Samuel Rajzman
{{Short description|Polish holocaust survivor (1902–79)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
Samuel Rajzman (1902–1979) was a Polish Holocaust survivor. After the war he emigrated to France and then to Canada. He was one of the two Polish witnesses at the Nuremberg Trials. He was also a witness at the Treblinka trials and during the process of Fiodor Fedorenko.
Biography
Rajzman was born into a Jewish family and lived with his wife and children in Węgrów, where he was an accountant and translator.{{Cite web |title=Rajzman Samuel – Muzeum Treblinka |url=https://muzeumtreblinka.eu/en/informacje/rajzman-samuel/ |access-date=1 September 2023 |publisher=Muzeum Treblinka|language=en-US}} After the German invasion of Poland, together with his family he was resettled and imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto.{{Cite web
|last=Rajzman |first=Samuel |title=Uprising in Treblinka |url=http://holocaust-history.org/operation-reinhard/uprising-in-treblinka.shtml |year=1945 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603181612/http://holocaust-history.org/operation-reinhard/uprising-in-treblinka.shtml |url-status=dead |publisher=American House Committee on Foreign Affairs (courtesy of holocaust-history.org) |archive-date=3 June 2013}}
File:Treblinka uprising (Ząbecki 1943).jpg.]]
In September 1942 he was transferred to the Treblinka extermination camp. He was saved from immediate execution that befell most of those from his transport group by an acquaintance, Marceli Galewski and moved to work in the Sonderkommando; he was also enlisted in the resistance organization. The resistance organization eventually succeeded in organizing the Treblinka uprising on 2 August 1943. Rajzman was one of the few survivors from that incident; familiar with the nearby area, he was sheltered, together with another escapee, by local farmer Edward Gołoś, a pre-war acquaintance of Rajzman, and survived the war. Gołoś was later recognized as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.{{Cite book |last1=Grabowski |first1=Jan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dpl8EAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Samuel+Rajzman%22&pg=PT145 |title=Night without End: The Fate of Jews in German-Occupied Poland |last2=Engelking |first2=Barbara |date=6 September 2022 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-06288-8 |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=SAMUEL RAJZMAN |url=https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=10173639&ind=1 |website=The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names at Yad Vashem}}{{Cite web |title=Gołoś Edward |url=https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4043928&ind=0 |website=The Righteous Among the Nations Database at Yad Vashem}}
After the war (which his family did not survive) he moved to France, and later to Canada, where he remarried.
On 27 February 1946, Rajzman testified about his experiences in Treblinka at the Nuremberg Trials as one of the three Jews and two Polish witnesses during the proceedings (the other Polish witness being Seweryna Szmaglewska).{{Cite book |last1=Finder |first1=Gabriel N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_a17DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Seweryna+Szmaglewska%22+testified&pg=PA76 |title=Justice Behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland |last2=Prusin |first2=Alexander V. |date=1 January 2018 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-2268-1 |pages=76–79 |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Hirsch |first=Francine |date=2021 |title=Nuremberg at 75: Revisiting the International Military Tribunal and Its Lessons |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/845581 |journal=Irish Studies in International Affairs |language=en |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=171–181 |doi=10.1353/isia.2021.0051 |issn=2009-0072|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Sands |first=Philippe |date=2017 |title=East West Street: Personal Stories about Life and Law |url=https://journals.library.wustl.edu/globalstudies/article/id/51/ |journal=Washington University Global Studies Law Review |language= |volume=16 |issue=3 |issn=1546-6981 |quote=The Tribunal has just heard evidence from a lone survivor of the killings at Treblinka, (...). Samuel Rajzman explains that he was present on the platform for the arrival and despatch of Sigmund Freud’s three elderly sisters.}} He was also a witness in both of the Treblinka trials (the first was the 1964–1965 trial of members of the German crew of Treblinka, and at second one, in 1969–1970, the trial of the commandant, Franz Stangl). In 1978 his testimony also contributed to the stripping of Fiodor Fedorenko’s American citizenship (Fedorenko was a Ukrainian guard at Treblinka; he was eventually deported to USSR and executed there).{{Cite web |date=20 March 2015 |title=Fedorenko Deported to the USSR |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/fedorenko-deported-to-the-ussr |access-date=1 September 2023 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{Cite book |last=Rajzman |first=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2toWAQAAIAAJ |title=The Death Camp Treblinka: A Documentary |date=1979 |publisher=Holocaust Library |isbn=978-0-89604-009-0 |editor-last=Donat |editor-first=Alexander |language=en |chapter=The End of Treblinka}}
External links
- {{Citation |last=Rajzman |first=Samuel |title=Uprising in Treblinka |url=http://holocaust-history.org/operation-reinhard/uprising-in-treblinka.shtml |year=1945 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603181612/http://holocaust-history.org/operation-reinhard/uprising-in-treblinka.shtml |url-status=dead |publisher=American House Committee on Foreign Affairs (courtesy of holocaust-history.org) |archive-date=3 June 2013}}
- [https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&search=global&strSearch=Samuel%20Rajzman&GridItemId=3557811&TreeItemId=9835763 Search results] for Samuel Rajzman at Yad Vashem, including "Testimony of Samuel Reizman regarding his experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto and Treblinka" and "Testimony of Samuel Rajzman, born in Wegrow, Poland, 1902, regarding his experiences in Treblinka and Wegrow"
- [https://soyouwanttowriteaholocaustbook.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/shmuel-rajzman-a-giant-of-treblinka/ Shmuel Rajzman -A Giant Of Treblinka]
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{{Nuremberg Trials}}
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Category:Witnesses to the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
Category:Treblinka extermination camp survivors
Category:Warsaw Ghetto inmates
Category:Polish emigrants to France
Category:Polish emigrants to Canada