Treblinka was a machine built to erase people like they never existed. Abraham Kolski should have been dead the moment he stepped off the train. Almost everyone was. But he was chosen for the work detail. His job was to sift through the last belongings of the murdered. Jewelry clothes even toys still warm from the hands that held them.

By the summer of 1943, the trains crawled along. This was not hope. This was a sign that the end was close. The Nazis did not want any witnesses to remain behind. Abraham and others decided to fight back. They used stolen guns and axes and lit the camp on fire.

The area erupted into chaos. Screams bullets fire. Hundreds were killed before they could reach the forest. Abraham lived. He walked for days before he happened to meet Stanisław Pogorzelski a Polish farmer. He and his father Julian risked everything to shelter the escapees for nearly a year.

When the Red Army arrived Abraham survived. Years afterward, he provided testimony against the Nazis. In 1969 the Pogorzelskis were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations for having stood up when it counted.

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