Jankiel Wiernik
Jankiel (or Yankel)-Yaakov Wiernik (in Hebrew: יעקב ויירניק; born 1889, Biala Podlaska, Poland - died 1972, Rishon Lezion, Israel)[1] was a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor who was an influential figure in the Treblinka extermination camp uprising of August 1943. Following his escape during the uprising, he published his account of his time in the camp titled: ‘A Year in Treblinka', of his experiences and eyewitness testimony of that death camp where he witnessed the tragic loss of anywhere from 700,000 to 1,400,000[2] innocent lives. Wiernik also testified in the Eichmann Trial in 1961 and was present at the opening of the Treblinka Memorial in 1964. After World War II, Wiernik immigrated to Sweden and later moved to Israel where he died in 1972 at the age of 83.
Before Treblinka
Jankiel Wiernik was a carpenter living in Warsaw, Poland before his time in Treblinka. When World War II began, he was 50 years old.
A Year in Treblinka summary
Jankiel Wiernik's story began in Warsaw in 1942 when he was captured by the Germans and taken to the Treblinka concentration camp by train. On his arrival, Wiernik was selected to work rather than be immediately killed. Wiernik's first job required him to drag corpses from the gas chambers to the mass graves. His nightmare existence is illustrated by his memory of that time - 'It often happened that an arm or a leg fell off when we tied straps around them in order to drag the bodies away' (chapter 3). However, he is encouraged by the occasional scenes of brave resistance to the captors (described in Chapter 8).
When Wiernik's profession as a carpenter was discovered, he was put to work constructing various camp structures including additional gas chambers. Given his skills, Wiernik was not harmed by the guards as others were and he no longer had to undertake the dreaded task of handling dead bodies. Wiernik in fact attributed his survival to his ability to assist the Germans build structures needed in the camp. Given the shortage of skilled construction workers, Wiernik moved between the two divisions of the camp (Camp No.1 and Camp No.2) frequently throughout the book. As a result, Wiernik became an important figure communicating between the camps when the revolt was being planned. There would have been little chance of success if such co-ordination hadn't been possible. A keen judge of character, Wiernik devotes several paragraphs of chapter 8 to a description of the vulgarity, drunkenness and greed characteristic of Ukrainian guards. These traits he cleverly used against them when starting the revolt. On the pre-arranged signal (a gunshot), the 300 prisoners in Camp 1 and their 700 comrades in Camp 2 rose in revolt. Wiernik distracted several Ukrainian guards by suddenly offering them a gold coin. "They completely forgot they were guards" and reverted to their true nature, he explains in the final chapter. During this event, the other revolters escaped to the surrounding forests, where the Germans would not go. It was a 5 mile run from the gate to the woods where the prisoners could hide. Wiernik was almost captured by a guard who shot him in the shoulder, but miraculously, the bullet "went through all of [his] clothing and stopped at [the] shoulder leaving a mark" (Source:'A Year in Treblinka', chapter 14).
After Treblinka
After escaping Treblinka, Wiernik hid in Warsaw where he wrote 'A Year in Treblinka'. After the end of World War II, Wiernik immigrated to Sweden and then to the newly founded state of Israel. It was during this period after the war that Wiernik experienced the aftereffects of his experience. His feeling of guilt can be seen in chapter one of 'A Year in Treblinka'. "I sacrificed all those nearest and dearest to me. I myself took them to the place of execution. I built their death chambers for them." In the 1950s, Wiernik built a model of the Treblinka camp which is displayed in the Ghetto Fighters' House museum in Israel. In 1961 Wiernik testified in the Eichmann trial in Israel. Eichmann, a perpetrator of the Holocaust, was charged with crimes against humanity. Eichmann was sentenced to death and hanged the following year, the only execution ever carried out in the state of Israel. Wiernik died in Israel in 1972 at the age of 83.