Abraham Kolski survived the Treblinka death camp, where the Nazis killed 925,000 Jewish people in just over a year.
Most people sent to Treblinka were killed right away, but Abraham was chosen to work. His terrible job was to search for valuables in the clothing of people who had died in the gas chambers.
By the summer of 1943, Abraham and other Jewish prisoners noticed that fewer people were arriving at Treblinka. They feared the Nazis would soon shut down the camp and kill the remaining prisoners, so they decided to fight back.
On this day in 1943, Jewish prisoners gathered weapons—axes, tools, and a few stolen guns—and set fire to the camp. But they were not able to fully take control.
In the chaos, hundreds of prisoners, including Abraham, ran for the main gate. Many were killed as they tried to escape or were hunted down afterward.
“We went deep into the forest,” Abraham later said. “At night, we didn’t know where to go. The forest was so big. We followed the moon and walked all night.”
After several days hiding in the woods, Abraham and eight others met a Polish farmer named Stanisław Pogorzelski. He and his father, Julian, risked their lives to hide them for almost a year until the Red Army arrived.
In the 1960s, Abraham testified in a German court about what he had seen in Treblinka.
In 1969, Stanisław and Julian were honored as Righteous Among the Nations for their bravery.