Last survivor of Nazi death camp Treblinka dies in Israel

[rooster59]

Last survivor of Nazi death camp Treblinka dies in Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of Treblinka, the Nazi death camp in occupied Poland where 875,000 people were systematically murdered, has died in Israel at the age of 93.

Only 67 people are known to have survived the camp, fleeing in a revolt shortly before it was destroyed.

Treblinka holds a notorious place in history as perhaps the most vivid example of the "Final Solution," the Nazi plan to exterminate Europe's Jews. Unlike at other camps, where some Jews were assigned to forced labor before being killed, nearly all Jews brought to Treblinka were immediately gassed to death.

Only a select few — mostly young, strong men like Willenberg, who was 20 at the time— were spared from immediate death and assigned to maintenance work instead at the camp, located northeast of Warsaw.

On Aug. 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole some weapons, set fire to the camp and headed to the woods. Hundreds fled, but most were shot and killed by Nazi troops in the surrounding mine fields or captured by Polish villagers who returned them to Treblinka.

"The world cannot forget Treblinka," Willenberg told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview.

He described how he was shot in the leg as he climbed over bodies piled at the barbed wire fence and catapulted over. He kept running, ignoring dead friends in his path. He said his blue eyes and "non-Jewish" look allowed him to survive in the countryside before arriving in Warsaw and joining the Polish underground.

After the war Willenberg moved to Israel and became a surveyor for the Housing Ministry. Later in life, he took up sculpting to describe his experiences. His bronze statues depicted Jews standing on a train platform, a father removing his son's shoes before entering the gas chambers, a young girl having her head shaved, and prisoners removing bodies.

"I live two lives, one is here and now and the other is what happened there," Willenberg said. "It never leaves me. It stays in my head. It goes with me always."

His two sisters were killed at Treblinka. He described his survival as "chance, sheer chance."

The Nazis and their collaborators killed about 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. The death toll at Treblinka was second only to Auschwitz — a prison camp in southern Poland where more than a million people died in gas chambers or from starvation, disease and forced labor.

His daughter said he died on Friday. He is survived by a daughter and grandchildren.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-21

[shirtless]

I am tired of hearing about Jewish persecution during WW2 look at how they treat others now and maybe you can see why this happened.20 million lost their lives yet we rarely see them in the news.

[RuamRudy]

I am tired of hearing about Jewish persecution during WW2 look at how they treat others now and maybe you can see why this happened.20 million lost their lives yet we rarely see them in the news.

I disagree. I think it is more important than ever that we remember and understand past atrocities in the (albeit vain) hope that we don't see them repeated. The people who lost their lives during the holocaust should always be honoured and remembered. They are not responsible for the actions of the Israeli government today.

[johna]

60 million killed in WW2 and we get another story about the Holocaust survivor.

Here's another Holocaust nobody writes about

YNET: At Least 20 Million Killed By Jewish Bolsheviks... Following is a surprising article from respected news source YNET in Israel, about the Jewish-Bolshevik conquest of Russia after 1917... (unlikely to ever be reprinted or reported by America's major print, TV or radio "news" media.)

[JingerBen]

60 million killed in WW2 and we get another story about the Holocaust survivor.

Here's another Holocaust nobody writes about

YNET: At Least 20 Million Killed By Jewish Bolsheviks... Following is a surprising article from respected news source YNET in Israel, about the Jewish-Bolshevik conquest of Russia after 1917... (unlikely to ever be reprinted or reported by America's major print, TV or radio "news" media.)

The history of the 20th century is just beginning to be written.

A full English translation of Solzhenitsyn's Two Hundred Years Together will help to clarify events and separate facts from propaganda.

[SKguy]

I am tired of hearing about Jewish persecution during WW2 look at how they treat others now and maybe you can see why this happened.20 million lost their lives yet we rarely see them in the news.

What an appalling comment! Nothing could ever justify the horrifying slaughter of millions of human beings by the nazis during WW2, whether the victims were Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mentally and Physically handicapped, not to mention the many other groups of human beings who perished. You appear to be referring to Israelis when you say "look at how they treat others now" but you conveniently overlook the fact that they are under constant threat of destruction by some of their neighbours. Any country, including Israel, is fully justified in taking what ever actions are necessary to protect its population. A typical example of "how they treat others now" may be seen in the following documentary: https://vimeo.com/151279276

[wabothai]

Don't worry mr. Willenberg, it will never be forgotten.

Edited February 21, 2016 by wabothai

[tubber]

60 million killed in WW2 and we get another story about the Holocaust survivor.

Here's another Holocaust nobody writes about

YNET: At Least 20 Million Killed By Jewish Bolsheviks... Following is a surprising article from respected news source YNET in Israel, about the Jewish-Bolshevik conquest of Russia after 1917... (unlikely to ever be reprinted or reported by America's major print, TV or radio "news" media.)

Link?

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed.

[Chicog]

Irrespective of opinions as to how it's panned out since then, I don't think it's wrong to have some respect for this man and what he and his peers went through.

RIP mate, you earned it when you fought for your life against psychopaths all those years ago.

[simple1]

60 million killed in WW2 and we get another story about the Holocaust survivor.

Here's another Holocaust nobody writes about

YNET: At Least 20 Million Killed By Jewish Bolsheviks... Following is a surprising article from respected news source YNET in Israel, about the Jewish-Bolshevik conquest of Russia after 1917... (unlikely to ever be reprinted or reported by America's major print, TV or radio "news" media.)

Link?

Usually the claim is claimed to be an anti-Semitic conspiracy, so it's interesting the article was published in an Israeli media outlet.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html

[Steely Dan]

There can't be that many people alive in total who survived the death camps. Though I wish all remaining survivors a long life it will in a way be a relief when they are no longer with us. Why? So the news of their passing is not jumped on by the likes of our esteemed members for political grandstanding and a quite sickening attempt to draw equivalence between the genocide of six million and the largely self inflicted mess the Palestinians find themselves in.

Those who do so are truly beneath contempt.

[Jingthing]

There can't be that many people alive in total who survived the death camps. Though I wish all remaining survivors a long life it will in a way be a relief when they are no longer with us. Why? So the news of their passing is not jumped on by the likes of our esteemed members for political grandstanding and a quite sickening attempt to draw equivalence between the genocide of six million and the largely self inflicted mess the Palestinians find themselves in.

Those who do so are truly beneath contempt.

Exactly! Some use obsessive Israel demonization as a cover to "safely" broadcast hate speech similar to the Jews deserved it and Hitler should have finish the job. It's obvious such people would be odious Jew haters even if Israel never existed.

[SheungWan]

60 million killed in WW2 and we get another story about the Holocaust survivor.

Here's another Holocaust nobody writes about

YNET: At Least 20 Million Killed By Jewish Bolsheviks... Following is a surprising article from respected news source YNET in Israel, about the Jewish-Bolshevik conquest of Russia after 1917... (unlikely to ever be reprinted or reported by America's major print, TV or radio "news" media.)

The reference to 'Jewish Bolsheviks' classic old-school neo-Nazi phraseology. Neither respectable or innocent. Some supporters of the far-right don't even bother with holocaust denial but rather hang on to the coat tails of Le Pen with his reference to the matter being a 'detail of history' and instead push to kick it into the long grass. The blame the Bolsheviks argument a dog-whistle cover for exonerating Hitler.

[kamahele]

I'm glad that this man who survived such a horror, was able to then live a long life. I can't imaging ever being able to live normally after such an experience.

[hawker9000]

I am tired of hearing about Jewish persecution during WW2 look at how they treat others now and maybe you can see why this happened.20 million lost their lives yet we rarely see them in the news.

death.........taxes...........jew-haters