This could explain a kind of community: the executioners and the victims with suspended death sentences. The former's vigilance weakened: " The Germans and Ukrainians don't suspect anything ," Jankiel Wiernik stated, and asked a rhetorical question: " They exterminated millions, it's their routine, and today they should be afraid of this miserable handful? " [8;33]. For the latter, the primary goal was to destroy " hell on earth " [12;165]. Their other actions were only derivatives of this goal – means to achieve the goal.

Everyone involved in the plans—revolt, mutiny, uprising—had to play their part. All were crucial. Locksmiths made a key to the arsenal, young boys stole weapons, and former soldiers guaranteed their proper use. Mechanics had access to flammable substances, and "dentists"—prisoners who had served in the Germans' plundering of Jewish property—obtained gold and money: essential resources should the conspirators manage to escape the camp. Although many doubted: " The prisoners realized that the fight was hopeless, that their last day was approaching, but the desire for revenge, to end this death factory once and for all, prevailed over everything " [5;3.Also:12;157]. Those who believed, even if only a fraction, that they would survive, set themselves another goal: to show the world the truth about the " terrible slaughterhouse " – Treblinka [10;100.Also:8;33].

The uprising was scheduled for August 2, 1943, at 4:30 PM. The Germans likely suspected a breach of the "order" they had established. Jewish informants aided them in this. The head of the "lower camp," overseeing the reception and administrative-residential areas, must have sensed this: " Küttner also ran around the camp like a rabid dog to sniff out what was going on ." [5;4] The uprising's outbreak had to be postponed to 4:00 PM due to the risk of nipping it in the bud.

" Run, the Russians are coming ," Berek Rojzman shouted to the guard standing in the tower near the barracks, near the fields adjacent to the camp. " Run, but leave your rifle ." [7;210-211] Mira, the guard, was wearing shorts at the time and sunbathing. When the first shots rang out, he immediately fled his post. Was he the one Jachiel Rajchman had in mind when he wrote: " The Ukrainian who was standing guard next to the barracks is lying on the ground like a slaughtered pig, blood oozing from him. His weapon has already found its way into the hands of our colleague "? [10;92]. In his account, written shortly after his escape from Treblinka, Jankiel Wiernik recalled that one of the means, perhaps the only one, used to "delude" the guards was gold. Those who were supposed to maintain order in the quarter of the camp under their control succumbed to the temptation. He characterized this form of "neutralizing" the opponents as follows: " They have a crazy passion for gold and were constantly trading with Jews. When the shot was fired, one of the traders approached the tower and showed the Ukrainian a gold coin. He completely forgot he was at his post, left his rifle and ran down the mountain to extort the treasure from the Jew. Two other Jews were already waiting for him on the side. They caught him by surprise, finished him off, and took his weapon ." The towers – in the opinion of the revolt's commanders – were the first and most important point in the planned operations: " If they had started shooting bullets at us from above, we would not have escaped alive ." [8;34]

At the same time, to cause panic among the guards, the insurgents set fire to the camp buildings. Within a few dozen seconds, the flames engulfed a significant portion of them: " Fires broke out in all parts of the camp and – recalled Samuel Rajzman – a heavy smoke screen " [5;6]. Also:10;92] This was the result of work performed shortly before by one of the disinfectors: " He usually disinfected the barracks, and on that day he poured liquid on all the buildings that were to be burned, " recalled Stanisław (Szulem) Kon [3;41].

Those guarding the gate, as well as some of the watchmen in the watchtowers, were disoriented by the events. So when the insurgent group ran towards them shouting, " Revolution! End of the war! " and " Revolution in Berlin! ", they, in panic, raised their hands: " We're taking their weapons ," recalled Jachiel Rajchman and Richard Glazar [9;97. Also:10;92]. This attitude of the guards was far from what the German command expected. Samuel Rajzman assessed them as follows: " The 'heroes' in battles with naked women and children are helpless this time " [5;7]. They surrendered or died at the hands of the insurgents.

The fighting in the camp—beginning with the first shot, the grenade explosion, and the fire that moved rapidly from barrack to barrack, and ending with the breaking down of the gates, the inner ones separating the extermination section from the so-called economic section and the entire extermination camp from the rest of the world—lasted less than ten minutes. Finally, what the prisoners had been waiting for came—a chance to leave the place of execution: " Run, run! Run! To the woods! " [9;97]—Richard Glazer called on everyone who could. Most failed. A bullet could have hit anyone. Like Hans, who had taken part in the fight. He was unable to flee any further. He fell near the gate. There was no fear in his gaze: " With white, trembling lips, he only pleaded: 'End me, in the name of the one you don't believe in.' " Whether, from a moral perspective, they were helping each other or, on the contrary, harming each other, will remain a mystery to those who participated in this drama. After all, Samuel Willenberg pointed out a death camp to his friend and said, " Look where your children and wife are ." [12;163-164] When the friend looked, he shot him in the head...

Those who were able to do so faced one last obstacle – the barbed wire: " Among the tank barriers stood dead prisoners, erect as monuments. The mass of people, forming a kind of bridge, lay on the barbed wire and barriers " [12;165. Also:9;97]. Not all of the towers were captured by the insurgents, so the guards immediately returned fire. Immediately afterwards, the Germans and their ethnic guards gave chase: " The murderers are chasing us with machine guns in hand. A car is chasing us with them. On its roof is a machine gun, firing in all directions " [10;93]. Of the 750 prisoners participating in the fight, fewer than two hundred managed to escape from the death factory. However, for them, this was merely another stage of the fight – for survival...

They fled en masse. Groups numbered from a few to several dozen people. However, quickly – under the influence of relentless persecution, distrust of their comrades, and fear of betrayal by the inhabitants of villages neighboring Treblinka – their common goal: escape, lost its significance. What mattered was the chance of survival. Most decided to continue their journey alone. Left to their own devices, they fought for survival. Literally.

Like Jankiel Wiernik. At first, he fled in a group. The watchmen quickly routed them. Only he managed to escape. He was already approaching the forest wall. He was close to reaching it. First, he heard: " Stop! ", and a moment later, a shot, and at the same moment he felt intense pain. However, the watchman's revolver jammed. It was his only chance. Desperation and luck combined. He stopped: " I pulled an axe from my belt. I approached him and cut his left chest with the axe. He fell at my feet, screaming, "F... your m...!" I was free and ran into the forest. " [8;34] After a dozen or so days, he reached Warsaw. With the axe...

Like Richard Glazer. He also escaped with his companions. They reached a crossroads, wondering which way to go: into the forest or the marshes? Most chose the forest. He and Karel Unger chose the marshy terrain. They arrived: " I plunge underwater, swim a bit, crawl a bit along the muddy bottom back to shore. I quickly take a breath, and submerge again " [9;97]. They heard the sounds of cars chasing prisoners, gunfire, human screams mixed with the barking of dogs. They spent nearly six hours in the muddy water. They survived. After many weeks of wandering, captured by the German services, they were sent to a labor camp in Mannheim. There, in the spring of 1945, they awaited liberation by the American army...

Like Jachiel Rajchman. At first, there were twenty of them. They reached the young forest. There were too many of them. The decision was quickly made to split them into two smaller groups: " We were lying there for a few minutes and suddenly we noticed that Ukrainians and several SS men were surrounding the woods and entering. They encountered the second group and were all immediately shot ." The survivors wandered through the forests at night and rested during the day. They sought support – unsuccessfully – from the local residents. Only in exchange for their "Treblinka" fortune did they receive some food: " He gives us bread and a little milk and demands gold in return. We give him two watches ." Ultimately, the group split up. Rajchman wandered alone. Although he found support from the Poles, he was equally threatened. In the evening, a nearby villager arrived at the farmers' farm where he was staying and who were supporting him. At the door, he shouted, " Jew, follow me ." He explained to his neighbors: " Do you know that those bandits set fire to Treblinka? I'll get a reward for him! " [10;98]. Rajchman had to flee again. Despite the obstacles, he managed to survive. First with friendly Poles, and then in Warsaw.

Like Samuel Willenberg. He quickly separated from the group of several dozen people as soon as they reached the nearby village of Treblinka. He continued wandering alone. He sought shelter: " I found a spot in a haystack. As soon as I settled into the hay, I felt like I was lying on someone. At dawn, it turned out that at least four people had spent the night in the haystack. No one spoke a word to anyone. Each was afraid of the other. As soon as the sun rose, my companions disappeared without saying goodbye. Each went in a different direction ." He reached Kostek. There, on the station wall, he saw a poster: " It warned against helping fugitives and informed that among the bandits were typhus carriers. The wanted poster stated that fugitives could be recognized by their shaved heads " [12;166-176]. Despite the threats, he reached Warsaw. He not only survived. He took part in the Warsaw Uprising…

Did these people believe they would survive? Perhaps… After all, they were among those of the no more than one hundred Treblinka prisoners who survived the war. Some of them traveled to that place again. In the late autumn of 1945. The road leading to the extermination site was shrouded in fog. Perhaps because for hundreds of thousands of their comrades, its end was the end – the last stop in their lives? Along the journey, they argued: where, who, and how? Questions abounded, yet there were no clear answers: could it have been done sooner? Why so late? Was it worth it? But the closer they got to the execution site, the more the travelers withdrew into themselves. Each and every one of them, together, were examining their own consciences. Perhaps in this familiar place, in silence, each of them asked only one, yet fundamental question: why, despite everything – not my wife, not my son, not my mother and father – had I survived?

They came to witness… The weight of the place overwhelmed everyone. Especially those who had experienced the worst here – the former prisoners. They were powerless against a single image permanently etched in their memories: human tragedy. Perhaps they were helplessly smelt the same smell: of burned, charred, ash-turned-flesh and bones? Just as they felt the sweetish taste of blood no longer useful to anyone in their mouths? Perhaps their past experiences, including the fact that they had survived, gave them strength? " Survivors of Treblinka jump into the pits. With trembling bare hands, they touch the decaying remains of corpses, wanting to show they are not disgusted ." A moment later, the judge present at this on-site inspection pointed to the edge of one of the large pits. A tiny fragment of a skeleton, a " child's leg, " protruded from the mixture of earth and sand: " One of the survivors is running in that direction," wrote Rachela Auerbach, who arrived with the investigative commission and former prisoners, in her report. "He wraps the bone in newspaper, like a pious Jew would wrap an etrode. He wraps the bone in his coattail, then puts it in his breast pocket and holds it to his heart ." After that, he simply said: " Maybe it's the leg of my son, whom I took with me ." [11;53,60] There was truth in these words, common to all. Absolute truth: this tragedy could have befallen anyone...

Dr. Paweł Wieczorek 

Bibliography: 

1. AŻIH, 301/3, Reports – Ch. Brenner;
2. AŻIH, 301/5, Reports – Karol Tajgman;
3. AŻIH, 301/26, Accounts – Stanisław (Szulem) Kon;
4. AŻIH, 301/106, Reports – Leon Perelsztejn;
5. AŻIH, 301/7250, Reports – Samuel Rajzman;
6. Edward Kopówka, Never again, Museum of Struggle and Martyrdom in Treblinka, 2002;
7. Gitta Serena, Into the Darkness: Conversations with the Commandant of Treblinka, Warsaw 2002;
8. Jankiel Wiernik, A Year in Treblinka, Warsaw 2003;
9. Richard Glazar, Surviving Treblinka, [In:] Karta. Historical Quarterly, ed. Z.Gluza, no. 59, 2009;
10. Jachiel Rajchman, I Survived Treblinka. Memories from 1942–1943, Warsaw 2011;
11. Rachel Auerbach, Treblinka, [In:] Znak, No. 670, March 2011;
12. Samuel Willenberg, Revolt in Treblinka, Warsaw 2016;
13. Michał Wojcik, Treblinka '43. Revolt in the Death Factory, Krakow 2019;
14. https://muzeumtreblinka.eu/
15. https://1943.pl/artykul/akcja-reinhardt/
16. https://1943.pl/artykul/wielka-akcja-22-lipca-1942-21-wrzesnia-1942/

Prepared by Anna Kilian

Paweł Wieczorek – PhD in Humanities. Specialty: contemporary history. Collaborations: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, the Jewish Historical Institute, and the Jewish Social and Cultural Association in Poland. Winner of the Jewish Historical Institute's M. Bałaban competition for the best doctoral dissertation (2014). Participant in the international research project "Pogroms against Jews in Polish Lands in the 19th and 20th Centuries" (2013-2016). Author of articles and books. Research interests: Polish-Jewish relations after 1945, Jewish social and political movements, national and ethnic minorities in Poland, the Cold War, totalitarianism. Teacher at the 4th High School in Wałbrzych.

Photo: Treblinka extermination camp set on fire by rebellious prisoners (public domain)