Memory of Treblinka Foundation
"Book of Names" - a database of Treblinka victims, has its origins in the initiative to read the Names of Jews, residents of Poland, which was undertaken in 2010 by Ewa Telezynska-Sawicka and Pawel Sawicki. They mostly read them at Treblinka. In order not to repeat the names, they began to write them down – and that's how the "Book of Names" began to emerge. In 2015, Samuel Willenberg and Prof. Pawel Spiewak (head of the Jewish Historical Institute) established the "Memory of Treblinka" Foundation, and invited the Sawickis to join it. Since then, the Foundation has been collecting data on Treblinka victims, and escapees/survivors. Not only is basic data collected; first name, last name, age, address or occupation, but also the stories of individuals and their family connections, so that whole families can be commemorated.
The Treblinka extermination camp is the largest cemetery for Polish Jews. They were brought to it without any transportation lists. This is why it is so difficult to compile a list of the murdered. It is a true archaeology of memory— assembling information about a murdered person, her/his family or community from scattered fragments. The Foundation wants to restore as many of the murdered to collective memory as possible.
That's why for more than a dozen years now, every last Saturday of the month, joint readings of found stories about the victims of Treblinka—those who died here, those who escaped from here—have been organized. But one of the Foundation's goals is also to build a Wall of Names in Treblinka, next to the new Museum building, where the names, surnames and ages of all found victims will be carved in stone. In April 2015 there were close to 110,000 names in the Foundation's database. They hope to have more than 120,000 on the Wall of Names.
The Holocaust Historical Society salute the work of Ewa Telezynsska - Sawicka and Pawel Sawicki and thank them warmly for letting us take part in the Memorial Reading at Treblinka on March 29, 2025.
All photographs Wojtech Szumowski, and Chris Webb
© Holocaust Historical Society May 28, 2025
