Escaping Hell In Treblinka
by Israel Cymlich, Oscar Strawczynski
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Book Summary Information
Author: Israel Cymlich, Oscar StrawczynskiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-01-01
ISBN: 0976073994
Number of pages: 282
Publisher: Yad Vashem HSMP
Book Reviews of Escaping Hell In Treblinka
Book Review: Insights into "Life" Inside Treblinka (1) and (2)
Summary: 5 Stars
Cymlich's account begins with the German-Soviet conquest of Poland in 1939. He witnessed an aerial dogfight between German and Polish planes (p. 6), adding refutation to the perennial myth of the Polish Air Force getting destroyed on the ground on the first day of the war.
Compared with other accounts of Jews who survived Treblinka, this one emphasizes the interpersonal relationships there. It also gives details about Treblinka (1), the labor camp situated about two km from Treblinka (2), the extermination camp. It turns out that there were more Jews relative to Poles incarcerated in Treblinka (1), and more contact between the two sub-camps, proceeding in both directions, than previously described. (p. 36)
Cymlich notes the cruelties of both the Polish and Jewish kapos in Treblinka (1), but believes that the Jewish kapos were worse than the Polish ones, and worse than the German and Ukrainian guards. (p. 38) In Treblinka (2), there was a group of Jewish collaborators called "Reds", as described by Strawczynski. (pp. 131-132) Among other deeds, they deceived incoming Jews as to the purpose of their arrivals, facilitating their procession into the "showers". (pp. 140-141) As for those Jews who arrived at Treblinka (2) and who weren't immediately gassed upon arrival, they had to contend with eager Jewish informers such as Kuba and Chaskiel in their everyday battle for survival and possible eventual escape. (p. 149, 152-153)
The deaths of Jews who had successfully escaped Treblinka were caused not only by betrayers, but also by fugitive Jews who turned themselves in to the Germans. (p. 43) Unlike Jan T. Gross and his fans, who pooh-pooh the German-imposed death penalty for the slightest aid to Jews, Cymlich does not. (p. 43) Nevertheless, Treblinka escapees were aided by Poles. The Polish Kobos family aided Cymlich (p. 66), and the Roguszewski family aided Strawczynski (p. 188). Both were nominated as Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem.
The modern practice of de-Germanizing the Nazis was totally foreign to Cymlich's thinking: "The souls of the innocent, murdered victims cannot go to heaven. They keep wandering through the camps, around the graves scattered throughout Poland, awaiting retribution for this bloody and well-organized crime. Only the bestial desire to destroy and torment the uninvolved, the desire that is in the blood of most Germans, could conceive the realization of this Satanic plan with such deadly precision." (p. 53) "This organized crime, which has been planned down to the last detail, must be avenged in blood. The German people must be taught a `lesson' that would burn out its thuggish nature for centuries to come." (p. 62)
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