The Last Jew of Treblinka

Chil Rajchman was born on June 14, 1914 and he grew up in Lodz, Poland. On September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, Chil and his younger sister Rivka fled from Lodz to Pruszkow, a small town 10 miles southeast of Warsaw. In October of 1940, Chil and Rivka were sent to the Pruszkow ghetto and were seperated a year later when Rivka was transported to the Warsaw ghetto. But eventually Chil was sent to the Warsaw ghetto to reunite with Rivka. Then, they were sent to the Ostrow Lubelski ghetto where they were forced to walk Lubartow. They were then taken in a freight train to Treblinka, where Rivka was murdered in a gas chamber. Chil was sent to do forced labor and was spared because he volunteered to work as a barberer. Chil surprisingly survived here for 10 months. He escaped in August of 1943 during the Treblinka uprising. He survived the manhunt for escapees by hiding with Polish farmers and then fearing he would be discovered, Chil went to Warsaw. He survived the Warsaw uprising in August 1944 and he hid in a bunker in the ruins of Warsaw until the Soviets entered the city and liberated him on January 17, 1945. Chil later married and moved to uruguay where he raised three sons. He wrote a memoir talking about what he had experienced in Treblinka titled The Last Jew of Treblinka. He died on May 7, 2004 but his memory lives on in his memoir.