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Jewish Lives
Treblinka, slovo jak z dětské říkanky
10. října 1942 vystoupil R. Glazar z transportního vlaku na rampě stanice Treblinka. Přežil onemocnění tyfem i povstání v srpnu 1943 a podařilo se mu s kamarádem uniknout, oba si vyměnili jména a polská policie je poslala na práci do Německa. Tam se stala neuvěřitelná věc: oba mladí muži žijí v zemi, z níž nacisté organizují „konečné řešení židovské otázky“, až do konce války. Už brzy po ní si R. Glazar napsal poznámky a zachytil vzpomínky na obě části svého válečného „neživota“. Jeho velmi konkrétní, neidelogizující vyprávění nemohlo po válce vyjít. V roce 1968 bylo znovu připraveno k vydání, ale nakonec autor stačil jen vzít jednu kopii rukopisu do svého exilu ve Švýcarsku. Richard Glazar byl jedním z nejdůležitějších svědků v poválečném „treblinském“ procesu v Düsseldorfu a jedním z nejdůležitějších pamětníků vystupujících ve filmu Šoa.
333 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
January 7, 2013
The trap with a green fence refers to the pine branches that were woven through the chain link fence by the camouflage commando at the Treblinka extermination camp. This book was written by survivor Richard Glazar, who took part in the 1943 uprising and escaped with his best friend, Karl. The translation is a bit rough and disjointed, however, it does not diminish the poignancy of this book. Of particular interest was learning about Mr. Glazar's life immediately following his escape until the liberation in 1945. An extraordinary book written by a Treblinka survivor - one of only about 70 out of 1,000,000 who passed through the gates.
Sad to learn that Mr. Glazer eventually took his own life in Prague after the death of his wife. This seems a familiar story with extermination camp survivors.
Sad to learn that Mr. Glazer eventually took his own life in Prague after the death of his wife. This seems a familiar story with extermination camp survivors.
June 15, 2017
Why do I continue to read stories from the Holocaust? Well, it is my duty, my obligation, as Jew, and a granddaughter of Polish immigrants, to honor their lives, and hear their stories. To bear witness. Richard Glazar was one of the less than 1% who was chosen to work at Treblinka, a death camp that killed about 1,000,000 Jews during the war. Little is known of the camp (green fence is the barbed wire woven with pine branches that hid the small camp) because the average survival time there was less than 3 hours. Glazar was a worker, and his tale illuminates the machinery, the processing, the slaughter, but also the survival and day-to-day alertness, that was needed to stay alive. Also fascinating was the rebellion that succeeded in burning down the camp, (less than 70 survived), and his adventures after the escape. Translation is a bit jagged at points, but the story is so compelling. Factual, and respectful, but not maudlin. Detailed and intricate, in a way that you can see it in front of your eyes, the "transports" - the thousands of human beings brought in on trains - 5,000 a day, from Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, the Balkans. The organization and ruthless, systematic processing. Read it, know it, share it. Our history nearly ended here.
February 8, 2025
Richard Glazar beschreibt in seinem autobiographischen Werk seinen Alltag als "Arbeitsjuden" im Vernichtungslager Treblinka, den berühmten Aufstand von Treblinka und seine Flucht durch Polen, welche ihn schließlich nach Mannheim führt.
In Treblinka wurden zwischen 1942 und 1943 ca. 1 Millionen Menschen vergast, die meisten davon Juden. Die meisten von ihnen wurden direkt von der Bahnrampe in die Gaskammer geschickt.
Glazar entgeht diesem Schicksal und kommt stattdessen in ein Arbeitskommando, welches die Mäntel der täglich ankommenden Opfer nach Qualität und Größe sortiert. Aus dieser Perspektive schildert er das unvorstellbare Grauen von Treblinka, die mörderische Willkür der Wächter, welcher die Insassen jede Sekunde ausgesetzt sind.
Es fällt einem schwer sich vorzustellen, dass es an einem Ort wie Treblinka jemals so etwas wie einen Alltag gegeben haben könnte, doch gerade davon schreibt Glazar am meisten. Er beschreibt die Arbeit in der Sortierbaracke, die einzelnen Wächter und ihre Eigenheiten, sowie viele seiner Mithäftlinge. Wenn er ihre Gespräche untereinander beschreibt, könnte man manchmal kurz vergessen, wo er ist.
Über den Aufstand von Treblinka am 02. August 1943 schreibt Glazar nicht viel. Als einer von wenigen entkommt er zusammen mit einem Freund. Sie versuchen sich unter falscher Identität nach Tschechien durchzuschlagen und kommen durch die Hilfe polnischer Bauern auxh recht weit. Schließlich werden sie aber aufgeschnappt und erleben das Kriegsende als Zwangsarbeiter in Mannheim.
Zu den Treblinka-Prozessen in den 1960ern und -70ern konnten nur noch 54 Überlebende gefunden werden, die bereit und in der Lage waren, auszusagen. Glazar war einer von ihnen.
Glazars Buch ist ein wichtiges Zeugnis über den Holocaust, gleichzeitig ein zutiefst menschliches Buch.
Es erinnert eindrücklich daran, zu welch abgrundtiefer Niedertracht wir Menschen fähig sind, aber auch zu Mut, Resilienz und Nächstenliebe.
In Treblinka wurden zwischen 1942 und 1943 ca. 1 Millionen Menschen vergast, die meisten davon Juden. Die meisten von ihnen wurden direkt von der Bahnrampe in die Gaskammer geschickt.
Glazar entgeht diesem Schicksal und kommt stattdessen in ein Arbeitskommando, welches die Mäntel der täglich ankommenden Opfer nach Qualität und Größe sortiert. Aus dieser Perspektive schildert er das unvorstellbare Grauen von Treblinka, die mörderische Willkür der Wächter, welcher die Insassen jede Sekunde ausgesetzt sind.
Es fällt einem schwer sich vorzustellen, dass es an einem Ort wie Treblinka jemals so etwas wie einen Alltag gegeben haben könnte, doch gerade davon schreibt Glazar am meisten. Er beschreibt die Arbeit in der Sortierbaracke, die einzelnen Wächter und ihre Eigenheiten, sowie viele seiner Mithäftlinge. Wenn er ihre Gespräche untereinander beschreibt, könnte man manchmal kurz vergessen, wo er ist.
Über den Aufstand von Treblinka am 02. August 1943 schreibt Glazar nicht viel. Als einer von wenigen entkommt er zusammen mit einem Freund. Sie versuchen sich unter falscher Identität nach Tschechien durchzuschlagen und kommen durch die Hilfe polnischer Bauern auxh recht weit. Schließlich werden sie aber aufgeschnappt und erleben das Kriegsende als Zwangsarbeiter in Mannheim.
Zu den Treblinka-Prozessen in den 1960ern und -70ern konnten nur noch 54 Überlebende gefunden werden, die bereit und in der Lage waren, auszusagen. Glazar war einer von ihnen.
Glazars Buch ist ein wichtiges Zeugnis über den Holocaust, gleichzeitig ein zutiefst menschliches Buch.
Es erinnert eindrücklich daran, zu welch abgrundtiefer Niedertracht wir Menschen fähig sind, aber auch zu Mut, Resilienz und Nächstenliebe.
January 29, 2017
jedna z z nejlépe napsaných o holokaustu
March 2, 2025
The story being told is impressive and horrifying. 4 stars. The grammar and storytelling is pretty bad, possibly because of a bad translation to English.
If you want to read a story from the Reinhard camps I suggest Eyewitness Auschwitz from Filip Muller or Nyiszly’s Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account
If you want to read a story from the Reinhard camps I suggest Eyewitness Auschwitz from Filip Muller or Nyiszly’s Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account
October 17, 2024
première traduction pour un récit de treblinka en français me semble-t-il, à lire !
August 10, 2016
To niezwykle cenna książka, bo osób, które przetrwały i dały świadectwo o tym jak wyglądało życie w Treblince jest dosłownie kilka. Ta książka jest mniej drastyczna, niż np. wspomnienia Jechiela Rajchmana, który znajdował się w najgorszej części obozu i był zmuszony pracować jako "tragarz" i "dentysta". Glazar ciekawie pokazuje wątek powstańczy - to ile razy było planowane, jak wyglądały przygotowania, jak ograniczoną wiedzę można było mieć o tym co się wydarzy podczas powstania. Ta książka jest opowieścią o zaradności, solidarności i ryzyku, które mimo beznadziei jest nieustannie na nowo kalkulowane. Ciekawe są losy Glazara po powstaniu - sploty okoliczności, sprytne kłamstwa. Naprawdę warto poznać jego historię.
January 27, 2012
What an amazing story!! A truly gripping tale told by an individual who saw with their own eyes the hell that was Treblinka. I highly recommend this book but I will warn it is not for the faint of heart!
August 7, 2008
Horrible true story about a man's survival in Treblinka, the second largest concentration camp. Absolutely great to read yet horrifying and brutally honest at times.
January 20, 2020
“Trap With a Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka” by Richard Glazar (195 pages, 1992). Glazar, one of only a few dozen to survive the Treblinka Revolt of August 1943, provides testimony on the annihilation of an estimated 900,000 Jews at this death camp.
The author documents horrors witnessed in a rare first-hand account; two in particular stand out to this reader. The first (pages 32-33) is his depiction, perhaps a misplaced confession, of what happens as Glazar escorts an older woman from a transport to the “infirmary” where she is put to a certain death. The other is his description of what typically occurs after an unloading of a transport, excerpted here: “… All of the bodies are lying there lined up so neatly along the entire length of the platform, their feet toward the wall of barracks and their heads toward the cars. They are no longer so horrible. They are lumps. Handle them like lumps. The moment you look any one of them as an individual, you’re lost. No, you can’t do that; you can never look. The motionless eyes—I always get caught, cannot escape them, I get trapped, there are eyes everywhere, all of them staring at me, getting larger and larger, already blocking out foreheads, entire faces, resting on chins.…” Glazar goes on to document the high stakes, breathless effort to revolt and ultimately escape; and the aftermath that resulted in him and his friend Karl Unger being sent to Mannheim to a German work camp until liberation.
This important work is but one of a handful (e.g., Sam Willenberg, Yankel Wiernik, Chil Raichman, et al.) that document nazi atrocities at Treblinka, perpetrated upon an innocent, mostly but not exclusively Polish Jewish civilian population. The author writes in a restrained, gripping but not colorless style, each word finding a pained position in the reader's heart and consciousness. Required reading for any student of the Shoah.
The author documents horrors witnessed in a rare first-hand account; two in particular stand out to this reader. The first (pages 32-33) is his depiction, perhaps a misplaced confession, of what happens as Glazar escorts an older woman from a transport to the “infirmary” where she is put to a certain death. The other is his description of what typically occurs after an unloading of a transport, excerpted here: “… All of the bodies are lying there lined up so neatly along the entire length of the platform, their feet toward the wall of barracks and their heads toward the cars. They are no longer so horrible. They are lumps. Handle them like lumps. The moment you look any one of them as an individual, you’re lost. No, you can’t do that; you can never look. The motionless eyes—I always get caught, cannot escape them, I get trapped, there are eyes everywhere, all of them staring at me, getting larger and larger, already blocking out foreheads, entire faces, resting on chins.…” Glazar goes on to document the high stakes, breathless effort to revolt and ultimately escape; and the aftermath that resulted in him and his friend Karl Unger being sent to Mannheim to a German work camp until liberation.
This important work is but one of a handful (e.g., Sam Willenberg, Yankel Wiernik, Chil Raichman, et al.) that document nazi atrocities at Treblinka, perpetrated upon an innocent, mostly but not exclusively Polish Jewish civilian population. The author writes in a restrained, gripping but not colorless style, each word finding a pained position in the reader's heart and consciousness. Required reading for any student of the Shoah.
November 30, 2023
That Mr. Glazar survived the Treblinka extermination horrors is a miracle. Reportedly only 27 of more than 850,000 victims of Nazi terror that crossed Treblinka's threshold survived. During its relatively short existence, almost 15 months, it murdered as if the camp was in a frenzy. What makes Glazar's story so remarkable, aside from the fact that he survived, is that he detailed a side of the murder machine not well-known. Glazar, a Czech, arrived at Treblinka from the Theresienstadt concentration camp north of Prague. Upon arrival he was plucked out of the thousands destined for immediate death to work as a clothing sorter. The Nazi's made their victims disrobe prior to killing them and the mountains of clothing was sorted and shipped onward to Germany. Glazar soon understood that he and his fellow prisoners had value to the Nazi and Ukranian guards because they were able to pilfer items of clothing the guards' wanted. As a result, Glazar and his fellow inmates developed an almost client - merchant relationship with the murderers who controlled their fates. Glazar's story doesn't end with his successful escape as he ended up in Mannheim, Germany where for about 18 months he worked a factory which manufactured war materials. Remarkably, he managed to hide his Jewishness and his experience as an inmate in hands of the Nazi fiends who operated the Treblinka murder factory.
December 21, 2023
This was a bit of an eerie read for me because so much of it read like a novel. I got the sense that he disconnected emotionally from the events he was writing about. I've seen this type of distance in many survivor accounts that I've read and I can't say that I'm surprised by it. I'm fairly certain that I wouldn't even be able to speak about going through horrors such as these, let alone write about them.
He did write with a certain irony and almost dark humor about certain events that went on and I actually liked that because it gave me a much more clear picture of how they had all become accustomed to life in the camp. It all became routine for them. Seeing a friend get 25 lashes was just another day; it wasn't a traumatic thing (for either person) because it had become so typical. I think that was the most frightening part: The adaptation. And really over a fairly short period of time.
Books about Treblinka are few and far between. It isn't as well known as Auschwitz and other camps. And Treblinka was a true "death camp". They only kept enough people alive to run things. Everyone else was murdered immediately upon arrival.
He did write with a certain irony and almost dark humor about certain events that went on and I actually liked that because it gave me a much more clear picture of how they had all become accustomed to life in the camp. It all became routine for them. Seeing a friend get 25 lashes was just another day; it wasn't a traumatic thing (for either person) because it had become so typical. I think that was the most frightening part: The adaptation. And really over a fairly short period of time.
Books about Treblinka are few and far between. It isn't as well known as Auschwitz and other camps. And Treblinka was a true "death camp". They only kept enough people alive to run things. Everyone else was murdered immediately upon arrival.
May 26, 2022
34 i 2022:
En utrolige sterk bok fra en som overlevde Treblinka. Jeg visste ikke så mye om denne leiren, og det er jo rystende å lese om den brutaliteten og de forholdene de levde under.
Ord blir litt fattige her, men denne historien må vi ikke glemme.
Les og lær.
En utrolige sterk bok fra en som overlevde Treblinka. Jeg visste ikke så mye om denne leiren, og det er jo rystende å lese om den brutaliteten og de forholdene de levde under.
Ord blir litt fattige her, men denne historien må vi ikke glemme.
Les og lær.
October 22, 2016
An impressive book about an ordinary boy, in his twenties, who survives Teblinka, the most lethal camp of destruction in the holocaust. More info on http://boekenoveroorlog.blogspot.nl.
May 10, 2017
Had meer verwacht van dit boek, veel herhalingen, langdradig, veel gebruik van Duitse en Tsjechische woorden
February 6, 2023
Pretty unbelievable story, and heartbreaking to find out how his life ultimately ended.
July 26, 2022
Amazing memoir. So much insight from Richard Glazar, a Holocaust survivor and Sonderkommando at the Treblinka Death Camp. What he saw was not common among the survivors from the camps after liberation. He saw the system and machinery of genocide first hand. His position also gave him benefits aside from the right to life, like the silk pajamas he and other Sonderkommandos wore. This memoir highlights the trauma of genocide. He did not choose his luck, but he possessed tremendous agency for a camp inmate at any Nazi camp, but especially at Treblinka where the vast majority of Jews and others who entered had died upon arrival. It’s clear that he feels guilt about his position. On the whole, it reveals how horrible and evil genocide is. In the case of the Holocaust, the Nazis sought to pit the victims against each other by establishing the Sonderkommandos. In many ways, the existence of Sonderkommandos did create divides between survivors. What a tragedy.
August 21, 2025
Trap with a Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka by Richard Glazar
After reading Trains to Treblinka, I knew I wanted to read the books mentioned in the bibliography of that book. We learn about one of the few Treblinka survivors, Richard Glazar, in Trains to Treblinka, and a few years after he escaped from Treblinka, Richard wrote this memoir. After more editing, additions, and changes, Trap with a Green Fence was published decades later. I'm so glad that I read Trains to Treblinka before I read this book because I know I understood what Richard was seeing and experiencing so much better than if I had read this book without an understanding of the horrors of Treblinka.
At times, Richard's words are poetic, as if he is describing what he has seen and experienced in the only way he can. But usually the words are blunt, we see what he sees. The book goes past his escape out of Treblinka and tells of his experience in the next year, as he and his best friend still have to navigate a world that has people wanting to exterminate them. For people who escape camps like this one, the fight is far from over and many lost their lives after their escapes from Treblinka and other camps. And then, most of the survivors suffered from survivor's guilt. Their survival cast against the deaths of so many others haunted them for the rest of their lives. The entire experience haunted them forever.
Trains to Treblinka https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Pub Jan 1, 1994
After reading Trains to Treblinka, I knew I wanted to read the books mentioned in the bibliography of that book. We learn about one of the few Treblinka survivors, Richard Glazar, in Trains to Treblinka, and a few years after he escaped from Treblinka, Richard wrote this memoir. After more editing, additions, and changes, Trap with a Green Fence was published decades later. I'm so glad that I read Trains to Treblinka before I read this book because I know I understood what Richard was seeing and experiencing so much better than if I had read this book without an understanding of the horrors of Treblinka.
At times, Richard's words are poetic, as if he is describing what he has seen and experienced in the only way he can. But usually the words are blunt, we see what he sees. The book goes past his escape out of Treblinka and tells of his experience in the next year, as he and his best friend still have to navigate a world that has people wanting to exterminate them. For people who escape camps like this one, the fight is far from over and many lost their lives after their escapes from Treblinka and other camps. And then, most of the survivors suffered from survivor's guilt. Their survival cast against the deaths of so many others haunted them for the rest of their lives. The entire experience haunted them forever.
Trains to Treblinka https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Pub Jan 1, 1994
April 10, 2014
Written by one of the few shipped to Treblinka and survived. Glazar took part in the uprising that ultimately ended the operation of the camp (See "Into That Darkness" for the accounts of Franz Stangl the commandant of the camp). While not as powerfully written as "Night" or "Is This a Man" it is worth reading. There is very little of his life before Treblinka, and quite a bit of the narrative takes place after his escape, and his journey into Germany.
6-19-11
6-19-11
January 23, 2016
Please see my review of "The Last Jew of Treblinka" by Chil Rajchman for my comments on this book. Both were amazing reads but you really had to read a few pages and put it down for awhile to recover.
February 15, 2023
never forget
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