Remaining two survivors of Nazi camp: World must not forget Treblinka

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: Associated Press

Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman are devoting their final years trying to preserve the memory of the 875,000 people systematically murdered in the infamous death camp.

They are believed to be the last two survivors of the most chillingly efficient killing machine of the Nazi Holocaust: the Treblinka extermination camp in occupied Poland.

Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of the 875,000 people systematically murdered in a one-year killing spree at the height of World War II. Almost all of them were Jews.

Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a brazen revolt shortly before Treblinka was destroyed. Following the recent death of a prominent chronicler, Israel's national Holocaust memorial says the two Israeli men are now the final living link to one of the most notorious death camps in human history.



Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/remaining-two-survivors-of-nazi-camp-world-must-not-forget-treblinka-1.322187

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Mira]

2. Thank you for posting this. A hugely depressing and necessary read

we must never ever forget.
By not forgetting we recognize persecution and can rebel against it. I recognize though how tiny these words are in the face of such evil.

[boppers]

3. And facts are already being lost to history....

:(

[The abyss]

4. Really not so much lost to history.

I have a copy of "Treblinka" by Jean-Francois Steiner on my shelf written 1966.

Also the English translation 1967 by Simon & Schuster.

"The events described in this book are so extraordinary in their nature that the author has chosen to change the the names of the survivors in order to protect the privacy of these heroes and martyrs."

Rachel Auerbach's treatise "On The Camps at Triblinka" should still be available.

The Yad Vashem Institute (Tel Aviv) put together a court of inquiry in 1946 which was an extension of the testimony gathered in 1945 by the Polish courts.

However, the Russians, in examining the railroad terminus and surrounding area of Treblinka have been unable to find any artifacts related to a mass extermination camp.

Fascinating stuff!

[boppers]

5. The OP only mentioned 3 of the five Operation Reinhard(t) camps..

..and got which ones were extermination only, and which ones were forced labor, *and* extermination, wrong. (Treblinka was both, Treblinka I was the labor camp, Treblinka II was the extermination camp). As far as finding artifacts, look up "Sonderaktion 1005"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderaktion_1005

[emilyg]

6. Thank you for link.

[Behind the Aegis]

7. Here's another one for you.

Treblinka

[Behind the Aegis]

8. Revisionism has been in swing for many years....

...my fear, once the last of the survivors are gone, it will only get worse.

[apocalypsehow]

11. The incontrovertible video record - wisely cataloged by the allies - will always be there.

Nevertheless, I share your concern: Holocaust Revisionism has garnered a definite niche - a disgusting, deplorable niche - in the West, and is sadly widespread in the Middle east.

[Behind the Aegis]

30. The videos are a good thing to have, for sure.

The outright denial is starting to fade, at least what I have seen. Most deny it happened at the level it did, the numbers, the murders, but most will accept, begrudgingly, that it did occur. The revisionism is the part which frightens me. We have those who re-write the history to fit an agenda, be it anti-semitic in nature, used for anti-Israel propaganda/hate, and/or to minimize the suffering of Jews. What is happening in the Middle East and what is happening in the West are two different things to me. The ME crap is just that, ignorant crap. They are simply puking talking points from bigoted leaders, nothing more, in most cases. The West is more disconcerting to me because the deniers here confuse people with science-like "proof" and other such nonsense, at least it is seen as "nonsense" to most thinking, logical people; however, there are those who are easily confused by alleged 'science', or as on The Simpsons, the "scienctitians." When I see supposedly intelligent people write things like the Holocaust was a Zionist conspiracy, it chills my blood.

[emilyg]

20. I make sure my daughter and

grandsons hear my stories from my life in Poland.

[Behind the Aegis]

35. Is this something you have shared here on DU?

If so, could you please point me to the link? If not, is it something you would consider sharing with us?

[emilyg]

38. I have shared that I

was born in Poland in 1938. We came to the US in 1947 so my childhood was spent there. Most of my family perished - my birth father at Auschwitz.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. K&R

:kick:

[apocalypsehow]

10. Kick, Rec. n/t.

:kick:

[apocalypsehow]

12. I cannot for one second understand the mentality that would UnRec this OP: but my Rec made it 20 and

it's now been bumped back down to 19.

Whoever did it, you're pretty much a worthless human being, and no progressive or liberal of any sort. Period.

[CBR]

26. +1... I cannot believe this is getting unrecced. nt

[BuelahWitch]

29. I rec'd to help make up for it

And here's a kick too! :hi: We must never forget.

[Warren DeMontague]

32. I can.

Sadly.

[AtomicKitten]

13. K&R

I worked in Century City in the early 1990s in the medical field and had the opportunity to see the numbered forearm tattoo of a lovely female patient. It took my breath away.

We must never forget.

[Roon]

28. My ex used to work in a kosher deli

and one of their regular customers had the tattoo on his arm.

[Warren DeMontague]

36. I grew up on the North Side of Chicago, not far from Skokie.

I saw a lot of them.

[Starry Messenger]

14. k & r

[PA Democrat]

15. Very important to remind people of the horrific atrocities which can occur

when we allow the systemic dehumanization of any group of people.

[lunatica]

16. The first book I read about the Holocaust was Treblinka

Needless to say it left a profound impression. I think it should be required reading in every high school in this country as well as everywhere else. Required. Nobody would ever forget that book.

[L.Torsalo]

17. Treblinka is not forgotten.

But the lessons of that evil history are. Bush and his minions have happily swept away the moral horror of human genocide and made it chic again.

[Hydra]

22. It has been forgotten

The meat of it, anyway. Everyone screams, "Never forget!" but in the same breath, they also scream "Nothing will ever be bad enough to be condemned the same way!"

In doing so, many pretend to care, yet confine the events to the dustbin of history and enshrine the idea of genocide as something extraordinary...when genocide is as banal and common as war itself.

[Warren DeMontague]

33. I don't believe that. I think people who treat that event with the proper respect it deserves come

away with a renewed commitment to make sure those sorts of things don't happen.

Of course, when every goober in a tricorner hat is comparing Obama to Hitler, or PETA tries to call Kentucky Fried Chicken "Treblinka in a paper bucket" or whatever, that waters down the meaning of what happened.

[Warren DeMontague]

34. Delete. Dupe.

[era veteran]

18. Never forget the horror! My Dad, a WW2 Tank Co Cmdr.

captured one of the flatcar trains the Nazi sons of bitches were using to remove the dead from some camp. " They were stacked like cord wood" He was a lifer in the horse calvary before the war and was in combat from North Africa on. He was a hard man at times but he NEVER got over seeing that and impressed that oral history record on me. I have passed the story down to my son and have told lots of others about it. We must NEVER forget the truth!!!!!

[txlibdem]

19. Those who forget their history

are doomed to repeat it.

[devilgrrl]

21. I recently found out that a family friend's dad was in Auchwitz...

he lost his younger brother and mom the day they got there. He and his father survived.

Never forget!

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Naturyl]

25. Look, I personally am totally anti-Zionist

And yet I cannot see any sense whatsoever in un-reccing this despite your explanation.

[MichiganVote]

27. May I remind you that many of those innocents were children and the elderly.

They had no stake in the politics then or now. Genocide is genocide regardless of who it is aimed at.

[Warren DeMontague]

31. I didn't get to see what "Deleted Message" said, there

I can only guess. :eyes:

[Naturyl]

37. It said he or she unrecced because of Zionist misbehavior.

Which makes no sense. Misbehaving Zionists or not, Treblinka happened, was monstrous, and should not be forgotten.

Therefore no sensible reason to unrec.

[TBF]

24. K&R - Those who reject/forget history are doomed to repeat it. nt