15 Facts About Jules Schelvis

Jules Schelvis was a Dutch Jewish historian, writer, printer, and Holocaust survivor.

Jules Schelvis is known for his memoirs and historical research about Sobibor, for which he earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam, Officier in the Order of Orange-Nassau, and Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Jules Schelvis was born in Amsterdam, part of a secular Jewish family.

Jules Schelvis worked at various newspapers and participated in a local youth labour organization, where he met and courted a woman named Rachel Borzykowski.

Jules Schelvis grew close to Borzykowski and her family, whose residence was a local center of Yiddish culture.

At the Sobibor arrival ramp, Jules Schelvis was selected with Abraham Stodel to join a work unit sent to Dorohucza labor camp.

Jules Schelvis survived because he asked for a meeting with the camp commandant, who happened to be aware that another nearby labor camp needed a printer.

However, for unclear reasons, Jules Schelvis was instead sent to Lublin airfield camp, where he was forced to build barracks.

Conditions in Radom where significantly better than Jules Schelvis had experienced in Lublin or Dorohucza.

Jules Schelvis returned to Amsterdam after his terrible experiences on 30th June, 1945.

Jules Schelvis remarried and tried to begin his life anew whilst accepting the need to comprehend his experiences.

Jules Schelvis turned to writing and from the beginning of the 1980s devoted his research to the memory of those who died in Sobibor.

Jules Schelvis has written the standard work over the history of the camp.

Jules Schelvis was a plaintiff and expert witness during the trials of Karl Frenzel, John Demjanjuk, among other Holocaust perpetrators.

Jules Schelvis was the founder of Stichting Sobibor as well as the author of several memoirs and historical studies about Sobibor.