Holocaust survivor tells his story
By Tony Wade
March 7th, 2011
 

VACAVILLE — Approximately 250 people packed the Hampton Inn & Suites convention room Sunday afternoon to hear the firsthand account of Philip Bialowitz, one of only eight living survivors to escape from the Sobibor Nazi extermination camp on Oct. 4, 1943.

The event was sponsored by the Chabad of Solano County and follows last year's visits by a Holocaust survivor from Schindler's list and one from the Kindertransports.

“We want to give the community information about the Holocaust from many different angles,” Chabad of Solano County Rabbi Chaim Zaklos said. “Especially the younger generation because in a few years there won't be survivors and there's nothing like firsthand accounts from people who have felt it on their flesh and blood.”

The revolt and escape from the camp in Poland involved prisoners who methodically killed several of their captors and then made a mad dash for freedom when other parts of the plan fell through. Approximately half of the camp's 600 prisoners escaped, but many of them perished in minefields, were shot as they fled or were later killed after being captured.

Dr. Marty Markovits, one of the event's sponsors, kicked it off by contrasting the Nazi philosophy of “might makes right” with the Jewish faith's beliefs in practicing righteousness, justice, kindness, and mercy. Rabbi Zaklos then pointed out that for every person seated in the audience, 1,000 Jews were gassed to death at Sobibor.

After showing a trailer for a new documentary on the revolt featuring Bialowitz, the still spry 85-year-old began his tale. While other Nazi camps offered survival — albeit through forced, brutal labor — Sobibor was strictly an extermination camp.

To put new arrivals at ease, the Nazis would play bouncing waltz music over loudspeakers and encourage them to send postcards home. The Jews would then be told that they needed a shower to be disinfected, and instead would be gassed to death.

“Ninety nine point nine percent of the people who came to the camp were killed within half an hour of arriving,” Bialowitz said.

A teenager at the time, Bialowitz survived his six months — which he said felt like six years — because he had a job: shaving the heads of female Jews before execution. Their hair was used to make socks for U-boat crews.

Certain of their impending fate, an escape plan was hatched by Polish-Jewish prisoner Leon Feldhendler and Soviet-Jewish POW Alexander Pechersky. Nazi soldiers were lured into buildings where they were overcome and stabbed to death. Seeing his first dead soldier gave Bialowitz “a rush of happiness.”

“I thought: That is for my family and all who perished in the gas chambers,” Bialowitz said.

Right before the prisoners made their escape, Leon Feldhendler said that “If anyone survives, bear witness to what happened here! Tell the world about this place!” For the past 20 years, Bialowitz has done just that all over the world.

Although there are several books and a 1987 British made-for-TV movie called “Escape from Sobibor “about the event, Bialowitz told his own story in a book released last year entitled “A Promise At Sobibor: A Jewish Boy's Story of Revolt and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland.”

A moderated question-and-answer period followed Bialowitz's speech and he reiterated that his life's mission is to educate others on what happened at the death camp. He also has been a witness in several war crimes trials including one just last year.

“I have a mission to go to 4,000 Chabads and to tell the world about the fighting spirit of the Jewish people,” Bialowitz said. “My 15 grandchildren are my victory over the Nazis.”

For more information, visit the Chabad of Solano County's website at www.jewishsolano.com.