Holocaust Survivor Speaks in Wanaque

NEW JERSEY — Around 45 people listened to the inspiring story of a Holocaust survivor, who, as a teenager, participated in a successful mass escape from the Nazi death camp Sobibór. The Chabad Jewish Center–Upper Passaic County invited Philip Bialowitz to tell his story of survival at the Wanaque Golden Age Club.

The speaking engagement was in connection with Holocaust Remembrance Day, which began on the evening of Wednesday, April 18, and ended on the evening of Thursday, April 19.

Bialowitz is one of eight living Sobibór survivors; between 1942 and 1943, an estimated 250,000 people died at Sobibór.

After the talk, copies of Bialowitz’s book “A Promise at Sobibór: A Jewish Boy’s Story of Revolt and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland” were available for purchase and signing. Mayor Daniel Mahler, who heard Bialowitz speak, bought a copy for donation to the Wanaque Public Library.

“It was very touching,” Mahler said about the lecture. “He’s a remarkable gentleman, and he rose to the occasion and did what he had to do under very unfortunate circumstances. It’s good he was able to survive and tell his story.”

At the start of his lecture, Bialowitz said he was grateful to see young people in the audience because “the Jewish tradition teaches the world is sustained by the work of schoolchildren.” Out of the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust, 1.5 million were Jewish children, according to Bialowitz.

This year marks the 69th anniversary of two important events of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Revolt at Sobibór. Both events signify “all the places the Jews fought for their lives and their dignity,” Bialowitz said.

Bialowitz emphasized a point about concentration camps. Jews in some camps like Buchenwald and Dachau had a chance at survival as long as they worked. Sobibór, on the other hand, was not a labor camp; it was a “pure” extermination camp, Bialowitz said.

“Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the Jews that entered Sobibór were sent to the gas chambers immediately,” he said. “I and my family knew that Sobibór was a place of death.”

Bialowitz said that when he first arrived at Sobibór, he assumed his eventual death there would bring him peace following his suffering in a ghetto. On the other hand, he knew that he wanted to live.

According to the book synopsis of “A Promise at Sobibór,” on Oct. 14, 1943, about half of the 650 prisoners still alive at Sobibór undertook a “daring and precisely planned” revolt. The prisoners killed SS officers and fled through minefield and machine-gun fire into the surrounding forests, farms and towns. Only about 42 of them, including Bialowitz, was known to have survived to the end of World War II.

In 1943, Sobibór revolt leaders Sasha Perchersky and Leon Feldhendler implored prisoners to promise that anyone who survived would tell the story of Sobibór, not only of the horrors committed there, but the courage and humanity of those who fought back, according to the “A Promise at Sobibór” book synopsis.

Bialowitz has been upholding that promise. Over the last 20 years, Bialowitz has lectured frequently to audiences in North America and Europe about his Sobibór experience. He has testified at several war crimes trials.

According to Bialowitz’s website, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw, Poland, has developed a curriculum based on “A Promise at Sobibór” for Polish schools.

Bialowitz resides in New York City, where he settled after the Holocaust and worked as a jeweler prior to retiring.

Rabbi Mendy Gurkov of the Chabad Jewish Center–Upper Passaic County personally invited Bialowitz to speak about his escape. Gurkov said that it’s important to educate people about the Holocaust because there are very few Holocaust survivors left to talk about their experiences. He also said that as a rabbi, he tries to address ways to “answer back to” the “The Final Solution,” the Nazis’ plan for Jewish genocide that included the Holocaust.

“We talk about the answer (which) is that we have to build Judaism, build synagogues (and) build Jewish schools,” Gurkov said. “How could we respond to the Holocaust today, in 2012? With events like this, promoting Judaism, having Torah classes, having holiday Jewish programs, things like that.”

Steve Fabian of Ringwood, who listened to Bialowitz, said the world needs to remember the Holocaust every day, not just “trivialize it in history books.”

“Today, when people think they have problems, they ‘d better realize how precious life is,” he said.

Acknowledging that anti-Semitism has existed for at least 2,000 years, Fabian said people sometimes have to fight the prejudice they face.

“Do you know how many Jews went to their deaths like sheep, sitting there waiting for Hashem (God) to come save them?” he asked. Later, he said, “Out of the ashes of the Holocaust came Israel, and Israel has to fight every day of its life. Sometimes you have to fight.”

“A Promise at Sobibór” is available in English and Polish under the title “Bunt w Sobibórze.” Bialowitz’s website is SobiborHolocaustSurvivor.org.