Jankiel (Yankel, Yaakov, or Jacob) Wiernik ( he, יעקב ויירניק; 1889–1972) was a Polish-Jewish
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
survivor who was an influential figure in the
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
resistance. He had been forced to work as a ''
Sonderkommando''
slave worker
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
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
Ludwig Fischer (16 April 1905 – 8 March 1947) was a German Nazi Party lawyer, politician and a convicted war criminal who was executed for war crimes.
Background
Born into a Catholic family in Kaiserslautern, Fischer joined the Nazi Pa ...
'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.
Life
Wiernik grew up and lived with his family in
Kobryń
Kobryn ( be, Кобрын; russian: Кобрин; pl, Kobryń; lt, Kobrynas; uk, Кобринь, Kobryn'; yi, קאָברין) is a city in the Brest Region of Belarus and the center of the Kobryn District. The city is located in the southwest ...
, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), where he followed his father in becoming a master cabinetmaker. To avoid competition with artisan family members (
Natan Wiernik) who were also master cabinetmakers, they moved to
Biała Podlaska.
From 1904 Jankiel Wiernik was a member of the
Bund movement.
["Lohami Ha'Gettaot Museum site (Hebrew)]
Ghetto Fighters' House archives. He lived in Warsaw and worked as a property manager at a house owned by the family of
Stefan Krzywoszewski (1886-1950), a popular writer, publisher and theatre director
in the Interbellum.
When World War II began with the 1939
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, Wiernik was 50 years old. In late 1940 the German Nazis created the
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
, and Wiernik was forced to relocate there along with all
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...
in the capital. He was transported to Treblinka on 23 August 1942, during the murderous
Grossaktion Warsaw
The ''Grossaktion'' Warsaw ("Great Action") was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the ''Grossaktion'', Jews were terrorized in daily rou ...
. Following his successful escape from the
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
in August 1943, he was rescued by the Krzywoszewski family.
[
]
Treblinka
On his arrival at Treblinka aboard the Holocaust train
Holocaust trains were Rail transport, railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn#1939-1945: The Reichsbahn in the Second World War and the Holocaust, Deutsche Reichsbahn'' national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and Co ...
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
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide.
History ...
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 pyre
A pyre ( grc, πυρά; ''pyrá'', from , ''pyr'', "fire"), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the ...
s, where "10,000 to 12,000 corpses were cremated at one time." He wrote: "The bodies of women were used for kindling" while Germans "toasted the scene with brandy and with the choicest liqueurs, ate, caroused and had a great time warming themselves by the fire." Wiernik described small children waiting so long in the cold for their turn in the gas chambers that "their feet froze and stuck to the icy ground" and noted one guard who would "frequently snatch a child from the woman's arms and either tear the child in half or grab it by the legs, smash its head against a wall and throw the body away." At other times "children were snatched from their mothers' arms and tossed into the flames alive."
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
A close-up view of a barbed wire
Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is ...
unscathed. When accosted by a Ukrainian guard () on the other side, she wrestled his machine gun out of his grasp and shot two guards 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.
Escape
Wiernik escaped Treblinka during the revolt of the prisoners on "a sizzling hot day" of August 2, 1943. A shot fired into the air signalled 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.[''A Year in Treblinka'', chapter 14.] Wiernik continued to Warsaw, hiding in a freight train.
He hid in Warsaw, secreted initially by the Polish family of Krzywoszewski, his former employers. They got him false papers, a Kennkarte The ''Kennkarte'' was the basic identity document in use inside Germany (including occupied incorporated territories) during the Third Reich era. They were first introduced in July 1938. They were normally obtained through a police precinct and bore ...
in the name of Kowalczyk. Next, Wiernik assumed the name of Jan Smarzyński. 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 continued to live in Warsaw in relative comfort, believing that his 'Aryan' appearance allowed him to do so.
He took part in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occurred in the summer of 1944, and it was led ...
, fighting in the Armia Ludowa
People's Army ( Polish: ''Armia Ludowa'' , abbriv.: AL) was a communist Soviet-backed partisan force set up by the communist Polish Workers' Party ('PR) during World War II. It was created on the order of the Polish State National Council on 1 ...
.[ After the end of ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Wiernik initially remained in Poland (in 1947 he testified in the trial of Ludwig Fischer
Ludwig Fischer (16 April 1905 – 8 March 1947) was a German Nazi Party lawyer, politician and a convicted war criminal who was executed for war crimes.
Background
Born into a Catholic family in Kaiserslautern, Fischer joined the Nazi Pa ...
).[ He emigrated to Sweden and afterwards to the newly founded state of ]Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
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.
Wiernik suffered the after-effects of trauma from his time in the camp. His feeling of survivor's guilt
Survivor guilt (or survivor's guilt; also called survivor syndrome or survivor's syndrome and survivor disorder or survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumati ...
was expressed in chapter one of ''A Year in Treblinka''. "I sacrificed all those nearest and dearest to me. I myself took them to the place of execution. I built their death chambers for them." He said that he had nightmares and had trouble sleeping. Apparently, the horrors he had experienced in Treblinka had caused him to suffer from survivor syndrome, a form of post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats o ...
.
''A Year in Treblinka''
Jankiel Wiernik published ''Rok w Treblince'' (''A Year in Treblinka'') in 1944 as a clandestine booklet. It was printed through the efforts of Jewish National Committee (''Żydowski Komitet Narodowy'', ŻKN), Bund (underground organisations of the remnants of Polish Jews) and Polish Council to Aid Jews Żegota
Żegota (, full codename: the "Konrad Żegota Committee"Yad Vashem Shoa Resource CenterZegota/ref>) was the Polish Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland ( pl, Rada Pomocy Żydom przy Delegaturze Rządu RP na Kraj), an un ...
by means of an underground printer organized by Ferdynand Arczyński
Ferdynand Marek Arczyński (December 8, 1900 in Kraków – 1979 in Warsaw), cryptonym "Marek" or "Lukowski", was one of the founding members of an underground organization Żegota (Council for Aid to Jews) in German-occupied Poland, from 1942 t ...
. The circulation was estimated by Władysław Bartoszewski
Władysław Bartoszewski (; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of th ...
as 2,000 copies. It was sent through Polish underground channels to London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, and translated into English and Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
. It was also printed in USA by American representatives of the General Jewish Workers Union of Poland.Władysław Bartoszewski
Władysław Bartoszewski (; 19 February 1922 – 24 April 2015) was a Polish politician, social activist, journalist, writer and historian. A former Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner, he was a World War II resistance fighter as part of th ...
Historia Jankiela Wiernika (The Story of Jankiel Wiernik)
in ''Ten jest z ojczyzny mojej...'' pp. 633-634, available online at WladyslawBartoszewski.blox.pl as reprint from ''Miesięcznik "Polska"'' (monthly), Warsaw Nr 8 / August 1964. It was printed in Palestine by the Histadrut in December 1944, translated into Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
by Icchak Cukierman
Yitzhak Zuckerman ( pl, Icchak Cukierman; he, יצחק צוקרמן; 13 December 1915 – 17 June 1981), also known by his nom de guerre "Antek", was one of the leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943 against Nazi Germany during World War ...
. The book recounts his experiences in the Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
between 1942 and 1943.
See also
* Chil Rajchman
Chil (Enrique) Meyer Rajchman a.k.a. Henryk Reichman, nom de guerre ''Henryk Ruminowski'' (June 14, 1914 – May 7, 2004) was one of about 70 Jewish prisoners who survived the Holocaust after participating in the August 2, 1943 revolt at the Tr ...
, Treblinka revolt survivor, author of a memoir ''The Last Jew of Treblinka'' (1945)
* Richard Glazar, author of memoir ''Trap with a Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka'' (1992)
* Operation Reinhard, the most deadly phase of The Final Solution
* Wannsee Conference of January 20, 1942
* The Holocaust in Poland
The Holocaust in Poland was part of the European-wide Holocaust organized by Nazi Germany and took place in German-occupied Poland. During the genocide, three million Polish Jews were murdered, half of all Jews murdered during the Holocaust.
...
References
Sources
*
Testimony of Jankiel Wiernik, in "Chronicles of Terror" testimony database
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiernik, Jankiel
1889 births
1972 deaths
People from Biała Podlaska
People from Siedlce Governorate
Jews from the Russian Empire
Israeli Ashkenazi Jews
Treblinka extermination camp survivors
Polish emigrants to Sweden
Polish emigrants to Israel
Warsaw Ghetto inmates
Sonderkommando
Polish resistance members of World War II