Thomas Blatt, one of only 53 survivors of the death camp Sobibor, lived for many years in Seattle and participated in the Holocaust Center's Speakers Bureau. He is testifying today against a former guard at Sobibor.
More on Thomas Blatt:
Blatt, Thomas Toivi. From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1997.
This book is a glimpse of Jewish life through the eyes of a twelve year old boy. The events of his separation from his family, six months in the Sobibor death camp, taking part in a successful uprising and finally the five years eluding Nazis and anti-Semitic nationalists.
Blatt, Thomas. Sobibor: The Forgotten Revolt - A Survivor's Report. H.E.P.; 1 edition, 1997.
"Escape from Sobibor" (DVD)
1999. Starring Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin. Based in part on Thomas Blatt's story.
1999. Starring Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin. Based in part on Thomas Blatt's story.
The above items are available to borrow from the Holocaust Center's library. Copies of From the Ashes of Sobibor can also be found in the Holocaust Center's high school teaching trunks.
Thomas Blatt's story and artifacts have been included in several of the Holocaust Center's materials, including the "Everyday Objects: Artifacts from Washington State Holocaust Survivors" poster series and the "Studying the Holocaust: Resistance, Rescue & Survival" Seattle Times Newspapers In Education series.
Ilana is Toivi still in Germany or did he return yet? Gene P-K
ReplyDeleteIn defending his decision to involuntarily cooperate with the Germans Demjaniuk cited starvation and terror against Soviet POWs in the Nazi camps on a daily basis and a fear of even more terror and life-threatening persecution by the NKVD henchmen in case of a successful escape from the POW camp and return to his homeland. There is no need to dispute a sad validity of the arguments behind this decision. Nevertheless, he still has to answer for his alleged criminal deeds before the court.
ReplyDeleteThomas Blatt survived Sobibor also thanks to a close involuntary cooperation with the camp’s German administration, albeit as an inmate of the camp. I do not have a moral capacity to make any judgment of their disputable decisions.
However, it is not clear what was a justification and driving force for Thomas Blatt to voluntarily join the NKVD forces (known for its brutality as the Red Gestapo) immediately after liberation of the eastern Poland in 1944 by Soviets. This shameful period of his life is somehow not mentioned in his books and interviews, and perhaps in his application materials for the U.S. citizenship. Two of his roommates in Lublin and friends from Sobibor (Hersh Blank and Leon Feldhrendler), also joined NKVD forces and for their brutality and anti-Polish collaboration with Soviet occupants were executed in November 1944 by the Polish underground forces. Thomas Blatt survived by hiding among millions DPs in to the Western Poland and later - by immigration to Israel and the U.S.
In conclusion, widely published, dramatic life stories of many Holocaust survivors still are covering many ugly secrets to be discovered.