Jules Schelvis (7 January 1921 – 3 April 2016) was a

Dutch Jewish The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the 16th century when they began to settle in Amsterdam and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940, the J ...

historian, writer, printer, and

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

. Schelvis was the sole survivor among the 3,005 people on the 14th

transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...

from

Westerbork Camp Westerbork ( nl, Kamp Westerbork, german: Durchgangslager Westerbork, Drents: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk'' ), also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, ...

Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor (, Polish: ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of German-occupied Poland. As ...

, having been selected to work at nearby Dorohucza labour camp. He is known for his memoirs and historical research about Sobibor, for which he earned an honorary doctorate from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

, Officier in the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau ( nl, Orde van Oranje-Nassau, links=no) is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has ...

, and

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident ab ...

. Schelvis was born in Amsterdam, part of a secular Jewish family. After high school, he trained as a printer and worked for Printing Office Lindenbaum in Amsterdam. Once the German occupation began, Schelvis was fired for being Jewish. He subsequently worked at various newspapers and participated in a local youth labour organization, where he met and courted a woman named Rachel Borzykowski. Schelvis grew close to Borzykowski and her family, whose residence was a local center of

Yiddish culture Yiddishkeit ( yi, ייִדישקייט ) literally means "Jewishness", i.e. "a Jewish way of life". It can refer to Judaism or forms of Orthodox Judaism when used by religious or Orthodox Jews. In a more general sense, it has come to mean the "Je ...

. Schelvis and Borzykowski married in 1940, partly in the hope that this would protect her and her

Polish Jewish 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 lon ...

immigrant family from deportation. However, Schelvis and his family were rounded up in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

on 26 May 1943. They were deported to

Westerbork transit camp Camp Westerbork ( nl, Kamp Westerbork, german: Durchgangslager Westerbork, Drents: ''Börker Kamp; Kamp Westerbörk'' ), also known as Westerbork transit camp, was a Nazi transit camp in the province of Drenthe in the Northeastern Netherlands, d ...

, where they spent six days before being sent to

. They were among the 3,005 Dutch Jews on the 14th

to Sobibor. The journey lasted for 4 days. At the Sobibor arrival ramp, Schelvis was selected to join a work unit sent to Dorohucza labor camp. The rest of his family and the Borzykowskis were gassed immediately. At Dorohucza, Polish and Dutch Jews were forced to work in abominable conditions building latifundia for

Generalplan Ost The ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government's plan for the genocide and ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, and colonization of Central and Eastern Europe by Germans. It was to be un ...

. Schelvis survived because he asked for a meeting with the camp commandant, who happened to be aware that another nearby labor camp needed a printer. However, for unclear reasons, Schelvis was instead sent to

Lublin airfield camp The Lublin airfield camp was a Nazi Germany, Nazi forced labor Nazi concentration camps, concentration camp, primarily for Polish Jews, Jews, at the airfield in Lublin, Poland during 1942–1943, with its prehistory starting from 1939. It a ...

, where he was forced to build barracks. From there, he was transferred to

Radom Ghetto Radom Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto set up in March 1941 in the city of Radom during the Nazi occupation of Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of Polish Jews. It was closed off from the outside officially in April 1941. A year an ...

, where he was tasked with reassembling a printing press which had been disassembled for transport from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Conditions in Radom where significantly better than Schelvis had experienced in Lublin or Dorohucza. With the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

approaching, Schelvis was sent on a

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

Tomaszów Mazowiecki Tomaszów Mazowiecki (, yi, טאָמעשעוו or ''Tomashuv'') is a city in central Poland with 60,529 inhabitants (2021). The fourth most populous city in the Łódź Voivodeship and the second with free public transport. In Tomaszów Mazowi ...

. From there he eventually reached Vaihingen near Stuttgart, where he was liberated by the French army on 8 April 1945. Schelvis was a

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...

and

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

during the trials of

Karl Frenzel Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel
(20 August 1911 – 2 September 1996) was an John Demjanjuk John Demjanjuk (born Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk; uk, Іван Миколайович Дем'янюк; 3 April 1920 – 17 March 2012) was a Ukrainian-American who served as a Trawniki man and Nazi camp guard at Sobibor extermination camp, ...

, among other Holocaust perpetrators. He is the founder of Stichting Sobibor as well as the author of several memoirs and historical studies about Sobibor.

Notable works

*''Sobibor: A History of a Nazi Death Camp'' (2014) Bloomsbury Academic. *''Vernietigingskamp Sobibor'' (1993) Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw. *''Binnen de poorten'', 1995, Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw. *''Sobibor. Transportlijsten'', 2001, Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schelvis, Jules 1921 births 2016 deaths Dutch diarists Dutch essayists 20th-century Dutch historians Dutch people of World War II Historians of the Holocaust Historians of Nazism Historians of World War II Jewish anti-fascists Jewish historians Jewish Dutch writers Nazi hunters Sobibor extermination camp survivors Writers on antisemitism Writers from Amsterdam