[The Crucial 1944 Treblinka Testimony from a Sonderkommando Resistance Fighter] Wiernik, Jankiel (Yankel Vyernik).

A YOR IN TREBLINKE. [TREBLINKA] א יאר אין טרעבלינקע

Nyu-York: Farlag, 1944. Item #43339

1st American Edition. Paper Wrappers, 8vo, 61 pages. Includes illustrations. 22 cm. In Yiddish. Title translates as, "A Year in Treblinka." Translation of Rok w Treblince.

Jankiel (Yankel, Yaakov, or Jacob) Wiernik (1889-1972) was a "Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an influential figure in the Treblinka extermination camp resistance. He had been forced to work as a Sonderkommando slave worker there, where an estimated 700,000–900,000 people, mostly Jews, were murdered. After his escape during the uprising of 2 August 1943, Wiernik reached Warsaw and joined the resistance. He also wrote a clandestine account of the camp's operation, A Year in Treblinka, which was copied and translated for printing in London and the US in English and Yiddish.
Following World War II, Wiernik testified at Ludwig Fischer's trial in 1947. He left Poland, emigrating first to Sweden and then to the new state of Israel. In 1961, he testified at Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem. He returned to Poland in 1964, to attend the opening of the Treblinka Memorial. Wiernik died in Israel in 1972 at the age of 83…
On his arrival at Treblinka aboard the Holocaust train from Warsaw, Wiernik was selected to work as a Sonderkommando; otherwise he would have been immediately gassed and killed that day. Wiernik's first job with the Sonderkommando required him to drag corpses from the gas chambers to mass graves. He was traumatized by his experiences and later wrote in his book: ‘It often happened that an arm or a leg fell off when we tied straps around them in order to drag the bodies away.’
He remembered the horrors of the enormous pyres, where ‘10,000 to 12,000 corpses were cremated at one time….’
He was also encouraged by occasional scenes of brave resistance. In chapter 8, he describes seeing a naked woman escape the clutches of the guards and leap over a three-metre high barbed wire fence unscathed. When accosted by a Ukrainian guard (Trawniki) on the other side, she wrestled his machine gun out of his grasp, killed the guard, and shot another guard before being killed herself.
When the SS recognized that Wiernik was a professional carpenter, they put him to work constructing various camp structures, including additional gas chambers. Given his skills, Wiernik was not subjected to the same treatment as others and no longer had to handle dead bodies. He attributed his survival to being able to build structures needed in the camp. Given the shortage of skilled construction workers accustomed to the killing process, Wiernik moved between the two divisions of the camp frequently. As a result, he became an important contact between the camp zones when the revolt was being planned.
Wiernik escaped Treblinka during the revolt of the prisoners on ‘a sizzling hot day’ of August 2, 1943. A shot fired into the air signaled that the revolt was on. Wiernik wrote that he ‘grabbed some guns’ and, after spotting an opportunity to make a break for the woods, an axe. A camp guard in pursuit shot Wiernik with a pistol but the bullet did not penetrate his skin. Wiernik said he turned around and killed his pursuer with the axe. Wiernik continued to Warsaw, hiding in a freight train….
Wiernik assumed the name of Jan Smarzynski. He made contact with members of the Jewish underground working in the 'Aryan' part of Warsaw. They realized he was a valuable eyewitness of the extermination process in Treblinka. He was persuaded in late 1943 to write A Year in Treblinka, in spite of his initial reluctance (Wiernik had little education and was not a skilled writer)....
He took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, fighting in the Armia Ludowa. After the end of World War II, Wiernik initially remained in Poland (in 1947 he testified in the trial of Ludwig Fischer). He emigrated to Sweden and afterwards to the newly founded state of Israel.
There in the 1950s, Wiernik built a model of the Treblinka camp. It is displayed in the Ghetto Fighters' House museum in Israel. In 1961 Wiernik testified in the Eichmann trial in Israel….
Jankiel Wiernik published Rok w Treblince (A Year in Treblinka) in 1944 as a clandestine booklet. It was printed through the efforts of the Jewish National Committee (Zydowski Komitet Narodowy, ZKN), Bund (underground organizations of the remnants of Polish Jews), and the Polish Council to Aid Jews Zegota by means of an underground printer organized by Ferdynand Arczynski. The circulation was estimated by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski as 2,000 copies. It was sent through Polish underground channels to London, and translated into English and Yiddish. It was also printed in the US by American representatives of the General Jewish Workers Union of Poland [ie. this copy].... The book recounts his experiences in the Treblinka extermination camp between 1942 and 1943” (Wikipedia).
SUBJECT(S): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Poland. Jews -- Poland -- Biography. OCLC: 12246244. Some toning, touch or corner wear to covers, otherwise Very Good Condition. Nice copy of this very important contemporary account of Treblinka. (B) (HOLO2-50-20A-XXLE*-IMMBBE@+-'gg).

Price: $350.00