The Last Jew of Treblinka: A Memoir
The extermination center Treblinka was located approximately 50 miles from Warsaw and became operational in June 1942. The sole purpose of the camp was the murder of Jews, a process which began immediately following disembarkation from the railway cars. The Nazis kept a few Jews temporarily alive to assist them in advancing the machinery of death. Rajchman was sent to Treblinka in 1942 at age 28. Until his escape 11 months later, he survived by working as a “barber” who shaved the hair of victims and as a “dentist” extracting gold teeth from corpses. His memoir, originally in Yiddish, is a hellish, heartbreaking account, as expected. Guards are consistently brutal and sadistic as they beat helpless victims on their way to the gas chambers. Rajchman presents horrifying, almost surreal images of piles of corpses, sand saturated with blood, and protruding bone fragments. At times, his descriptions are clinical and curiously detached; at others, rage at his oppressors surfaces. He eventually emigrated to Uruguay, where he died in 2004, leaving a memorable contribution to Holocaust scholarship. --Jay Freeman