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The Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project
By the Grace of Strangers: Two Boys’ Rescue During the Holocaust
Gabriel Mermall; Norbert Yasharoff | Foreword by David Silberklang
Escaping Hell in Treblinka
Israel Cymlich; Oskar Strawczynski | Foreword by David Silberklang
Escaping Hell in Treblinka includes two remarkable documents written by two survivors of that hellish darkness while the authors were still in hiding, unsure if they would succeed in evading the Nazis. Israel Cymlich’s memoir provides a rare insight into the Treblinka I forced labor camp’s brutal daily life, as well as the regular contact and human traffic between the two Treblinka camps. Srul escaped in April 1943, just before he was due to be transferred to the Treblinka II extermination camp. Oskar Strawczynski’s memoir is one of the earliest written eyewitness accounts of the August 1943 uprising in Treblinka. He tells of Jewish camp officials’ cruel treatment of their fellow Jewish prisoners; the viciousness of the German staff; preparations for the uprising, and life after the mass escape from the camp. Both men owed their survival to their own daring and initiative as well as to the assistance they received from a variety of people, including Polish rescuers.
