Jules Schelvis - 3

Born:
07 January 1921, Amsterdam
Interview:
08 June 2010

"The work of a lifetime, science"

Spoken language: Dutch

Jules Schelvis was deported from Westerbork to Sobibor together with his wife and family-in-law on June 1, 1943. Unsuspectingly, he took with him his guitar. Jules stayed in the Sobibor destruction camp for a few hours, but was then transferred to the Dorohucza labour camp to cut peat there. After a short stay in this camp he managed to get sent to another labour camp in Lublin as member of a team of printers. In August 1944, having stayed for months in the Radom ghetto and subsequently in Szkolna camp, he arrived in a labour camp not far from Vaihingen. Here, together with thousands of others, he had to participate in construction work at an underground airplane plant. After this, he worked in still another labour camp in Southern Germany. He suffered from spotted fever when he was liberated in April 1945.

The importance of not forgetting urged Jules Schelvis in 1999 to
initiate Sobibor Foundation. His wife and family-in-law were murdered in
Sobibor. He published the story of his life, "Within the Gates," in the
eighties, and the scientific study, "Sobibor Destruction Camp," in
1993. Jules was married with Jo for 53 years and has two children.

In this interview is talked about:

  • Consequences of Sobibor

    Interviewees lost loved ones and relatives in Sobibor. Here they talk freely about the role these losses still play in their lives.

    Jules Schelvis went into the history of Sobibor camp and published his historical study, "Vernietigingskamp Sobibor" (Sobibor Extermination Camp) in 1994. He talks about the process of writing this study, which included finding the transport lists compiled during the deportations from Westerbork. He became a honorary Doctor at Amsterdam University in 2007.

  • Demjanjuk trial

    Next of kin to people killed in Sobibor, and survivors of the revolt played a major role as co-plaintiffs during the Demjanjuk trial.

    Whether or not the accused Demjanjuk would be prosecuted was, for Jules Schelvis, not the main question of the trial. The importance was in making known the name of Sobibor to a wider audience. Everyone should know what happened in Sobibor. As a witness he read in court the names of twenty close relatives he lost in Sobibor. He felt good about this.

  • 2,000 testimonials

    The Jewish Historical Museum made two thousand interviews from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute accessible to the public.

    An interview lasting 3.54 hours, labeled 76399, can be found in the Joods Historisch Museum and Hollandse Schouwburg.