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A review by cheeriodoggo
The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Rajchman
5.0
I'm in Holocaust academia. I'm not sure how I have never read this one; I think I got caught between publication dates, as this was published for the first time in English relatively recently.
I do not work with Treblinka very often, but I am very impressed with this piece. The shortness and lack of detail is a choice by Rajchman, which I think many reviews here do not realize. While I do not work with Treblinka, I do spend a lot of time with Trebliinka's sister camp, Sobibor, and the two camps had the same commander at different points in the war (Franz Stangl) and the similarities between the camps are very obvious. One of those similarities being that the handful of survivor's from each camp is very much in poor head space.
The book is short because the author struggles to relive the trauma and, in my opinion, the length speaks to this in the healthiest way possible. There is not much about the escape, nor do you learn about many others who are also in the camp (the author simply refers to all the SS guards as "the murders" with only a few exceptions).
I'm quite fond of this one and will be adding it to my recommendations in the future. It's short. I read the entire thing over dinner. It doesn't hold back. It doesn't over-detail (it does the exact opposite, which as stated, as a detriment to some readers). But you get what you need and want from it. Rajchman bore witness; this book was published posthumously and that should be kept in mind while reading.
It isn't going to expand your knowledge of the Holocaust if you know nothing about it, but if you have a basic idea, it will at least give you a different perspective that is quite profound.
I do not work with Treblinka very often, but I am very impressed with this piece. The shortness and lack of detail is a choice by Rajchman, which I think many reviews here do not realize. While I do not work with Treblinka, I do spend a lot of time with Trebliinka's sister camp, Sobibor, and the two camps had the same commander at different points in the war (Franz Stangl) and the similarities between the camps are very obvious. One of those similarities being that the handful of survivor's from each camp is very much in poor head space.
The book is short because the author struggles to relive the trauma and, in my opinion, the length speaks to this in the healthiest way possible. There is not much about the escape, nor do you learn about many others who are also in the camp (the author simply refers to all the SS guards as "the murders" with only a few exceptions).
I'm quite fond of this one and will be adding it to my recommendations in the future. It's short. I read the entire thing over dinner. It doesn't hold back. It doesn't over-detail (it does the exact opposite, which as stated, as a detriment to some readers). But you get what you need and want from it. Rajchman bore witness; this book was published posthumously and that should be kept in mind while reading.
It isn't going to expand your knowledge of the Holocaust if you know nothing about it, but if you have a basic idea, it will at least give you a different perspective that is quite profound.