1. Samuel Willenberg, nom de guerre Igo, was a Polish Holocaust survivor, artist, and writer.
24 Facts About Samuel Willenberg
1. 2.
Samuel Willenberg was a Sonderkommando at the Treblinka extermination camp and participated in the unit's planned revolt in August 1943.
3.
At his death, Samuel Willenberg was the last survivor of the August 1943 Treblinka prisoners' revolt.
4.
Samuel Willenberg received Poland's highest orders, including the Virtuti Militari and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit, awarded by President Lech Kaczynski.
5.
Samuel Willenberg's father, Perec Willenberg, was a teacher at a local Jewish school before World War II, a talented painter and visual artist.
6.
Samuel Willenberg's mother, Maniefa Popow, was a Polish-Orthodox Christian who converted to Judaism after their wedding.
7.
Samuel Willenberg traded his father's paintings for food and other necessities, but worked at a steel mill in Starachowice for several months, along with hundreds of forced laborers supplied by the Judenrat.
8.
Samuel Willenberg's mother tried to rescue them and sent Willenberg back to Opatow.
9.
Samuel Willenberg posed as a seasoned bricklayer to show he could work.
10.
Samuel Willenberg was the only person from his transport of 6,000 persons who escaped death in the gas chambers that day.
11.
Samuel Willenberg later recognized the clothes of his own two sisters there, confirming they had been killed.
12.
Samuel Willenberg became involved in the underground resistance, including acquiring weapons for the left-wing partisan Polish People's Army PAL.
13.
Samuel Willenberg was hiding at a safe-house on Natolinska street, when the Warsaw Uprising erupted.
14.
Samuel Willenberg married Ada Willenberg, who had escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto by climbing over a wall.
15.
In 1950, during the peak years of Stalinism in Poland, Samuel Willenberg emigrated to Israel with his wife and mother.
16.
Samuel Willenberg took up training as an engineer surveyor and obtained a long-term position of Chief Measurer at the Ministry of Reconstruction.
17.
Samuel Willenberg graduated in sculpture at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and quickly became known for his work on the Holocaust.
18.
Samuel Willenberg created mainly figurative sculpture in clay and bronze.
19.
Samuel Willenberg's sculpture was shown at the Museum of Czestochowa in 2004.
20.
Samuel Willenberg created the Holocaust monument to the 40,000 victims of the Czestochowa Ghetto, which was unveiled there in October 2009.
21.
Samuel Willenberg first published his memoir Revolt in Treblinka in 1986.
22.
On 19 February 2016, Samuel Willenberg died in Israel, the last survivor of the Treblinka revolt.
23.
Samuel Willenberg was survived by his wife, Ada, their daughter Orit Willenberg-Giladi, and three grandchildren.
24.
An architect, Samuel Willenberg-Giladi designed the Israeli embassy in Berlin after unification; it was completed in 2001.