1. One of the former members of the Jewish Sonderkommando who escaped from the Treblinka extermination camp during the prisoner uprising of August 1943, Taigman later testified at the 1961 Eichmann Trial held in Jerusalem.
12 Facts About Kalman Taigman
1. 2.
Kalman Taigman returned to Treblinka for the first time in 2010, asked by film director Tzipi Beider to take part in a documentary, along with another Treblinka revolt survivor and friend of his, Samuel Willenberg.
3.
Kalman Taigman's mother was sent directly from the Holocaust train to the gas chambers, which were disguised as showers.
4.
Kalman Taigman was put to work with the Sonderkommando in the Auffanglager sorting barracks.
5.
Kalman Taigman described how the Germans had designed the camp to conceal its true purpose:.
6.
Kalman Taigman escaped during the uprising of 2 August 1943 by climbing over the barbed-wire fence under machine-gun fire by the guards.
7.
Kalman Taigman became a businessman in Israel, where he developed a successful import business.
8.
Together with Kalman Taigman, they testified at the 1961 trial of Holocaust perpetrator Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.
9.
Kalman Taigman was identified as a Trawnkiki camp guard, who drawn from Soviet POWs held by the Germans, who had been nicknamed "Ivan the Terrible" by Treblinka prisoners.
10.
Kalman Taigman said that Demjanjuk had not worked as a guard at Treblinka.
11.
Kalman Taigman was convicted but appealed the verdict, saying he had never worked at Treblinka.
12.
Kalman Taigman died in 2012 of a brain tumor, survived by his second wife Lea, a son, and two grandchildren.