Synopses & Reviews
A Promise at Sobibandoacute;r is the story of Fiszel Bialowitz, a teenaged Polish Jew who escaped the Nazi gas chambers. Between April 1942 and October 1943, about 250,000 Jews from European countries and the Soviet Union were sent to the Nazi death camp at Sobibandoacute;r in occupied Poland. Sobibandoacute;r was not a transit camp or work camp: its sole purpose was efficient mass murder. On October 14, 1943, approximately half of the 650 or so prisoners still alive at Sobibandoacute;r undertook a daring and precisely planned revolt, killing SS officers and fleeing through minefields and machine-gun fire into the surrounding forests, farms, and towns. Only about forty-two of them, including Fiszel, are known to have survived to the end of the war.
and#160;and#160; and#160;Philip (Fiszel) Bialowitz, now an American citizen, tells his eyewitness story here in the real-time perspective of his own boyhood, from his childhood before the war and his internment in the brutal Izbica ghetto to his harrowing six months at Sobibandoacute;randmdash;including his involvement in the revolt and desperate mass escapeandmdash;and his rescue by courageous Polish farmers. He also recounts the challenges of life following the war as a teenaged displaced person, and his eventual efforts as a witness to the truth of the Holocaust.
and#160;and#160; and#160;In 1943 the heroic leaders of the revolt at Sobibandoacute;r, Sasha Perchersky and Leon Feldhendler, implored fellow prisoners to promise that anyone who survived would tell the story of Sobibandoacute;r: not just of the horrific atrocities committed there, but of the courage and humanity of those who fought back. Bialowitz has kept that promise.
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Review
“In 149 pages of text, [Borodziej] has explained the most tangled vicissitudes of Poland’s World War II history and described in a dramatic and moving way the resistance, the suffering, and the annihilation of Warsaw, one of the major capitals of Europe.”—Piotr Wróbel, Slavic Review
Review
andldquo;This testimony of a survivor of the Sobibandoacute;r extermination camp is extraordinarily important because of the circumstances that it recounts. But it is really the personality of the author and his narrative talent that make it very special.andrdquo;andmdash;Jan T. Gross,and#160; Princeton University
Review
“The hitherto most objective recounting of the ill-fated 1944 Warsaw Uprising of Polish resistance fighters.”—Focus
Review
“This sound study is a treasure chest of information, interpretation, and insights from other scholars that constitutes an important contribution to the understanding of this historical event.”—Frankfurter Rundschau
Review
andquot;When a prisoner uprising freed hundreds of Jews from the Nazi death camp at Sobibandoacute;r, Poland, in 1943, Bialowitz heard the leader call out, 'If you survive, bear witness to what happened here! Tell the world about this place!' In this harrowing first-person account, the author fulfills the promise he made then. . . . chilling, sobering and memorable.andquot;andmdash;Kirkus
Review
andldquo;A searing memoir of his boyhood in Poland and survival in a death camp.andrdquo;andmdash;
Sheldon Kirshner JournalSynopsis
The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 dramatically tells the largely unknown story of the Warsaw resistance movement during World War II. Desperate to free themselves from German military oppression but also hoping to show the advancing Soviets that they could not impose easy rule upon the citizens of Warsaw, the Poles launched an almost hopeless attack against the Germans on August 1, 1944. Wlodzimierz Borodziej presents an evenhanded account of what is commonly considered the darkest chapter in Polish history during World War II. In only sixty-three days, the Germans razed Warsaw to the ground and 200,000 people, mostly civilians, lost their lives. The result—a heroic and historically pivotal turning point—meant that the Poles would lose both their capital and an entire generation. This concise account of the trauma—little known to English-speaking readers—will appeal to anyone interested in the history of World War II in general and is a must-read for students of Polish history in particular.
Synopsis
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A Promise at Sobibór is the story of Fiszel Bialowitz, a teenaged Polish Jew who escaped the Nazi gas chambers. Between April 1942 and October 1943, about 250,000 Jews from European countries and the Soviet Union were sent to the Nazi death camp at Sobibór in occupied Poland. Sobibór was not a transit camp or work camp: its sole purpose was efficient mass murder. On October 14, 1943, approximately half of the 650 or so prisoners still alive at Sobibór undertook a daring and precisely planned revolt, killing SS officers and fleeing through minefields and machine-gun fire into the surrounding forests, farms, and towns. Only about forty-two of them, including Fiszel, are known to have survived to the end of the war.
Philip (Fiszel) Bialowitz, now an American citizen, tells his eyewitness story here in the real-time perspective of his own boyhood, from his childhood before the war and his internment in the brutal Izbica ghetto to his harrowing six months at Sobibór—including his involvement in the revolt and desperate mass escape—and his rescue by courageous Polish farmers. He also recounts the challenges of life following the war as a teenaged displaced person, and his eventual efforts as a witness to the truth of the Holocaust.
In 1943 the heroic leaders of the revolt at Sobibór, Sasha Perchersky and Leon Feldhendler, implored fellow prisoners to promise that anyone who survived would tell the story of Sobibór: not just of the horrific atrocities committed there, but of the courage and humanity of those who fought back. Bialowitz has kept that promise. \n
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About the Author
Philip (Fiszel) Bialowitz is a retired jeweler who has spoken in North America and Europe about his experience at Sobibandoacute;r, including testifying at several war crimes trials, most recently at the German trial of John Demjanjuk in 2010. He lives in New York. Joseph Bialowitz is Philipandrsquo;s son. He is an environmental manager and Holocaust lecturer who lives in California.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Joseph Bialowitz
Introduction
Chapter 1: Before the War
Chapter 2: War Begins
Chapter 3: The Rosenbergers
Chaper 4: Fritz
Chapter 5: Summer 1942
Chapter 6: Fall 1942
Chapter 7: November 1942andndash;April 1943
Chapter 8: Life in Sobibandoacute;r
Chapter 9: Planning Revenge
Chapter 10: Escape from Sobibandoacute;r
Chapter 11:New Dangers
Chapter 12: Liberation and Victory
Chapter 13: Life as a Displaced Person
Chapter 14: Resettling in America
Epilogue: Life after Sobibandoacute;r