Philip Bialowitz

Philip Bialowitz

(Philip as a 13 year old Prisoner at the Sobibor Death Camp in 1943.)

Philip Bialowitz was born on November 25, 1929 in Izbica, Poland.

Izbica was a Jewish Shtetl where 90% of the Population was Jewish.

His Parents ran a Tannery there.

Philip was deported to the Sobibor Death Camp in Germany-Occupied Poland in April 1943 (when he was 13 years old.)

Immediately, after getting off the Cattle Cars the Germans asked the Jews if any had special trades or professions.

Philip’s Brother, Simcha (who was 30 years old) told the Germans that he was a Pharmacist and that Philip was his Assistant – saving Philip from being murdered in the Gas Chamber.

The Germans made them “Working Jews” while Philip and Simcha’s Sisters and Neice were murdered in the Gas Chamber within an hour of arriving.

Philip worked as a Barber shaving the heads of the Prisoners as well as sorting the Belongings of those who were murdered.

 Philip and Simcha took part in the Sobibor Uprising on October 14, 1943.

Philip, who was 13 years old, was the Messenger.

He went up to different SS Men and told them that the Prisoners had found good quality Boots or a Jacket that they should look at.

When the Germans went to the huts, one by one, to look the Prisoners killed them with knives.

11 SS Men were killed in this way.

The Uprising then began with 600 of the Jewish Prisoners running through the Barbed-Wire Fence (the Electricity had been turned off) and through the minefield to the nearby forest all while the Germans and the Ukrainian Collaborator Guards shot at them.

365 Prisoners made it out of the Death Camp, but only 200 made it to the nearby forest.

100 of those who made it to the forest were later recaptured and killed by the4 Germans and the Ukrainians.

47 Prisoners of Sobibor (including 8 Women) survived the War.

On October 19, 1943 Himmler ordered Sobibor to be closed and sent Prisoners from the Treblinka Death Camp to dismantle the Gas Chambers and most of the buildings before they were killed in November 1943.

Philip and Simcha survived both the Uprising and the War by hiding at the home of Polish Catholics Farmers, Michał and Maria Mazurek, who would have been killed if the Germans had discovered them helping Jews.

From May 1942-October 1943 the Germans murdered 250,000 Men, Women and Children at Sobibor from German-Occupied Poland and German-Occupied the Netherlands.

After the War, Philip married and had Children before moving to New York where he worked as Jeweler.

(Philip in 2013.)

In 1965-1966, he testified as a Witness at the Sobibor Trials in Hagen, Germany.

It was the first time most of the World had ever heard about the Sobibor Death Camp.

Philip wrote “A Promise at Sobibor”, which detailed his early life growing up in Poland, his experience during World War II, and his Postwar life.

On October 14, 2013, the 70th Anniversary of the Uprising, Sobibor Survivors, including Thomas Blatt and Philip Bialowitz, Family Members, Politicians, Teenagers, and Religious Figures commemorated the Victims of Sobibor.

Philip Bialowitz died in Florida on August 6, 2016, at the age of 90.

The first Memorial at Sobibor was created in 1965 (after the Sobibor Trials) and comprised of Memorial Wall, an Obelisk symbolizing the Gas Chambers, a Sculpture of a Mother and her Child, and a Mausoleum called the "Memory Mound.”

Since the Communist Polish Government was Anti-Jewish no mention was made of the Jews murdered at Sobibor until 1993.

The Sobibor Death Camp did not become a Museum until 1993 when it was The Sobibór Museum or the Museum of the Former Sobibór Nazi Death Camp (Polish: Muzeum Byłego Hitlerowskiego Obozu Zagłady w Sobiborze.)