Argonaut Online News

TUES, 15 APRIL 2003

Holocaust survivor speaks at UI

By Brian Passey
News Editor

The UI College of Law courtroom was filled Sunday afternoon as Thomas “Toivi” Blatt told his tremendous story of survival in Sobibor, a Nazi extermination camp.

Blatt, after apologizing to the crowd for his heavy Polish accent, spent almost three hours reliving his experience at Sobibor.

Although the camp operated for only 18 months, 250,000 Jews were killed there. Blatt made it clear that Sobibor was not a concentration camp, but a death camp.

“For many of you, my story will sound like horror fiction,” Blatt told the crowd of students and faculty.

Blatt was one of the 40 Jewish prisoners who carried out the massive revolt at Sobibor. It was the most successful revolt and escape in any Nazi camp during World War II. Soon after, the camp was destroyed.

Blatt or “Toivi” as he was called, was just 15 years old when he was sent to Sobibor.

He said he still vividly remembers the train ride and as watching several concentration camps pass. Each of them realized they were going to the rumored Sobibor, he said.

RYAN SMITH / ARGONAUT / Thomas Blatt, a Holocaust survivor, speaks to an audience in the College of Law Courtroom Sunday during a special Holocaust remembrance event. Blatt, as a 14-year-old, participated in a massive revolt and escape from the Sobibor death camp.

The camp was hidden deep in a Polish forest and was virtually unknown. Nearby villagers became suspicious as they realized trainloads of people were coming into the Sobibor station everyday, and no one ever left.

The camp’s operations were so secretive that years after the Holocaust, historians still doubted it even existed.

For Blatt, his experiences at the extermination camp were very real.

“We knew we were going to die in Sobibor,” Blatt said.

People in the audience were visibly moved as Blatt described the place where he spent six months and watched thousands of people killed, including both of his parents.

“For me, Sobibor was a hell.”

In the camp, Blatt was chosen as a courier and relayed messages for the Nazi officers. He recalled a specific incident where he watched 3,000 Dutch Jews arrive on a train from Holland.

He watched as the Nazi officers told the Jews they would need a shower after traveling, for sanitary purposes. The “showers” turned out to be gas chambers, and after 15 minutes they were all dead.

“The deception was perfect,” Blatt said.

The 15-year-old Toivi knew he would have a better chance of surviving if he was grouped with the men, who were used as laborers in the camp.

Blatt soon joined the Underground, an organization that met frequently to discuss plans of escape.

On Oct. 14, 1943 they began the revolt. By pretending to deliver messages, Blatt lured the officers one by one into a room where the leaders of the underground revolt were waiting.

After several of the officers were killed, Blatt and the 600 other prisoners ran towards the camp gates, as they were shot at from the remaining Nazi soldiers.

The camp was surrounded by a field littered with land mines. Only 300 of the prisoners managed to escape to the nearby forest.

Out of the 600 prisoners at Sobibor, only 62 survived until the end of the war.

Blatt ran to a nearby farm, where a man offered to hide him. The farmer later turned on Blatt and shot him in the face. Blatt survived by playing dead.

As Blatt told this story, he pointed to the side of his jaw where the bullet is still lodged.

There are eight Sobibor survivors alive today. Blatt was asked by one student if he ever visited or talked to any of the living survivors.

Blatt said that when survivors see each other, it is just a horrifying reminder of what they lived through.

“What would we have to talk about: dead bodies?” Blatt said.

Blatt has devoted his life to informing people of the true events of the Sobibor death camp.

He also served as a witness in war-crime trials in Europe. In 1984, Blatt was called to testify in the trial of Karl Frenzel, one of the Nazi leaders at Sobibor.

Blatt spent three hours in a face-to-face interview with the man that sent his entire family to the gas chambers. Frenzel did not even recognize him.

In 1987, the events at the camp were made into the award-winning movie “Escape from Sobibor.” Blatt served as chief adviser for the film, which was largely based on excerpts from his diary.

Blatt said the events of the holocaust stand out because it is the only time in history where mass genocide, based on religion, was endorsed by state laws.

“Common sense refuses to believe that something like this was possible,” Blatt said.

After living in America for more than 40 years, Blatt was asked why he decided to come here after the Holocaust.

“From all the governments in the world, this is the one that you should thank God for,” Blatt said.

As a survivor of WWII, students also wanted to know Blatt’s feelings on America’s involvement in the war in Iraq.

Blatt wanted to refrain from comment in order not to offend anyone.

“I will say, if they would have stopped Hitler from invading Czechoslovakia, millions would have been saved,” Blatt said.

Blatt returns to Sobibor every year. A memorial now stands in the forest where the camp once was.

“Sobibor stands out as a monument to endless cruelty, but is also a monument to hope and the human spirit,” Blatt said.

When he’s not traveling, Blatt resides in Seattle with his wife. He has three children.

The event was sponsored by the UI College of Law and the Office of Diversity and Human Rights.

Blatt was scheduled to speak for Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is April 29.

News Editor: Brian Passey Webmistress: Amanda J Hundt
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