The Last Jew of Treblinka

by Chil Rajchman

Overview

Quickly becoming a cornerstone of Holocaust historiography—a devastatingly stark memoir from one of the lone survivors of Treblinka.

Why do some live while so many others perish? Tiny children, old men, beautiful girls. In the gas chambers of Treblinka, all are equal. The Nazis kept the fires of Treblinka burning night and day, a central cog in the wheel of the Final Solution.


In the tradition of Elie Wiesel’s Night and Primo Levi’s Survival at Auschwitz and The Drowned and the Saved, Rajchman provides the only survivors’ record of Treblinka. Originally written in Yiddish in 1945, without hope or agenda other than to bear witness, Rajchman's tale shows that sometimes the bravest and most painful act of all is to remember.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639361045
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/15/2021
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	451,212
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Chil Rajchman was born in Lodz, Poland, where he was an active member of the Jewish community. He survived for a year in the notorious Treblinka death camp and was part of the Treblinka workers’ revolt. Rajchman was also a key witness in the prosecution of a Treblinka guard known as “Ivan the Terrible” during a war-crime tribunal in Germany. He emigrated to Uruguay, where passed away in 2004.

Editorial Reviews

Available in English for the first time, Rajchman's chilling, vivid, and concise account of his horrific experiences as a laborer who survived Treblinka during WWII is an important addition to the survivor narrative. Rajchman details the grisly work he and others were forced to perform in hopes of surviving, such as shearing off the hair of train transport victims en route to the gas chamber, or sorting the clothing of the dead to retrieve valuables like suits and watches for the German officers, and "fine dresses" for their wives. Posing as a dentist, Rajchman was sent to clean fillings, crowns, and bridges of the deceased after which they were sorted into piles according to value. Perhaps the most shocking and physically demanding job Rajchman held was carrying corpses from the gas chambers to burial pits all the while being whipped by his captors for moving too slowly. The only shred of hope that one can take from this astonishing account is the ability of one man to maintain strength and humanity during an unimaginable year. First published in 1945 in Yiddish, Rajchman's memoir is especially unique for being the only existing account of a Treblinka survivor in print. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

An important, heart-rending contribution to our search for truth.

Elie Wiesel

This memoir, originally in Yiddish, is a hellish, heartbreaking account. A memorable contribution to Holocaust scholarship.

Booklist

This memoir, originally in Yiddish, is a hellish, heartbreaking account. A memorable contribution to Holocaust scholarship.

Booklist

A survivor of industrialized genocide describes the housekeeping details and the management of business in a Nazi death camp.

There were, of course, many concentration camps that worked prisoners to death in Poland and elsewhere. Treblinka, where Rajchman (who died in 2004) survived for more than a year, was a little different. It was established only to kill Jews and other undesirables. The author was selected to sort valuables and clothing of the dead—early on he found his younger sister's dress—and he carried the remains of the victims, body parts intermingled, to mass graves. The cadavers of small children were dismissed as "trinkets" by their murderers. Pitchforks supplemented earth-moving equipment to transfer disintegrating corpses. Rajchman lived because he worked as a "barber" and then as a "dentist," shearing the heads of those on the way to the gas chambers and plucking gold from their teeth. It was grueling, noxious employment. On busy days, the camp could eliminate as many as 10,000 with efficiency. Methods were regularly improved and systems upgraded, all under the sportive supervision of some 100 SS men and about 150 Ukrainian henchmen. In Treblinka, life and death merged; illness was not tolerated; there were many suicides. Still, Rajchman had the supernatural will to survive and to bear witness. The author wrote this book in Yiddish in 1945, within a few months after the workers' revolt and his escape from the camp, and he lived to give evidence against "Ivan the Terrible," one of the most notorious of the guards at Treblinka. Rajchman's searing story, frequently narrated in the present tense, has a powerful authenticity and should not be forgotten.

A Holocaust testament of heart-rending immediacy.

Kirkus Reviews