Last survivor of Treblinka revolt dies at 93
Print Edition
THE last survivor of a prisoners’ revolt at the Treblinka Nazi death camp has died aged 93, the Yad Vashem Holocaust institute said yesterday.
Born in Poland, Samuel Willenberg was 19 years old and living in the town of Opatow when its Jewish inhabitants were sent to Treblinka.
Around 870,000 Jews were murdered during the 13 months that the camp was in operation, from July 1942 through August 1943, Yad Vashem says.
The Jerusalem Post said he escaped death by telling his Nazi captors that he was a painter and builder and was assigned to camp maintenance work rather than going straight to the gas chambers like most new arrivals.
On August 2, 1943, he joined another 200 inmates who broke into the armoury of the camp’s SS detachment, opened fire on their captors and set fire to camp buildings.
“Masses of prisoners now tried to storm the fence and escape from the camp; they were fired at from all the watchtowers and most of them were hit, falling in or near the fence area. Those who succeeded in getting out of the camp were apprehended and shot,” Yad Vashem’s website says.
“Of the approximately 750 prisoners who had tried to make their escape, 70 survived to see liberation.”
Shot in the foot, Willenberg nevertheless escaped and joined the Polish underground.
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