Treblinka’s Last Witness

(Ostatni świadek)

Samuel Willenberg, now 93 years old, is the last living survivor of the Treblinka death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where an estimated 900,000 Jews were murdered in a period of just 13 months at the height of World War II. Samuel has immortalized the story in a series of bronze sculptures of the tragic victims who dwell indelibly in his memory like ghosts.
There is the disabled Jewish veteran of World War One whose German medals of valor could not save him; the mad girl from Warsaw who arrived at the camp in a ball gown and high-heeled shoes; the synagogue cantor reduced to overseeing the camp latrines; and the Jewish violinists pressed by the SS guards to accompany the slaughter with classical music.
The largest of these sculptures depicts the prisoner revolt at Treblinka as the Germans, the tide of war turning against them, set about eradicating all evidence of their crimes by destroying the death camps. Samuel was one of about 100 inmates who escaped amid a fierce firefight. By the war’s end only 67 remained alive. Samuel’s story is one of survival against staggering odds and, though heart-rending, it is ultimately one of triumph.

Director: Tomlinson, Alan

Runtime: 100 minutes

Release Year: 2014

Genre: Documentary