by Yitzhak Arad
One of the Underground members, whose task was to overcome the Ukrainian posted on the watchtower at the camp’s eastern fence, describes the mission:
[The Ukrainian] sat on the tower sunning himself. When he heard the first shots from the Lower Camp and realized there was trouble, he jumped down. I ran up to him and said: “Hey, the Russians are coming.” I grabbed his rifle; he offered no resistance. “Get out of here,” I told him, and he took off.13
The rebels’ limited ammunition and grenades ran out quickly. In the general confusion, the camp’s telephone line to the outside world was not cut as planned. After their initial surprise, the Germans and Ukrainians began firing from the towers and other positions at the rebels and the other prisoners. Hundreds of prisoners who were not in the Underground and did not understand exactly what was happening heard the shots and explosions from every direction, saw the flames rising and spreading among the buildings, and began to run about the camp in a state of panic. Many ran toward their barracks; a group of some 300 Jews collected in the “ghetto” area. A large group of these broke the bars of the carpentry shop and ran eastward, cutting the “ghetto” perimeter fence with wire cutters. Some continued east toward the outer fence, while others headed south toward the extermination area. Those Underground members who were armed and still had ammunition continued to fire sporadically at the Ukrainians in the watchtowers and at other positions. In their flight, some of the prisoners ran into lone Ukrainians and took their rifles.14 Shmuel Wilenberg relates:
Upon hearing the shot, I took off at a run for the barracks to grab the jacket in which I had hidden gold for the escape. . . . Shots were being fired at the tower guards. The air shook from an explosion, then a second and a third. . . . Prisoners were running in every direction. . . . The confusion was indescribable. One of the wooden huts, well dried by the sun and wind, went up in flames. Among the crowd I saw several panic-stricken Germans running about the square, hiding behind trees. . . . Black clouds of smoke covered the sky. Rifles and machine guns cracked from the six guard towers. Scattered single shots from our side replied. . . .
From the nearby tower, a machine gun spit out bursts of fire. They hit their mark, thinning out our ranks. The situation in this sector had become critical. Near me a man was holding a rifle but not firing. I grabbed it, aimed it long and carefully, then pulled the trigger once, twice, a third time. The dark silhouette on the tower slumped over the railing, the machine gun was silenced. . . . then again firing commenced. We dodged from tree to tree toward the fence. . . . I reached the fence. The severed wire dangled lazily. Now we had to run across an open area of 50 meters to the next barbed wire and the anti-tank barriers. The machine gun stepped up its bursts. Behind me, at the outer fence, tragedy. The brave ones climbed up the iron and wire complex only to be hit there by a bullet. They fell with screams of despair. Their bodies remained hanging on the wires, spraying blood on the ground. No one paid any attention to them. More prisoners climbed over the still-quivering bodies, and they, too, were cut down and fell, their crazed eyes staring at the camp, which now looked like a giant torch. . . . I crawled through the open area and reached the barriers. I looked around. The dead had created a sort of bridge over the barbed-wire complex across which another escapee moved every moment. Past the barriers began the forest, rescue, freedom. . . . With a leap, I climbed the bridge of bodies. I heard a shot, felt a blow—but another jump, and I was in the forest. Ahead, to the sides and behind me, men were running. . . .15
In the extermination area, a few minutes before 4 p.m., a shot was heard from the Lower Camp; shortly after, more shots were heard, together with exploding grenades. After the first shot (aimed at Küttner), Zialo Bloch hesitated, uncertain whether zero-hour had been moved half an hour ahead of schedule. But when more shots and explosions were heard, he decided to commence operations. One of the water carriers was dispatched by him to the compound, where he yelled, “Revolution in Berlin.” This was the code signal to begin the uprising. Zialo Bloch and his comrades near the well attacked their Ukrainian guard, took his rifle, and threw him into the well. Bloch took the rifle and fired at the guard on the tower, who fired back. The prisoners near the barracks, armed only with shovels and pitchforks, broke out through the compound gate, killed the Ukrainian guard, and took his weapon. Several Underground members broke into the guardroom and removed weapons. The rebels succeeded in injuring the Ukrainian on the guard tower. The prisoners of the cremating site eliminated their Ukrainian guard, too.16
The rebels had, in fact, taken over the extermination area. Now they set fire to several wooden buildings. During the shooting, most of the prisoners headed for the southern fence near their barracks, cut it with axes, threw blankets on the barbed wire, and began to flee from the camp. On their way to the second fence, which consisted of antitank obstacles tangled with barbed wire, they were shot at from the towers on the southern side of the camp and at the corners of the perimeter fence. At the same time, several groups of Lower Camp prisoners arrived at a run; they had fled the “ghetto” area and passed through the extermination area entrance gate. Now they joined the fleeing extermination area prisoners. Many of the escapees were hit by the Ukrainians’ bullets when they got caught up in the barbed wire of the second fence. Jerzy Rajgrodzki describes the escape:
A large group of prisoners had assembled in the square in front of the compound, where roll call was usually held. A few had rifles. We waited for more to come, since many had run to the barracks to take the clothes they had prepared for the way. We began to run toward the fence. I saw some who hesitated whether or not to flee, and when I looked back I saw that several of these had remained standing by the barracks. What their fate was I don’t know. We went throught the fence, southward. Bullets whizzed overhead—the guard on the tower was shooting a machinegun. The running prisoners spread out over the field. To my right, across an expanse about 1 kilometer long, I saw the escapees from the Lower Camp. I would estimate the total number fleeing at about 600, most from the Lower Camp. They fled across Sorting Square southward. They were armed with clubs, knives, pitch-forks, and a few had rifles. . . .17
Zialo Bloch, Adolf Freidman, and some of the others continued firing their rifles and covering the escape until they either fell or ran out of ammunition.
The uprising plan for the extermination area had not been executed in full, but it had achieved a great many of its objectives. Despite the surprise that zero-hour had been moved up, the rebels acted quickly. They succeeded in eliminating the Ukrainians who were nearby, taking their weapons and opening fire at the guard towers, and setting fire to some of the buildings. They did not manage to destroy the gas chambers or to eliminate the guards on the towers, and this was to cost them many lives when the victims tried to cross the fences and flee. Still, most of the extermination area prisoners succeeded in bridging the fence complex and escaping.
Camp Commander Hauptsturmführer Stangl described what happened that afternoon:
. . .Looking out of my window I could see some Jews on the other side of the inner fence—they must have jumped down from the roof of the SS billets and they were shooting. . . .
In an emergency like that my first duty was to inform the chief of the external security police. By the time I’d done that, our petrol station blew up. That, too, had been built just like a real service station, with flower beds round it. Next thing the whole ghetto camp was burning and then Matthes, the German in charge of the Totenlager, arrived at a run and said everything was burning up there too. . . .18
German and Ukrainian losses during the uprising were minimal, because Phase II—the attack on the Germans and Ukrainians and the takeover of the camp—was never carried out. Another contributing factor to the relatively small number of losses was that the Underground succeeded in procuring only a few arms and a small amount of ammunition.
From existing documentation, we can conclude that the losses suffered by the camp’s security forces were one German wounde
d—Hauptscharführer Küttner—five or six Ukrainians killed or wounded. There are no official German reports on the revolt in Treblinka and the casualties they suffered.
By late afternoon, the uprising was no longer an organized and coordinated operation—but it continued. Hundreds of prisoners—individually and in small groups—continued to run and break through the fences. Those who were still armed and had ammunition returned the guards’ fire. The entire camp was in turmoil and the flames continued to burn.
36
Pursuit and Escape from Treblinka
Shortly after most of the prisoners had escaped through the fences, under the guards’ fire, the camp command succeeded in organizing a force of Ukrainians and some SS men to begin a pursuit. At the same time, German security forces in the surrounding area were also alerted.
German reinforcements from the Treblinka area arrived quickly. The shots, grenade explosions, and billowing smoke rising from the camp could be heard and seen easily from Treblinka penal camp and other locations in the region. Stangl’s telephone call clarified the nature of the event. The first reinforcements arrived from Treblinka penal camp. The twenty Germans and Ukrainians who had been swimming in the Bug River with Kurt Franz also returned to the camp immediately. A Polish engineer working on the rail line from Malkinia writes:
Suddenly rifle fire could be heard from the vicinity of the camp [Treblinka]. . . . All the Germans from Malkinia hurried to help the camp contingent. They traveled to the camp in cars and a special train, armed with rifles and pistols. Not only the gendarmerie, the Gestapo, and police went, but even simple German rail workers. Afterward, Ukrainian horsemen appeared in the fields around the camp, looking for fugitives. . . .1
The forces coming to the camp’s aid were from Malkinia, Sokolow-Podlaski, Kosov-Laski, and Ostrov-Mazowiecki, and included police, gendarmerie, railroad guards (Bahnschütze), and Ukrainians. Firemen were called in from Malkinia to put out the fire that had swept the camp. Together, these forces, totalling hundreds of men, took up the pursuit. Some of them surrounded the entire area at a distance of several kilometers from the camp to block the fugitives’ escape routes. Stangl described the pursuit:
. . . the security troops had surrounded the camp at a distance of 5 kilometers. And of course they caught most of them . . . they shot them. Toward the end of the afternoon the figures began coming in. . . . By five or six o’clock it looked as if they had already caught forty more than had ever escaped. I thought, “My God, they are going to start shooting down Poles next”—they were shooting at anything that moved. . .2
Stangl’s implication that all the escaping prisoners were caught and shot is incorrect. True, the rebels were impeded by the quick alert to the German forces and their rapid appearance, as well as by the fact that the uprising’s premature start gave the pursuing forces more daylight time. Nevertheless, some of the prisoners did succeed in escaping both from the camp and from the pursuing forces.
The fugitives’ initial goal was to get as far away from Treblinka as possible. At first they ran in large groups; these scattered and shrank in size the farther they ran. Some were physically able to run fast without stopping, while others gradually fell back, despite the obvious danger involved, and even collapsed from exhaustion. Rajgrodzki describes the flight:
We ran through the wheat fields. The sun was dipping to the west. To our left we saw country houses and dirt roads. I saw a Ukrainian guard galloping on a horse. The farmers fled their fields. The pace was exhausting. The others began to overtake me. It took all my strength not to fall back. Others were running near me. Among them I saw people I did not know, from the Lower Camp. I knew all of our people. Near me a young couple were running, a dark girl with her boyfriend from the camp. In my hands I was holding a club and a razor, ready for use against anyone and, if need be, against myself. The running went on for about two hours. We reached the forest. To my left was a large group of fugitives. They said they would walk eastward, toward Puszcza Bialowiezska. We stopped to rest in the forest.
There were eight of us. Moishele the tailor was with us. He had a rifle without bullets. He was wounded near the heart. I took a shirt out of my knapsack and cut it up as a bandage. One of the others dressed Moishele’s wound, but it continued to bleed. A short while later he lost consciousness and died. May he rest in peace. One of those with us was a former sergeant in the Polish army, named Adas, and he took the rifle. We held a consultation. Most of the comrades decided to head east, which is where the majority of the fugitives were going. Adas and I decided to head south. Anyone going north or east would have to cross the River Bug, which was not easy; also, we estimated that the main German pursuit effort would be made in these directions. We also hoped a small, two-man team would have an easier time.
We decided to walk at night. We had to cross a road. From a distance we could see traffic heading for the camp. We lay near the road until a convoy had passed. We were hungry and decided to enter a nearby farmhouse. We approached it. My companion stayed at a distance, his rifle at the ready, while I knocked at the door. They opened—an old man, a woman, and a boy. We asked for and received food. As we went on, we met Jews who had fled the camp, now going in the opposite direction. At dawn we stopped in a forest, and there we remained throughout the day, hiding in the bushes. We were about a dozen kilometers from the camp. We heard screams from far away. They must have been the screams of Jews caught by the Germans. The day passed, and at nightfall we resumed our march. . . . After several days’ walk we passed near Siedlce and finally reached Warsaw. . . .3
The fate of another group of fugitives was described by Yechiel Reichman:
. . . the murderers were chasing us with their machine-gun fire. Simultaneously a car was pursuing us, a machine-gun firing from its roof. Many of us fell. The dead were scattered everywhere. I ran to the left, while the car stayed on the road, firing. They were chasing us from every direction After a 3-kilometer run we reached a grove of young trees. We decided that it was senseless to keep running, and we took cover among the dense trees. We numbered twenty people—too large a group to hide—so we split up into two teams of ten. We hid 150 meters apart.
After a short while we saw Ukrainians, led by a few SS men, surrounding the grove, then entering it. They discovered the other group and killed them all. We lay quietly, and to our good fortune they didn’t discover us, and eventually left the grove. . . . We marched all night, and at dawn entered a large forest where we remained all day. We were tired and hungry. The second night we left the forest and kept going. It was clear, and after walking a few hours we suddenly discovered that we were not far from Treblinka. We had taken the wrong route and returned to the forest from which we came. . . .
After three days, tired and hungry, we decided to risk entering a farmhouse and ask for a little food and details as to our whereabouts. . . . The farmer opened the door, but would not let us enter. He told us that throughout the day the Germans were coming in cars and searching for us. The head of the village had told them that any farmer delivering a Jew to the gendarmerie would receive a large prize. The farmer gave us bread and a little milk and demanded payment in gold. We gave him two watches. It turned out we were 15 kilometers from Treblinka. . . .4
All the Underground commanders and members of the Lower Camp and extermination area Organizing Committees fell either during the uprising or in the course of the escape. Galewski managed to get out of the camp, but died in the subsequent chase. Marian Platkiewicz wrote that once they had reached the forest, Galewski crawled from one fugitive to another, urging them to break away from the surrounding Germans while it was dark, because in the morning they would all die. At night, he said, there was still a slim chance of escape.5 Another prisoner who was with Galewski during the escape related that after they had covered a few kilometers Galewski felt unable to go on. He took a vial of poison from his pocket, swallowed the contents, and died on the spot.6
The only testimony regarding Zialo Bloch’s de
ath indicates that he was last seen during the uprising firing a rifle from a kneeling position at the Ukrainians. Apparently that is where he fell, covering the others’ escape.7 No details are extant regarding the deaths of the other Underground leaders.
Out of approximately 850 prisoners in the camp that day, more than 100 were captured alive inside the camp. They had either not tried or simply not succeeded in escaping; some were sick or weak and lacked the strength to try to escape. There were also those who had decided in advance that they had nowhere to run to, or that they would be caught or killed in the pursuit, and that they were thus better off staying put and leaving their fate in the hands of the Germans.
A large number of rebels was killed inside the camp or near the fences; the estimate is around 350 to 400 people, nearly half the prisoners who participated in the uprising and escape. About the same number succeeded in breaking out of the camp, crossing the fences, and escaping. Approximately half these fell in the course of the first day and night after the uprising as the Germans and Ukrainians blocked roads, combed the countryside and ran down those they discovered. This left some 200 prisoners who managed to survive the extensive dragnet of the first twenty-four hours. About half of these were caught in the larger German combing operation, which for days covered the forests and villages at a radius of several dozen kilometers from the camp. Some were caught and murdered by local peasants, or handed over by them to the Nazis. Yet it can be assumed that about 100 fugitives managed to get clear of the Treblinka region and scatter throughout occupied Poland, or even beyond its borders.