We Remember Treblinka!

 

This site is dedicated to Yankel Wiernik of blessed memory, the hero who fought and survived and cried the cry of the Jewish victims, in Ghetto Warsaw, where he returned. His detailed testimony "A Year In Treblinka" was published in New York already y in 1944(!) but the world refused to listen... We remember Yankel Wiernik who later dedicated the rest of his life to bear witness to the Germans' crime committed in Treblinka. The model he built of the death camp Treblinka is exhibited in the Ghetto Fighters' House Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Israel.
Yankel Wiernik was a brave, pure and conscientious man whose heritage should be remembered for eternity!

Yankel Wiernik: A Year in Treblinka, New York 1945

Eddie Weinstein: Quenched Steel, The Story of an Escape from Treblinka, Yad Vashem 2002

Władysław Szlengel 

Mała Stacja Treblinki

Na szlaku Tłuszcz-Warszawa,
z dworca Warschau-Ost
wyjeżdża się szynami
i jedzie sie na wprost...

I podróż trwa czasami
pięć godzin i trzy ćwierci,
a czasami trwa ta jazda
całe życie aż do śmierci...

A stacja jest maleńka
i rosną trzy choinki,
i napis jest zwyczajny:
tu stacja Treblinki.

I nie ma nawet kasy
ani bagażowego,
za milion nie dostaniesz
biletu powrotnego...

Nie czeka nikt na stacji
i nikt nie mach chustką,
i cisza tylko wisi,
i wita głuchą pustką.

I milczy słup stacyjny,
i milczą trzy choinki,
i milczy czarny napis,
że... stacja Treblinki.

I tylko wisi z dawna
(reklama w każdym razie)
zniszczony stary napis:
"Gotujcie na gazie."



Władysław Szlengel 

A Small Station Called Treblinka*

On the line between Tluszcz and Warsaw
From the railway station Warsaw - East
You get out of the station
and travel straight…

The journey lasts
sometimes 5 hours and 45 minutes more
and sometimes the same journey lasts
a whole life until your death …

And the station is very small
three fir trees grow there
and a regular signboard saying
here is the small station of Treblinka...
here is the small station of Treblinka...

And not even a cashier
gone is the cargo man
and for a million zloty
you will not get a return ticket

And nobody waits for you in the station
and nobody waves a handkerchief towards you
only silence hung there in the air
to welcome you in the blind wilderness.

And silent are the three fir trees
and silent is the black board
because here is the small station of Treblinka...
here is the small station of Treblinka...

And only a commercial board
 stands still:
"Cook only by gas"
 

* Translated from Polish to Hebrew by Halina Birenbaum and from Hebrew to English by Ada Holtzman. Yehuda Poliker, son of an Auschwitz Holocaust survivor from Thessaloniki wrote music to the poem and it is in his album: "Ashes and Dust".

 ולאדיסלאב שלנגל

 

כאן התחנה טרבלינקה

 

בקו שבין טלושץ – ורשה

מתחנת הרכבת ורשה אוסט

יוצאים ברכבת ונוסעים ישר...

הנסיעה נמשכת לפעמים

חמש שעות ועוד 45 דקות

ולפעמים נמשכת אותה נסיעה

חיים שלמים עד מותך...

 

והתחנה היא קטנטונת

שלושה אשוחים גדלים בה

וכתובת רגילה אומרת:

כאן התחנה טרבלינקה

כאן התחנה טרבלינקה...

 

ואין אפילו קופה

גם איש המטענים איננו

ובעבור מיליון

לא תקבל כרטיס חזור...

 

ואיש לא מחכה בתחנה

ואף אחד לא מנפנף שם המטפחת

רק באוויר תלויה דממה

לקדם פניך בשממה אטומה.

 

ושותקים שלושת האשוחים

שותקת הכתובת השחורה

כי כאן התחנה טרבלינקה...

כאן התחנה טרבלינקה...

 

ורק תלויה עוד מאז

סיסמה ישנה ובלויה האומרת

"בשלו בגז".

 

 

 


Władysław Szlengel
1914-Ghetto Warszawa 1943

סעו לטרבלינקה

Go to Treblinka

Go to Treblinka

 

 

Go to Treblinka

keep your eyes wide open

sharpen your hearing

stop your breathing

and listen to the voices which emerge

from every   grain of that  earth –

 

Go to Treblinka

They are waiting there for you

They long  to the voice of your life

to the sign of your existence,

to the pace of your feet

to human look understanding and remembering

to caress of love over their ashes –

Go to Treblinka

 

go by your own free will

go by the power of pain over the horror which has happened

from the depth of understanding and the aching heart which has not accepted –

listen to Them there with all your senses!

 

Go to Treblinka

there the green silence, golden or white

which embrace Them each season of the year

will tell you stories of the stories

about life which became forbidden and impossible –

 

Go to Treblinka

watch how time has stopped there

listen to the standing time, to the dead thundering silence

and to the human stones weeping there in silence

Go to Treblinka to feel it even for just one second –

 

Go to Treblinka

grow a flower by a hot tear, by human breath

against one stone – memory of a whole community

on earth which is their flesh and ashes.

They are waiting there in Treblinka for you to come and listen to Them

cry within the silence

and in total mute identification, unifying

bring Them each time the story of life which continues and of reviving love.

 

Go to Treblinka for generations to generations

Do not leave Them alone -

 

Halina Birenbaum

Translated by Ada Holtzman

סעו לטרבלינקה

 

סעו לטרבלינקה

פקחו את עיניכם לרוחה

חדדו את השמיעה

עצרו את הנשימה

והקשיבו לקולות הבוקעים שם

מכל גרגר אדמה -

 

סעו לטרבלינקה

הם מחכים לכם שם

צמאים לקול חייכם

לאות לקיומכם,

לצעד רגליכם

למבט אנושי מבין וזוכר

ללטוף של אהבה על אפרם  -

סעו לטרבלינקה

 

סעו מרצונכם אתם, החופשי

סעו מכוח הכאב על האימה שהתרחשה

מעמק ההבנה והלב כואב ולא משלים  -

הקשיבו להם שם בכל החושים!

 

סעו לטרבלינקה

שם הדממה הירוקה, הזהובה או הלבנה

העוטפת אותם בכל אחת מעונות השנה

תספר לכם סיפורי סיפורים

על החיים שהפכו אסורים ובלתי אפשריים -

 

סעו לטרבלינקה

ראו איך הזמן שם עצר

הקשיבו לזמן העומד, לשתיקת המתים הרועמת

ולאבנים בדמות אנוש הבוכות שם בדממה

סעו לטרבלינקה לחוש זאת לשנייה -

 

סעו לטרבלינקה

הצמיחו פרח בדמעה חמה, בנשימה אנושית

מול אחת האבנים - זכר לקהילה שלמה

על אדמה שהיא גופם ואפרם.

הם מחכים שם בטרבלינקה שתבואו ותקשיבו לספורים

הזועקים בתוך הדממה

ובהזדהות מחלטת אילמת, מאחדת

תביאו להם בכל פעם

את ספור החיים הנמשכים

האהבה המחיה.

 

סעו לטרבלינקה לדורי דורות

אל תעזבו אותם לבדם

 הלינה בירנבאום

עם שובי מפולין 19.9.1986

 

The Poem as a Word Document

TREBLINKA EXTERMINATION CAMP

 NEVER AGAIN!!!

 Symbolic Stones In Death Camp Treblinka
(near Malkinia, Poland)

 Death Camps in Poland - a Map

From the "Plan of Symbolic Stones" published by the Museum of Fighting and Martyrdom in Treblinka 1999

The "Aktion Reinhard" Death Camp Treblinka

THE EXTERMINATION CAMP in Treblinka was built in the spring of 1942 near an existing penal labour camp and covered an area of 17 hectares. The camp was surrounded by a high barbed wire fence camouflaged with interwoven greenery to hide what was happening inside. Anti-tank obstacles ("Spanish horses") and rolls of barbed wire were placed outside the fence. Watch towers were additionally positioned around the camp.

The staff consisted of 25-30 Germans and Austrians who supervised the camp together with a guard company of about 100 men, mostly Ukrainians.

The first camp commandant was Dr Irmfried Eberl who was later replaced by Franz Stangl, with Kurt Franz as deputy commandant.

On 22 June 1942 the first transports of people arrived, Jews deported from the Warsaw ghetto. From that day onwards, Jews were delivered to the camp from occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Yugoslavia and the USSR, as well as from Germany and Austria. Polish and German Gypsies were also sent here. They were killed by exhaust fumes in gas chambers specially built for the purpose and it has been estimated that about 850,000 people were killed here.

In order to erase traces of the crime the corpses were cremated on specially constructed grates.

On 2 August 1943, an armed revolt by the prisoners broke out. Of the 840 inmates involved, however only about 200 succeeded in escaping from the camp. Of these, only about 100 at the most survived until the end of the war.

After the revolt, the camp was gradually liquidated and by November all the camp buildings and installations had been demolished. A house was built for a Ukrainian family and the area of the former camp ploughed up and planted with lupines. The building was burnt down before the arrival of the front.

Partial List of the Heroes of Treblinka

LIST OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE JEWISH VICTIMS:

Yankel Wiernik: A Year in Treblinka, New York 1945

My Message
This Web Page is dedicated to the memory of the communities who were liquidated in Treblinka.

The aim is to have a link to a community's web site; to highlight and commemorate the murdered Jews, to bear witness to the life and culture behind each stone which stands in Treblinka, crying to empty skies, matzeva to those without a tomb...

It is my wish that by the end of year 2001, all communities will have a memorial web page, to remember the life of my people before became frozen  stone, remaining as silent rock in the valley of the shadow of death: Treblinka.

Data 15 November 2002: 235 Communities, out of which there are already 85 with a link to a web site!
Shalom, Toda
Ada Holtzman

The Lost Jewish Communities of Poland

PARTIAL LIST OF MORE THAN 215 JEWISH COMMUNITIES MURDERED IN TREBLINKA:

* The Jewish Community does not have a stone in the site. Name of Community added to this database following a documented proof.

A B C D F G I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Z

ADAMOW

AUGUSTOW

BARANOW SANDOMIERSKI

BIALYSTOK

BIALOBRZEGI

BIALA PODLASKA

BIALA RAWSKA

BIELSK PODLASKI

BLEDOW

BLONIE

BODZANOW

BODZENTYN

BRANSK

BROK

BUSKO ZDROJ

CIECHANOWIEC

CIEPIELOW

CHECINY

CHMIELNIK

CHOROSZCZ

CZESTOCHOWA

+ Czestochowa & Radomsko Area Research Group

CMIELOW

DABROWA BIALA

DOBRE

DRUSKIENNIKI

DRZEWICA

FALENICA

GARBATKA

GARWOLIN

GLOWNO

GLOWACZOW

GNIEWOSZOW

GOLEDZISZOW

GONIADZ

GORZKOWICE

GORA KALWARIA

GOWARCZOW*

GRAJEWO

GRODNO

GRODZISK MAZ.

GRODEK BIALA

GROJEC

INDURA

ILZA

INOWLODZ

IWANSKA

IZAVELIN*

JADOW

JANOW PODLASKI

JALOWKA

JANOW SOKOLSKI*

JASIONOWKA

JEDLINSK

JEDWABNE has a symbolic stone but the remaining Jews from the mass murder committed by the Poles, 10 July 1941 were expelled to death in Auschwitz!

JEZIORY

JEZOW

JEDRZREJOW

KALISZ *

+also an excellent Polish site with English section

KALUSZYN

KAMIENSK

KARCZEW

KIELCE

+also the Yizkor Book of Kielce in JewishGen

KIELBASIN

KIERNOZIA *

KLESZCZELE

KLIMONTOW

KNYSZYN

KOCK

KOLUSZKI

KOLBIEL

KONIECPOL

KONSTANTYNOW ŁÓDZKI

KONSTANTYNOW NAD BUGIEM *

KONSKIE

+ also Translation of article from pinkas Hakehilot on JewishGen

KOPRZYWNICA

KORYCIN

KOSOW LACKI

KOZIENICE

KREMIENICA*

KRYNKI

KUFLEW

KURZELOW*

KUZNICA BIALA

KUNOW

LAGOW

LAPY

LASKARZEW

LATOWICZ

LEGIONOWO

LIDA*
see: http://obi.std.com/obi/Holocaust/treblinka.11

LIPNO*

LIPSKO NAD WISLA

LISOKOVO*

LOCHOW

LOSICE

LODZ

Lodz History in Pinkas Hakehilot

LOWICZ

LUDWISIN

LUKOW

LUNNA

LYSKOW

MAGNUSZEW

MAKOW MAZOWIECKI

MALKINIA

MALOGOSZCZ

MARIAMPOL

MARIANOW

MICHALOWO

MIEDZYRZEC PODLASKI

MILEJCZYCE

MINSK*
see: http://obi.std.com/obi/Holocaust/treblinka.11

MINSK MAZOWIECKI

MLAWA

MNISZEW

MOGIELNICA

MORDY

MOSTY

MROZY

MSTIBOV (called AMSTIBOVA)*

MSZCZONOW

NAREW

NASIELSK

NOWY KORCZYN

NOWE MIASTO NAD PILICA

OBLAS

ODELSK

OPATOW

OPOCZNO

+ translation from Pinkas Hakehilot

ORLA

OSIEK

OSTROWIEC

OSTROW MAZOWIECKI

OSTRYNA

OTWOCK

OZAROW

PACANOW

PARYSOW

PIASECZNO

PIESK*

PIONKI

PIOTRKOW TRYBUNALSKI
+
JewishGen web Site 19.1.2001

PINCZOW

PLOCK

POLICZNA

POREBA

POROZOW

PORZECZE

PORZOVO*

PRUSZKOW

PRZEDBORZ

+an article in Pinkas Hakehilot

PRZEMYSL

PRZYGLOW

PRZYSUCHA

PRZYTYK

PULTUSK

RADOM

RADOMSKO

RADOSZYCE

RADZILOW

RADZYMIN

RAJGROD

RAWA MAZOWIECKA

REMBERTOW

ROS

ROSSOSZ

ROZAN

RUZHANY (called RUZHENOI)*

SANDOMIERZ

SARNOW

SEROKOMLA

SEDZISZOW

SIDRA

SIECIECHOW

SIEDLCE

SIEMIATYCZE

SIENNICA

SIENNO

SKARYSZEW

SKARZYSKO - KAMIENNA

SKIDEL

SKIERNIEWICE

SLAWATYCZE

SLUPIA NOWA

SOBIENIE JEZIORY

SOBOLEW

SOCHACZEW

SOKOLY

SOKOLOW PODLASKI

SOKOLKA

SOLEC NAD WISLA

SOPOCKINIE

STARACHOWICE

STANISLAWOW

STASZOW

STERDYN

STOCZEK P. SOKOLOWSKI

STOCZEK LUKOWSKI

STOPNICA

STROMIEC

SUCHEDNIOW

SUCHOWOLA

SULEJOW

SUPRASL*

SZCZEKOCINY

SZCZUCZYN

SZRENS

SZYDLOWIEC

SWISLOCZ

TARCZYN

TARLOW

TERESPOL

TLUSZCZ

TOMASZOW MAZ.

TRZCIANNE

UJAZD

VOLKOVYSK

VILNA (VILNIUS)*
see: http://obi.std.com/obi/Holocaust/treblinka.11

VOLP*

WARKA

WASILKOW

WAWER

WARSZAWA

WEGROW

WIERZBNIK

WISKITKI

WISZNICE

WLOSZCZOWA

WODZISLAW

WOLANOW

WOLKOWYSK

WOLOMIN

WOLPA

WYSZKOW

WYSZOGROD

ZABLUDOW

ZAWICHOST

ZARKI

ZARNOW

ZELVA*

ZELECHOW

ZWOLEN

ZYRARDOW

Janusz Korczak: The King of the Children

Shlomi Doron: Janusz Korczak: "The Post Office" (will be posted here)

WE SHALL NOT FORGET!

Yankel Wiernik: A Year in Treblinka, New York 1945

The Journey to "Eretz Israel" By Aharon Carmi (Chmielnicki), The Story of the Death Train to Treblinka

TREBLINKA: Sources on the WEB:

The Reconstruction of Treblinka by Alex Bay

Aktion Reinhardt Camps

The Nizkor Project: Treblinka

The Nizkor Project: Wiernik's Treblinka Model

"Shtetl" - BRANSK - the End

Jamie McCarthy translations by Gord McFee: Stroop on Treblinka

JSOURCE: "Operation Reinhard": The Extermination Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka

Extermination Camp Treblinka

Cristin Arahovites: Janusz Korczak: He Stayed With His Children

Excerpted from "BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps" Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7

More ...

More...

More... (Transportation Lists)

More... (Transportation Lists)

More...( Franz Stangl)

March Of the Living - Day 6: Treblinka

The Resistance in Treblinka

Belzec

Sobibor


BOOKS:

  1. Dr. Yitzhak Arad: "Treblinka - Hell and Revolt", Am Oved Tel Aviv 1983
  2. Israel Gutman (ed): "Ecyclopedia of the Holocaust", Siriat Hapoalim ,Tel Aviv 1990
  3. Dr. Yitzhak Arad: "Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka : The Operation Reinhard Death Camps", Tel Aviv 1980
  4. Samuel Willenberg: "Revolt in Treblinka" Jerusalem, 1986

The author, Samuel Willenberg after his Escape from Treblinka

  1. Alexander Donad (ed.), "The death Camp Treblinka: a Documentary, New York,1979
  2. Gitta Sereny, "Into That Darkness: From "Mercy Killing to Mass Murder", New York 1974
  3. Yankel Wiernik, "a Year in Treblinka", New York 1945
  4. Miriam Kuperhand and Saul Kuperhand : "Shadows of Treblinka", Illinois 1989
  5. Murray Zimiles: Book of Fire


 
 

Message from Allen B.Saxe (email: mailto:absaxe "at" earthlink.net) November 20th 2000

As a youth I spent hours going through the top drawer of my parents' dresser where they kept the family photographs and letters from Europe. Somehow I knew my father's family had died. It took years for me to learn about the Shoah . We felt our history long before we knew it. The documented words would have to wait.

Over the past several years, I have documented the history of JANOW SOKOLSKI and my family. It was with deep pain that I learned that the death and destruction of the Jews of Janow along with millions of others was at Treblinka. Treblinka's sole purpose was to kill. It was not a concentration camp or a labor camp; its mission was to kill our families as fast as possible.

A stone monument has now been placed at Treblinka to memorialize this community. Hopefully my work and the work of many others like Stanley Diamond and Arnie Pearlstein whose families came from Janow will tell the full story of the community. Ada Holtzman of Tel Aviv has encouraged and assisted me. Tomasz Wisniewski of Poland has been a constant help in locating documents and directing me to other resources. Edward Kopowka, the Director of the Treblinka Museum, dealt promptly with my request to add a monument and provided photographs that appear on the website. I am confident that we can assist other persons to insure that all communities will be remembered.

JewishGen has become a primary resource for Jewish historical and genealogical research. I urge all to use it and support it financially.

Remembering JANOW SOKOLSKI assures that the story will continue. As I searched the past, I located family in the Unites States and Israel who had survived as well as making new friends who also had ties to JANOW SOKOLSKI.

Allen B. Saxe
Charlotte, NC

Anyone who has documented proof about another Jewish community liquidated in Treblinka but which has no symbolic stone in the site nowadays, may apply in writing to the management of Treblinka to add the matzeva. I shall include it in this web page! AH

The Mangement of the Treblinka Site in Poland:

Mr. Edward Kopowka - Director
Museum
to Fighting and Martyrdom in Treblinka
08-830 Kosow Lacki
Poland

Telephone: 00-48-417-879076

Opening :
1 April - 31 October:09:00- 16:00
1 November - 31 March::00 - 16:00


 
 

In the Suof 1999 following the Efforts of the Association of PolisJews in Israel, (Center of Organizations), headed by Mr. Benjamin Meirtchak, More than 80 Communities' Names were added to the Matzevot in Treblinka!

The Association of Polish Jews in Israel (Center of Organizations)
158 Dizzengof St.
63461 Tel Aviv, Israel
Tel:00-972-3-5225078
Fax: 00-972-3-5236684

Yankel Wiernik: A Year in Treblinka, New York 1945

Eddie Weinstein: Quenched Steel, The Story of an Escape from Treblinka, Yad Vashem 2002

My Speech on Yom HaShoah, April 23 1998

My Speech on Yom HaShoah May 2nd 2000

My Speech on Yom HaShoah April 19th 2001

The Speech in Hebrew

Bracha Goldberg: Successor Generation, Yom Hashoah 19.4.2004 (Hebrew)

Ada Holtzman & Yael Levy: When Evil Will Be Defeated… April 16th 2007 (Hebrew) - the Complete Introduction to "A Year in Treblinka"

The Remembrance Assembly 5767 (2007)

Władysław Szlengel – the Ghetto Poet

Halina Birenbaum: Go to Treblinka…

Web site initiated  in February 1999!

This Web Page was last updated August 17th, 2014