Philip Bialowitz

Born:
25 November 1929, Izbica (Poland)
Interview:
09 April 2010

"Following immoral orders must be punished"

Spoken language: English

The Nazi Germans used Izbica, the Polish village where Philip Bialowitz was born, as a transitory ghetto for Jews on their way to the destruction camps in Eastern Poland. In Izbica Philip Bialowitz survived a fire squad as a young boy. He was deported to Sobibor in 1943 and selected for forced labour upon arrival. Philip's elder brother, Simkha, took care of him wherever possible. Philip was involved in the revolt and was assigned by its leader as a messenger who had to draw the Germans' attention and bring them to a place where they could be killed.

After the revolt Philip, who was almost eighteen by then, managed to flee and to find a hiding place with a Polish family who hid him and his brother in a barn. He did not want to stay in Poland after the war because of anti-Semitism. He emigrated to the United States after having stayed in two refugee camps (for Displaced Persons) in Germany.

 

Philip feels obliged to keep the reality and horrors of Sobibor in remembrance. He often gives lectures and he told the story of his life in a book, "A Promise at Sobibor: A Jewish Boy’s Story of Revolt and Survival in Nazi-Occupied Poland."

In this interview is talked about:

  • Jewish life

    Which Jewish customs and traditions are referred to by the interviewees? Did they observe Jewish holidays before the Second World War? What role does their Jewishness play now? This section deals with Jewish life in the Netherlands and Poland.

    According to Jewish traditions matzes are eaten at Pesakh. Philip Bialowitz still recalls how fellow villagers made matzes for the whole community every year. His mother would take the lead and select twenty young women to prepare the food. Philip was allowed to help as a small boy and to do a bit more each year. The first year he measured off the flour, the following year he poured in water, and the third year he made holes in the matzes. Still later he was even allowed to put the matzes in the oven.

  • Life before the war

    In this section interviewees recollect their lives before the Second World War. The large majority of them grew up in Jewish Amsterdam. They tell about their childhood, recalling more or less beautiful aspects of family life...

    Philip Bialowitz was born in the shtetl of Izbica. He remembers how poor the town was, and the fact the majority of the local Jewish population belonged to the ultra-orthodox Chassidic Jewry. Philip comes from a family with six children: three boys and six girls. The family was religious, but not chassidic. Among other things, his parents would distribute food on sabbath. Youth who had he opportunity to continue their education would go to Warsaw; Philip's brother Simkha (Semokhai) was a pharmacy student there.

  • Life during the war

    Daily life was becoming more and more difficult for Jews during the German occupation. Persecution gradually became more intrusive and more gruesome. People tried to carry on with their everyday lives as long as they could.

    Philip Bialowitz spent the first years of the war in his place of residence Izbica. He survived the firing squad in the local graveyard. A German Jewish family moved in with the Bialowitz family, and one day he saw them (secretly) embracing a Gestapo man, who appeared to be a remote cousin of theirs. Philip remained suspicious of espionage. One of the daughters of the family became his friend. When his brother Simkha worked as an assistant to a hospital doctor, Philip, as a teenager, desinfected houses after the occupants had been deported. One day the Wehrmacht cut of his father's beard in the middle of the street. Living conditions in the Izbica transitory ghetto were horrible. People were suffering from hunger and typhus was going around.  The Bialowitz family hid in the surrounding woods and in a hiding place at the leather factory of Philip's father, but was rounded up in the end.

  • Expectations

    Jews in the Netherlands must have sensed that life under German occupation was going to be hard and unpleasant for them. But what did they expect, what exactly did they think?

    When living in the Izbica transitory ghetto, Philip Bialowitz was aware of the fact that Sobibor and Belzec, close by, were destruction camps. The Polish population knew about this. Philip's family discussed the situation under Hitler. The rabbi was convinced that the Jews would be helped by a miracle; Philip didn't believe this. In order to escape deportation, Philip's family and many others hid in the woulds surrounding Izbica. But his family was found and deported to Sobibor. He was told later that is sister, before entering the gas chamber, asked how long the gassing would take. He remembers that Jews from the Netherlands were ignorant of what they were up to.

  • In hiding

    Part of the interviewees survived the war in hiding. Members of this group were in hiding with a non-Jewish foster family in the Netherlands as a baby or infant. A number of those surviving Sobibor found a hiding place in Poland after the revolt.

    After their escape from the Sobibor destruction camp Philip Bialowitz and his brother Simkha managed to go into hiding with a poor Polish peasant family. For a long time they lived in a barn. From Sobibor they had taken jewelry, which his brother bartered for money. With this money they paid the family with which they were in hiding. The fear of betrayal was always present in anti-Semitic Poland.

  • Camps & ghettos

    There were three transit camps and one SS concentration camp in the Netherlands during the German occupation. Interviewees recollect their experiences in Westerbork and Vught. Camp life in Germany and Poland is also discussed.

    Philip Bialowitz arrived in Sobibor together with his father - his mother had been shot already earlier -, his elder brother, Simkha, two sisters, and a niece. With Simkha he was selected for force labour, thus escaping death. Among other things, Philip sorted jewelry and cut the hair of women before they entered the gas chambers. Later Philip would hear that his sister asked how long the gassing would take.
    Philip Bialowitz was involved in the revolt and appointed messenger by the leaders; he had to draw the Germans' attention so as to bring them to places where they could be killed. A day before the revolt Simkha gave him a flask of cyanide in case he would taken prisoner and a compass so as to find his way in case he would succeed in escaping.

  • Liberation

    Many interviewees are ambiguous about the liberation. They survived the war, but at what cost? Relatives and loved ones had been killed. Feelings of gratitude were mixed with feelings of mourning and loss.

    After his escape from Sobibor Philip Bialowitz expected to be received as a destruction camp survivor, but that was not what happened: in the contrary, he was put into prison under suspicion of espionage. Together with his brother Simkha he went into hiding for another year with people in the Polish countryside. He considers those who provided them with this hiding place as heroes, because in case of disclosure they would have been killed, as many Poles collaborate with the Nazi Germans.

  • Life after the war

    How did it feel when many did not return after the war? Interviewees recollect how they resumed their lives, shaped by such huge losses.

    After the war Philip Bialowitz wanted to leave anti-Semitic Poland. He had plans to emigrate to Palestine, but soon the idea of having to serve in the army and running the risk of losing his life as one of the last of his kin made him decide to emigrate to the United States instead. There he became a jeweller and married twice. Now, long after the war, Philip Bialowitz maintains good relations with young Poles.

  • Rebuilding lives

    So many people, so many different lives. Each of the interviewees have their own way of coping with the enormous loss that bears the name of Sobibor.

    Once retired, Philip Bialowitz devoted his life to the memory of, and truth about Sobibor. Having survived Sobibor he feels obliged to tell younger generations about the dangers of anti-Semitism. During the trial in Hagen, Germany, 1965-1966, in which, among other, camp commander Karl Frenzel stood trial, he acted as a witness.

  • 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.

    Philip Bialowitz acted as a witness in after-war trials of former SS men who worked in Sobibor. He remembered the cruelties of former camp commanders, Karl Frenzel and Gustav Wagner. Because of his war experiences he suffered from nightmares. After the war he returned to Sobibor, at one instance with a film crew. In a graveyard in Izbica, where his mother was killed during the Nazi regime, he found parts of skeletons and bones that lay around all over the place. He buried some of these remains in New York with a modest ceremony.

  • 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.

    Philip Bialowitz was a co-plaintiff, among others for his father and sisters. He considers it a moral duty to resist executing immoral orders to save one's own life. This regards Demjanjuk as well, and should the judge decide that Demjanjuk really was in Sobibor, he should be punished correspondingly.

  • 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 2.57 hours, labeled 32788, can be found in the "Joods Historisch Museum."