Julian Chorążycki

Julian Chorążycki (August 19, 1885 – April 19, 1943) served as doctor-in-chief of the infantry regiment in the Polish Army during the reconstitution of sovereign Poland. In the interwar period, he was a throat surgeon practising in Warsaw. Born Jewish, Chorążycki spent two years in the Warsaw Ghetto. During the Holocaust in Poland he became the first leader of the perilous prisoner uprising at the Treblinka extermination camp. On August 2, 1943 – after the long period of preparation posing an immediate threat to life – an armed revolt in Treblinka erupted, however, Chorążycki killed himself on April 19, 1943, when faced with imminent capture, to avoid revealing details of the uprising and its participants under torture.

Life Julian Chorążycki was born to a Jewish family in Szawle (now Šiauliai) in the Russian Empire. His Organizing Committee at the Treblinka Totenlager included Zelomir Bloch (leadership), Rudolf Masaryk, Marceli Galewski, Samuel Rajzman, Dr. Irena Lewkowska (sick bay), Leon Haberman, and several others. Chorążycki collected a large lump-sum of hard cash from the Goldjuden commando with the intention of bribing a Trawniki guard he thought he had befriended. Instead, he was ambushed at work with the money by Untersturmführer Franz and swallowed a deadly poison before he could be arrested. Chorążycki was replaced in the Underground by Dr. Berek Lajcher from Wegrów (also a former Polish Army officer, who arrived at Treblinka on May 1). Lajcher (improperly, Lecher) launched the uprising on a hot summer day when a group of Germans and Ukrainians drove off to the Bug river for a swim. Several buildings were blown up. However, the machine gun fire from the well-trained Germans (some 25 of them) and Ukrainian Trawnikis (numbering around 60) resulted in near slaughter. Most prisoners perished. Only 150–200 Jews succeeded in crossing over to the other side. Half of those were killed after a chase. Only approximately 70 Jews are known to have survived until the end of the war, including future authors of published Treblinka memoirs: Jankiel Wiernik, Chil Rajchman, Richard Glazar, and Samuel Willenberg. There was also a revolt at Sobibor two months later.

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