Mordechaï Podchlebnik or Michał Podchlebnik (1907 – 1985) was a

Polish Jew The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

who managed to survive

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. He was a member of the ''

Sonderkommando ''Sonderkommandos'' (, ''special unit'') were work units made up of German Nazi death camp prisoners. They were composed of prisoners, usually Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber vict ...

'' work detail for nearly two weeks at the

Chełmno extermination camp Chełmno or Kulmhof was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Germany annexed the area into the new territory of Re ...

occupied Poland ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octo ...

. Podchlebnik was one of at least three prisoners who escaped into the surrounding forest from the mass burial zone.

Life

He was born to a family of Jacob Podchlebnik and Sosia (Zosia) née Widawska from

Koło Koło (; during the German occupation called ''Wartbrücken'' in 1940–41, ''Warthbrücken'' in 1941–45) is a town on the Warta River in central Poland with 23,101 inhabitants (2006). It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodship (since 1 ...

, known also by the Polish equivalent of his first name, Michał. He witnessed the deportation of his father, mother, sister with her five children, and brother with his own wife and three children. Podchlebnik became a key witness in 1945 at the Chełmno Trials of the former ''SS'' men from the SS Special Detachment '' Kulmhof''. Decades later in 1961 he gave testimony at the Eichmann trial in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Podchlebnik was also interviewed by Claude Lanzmann for the documentary film

Shoah The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

.Shoah outtake footage
at the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

References

External links

Mordechai (Michael) Podchlebnik - Chelmno
at

(USHMM) 1907 births 1985 deaths People from Piotrków County People from Piotrków Governorate Chełmno extermination camp survivors Jews from the Russian Empire 20th-century Polish Jews Sonderkommando {{Poland-bio-stub Holocaust commemoration