- First Name
- Jankiel Jacob Zvi (Jan)
- Last Name
- Wiernik (Smarzyński)
- Date of birth
- 1889/1888
- Age
- Place of birth
- Biała Podlaska
- Gender
- male
- Profession
- carpenter
- Maiden name
- Mother's name
- Sura
- Father's name
- Icek
- City
- Warsaw
- Transport where from
- Warsaw
- Date of transport
- 23.08.1942
- Story
- Jankiel Wiernik joined the Bund in 1904, was arrested and exiled to Siberia. After serving in the tsarist army, he settled in Warsaw, where he worked as a construction entrepreneur. On August 23, 1942, he was deported to Treblinka from the Warsaw ghetto. Wiernik played a key role in the Treblinka uprising in the underground in Totenlager (upper camp). Employed as a carpenter, he was the only prisoner who was able to maintain contacts between the conspirators in the lower camp and their counterparts in Totenlager. Wiernik worked on the construction of new larger gas chambers in the fall of 1942, the main camp gate and guardhouse. While escaping during the uprising, he was shot in the arm by a Ukrainian guard from the Treblinka labor camp, but before he fired again, Wiernik killed him with an ax and fled to the forest. He hid in Warsaw and fought in the Warsaw Uprising. He testified before the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. He moved to Sweden, and finally in 1949 to Israel, where in the early 1950s he built a large model of the Treblinka camp, which is still on display in the kibbutz of the Ghetto Fighters' House, where Wiernik lived. In 1961, he was a witness in the Eichmann trial. He wrote the book "A Year in Treblinka" (published as an underground print in 1944).
- Escape
- during the uprising
- Fate
- Yes
- Date of death
- 1972
- Place of death
- Israel
Source
J. Wiernik, “Rok w Treblince”Jankiel Wiernik, Rok w Treblince, ed. Komisja Koordynacyjna Warszawa 1944, pp. 23 More; Akta IPNThe Institute of National Remembrance – Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation in its historical archive collects, records, maintains, develops, protects and provides documents of crimes from the period 1917 – 1990. More GK 196/69 Zeznanie Jankiela Wiernika (Jana Smarzyńskiego) z 12 X 1945; AYVWritten testimonies collected in the Yad Vashem institute in Jerusalem; testimony number and the relationship of the witness and the deceased (if known) are provided. O.3.9183, rel. Jankiel Wiernik; wikipediaInformation from the online encyclopedia - www.wikipedia.org. More
- Record ID
- 248
- Insert date
- 15.11.2022
- Update date
- 04.08.2023
- Photo description
- Photo source