Julian Chorążycki

Dr. Julian Chorążycki (1893 – April 19, 1943) was a Jewish captain in the Polish Army before World War II; a professional physician from Warsaw. He became the first leader and secret organizer of the perilous prisoner uprising at the Treblinka extermination camp during the Holocaust in Poland. After the long period of preparation posing an immediate threat to life, on August 2, 1943 an armed revolt in Treblinka erupted, however, Chorążycki (improperly, Chorazyski) – a 50-year-old throat surgeon from the capital – committed suicide on April 19, 1943 when faced with imminent capture, to avoid revealing details of the uprising and its participants under torture.

Defiance

The 1944 aerial photo of Treblinka II after "closing". The photograph is overlaid with dismantled structures including German "armoury" in the lower-left from the unloading platform (centre, marked with arrow)

Little is known about him from before the extermination of Jews in occupied Poland by Nazi Germany. At the camp, Chorążycki was put in charge of a small infirmary for the SS (not to be mistaken with the fake infirmary called "lazaret" where the hands-on killing took place). He was a noble man, essential to taking action, wrote Samuel Rajzman. His Organizing Committee at the Treblinka Totenlager included Zelomir Bloch (leadership), Rudolf Masaryk, Marceli Galewski, Samuel Rajzman, Dr. Irena Lewkowska (sick bay), Leon Haberman, and several others. Chorążycki collected a large lump-sum of hard cash from the Goldjuden commando with the intention of bribing a Trawniki guard he thought he had befriended. Instead, he was ambushed at work with the money by Untersturmführer Franz and swallowed a deadly poison before he could be arrested. Chorążycki was replaced in the Underground by Dr. Berek Lajcher from Wegrów (also a former Polish Army officer, who arrived at Treblinka on May 1). Lajcher (improperly, Lecher) launched the uprising on a hot summer day when a group of Germans and Ukrainians drove off to the Bug river for a swim.

The uprising

On August 2 (Monday, a day of rest from gassing), the door to the arsenal near the train tracks was silently unlocked by the Jews and some 20-25 rifles, 20 hand grenades, and several pistols were stolen and delivered in a cart to the gravel work-detail. At 3:45 p.m. some 700 Jewish prisoners launched the attack on the gates. They sprayed gasoline on all the buildings and set them ablaze. Several buildings were blown up. However, the machine gun fire from the well-trained Germans (some 25 of them) and Ukrainian Trawnikis (numbering around 60) resulted in near slaughter. Most prisoners perished. Only 150–200 Jews succeeded in crossing over to the other side. Half of those were killed after a chase. Some of those who escaped successfully were transported across the river by the partisans of the Armia Krajowa hiding in the surrounding forest. Only approximately 70 Jews are known to have survived until the end of the war, including future authors of published Treblinka memoirs: Jankiel Wiernik, Chil Rajchman, Richard Glazar, and Samuel Willenberg. There was also a revolt at Sobibor two months later.