A lot of the Holocaust books I've read have focused on the concentration camps in and around Germany. I never read anything about the Polish camps. I never knew that the Polish camps were not concentration camps - they were extermination camps. With few exceptions, every person who entered Treblinka suffered a horrible fate: immediate gassing and cremation.
The only thing worse than being gassed and cremated was having to shave the heads of men and women who were headed to the gas chambers. And having to pull the teeth of the dead to extract gold fillings. And having to pick up bone shards and unearth corpses. Chil Rajchman did it all, until he escaped. Then later, he identified SS war criminals and testified against them in court.
This story is a profound, disturbing, and moving tale that needed to be heard.
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