Hela Felenbaum-Weiss

Hela Felenbaum-Weiss (2 January 1924 – December 1988) was one of the few survivors of the Sobibor extermination camp and a decorated partisan fighter in the Soviet Red Army.

Early and family life Felenbaum-Weiss was born on 2 January 1924, in Lublin to a Jewish family of five. Before the outbreak of World War II, her family was middle-class. Her parents worked and she and her siblings were educated in schools in Lublin.

Her father, Mojsze Felenbaum, b. 1882 in Lublin, her mother, Henryka "Henia" Felenbaum née Flantzman, b. 1894 in Lublin, died together in November 1942 in the gas chambers of the Sobibor extermination camp.

Her brother Syzmon "Shimek" Felenbaum, b. 1921 in Lublin, attempted to escape in a prisoner transfer to Sobibor and was shot by Nazi SS officers. Her other brother Henryk "Heniek" Felenbaum, b. 1928 in Lublin, was murdered in the gas chambers of Sobibor in December 1942. In 1940, the family was forcibly resettled to Rejowiec, from where they were directed on foot (about 15 kilometers) to the town, and labor camp, of Siedliszcze. As an extermination camp rather than a concentration camp, Sobibor existed for the sole purpose of murdering Jews. The vast majority of prisoners were gassed within hours of arrival. Those not killed immediately were forced to assist in the operation of the camp, and few survived more than a few months. In total, some 170,000 to 250,000 people were murdered at Sobibor, making it the fourth-deadliest Nazi camp after Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Belzec.

By chance, Felenbaum-Weiss managed to avoid death in the gas chamber. She recalled the event as follows:As in a dream, I heard the voice of one of the Germans. He asked, "Does anyone know how to knit?" I stepped out of line. […] then they took me to the barracks, where I met two girls I knew: Zelda Metz and Estera Terner. When I was a child, my mother taught me how to knit socks. My job was to knit them for the Germans and iron shirts for the men of the SS. In contrast, her brother Henryk was sent to death in the gas chambers at Sobibor upon arrival. ''' She received five medals for combat: and by Chris Webb in Sobibor Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance''.