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Szlama Ber Winer, ''
nom de guerre A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
'' Yakov (Ya'akov) Grojanowski (23 September 1911 – ), was a
Polish Jew 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 ...
from Izbica Kujawska, who escaped from the
Chełmno extermination camp , known for = , location = Near Chełmno nad Nerem, ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (German-occupied Poland) , built by = , operated by = , commandant = Herbert Lange, Christian Wirth , original use = , construction = , in operat ...
during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland. Szlamek (the diminutive form of Szlama) is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Szlamek Bajler in literature by the
surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name, ...
of his nephew, Abram Bajler, from
Zamość Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. ...
''(see postcard)''. Szlama Ber Winer escaped from the ''Waldlager'' work commando at Chełmno (german: Kulmhof), and described in writing the atrocities he witnessed at that
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 ...
, not long before his own subsequent murder at the age of 30, in the gas chambers of Bełżec. His deposition is commonly known as the
Grojanowski Report The Grojanowski Report is an eye-witness account about atrocities in the Nazi Chełmno extermination camp, written in 1942 by Polish-Jewish escapee from the camp, Szlama Ber Winer (also known incorrectly as Szlawek Bajler), under the pseudonym of ...
.


Life

Szlama Ber (Szlamek) was born in Izbica Kujawska near
Koło Koło (; during the German occupation called ''Wartbrücken'' in 1940–41, ''Warthbrücken'' in 1941–45) is a town on the Warta River in central Poland with 23,101 inhabitants (2006). It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodship (since 19 ...
on 23 September 1911 (or the 10th, in
Julian calendar The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandria. ...
) to a Jewish merchant Iccak Wolf Winer (35 years of age) and Srenca ''
née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Laskow, his lawful wife according to birth certificate from the Office of Public Records. They lived in Izbica just north of
Chełmno Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 18,915 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of the Chełmno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. Due to its regional importa ...
before
the 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; ar ...
. It was an area of
interwar Poland The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First Worl ...
which had been annexed in 1939 by Nazi Germany as part of the new territory of ''
Reichsgau Wartheland The ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (initially ''Reichsgau Posen'', also: ''Warthegau'') was a Nazi German ''Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent ...
'' earmarked for complete "
Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In li ...
". In 1940 the Nazis created a ghetto in Izbica for 1,000–1,600 Jews.Statistical data
"Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland"
by ''
Virtual Shtetl The Virtual Shtetl ( pl, Wirtualny Sztetl) is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland. History The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June 1 ...
'' Museum of the History of the Polish Jews  , an
"Getta Żydowskie," by ''Gedeon''
  as well a

by Michael Peters at ARC..
On 12 January 1942 Winer was deported to Chełmno extermination camp, to
slave labour 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 ...
with the camp's ''
Sonderkommando ''Sonderkommandos'' (, ''special unit'') were work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber vic ...
''.
Virtual Shtetl The Virtual Shtetl ( pl, Wirtualny Sztetl) is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland. History The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June 1 ...

Izbica Kujawska.
Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Szlamek Bajler and Family
WordPress.com.
Two days later, the Izbica Ghetto was liquidated through deportations of 900–1,000 others to extermination on 14–15 January 1942. Szlamek was spared but witnessed the death of his own family in the
gas van A gas van or gas wagon (russian: душегубка, ''dushegubka'', literally "soul killer"; german: Gaswagen) was a truck reequipped as a mobile gas chamber. During the World War II Holocaust, Nazi Germany developed and used gas vans on a larg ...
s. He was assigned by the ''SS'' to the burial commando. On Monday, 19 January, Szlamek escaped by slipping out of a
lorry A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
on the way to the Rzuchów forest subcamp.Jon E. Lewis
Voices from the Holocaust
pages 101–102 (Google Books).


The report

Szlamek managed to make his way from Chełmno to 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 ...
in the
General Government The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
part of
occupied Poland ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octobe ...
. He contacted the clandestine Oneg Shabbat group, headed by
Emanuel Ringelblum Emanuel Ringelblum (November 21, 1900 – March 10 (most likely), 1944) was a Polish historian, politician and social worker, known for his ''Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto'', ''Notes on the Refugees in Zbąszyn'' chronicling the deportation of Jew ...
, and gave detailed information about his harrowing experience with the camp's ''Sonderkommando''. He described the entire extermination procedure at Chełmno step-by-step: how the people who arrived were murdered in
gas van A gas van or gas wagon (russian: душегубка, ''dushegubka'', literally "soul killer"; german: Gaswagen) was a truck reequipped as a mobile gas chamber. During the World War II Holocaust, Nazi Germany developed and used gas vans on a larg ...
s; the constant beatings by the ''SS''; how the inside of the vans was cleaned between loads, and how the bodies were buried in deep dug-out mass graves. Szlamek also described the brutal treatment of prisoners forced to deal with the dead, and his escape from the camp.ARC (2006)
Szlamek Bajler, also known as Yakov Grojanowski
(extract from deposition), Death Camps.org. Sources: Martin Gilbert, Lucjan Dobroszycki.
Winer wrote the
Grojanowski Report The Grojanowski Report is an eye-witness account about atrocities in the Nazi Chełmno extermination camp, written in 1942 by Polish-Jewish escapee from the camp, Szlama Ber Winer (also known incorrectly as Szlawek Bajler), under the pseudonym of ...
on the request of Oneg Shabbat who sent its Polish version to the Delegatura (the underground representatives of the
Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
), while the German copy was produced for the German people in the hope that it would evoke more compassion for the Jews in them.Chris Webb (2010)
Chelmno Diary: "Szlamek Bajler recounts his time at Chelmno"
(extract from deposition with foreword) Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team.
Wanted by the Gestapo, Szlama Ber Winer was whisked to
Zamość Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. ...
where subsequently he also wrote back to his friends at the Warsaw Ghetto about the existence of a death camp in Bełżec mere south of the city. A few days after writing this last
communiqué A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...
, around the 10th of April 1942, he was apprehended together with members of his extended family, and deported to the
Bełżec extermination camp Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...
along with some 3,000 Jews of the Zamość Ghetto, marched from the market place to the awaiting
Holocaust train Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' national railway system under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holocaus ...
s at the station.
Martin Gilbert Sir Martin John Gilbert (25 October 1936 – 3 February 2015) was a British historian and honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He was the author of eighty-eight books, including works on Winston Churchill, the 20th century, and Jewish h ...
(1986), ''The Holocaust – The Jewish Tragedy'', William Collins Sons & Co, London.
Two weeks later, the 14-year-old nephew of Szlama Winer, Abram Bajler, wrote a postcard from Zamość to Warsaw – sent on 24 April 1942 – after the deportation of his own uncle to the death camp. The message reads:


See also

*
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland Ghettos were established by Nazi Germany in hundreds of locations across occupied Poland after the German invasion of Poland. Yitzhak Arad, ''Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka.'' Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987.''Biuletyn G ...
*
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. ...


Notes


References

* Patricia Heberer
Children During the Holocaust
(Google Books)

ARC Roll of Remembrance * Lance Ackerfeld

Yizkor Book Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Winer, Szlama Ber Chełmno extermination camp survivors People who died in Belzec extermination camp Warsaw Ghetto inmates Polish people executed in Nazi concentration camps 1911 births 1942 deaths People from Włocławek County People from Warsaw Governorate Jews from the Russian Empire Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust Sonderkommando Jewish Polish writers Jewish escapees from Nazi concentration camps