Key Words
Air bombing, Aktion, bandits, Baptists,
Bludowa (town in Poland), river Bug, Canada, cattle cars, Chelm (city
in Poland), Chrubyeshoov (town in Poland), Chrubyeshoov Forest, forced
labour, gas chambers, Gestapo, hiding, Jewish Police Force, kapo, NKVD,
partisans, Poland, Polish Army, poison, rape, Russian Army, Sobibor,
Soviet partisans, SS, Star of David Armbands, suicide, uprising, Gustav
Wagner (commandant at Sobibor), Wehrmacht soldiers, Wroclaw (town in
Poland).
Abstract
Kalmen Wewryk was born in 1906
in Chelm, Poland in 1906 and was raised in an Orthodox family. Was a
carpenter by trade, married and set up a business selling fabric. He
had two small children. Provides an account of the brief ten-day period
when the Russians held Chelm in 1939 and the subsequent transfer of
Chelm to Germany thereafter. Also describes how his life and that of
his family became increasingly difficult after the German occupation
of Poland, how he was often beaten and driven into forced labor, starvation
and desperation. His wife and children were taken away by the SS while
he was hiding; he never saw his family again. Describes the massacre
of Jews in Chelm and his subsequent deportation to Sobibor in 1942 where
his life was spared because he was a carpenter. Describes selections,
the knowledge that Sobibor was an extermination camp, his witnessing
women and children being taken to gas chambers, the stench of burning
flesh, and the starvation he and other prisoners experienced. Tells
of a plot to poison the Germans and Ukrainian guards, and how the plot
was uncovered and the accused put to death. Vivid descriptions of inhuman
conditions of the camp, and the brutality and sadism of various kapos
and German guards
Feels he owes his survival to Alexander
Pechersky, a Soviet Jewish prisoner of war. Pechersky organized a team
planning uprising and escape. The day of revolt was October 14, 1943.
Describes how prisoners killed German guards and escaped to the forest
with 55 other escapees. The group separated, and he was left to fend
for himself. Returned to Chelm alone, but found that the Ukrainian man
he had entrusted with his goods threatened to turn him in to the Gestapo.
Returned to the forest wandering from place to place searching and begging
for food. Joined a group of Soviet partisans, and returned to Chelm
after the Russians liberated the city. Went to Wroclaw with other Holocaust
survivors, was arrested and beaten by Polish police. Heard about the
Kielce pogrom, then moved to Lodz and waited for papers to allow him
to leave Poland. He met a woman who had survived Auschwitz, moved to
Biala-Kama and married. His daughter was born in 1950. He and his family
still wanted to leave Poland, believing Jews were still in danger. In
1956, he and his family were allowed to leave Poland. Immigrated to
France to join his wife’s brother. Later moved to Montreal, Canada
in 1968 where he worked as a carpenter until his retirement.
Original manuscript includes a
map of Sobibor and attestations from fellow Sobibor survivors that Wewryk
was in Sobibor and participated in the revolt.