Richard Glazar
Encyclopedia
Richard Glazar was a Czech
Jew who lived through World War II
, one of only a few survivors of the Treblinka death camp. He portrayed the horror of Treblinka to the world in his book Trap with a Green Fence.
, Czechoslovakia
. His family was Jewish-Bohemian, his father having served in the Austro-Hungarian army. As such, the family spoke both Czech and German — a skill that would stand him in good stead later in life. In 1932 Glazar’s parents divorced. His mother married a wealthy leather merchant, Quido Bergmann and four years later they had two children, Karel and Adolf. Karel died in the Austrian concentration camp at Mauthausen on May 17, 1942. Adolf was captured by the Nazis, but later rescued by the Danish Red Cross. Hugo, Glazar’s father, died of pneumonia in the Soviet Union, to where he had escaped from Nisko
in the General Government
of Poland. 1100 Czech Jews had been deported there by the Nazis in 1939. The only member of his family still alive when he returned to Prague in 1945 was his mother, who had survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen
.
On November 17 1939, all Czech universities were closed until the end of the war following student demonstrations against the execution of a number of their fellow students. This terrible act would have been one of the Glazar family’s first warnings of the horrific events to follow, and fearing for his safety, his family sent him to a farm outside Prague in 1940. Glazar stayed there for two years. But on September 12, 1942 he was transported to the Nazi concentration camp or ghetto at Theresienstadt (previously the fortified town of Terezin
. It was located 35 miles north of Prague). Following the German occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia on March 15 1939, Theresienstadt became a holding area for transports to other concentration camps, such as Auschwitz.
In Terezin, Glazar met Karl Unger who became a close friend. He was to stay in Terezin for only one month, before he and Unger were transported to Treblinka on October 8, 1942.
“We were taken to the barracks. The whole place stank. Piled high in a jumbled mass were all the things people could conceivably have brought……As I worked I asked him: ‘What’s going on? Where are the ones who stripped?’ He yelled in Yiddish: ‘Dead! All Dead!’”
New arrivals to Treblinka were told to strip so that they could go to the disinfectant baths. Herded into communal “baths”, gas was pumped in instead of water — an efficient method of mass extermination. About a month after Glazar arrived in Treblinka, as an alternative to mass burial, the burning of bodies began. Glazar and Unger were “fortunate” that the commandant of the camp, Franz Stangl
, had decided to train some inmates as workers to sort the belongings of those sent to the gas chambers. Glazar’s command of both the Czech and German languages may have helped him to secure one of these jobs. Packs of clothes were sent to Germany or to the fighting fronts, gold from teeth was extracted and added to coins and jewelry Jews had brought with them and added to the wealth of the Reich. Food and luxuries helped sustain both the German guards and any workers who could steal them. Glazar and Unger were to spend the next several months working in the camp, knowing that they were working for a cause that killed thousands of their people every month.
From January to March 1943, no transports came into the camp. The captives had virtually no food. This would have brought a horrible realisation to these Jewish workers that their lives depended entirely on the transports arriving regularly: their own survival depended on the ongoing deaths of their fellow countrymen, for food and clothing.
It was this kind of knowledge that drove them so hard to try and escape, as it would help to bring down the death camp, because with no Jews to do their work, the Nazis would have a lot more trouble running such camps so efficiently. The first escape attempt was planned for January 1943, and was code-named “The Hour”. The idea was that at a specified time, all those working for the camp would attack the SS and Ukrainian guards, steal their weapons and attack the camp Kommandantur. Unfortunately, this did not go ahead as typhus
broke out and many inmates either died, were hospitalized or were too sick to participate. The escape that actually worked was slightly less violent and ambitious. On August 2, 1943, men broke out through a damaged gate during a prisoner’s revolt. While most of the escapees were arrested close to the camp, Glazar and Unger fled from the area and made their way across Poland.
It is quite surprising that Nazi security allowed this to happen, as they would have known the importance of containing all of the captives who may have been able to pass on vital information on the inner workings of the camps. While on the run, Glazar and Unger were arrested by a forester, but they managed to convince him that they were Czechs working for “Organisation Todt
” (a Nazi construction and engineering group in Poland). Both men were later sent to Mannheim
, in Germany, to work for Heinrich Lanz as immigrant workers, using incorrect papers.
. Glazar also helped Michael Peters, the founder of the Aktion Reinhard Camps (ARC, a network of private Holocaust researchers), build a model of the Treblinka death camp.
Glazar committed suicide on December 20, 1997 by jumping out of a window in Prague after the death of his wife, leaving the model incomplete.
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
Jew who lived through World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, one of only a few survivors of the Treblinka death camp. He portrayed the horror of Treblinka to the world in his book Trap with a Green Fence.
Family
Glazar was born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. His family was Jewish-Bohemian, his father having served in the Austro-Hungarian army. As such, the family spoke both Czech and German — a skill that would stand him in good stead later in life. In 1932 Glazar’s parents divorced. His mother married a wealthy leather merchant, Quido Bergmann and four years later they had two children, Karel and Adolf. Karel died in the Austrian concentration camp at Mauthausen on May 17, 1942. Adolf was captured by the Nazis, but later rescued by the Danish Red Cross. Hugo, Glazar’s father, died of pneumonia in the Soviet Union, to where he had escaped from Nisko
Nisko
Nisko is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland on the San River, with a population of 15,534 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009...
in the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...
of Poland. 1100 Czech Jews had been deported there by the Nazis in 1939. The only member of his family still alive when he returned to Prague in 1945 was his mother, who had survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
.
Early life and Terezin
Richard Glazar was accepted into the Charles University of Prague in June 1939. He was originally enrolled as a philosophy student, but anti-Jewish legislation after the German occupation forced him into a course reading economics. His entire family had the chance to move to England at Christmas in 1938, when his stepfather obtained a permit. Glazar however did not take this opportunity, as he did not want to leave behind all that he had built up in Czechoslovakia. At this stage there could have been little understanding of the horrors that were to occur in the coming years.On November 17 1939, all Czech universities were closed until the end of the war following student demonstrations against the execution of a number of their fellow students. This terrible act would have been one of the Glazar family’s first warnings of the horrific events to follow, and fearing for his safety, his family sent him to a farm outside Prague in 1940. Glazar stayed there for two years. But on September 12, 1942 he was transported to the Nazi concentration camp or ghetto at Theresienstadt (previously the fortified town of Terezin
Terezín
Terezín is the name of a former military fortress and adjacent walled garrison town in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic.-Early history:...
. It was located 35 miles north of Prague). Following the German occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia on March 15 1939, Theresienstadt became a holding area for transports to other concentration camps, such as Auschwitz.
In Terezin, Glazar met Karl Unger who became a close friend. He was to stay in Terezin for only one month, before he and Unger were transported to Treblinka on October 8, 1942.
Treblinka
Glazar describes his arrival at Treblinka:“We were taken to the barracks. The whole place stank. Piled high in a jumbled mass were all the things people could conceivably have brought……As I worked I asked him: ‘What’s going on? Where are the ones who stripped?’ He yelled in Yiddish: ‘Dead! All Dead!’”
New arrivals to Treblinka were told to strip so that they could go to the disinfectant baths. Herded into communal “baths”, gas was pumped in instead of water — an efficient method of mass extermination. About a month after Glazar arrived in Treblinka, as an alternative to mass burial, the burning of bodies began. Glazar and Unger were “fortunate” that the commandant of the camp, Franz Stangl
Franz Stangl
Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian-born SS commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany for the mass murder of 900,000 people, and in 1970 was found guilty...
, had decided to train some inmates as workers to sort the belongings of those sent to the gas chambers. Glazar’s command of both the Czech and German languages may have helped him to secure one of these jobs. Packs of clothes were sent to Germany or to the fighting fronts, gold from teeth was extracted and added to coins and jewelry Jews had brought with them and added to the wealth of the Reich. Food and luxuries helped sustain both the German guards and any workers who could steal them. Glazar and Unger were to spend the next several months working in the camp, knowing that they were working for a cause that killed thousands of their people every month.
From January to March 1943, no transports came into the camp. The captives had virtually no food. This would have brought a horrible realisation to these Jewish workers that their lives depended entirely on the transports arriving regularly: their own survival depended on the ongoing deaths of their fellow countrymen, for food and clothing.
It was this kind of knowledge that drove them so hard to try and escape, as it would help to bring down the death camp, because with no Jews to do their work, the Nazis would have a lot more trouble running such camps so efficiently. The first escape attempt was planned for January 1943, and was code-named “The Hour”. The idea was that at a specified time, all those working for the camp would attack the SS and Ukrainian guards, steal their weapons and attack the camp Kommandantur. Unfortunately, this did not go ahead as typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
broke out and many inmates either died, were hospitalized or were too sick to participate. The escape that actually worked was slightly less violent and ambitious. On August 2, 1943, men broke out through a damaged gate during a prisoner’s revolt. While most of the escapees were arrested close to the camp, Glazar and Unger fled from the area and made their way across Poland.
It is quite surprising that Nazi security allowed this to happen, as they would have known the importance of containing all of the captives who may have been able to pass on vital information on the inner workings of the camps. While on the run, Glazar and Unger were arrested by a forester, but they managed to convince him that they were Czechs working for “Organisation Todt
Organisation Todt
The Todt Organisation, was a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in Germany named after its founder, Fritz Todt, an engineer and senior Nazi figure...
” (a Nazi construction and engineering group in Poland). Both men were later sent to Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, in Germany, to work for Heinrich Lanz as immigrant workers, using incorrect papers.
Life After the War
Following the end of the war, when Glazar and Unger were liberated by the Americans, Glazar attended the trials of many of the Nazis concerned with Treblinka, including Franz Stangl. Glazar also went on to study in Prague, Paris, and London, and received a degree in economics — the field he had been forced into by anti-Jewish legislation in 1939. In 1968 he and his family moved to Switzerland after the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the armies of the Warsaw PactWarsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
. Glazar also helped Michael Peters, the founder of the Aktion Reinhard Camps (ARC, a network of private Holocaust researchers), build a model of the Treblinka death camp.
Glazar committed suicide on December 20, 1997 by jumping out of a window in Prague after the death of his wife, leaving the model incomplete.
See also
- SchutzstaffelSchutzstaffelThe Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
- List of Holocaust survivors
- Shoah (Film by Claude Lanzmann)Shoah (film)This page is about the film by the name of Shoah. For other uses, see Shoah Shoah is a 1985 French documentary film directed by Claude Lanzmann about the Holocaust...
