Early Treblinka survivor - David Milgrom (Neftali Milgraum)

[Archie]

All the recent Wiernik talk reminded me of this Milgrom guy. We had a thread on him on the old forum, but it appears to be gone. No matter, as I can recreate it pretty easily.

Milgrom, according to his story, was deported to Treblinka and spent four days there before escaping. In his account, it says he reached Warsaw the morning after Sukkot (the Jewish holiday). In 1942, Sukkot was from Sep 24 to Oct 1, so he would have reached Warsaw on Oct 2, 1942 and thus would have been in Treblinka right at the end of September.

His main Treblinka account is dated Aug 30, 1943, and a version of his story was published anonymously in January 1944 in various periodicals.

"I Lived to Tell the Horrors of Treblinka," B'nai B'rith Messenger, 7 Jan 1944, pg. 1
https://www.nli.org.il/en/newspapers/bb ... article/1/

Like Wiernik, Milgrom is notable for having published an early and detailed war-time account of Treblinka, though Milgrom for whatever reason is far less known and not been cited nearly much.

There are two major problems I see with Milgrom's story.

1) He indicates that after the gassing the bodies were thrown into a fire pit, 10 meters deep. This is at odds with the standard story that says the bodies were initially buried in mass graves and only later burned.

The doors were sealed for 15 minutes at a time, and when they were opened, all who had been locked in were dead.

Five hundred men were assigned to the task of removing the corpses and throwing them into the burning pit.

2) He describes the gas chamber building as having eight barracks. The standard story is that there was initially a smaller building with three chambers. Then later they built a newer, bigger gas chamber building. The testimonies vary somewhat in the number of chambers in the second gas chamber building. Wiernik claims 10 chambers in a 2x5 arrangement. Gerstein on some others claim 8 chambers. Milgrom's description would seem to correspond to the second larger building rather than the first. But according to the traditional timeline, that building would not have been completed yet when Milgrom was in the camp.

He does not claim to have seen this directly, but he says he spoke to two gravediggers who provided him with this information (this would be only one level removed).

I can't help but notice that he wrote the story almost a whole year after the time he was supposedly there, and it seems he anachronistically worked in some of the later 1943 Treblinka lore into his 1942 story.

--Additional--

Here's a version that is longer than the one published in the press
https://search.archives.jdc.org/multime ... _00858.pdf

See also here
https://memoryoftreblinka.org/david-pavel-milgrom/

And see here for an account in Hebrew
https://collections.yadvashem.org/en/documents/5408698

Yad Vashem also refers to him as "Neftali Milgraum." I found a source that says David was an alternate name. And later it seems he went by Pavel. These Jews and their name changes!

Webb and Chocholatý list David Milgrom as a survivor of Treblinka, though I believe “David” is actually just another name used by Naftali Milgraum/Milgroym who is already on the list.

Page 237
https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/ ... -832c6.pdf

[Stubble]

With the various names and spellings I am reminded of the words of GLR and that which he said I could never forget...



Name changes were habitual...

[TlsMS93]

According to Nessie, it doesn't matter how many gas chambers there were or whether they were cremated before or after burial; what matters is that everyone admits to being gassed. He doesn't even consider how much this was fueled by rumors that everyone began to replicate to feel important: "Look, I survived hell."

[Archie]

There is a bit at the end (of the longer version) that caught my eye in light of the recent Wiernik discussions.

I decided to go to Krakau, and before the journey, I procured “Aryan” papers for myself. At Krakau, after a long search, I found my business friends, Viktor and Henryk Torstein, and Marysia Orlovska, who had worked with us before. All three are now here with me. They were amazed at my sudden appearance, because they knew that I had been deported from Czestochova, and there had never been a case of a safe return from a deportation. All four of us decided now to escape to Hungary, and for this purpose we made for the Hungarian frontier at Turki near Stryj. We got in touch with the smugglers who were to bring us across the frontier with great dispatch, because it had leaked out that Turki would be evacuated within 8 days. My three comrades returned to Krakau and I was to go before them to Hungary and make the necessary preparations for their crossing. I went with a group of about ten people under the guidance of the smugglers who were to lead the way across the frontier in return for a fee of 20,000 Zloty (ca. 500 Dollars) for every member of the group. We were cheated, however, by the guides who took our money and abandoned us in the forest. We spent 11 days in the forest, and finally returned. I for my part went back to my friends at Krakau. The Ghetto still existed there, but we as “Aryans” obviously resided outside the Ghetto. To live in Krakau was rather dangerous; for this reason we induced an acquaintance by the name of Jellonek, who was married to a Jewess, to buy a villa at Swoszowice near Krakau at our expense, but in his name, and let it to us. Mrs. Marysia Orlovska kept the house for us.

While we were in the forest near Turki I bought a Hungarian Certificate of Residence (Heimatschein) from a Jew for 2000 Zloty. I intended to use this certificate for registration and thus obtained the status of a foreigner, to whom the anti-Jewish regulations did not apply. This registration was to be arranged by Mr. Eliezer Landau, who possessed the necessary contacts with the competent authorities at Bochnia, and who was ready to help us if he would receive in return similar certificates for himself and all his family. We accordingly turned all our energy toward procuring a metal stamp for counterfeiting. Viktor Rotstein went to Stryj, where such papers were reported to be obtainable; however, he was caught in the deportation rush at Stryj and was carried off in a railway truck. He succeeded in making his escape at Lemberg, and returned to Krakau. After that Henryk Rotstein went to Warsaw and procured the stamp from the firm of Kolesa Trnbaka. The stamp was made out for the parish of Hust. We used it to forge a large number of Hungarian Certificates of Residence, which were countersigned by the chief of the German police at Bochnia, whose name was Schönberg.

In the meantime we had to escape from Swoszowice because Jellonek had been denounced by a Jew. He was arrested and shot because an old radio set was found on his loft. The informer Samuel Brodmann, a disciple (Chassid) of the Rabbi of Bobowa, had actually plotted against the brothers Rotstein, and the police were really looking for Viktor Rotstein when they found Jellonek’s wireless.

Our certificates made it possible for us to live outside the Bochnia Ghetto. We had moved to Bochnia on February 15, 1943, and from there we managed to get in touch with Slovakian smugglers, with whose aide we finally succeeded, with great difficulty, in crossing the Slovakian border. Here again I must mention the valuable help of Mrs. Orlovska, who crossed with us.

It seems Jews were quite adept at counterfeiting and forging false papers as I have seen this mentioned in multiple accounts. I think I will start collecting references to such practices as this might be a non-trivial piece of the overall puzzle.