Books like From the ashes of Sobibor by Thomas Toivi Blatt

When the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, twelve‑year‑old Thomas Toivi Blatt lived in the Jewish town of Izbica, Lublin district—a region that would later host the extermination camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Majdanek. Blatt’s narrative details his early Jewish life, the brutal mass deportations that led to his separation from family, and his six months at Sobibor. He describes the camp’s conditions, his participation in the most successful uprising and mass breakout of any Nazi camp, and the five harrowing years he spent evading both the Nazis and anti‑Semitic Polish nationalists thereafter. The book also includes an interview with Karl Frenzel, a former Sobibor commandant, providing a stark contrast between the survivor’s experience and the camp’s administration. Blatt’s account offers an unsparing, personal perspective on the horrors of the Holocaust and the resilience of those who resisted.

First publish date: 1997