Escape from Treblinka: The Joseph Polonski Story

[Music] thank you Joseph polanski's story can be divided into three epics as with most survivors the epics are very simple before during and after his story can also be described as a miniature of the history of Polish jury Joseph Polanski was born in suwalki his experience was unique because his father was virtually absent because his father was absent and he was responsible for his mother and his grandmother Joseph assumed the disproportionate sense and responsibility for the family that 14 years of age he had to take control of the family the early life I mean there was a little bit tough you know because my father well he was never there and the grandmother was a breath giver so she would go to the farmer buying the vegetable there was a place of a deputy Market and each morning she would go over there and she was selling this how we were making a living yeah it was tough [Music] September 1 1939 was the German invasion in the aftermath of the German invasion there was ghettoization Jews were put into a ghetto and the ghetto itself was a life of depravity of starvation of deterioration you were certain that today was worse than yesterday and tomorrow would be worse than today the difference in the ghetto between life and death was your wits Your Capacity to confront Danger and your capacity not to freeze in the face of danger and they get aware of that quite quite a while probably about a couple years make my dream my grandma died it was me and my sister and my mother we are a tough time I mean with food so I was very brave I knew the the German they liked eggs so the farmers came to the outside together you know they were selling so I bought some eggs and went out with the soldiers where you know and I would tell him I mean if they want eggs and they can give me blankets a trade take the blankets I mean to the ghetto and then sell it and that and that's how we made a living coming being in the ghetto [Music] in Poland Jews did not have a star but they had an armband and the moment Joseph went out of the ghetto and took off his armband he was subject to death but Joseph went out of the ghetto because he needed to provide for his family and he developed a capacity to border to buy Goods on the outside to bring them into the ghetto which provided for the basic feeding of his family but also he was able to work with the Germans and sell them what they wanted so one time I was out you know one German said stop so I stopped your day so I make with my head huh like I don't understand so a Polish lady goes by and he stabbed the Polish lady you know and he says is it Jewish I mean is he you there so I said in Polish I mean and she says yeah so German I mean takes me for your arm and he says let's go and the Gestapo was probably about a block away so he took me over there and he told the Gestapo I'm a Jew I don't wear a armband and I was fresh so they thanked him for it and they brought a chair let's just opened it up so I burned it down and they gave me only five whips and let me tell you everything was black and blue and then they put me back in the cellar so it says now they're gonna kill me so I was sitting over there at least about two three hours then finally well comes out you know opens up the door hey takes me out and he takes me back over there today room and they say next time we're gonna catch you without the armpit and come out from the ghetto we're gonna shoot you or take you to a Treblinka over there so I said Thank you thank you Shane foreign was a daily struggle for survival conditions grew worse because the Germans regarded the ghetto as a place to contain the Jews until they didn't know until what and the Jews regarded the ghetto as a place to survive until they dreamed that it was until Germany lost the war until Germany came to its census until somebody rescued them in retrospect we understand that ghettoization was a very short period of time it was the period from 1940 to 1942 and for the Germans it became the period of time in which you contained the Jews until the infrastructure was built for their destruction treblinko was opened on July 22nd 1942. by October the Germans were ready to bring the Jews of Luke off to Treblinka it took us on the field close to the railroad over there and then they saw that I mean women one side and the man on the other side this was the last time I saw my mother so I was away from my mother with my my sister then they opened the doors from the trains and says going through the train it was cattle trains not regular and at this time I mean we didn't know so much about whatever learned and felt I mean when you come over there you don't go back out it will take you to the shower and this was the end of it so is my mom and my sister my sister I mean within within them I would say within an hour they were all gone at treblica unlike Auschwitz there was no selection everybody who arrived was sent immediately to the death and that's the moment at which Joseph had this incredible piece of luck he had shared a cigarette with a man sharing a cigarette when people smoked was not something that you were guarded significant but cigarette was like gold for those who smoked but the fact that he was willingly and seamlessly so easily willing to share meant that he'd established a friendship and a sense of value to the person he had shared a cigarette with and that person reciprocated in the most incredible Way by Saving Joseph's life [Music] so I lit up a cigarette and the guy that comes up to me and she says can I have a cigarette foreign then he says he you stay with me I've been over there just stay with me so we got to dribbling here so they opened the door he says let them all go out so everybody went out and me and him you know come out last and he knew the gate where to go in where the workers are and we went in to the work deal then in the evening the guy disappeared on me it's just like an angel came he saved me and then he disappeared I mean I didn't see him anymore treblink was open on July 22nd 1942. and over the next 13 months until August 4th 1943. 925 000 Jews were murdered and there were less than 100 survivors of Treblinka imagine for a moment that you were Joseph and you were leaving the ghetto of Luke of you had a pack of suitcase and in the suitcase you could take 20 kilo 44 pounds and what do you take of your lifetime what do you bring with yourself you take clothes in order to survive you take a few family photographs you take anything that is of material value to you the things you brought with yourself to treblinko was sorted because the Nazis were interested not only in annihilating the human being but recycling that which was valuable which they had left behind this was a process of destroying the human being and recycling the human being and Joseph witnessed the entire process the people who came you know from the Train they would get them in those big buildings and they had to undress then they had to bring the clothes to us but then we had to take the clothes you know and dump it over there this was my job in Sri Lanka have they found somebody you know doing wrong you know what they were doing in the middle of adability work they would hang him by defeat and punish him till the blood was going in their head for a couple hours this was so bad to to look at it you know and they made sure everybody is saying that too it was it was it was terrible it was terrible there were less than 100 known survivors of treblanca and Joseph is one of them therefore his testimony takes on an added value because without this testimony we have no way of knowing what went on within this camp I mean you know you're gonna go too you know and the only way I'm into you got to take a chance to survive that's why there was a couple guys of us you know but three we decided you know to take a chance and to escape and there was a big Barrack with clothes so we got in right and tacticals and we jump to friends we probably ran ran the ran over into the woods but where else something was going to go though unfortunate I mean we lined up back and back in the ghetto [Music] after Joseph escaped for the first time he had a problem where do you go what do you do and at that moment it is difficult to imagine but the safest place in the world for him to go was back to the ghetto because that was the place where he was not at least for a time a haunted animal with everybody bent on his destruction he went back to the ghetto book of like many ghettos did not face one deportation but multiple deportations but this time Joseph knew where he was going and he knew one thing basically that he was not going there again so Joseph with his own Ingenuity and with his own imagination escaped I'm not lucky enough the German founder up out so back on the train so we said to each other you know we know where we go our brother not go back over there and then they took us with the train so we managed to open the door one guys that I mean jumped and I was not Not Afraid either because I know where I'm going and I jumped to and then rolled over and the German over that the security they were shooting you know and I think they hit they hit another flesh I mean by the pants it was a bullet when went through and we were probably maybe but five of us so we're just go from one place to another place at night we go out come into the farmers knock on the door and we need bread eggs we managed to buy weapon from the farmers so I had a weapon my friend had the weapon you know and we were trident by a farmer and then the Germans surrounded us they want us out and right out there was corn and it was high so I got out from the door so I had the gun I mean I just pointed I mean and I shot it and I got in to the the corn you know and I bended out and kept on running [Music] he was lucky enough and fortunate enough to find a moment in which a poll offered him a Haven offered him a shelter and then offered him what became the key to survival which is a handgun and therefore Joseph became a member of the partisans because the partisans would only take those with arms those who could provide their own material Resources with which to kill Germans so I was with the Russian probably I don't know maybe a couple months it was much more secure because they had the weapons they were getting the drops you know from from Russia you know then we got in the fight with with the German in the woods and luckily I survived helicrafters or whatever it was over there you know should you know and then I read again you know so I see the German over there not too far away so I shot it apparently I must have killed him in the night you know the German went away so we went back in the woods and we're going from one place to another place so I was I mean with the Russian deal I mean until the end of the war and come out first Latina lieutenant is one one little one little star [Music] he joins the Soviet partisans and he's liberated by the Soviet Army from blublin in July of 1944. here's a man who has seen death he experiences the precariousness of life and he understands that what he needs in order to survive is courage and determination and an Iron Will Joseph met Blum up in Landsberg Germany she was 17 he 22. anxious to get on with their lives and to have someone to love the young couple was engaged within three weeks her engagement ring a watch the marriage took time two years and a continent away Bloomer came to the United States via the Red Cross sponsored by the Omaha Jewish Community Center Joseph stayed behind and went to ore to learn Electronics his journey to the United States was delayed until he could find a sponsor he came first to Boston and tried to earn enough money to travel to Omaha learning electronics but earning his living by washing dishes in an old age home Bloomer was met at the train by Francis plumpkin she had an apartment ready for bluma for her sister brother-in-law and their child Joseph came to Omaha at the age of 24. Bloomer was waiting for him he was sponsored by The JCC I did not have enough education you know so I was getting chairman professors you know to be mad and to know a little bit more and then there was electronic schools radio and electrical deal so I went to the radio deal and it's so Pro connected so I went to Omaha so the first thing they asked me wouldn't know what so I said I just went through electronic school and so far television just started so they found the job for me I mean I had a photographic memory I was picking up very very quick everything so I was working for this company probably almost five years and then I decided to to go on my own I opened up the name was examine televisions at the same time I got a coin that with all the furniture stores so anything they sold like radio stereos I mean television you know they would call me to set it up and then service it it was probably I might be a couple years till I expanded and lined up however however ran the guy was I was working for then I got in with Nebraska Furniture and that's how I experiment myself and then I got in real estate business learned everything you know and I came out on the on the right side people ask very often why do survivors survive and why did they thrive in the United States they had a tolerance for a level of risk and they were not afraid of trying something new and they understand that they were facing problems that were small in comparison to the problems that they faced when they were young so he's able to do what it takes with the qualities he developed as a Young Man and able to create something he could never imagine they married him they had four children Sonia Morris Rosalie and Lynn ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren [Music] I've done a good living you know I escaped with all in smart enough I mean to get more education I had to fight myself out I had gas let's put it this way [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: American Jewish University

Views: 81,843

Keywords:

Id: Wn68PE5qSjw

Length: 24min 57sec (1497 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 30 2022