Julian Chorążycki (August 19, 1885 – April 19, 1943) served as doctor-in-chief of the infantry regiment in the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

during the reconstitution of sovereign Poland. In the interwar period, he was a throat surgeon practising in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. Born Jewish, Chorążycki spent two years in the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

. During

the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust saw the ghettoization, robbery, deportation and mass murder of Jews, alongside other groups under Nazi racial theories, similar racial pretexts in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland by the Nazi Germany. Over th ...

he became the first leader of the perilous prisoner uprising at the

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be 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 Mas ...

. On August 2, 1943 – after the long period of preparation posing an immediate threat to life – an armed revolt in Treblinka erupted, however, Chorążycki killed himself on April 19, 1943, when faced with imminent capture, to avoid revealing details of the uprising and its participants under torture.

Life

Julian Chorążycki was born to a Jewish family in Szawle (now

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

) in the Russian Empire. He converted to Catholicism as an adult. His family settled in

when he was a child. After high school, Julian went to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

to study medicine at the

Ludwig Maximilian University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke Ludwig IX of Bav ...

and obtained his degree in 1910. Shortly after, he returned to Warsaw and in 1911 passed the state exams to practice

Otorhinolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the surgical an ...

. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was taken to the Russian Army as the regimental physician. In 1918 he returned to Poland, and in March 1919 was appointed to the Polish Army as a chief physician during the Polish-Bolshevik war. He commanded a field hospital in the rank of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. In May 1922 Chorążycki was demobilised and joined the 1st District Hospital in Warsaw. He married Rozalia Lewenfisz and ran a private medical practice. They moved to Nowogrodzka 31 Street in the 1930s. He worked in the outpatient clinic for Social Insurance on top of his own practice. Chorążycki was mobilized again after the Nazi-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

. At the end of 1940, he moved to the

where he continued his medical practice. From the ghetto he was taken to the

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...

Treblinka Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...

in the summer or fall of 1942, during the genocidal

Operation Reinhard Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...

Treblinka extermination camp

At Treblinka, Chorążycki was put in charge of a small infirmary for the '' SS'' (not to be mistaken with the ''fake'' infirmary called "lazaret" where the hands-on killing took place). He was a ''noble man, essential to taking action'', wrote Samuel Rajzman. His Organizing Committee at the Treblinka ''Totenlager'' included Zelomir Bloch (leadership), Rudolf Masaryk, Marceli Galewski, Samuel Rajzman, Dr. Irena Lewkowska (sick bay), Leon Haberman, and several others. Chorążycki collected a large lump-sum of hard cash from the ''Goldjuden'' commando with the intention of bribing a Trawniki guard he thought he had befriended. Instead, he was ambushed at work with the money by ''Untersturmführer'' Franz and swallowed a deadly poison before he could be arrested. Chorążycki was replaced in the Underground by Dr.

Berek Lajcher Berek Lajcher (24 October 1893 – 2 August 1943) was a Jewish physician and social activist from Wyszków before the Holocaust in Poland, remembered for his leadership in the prisoner uprising at Treblinka extermination camp. More than 800,000 ...

from Wegrów (also a former Polish Army officer, who arrived at Treblinka on May 1). Lajcher (improperly, Lecher) launched the uprising on a hot summer day when a group of Germans and Ukrainians drove off to the

Bug river The Bug or Western Bug is a major river in Central Europe that flows through Belarus (border), Poland, and Ukraine, with a total length of .

The uprising

On August 2 (Monday, a day of rest from gassing), the door to the arsenal near the train tracks was silently unlocked by the Jews and some 20-25 rifles, 20 hand grenades, and several pistols were stolen and delivered in a cart to the gravel work-detail. At 3:45 p.m. some 700 Jewish prisoners launched the attack on the gates. They sprayed gasoline on all the buildings and set them ablaze.Samuel Rajzman (1945)
"An Account Before the American House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1945".
''Treblinka Death Camp.'' Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Several buildings were blown up. However, the machine gun fire from the well-trained Germans (some 25 of them) and Ukrainian

Trawnikis During World War II, Trawniki men (; ) were Eastern European Nazi collaborators, consisting of either volunteers or recruits from prisoner-of-war camps set up by Nazi Germany for Soviet Red Army soldiers captured in the border regions during Ope ...

(numbering around 60) resulted in near slaughter. Most prisoners perished. Only 150–200 Jews succeeded in crossing over to the other side. Half of those were killed after a chase. Some of those who escaped successfully were transported across the river by the partisans of the ''

Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

'' hiding in the surrounding forest. Only approximately 70 Jews are known to have survived until the end of the war,Adam Easton (4 August 2013)
Treblinka survivor recalls suffering and resistance.
BBC News, Treblinka, Poland. including future authors of published Treblinka memoirs:

Jankiel Wiernik Jankiel (Yankel, Yaakov, or Jacob) Wiernik (; 1889–1972) was a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an influential figure in the Treblinka extermination camp resistance. He had been forced to work as a ''Sonderkommando'' slave worker ...

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 Treb ...

Richard Glazar Richard Glazar (November 29, 1920 – December 20, 1997) was a Czech-Jewish inmate of the Treblinka extermination camp in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust. One of a small group of survivors of the camp's prisoner revolt in August 1943, ...

, and

Samuel Willenberg Samuel Willenberg, ''nom de guerre'' Igo (16 February 1923 – 19 February 2016), was a Polish Holocaust survivor, artist, and writer. He was a ''Sonderkommando'' at the Treblinka extermination camp and participated in the unit's planned revol ...

. There was also a revolt at

Sobibor Sobibor ( ; ) 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 Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), ...

two months later.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chorazycki, Julian 1885 births 1943 suicides 1943 deaths Physicians from Warsaw Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust Military personnel who died by suicide Military personnel who died in Nazi concentration camps Polish Army officers Otolaryngologists Suicides in Poland Polish people who died in Treblinka extermination camp Polish military doctors Jewish physicians Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust 20th-century Polish surgeons Expatriates from the Russian Empire in Germany Surgeons from the Russian Empire