Among the events, an exhibition of sculptures by Samuel Willenberg, a former prisoner and participant in the revolt, is being presented at the Treblinka Museum.
Ada Krystyna Willenberg, widow of Samuel Willenberg, will be the esteemed guest of honor at the ceremony. The sculptures, which depict life inside the Treblinka II camp and the heroic uprising of the prisoners, will be displayed in front of the monument dedicated to the victims.
The exhibition titled "The Image of Treblinka in the Eyes of Samuel Willenberg" is organized by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) and is part of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day celebrations. This exclusive exhibition will remain open only until 4 pm on August 2, 2023.
Samuel Willenberg (1923-2016), a sculptor, painter, and survivor of the Treblinka II extermination camp, participated in the revolt on August 2, 1943. Following his escape from the camp, he went into hiding due to his background, later joining the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, he dedicated his life to educating young people in Poland and Israel.
Exactly 80 years ago, on August 2, 1943, around 700 Jews staged an armed revolt in the Treblinka camp in German-occupied Poland.
According to the Treblinka Museum, in Poland's north-east, around 200 fighters managed to escape, but half of them were later killed after a chase in cars and on horses. Only 70 survived World War II.
On July 22, 1942, Germans began deporting Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. Over the two months that followed, from 5,000 to 7,000 Jews were transported every day by train to Treblinka, where they were exterminated.
In August 1943, German soldiers began a gradual "liquidation" of the camp. In November, the ground at Treblinka was plowed.
The Treblinka death camp operated between July 1942 and October 1943. During this time, between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered there by the Germans, along with 2,000 Roma people.
Treblinka was the second-largest extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland after Auschwitz-Birkenau.
(jh)
Source: PAP
