Philip Bialowitz
Philip Bialowitz (December 25, 1925 in
Bialowitz was transported to Sobibor in April 1943 and quickly heard that his sisters and niece had been murdered in the gas chambers there.[2] He credited his brother Simcha with saving his life, since when he arrived at the camp Simcha said he was a pharmacist and that Philip was his assistant.[3] He was given the role of "working Jew", doing menial tasks such as shaving prisoners while avoiding being executed. The prisoners often believed they were merely being deloused instead of sent to extermination chambers. One day his task was to empty piles of dead bodies from train cars. He tried to pull a woman from the train but her skin stuck to his hands, amusing his Nazi overseer.[2]
He and his brother joined a rebellion on October 14, 1943, which overpowered the Nazis and freed 300 of their prisoners.
He was trained by a former Nazi doctor to be a dental assistant.[2] After the war he married and had children while pushing for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.[5] Bialowitz moved to Columbus, Ohio.[2] He eventually settled in New York and worked as a jeweler.[6] Along with fellow survivor Thomas Blatt, he was one of the witnesses for the prosecution at the trial of John Demjanjuk in 2010.[7]
He wrote the acclaimed book, A Promise at Sobibor, which detailed his early life growing up in Poland, his experience during World War II, and his postwar life. Later in life, he traveled around the world lecturing about the Holocaust and his personal experiences. Bialowitz often said that he had "a mission to perform."[4]
He died in Florida on August 6, 2016, at the age of 90.[4]
References
- ^ "Philip Bialowitz (25 dec 1925 - 6 aug 2016)". sobibor.org. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
- ^ Palm Beach Post. Archivedfrom the original on June 1, 2015. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ a b Hecking, Claus (September 26, 2014). "Interview with a Sobibór Survivor: 'The Best Moment of My Life'". Der Spiegel. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ a b c Daniels, Jonny (August 8, 2016). "Holocaust hero passes away at 90". Israel National News. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ Julian, Hana Levi (August 9, 2016). "Last Survivor of Sobibor Death Camp, Philip Bialowitz, obm, Passes Away". The Jewish Press. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ Clay, Joanna (February 25, 2011). "Death camp survivor to speak at Jewish center". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
- ^ "Demjanjuk-Prozess: "Wir hörten die Schreie aus den Gaskammern"" [Demjanjuk Trial: 'We Heard the Screams from the Gas Chambers']. Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German). May 17, 2010. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
Further reading
- Bialowitz, Philip; Bialowitz, Joseph (2010). A Promise at Sobibor: A Jewish Boy's Story of Revolt and Survival in Nazi Occupied Poland. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-24800-0.
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