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Holocaust Survivor Will Recall Treblinka Escape

We've all heard the names-Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz-a litany of terror that seems to encompass all that is terrible in human nature. But few realize that there were many more German concentration camps dotted across that fair land and in neighboring countries overrun during the Nazi blitzkrieg.

Perhaps less familiar to the ear is Treblinka, a death camp once located about 60 miles northeast of Warsaw, Poland, and one of the most vicious of the facilities instituted to effect the "final solution." Treblinka, which was in operation from July 1942 until October 1943, was the site of approximately 800,000 Jewish deaths.

"Dachau was like a hotel," said Treblinka survivor Edi Weinstein. "Treblinka was worse than Auschwitz. In Auschwitz they killed the women, children and older men right away, but there were hundreds of thousands of others working in the industries [around the concentration camp]. When you see pictures of the prisoners with numbers, those are the workers. In Treblinka there were no names, there were no numbers-they killed everyone. [A few Jews were] put to work, but only to kill others."

Indeed, during its final months 99 percent of the victims died within two hours of reaching Treblinka. Mr. Weinstein made a near-miraculous escape from the camp, becoming one of fewer than 100 former inmates to survive the horror. Now in his 80s and living on Long Island, he will present a program at Kent Memorial Library Sept.15 at 4 p.m. Mr. Weinstein, will present his story as part of the "Those Who Have Made a Difference" series offered at the library.

Read entire article at County Times (CT)