Jules Schelvis
Schelvis in 2006
Born	( 1921-01-07 ) 7 January 1921 Amsterdam , Netherlands
Died	3 April 2016 (2016-04-03) (aged 95) Amstelveen , Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Occupation(s)	Historian, author, Nazi hunter
Spouse	Rachel Borzykowski ​ ​ ( m.  1940; died 1943) ​

Jules Schelvis (7 January 1921 ? 3 April 2016) was a Dutch Jewish historian, writer, printer, and Holocaust survivor . Schelvis was the sole survivor among the 3,005 people on the 14th transport from Westerbork to Sobibor extermination camp , having been selected to work at nearby Dorohucza labour camp . He is known for his memoirs and historical research about Sobibor, for which he earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Amsterdam , Officier in the Order of Orange-Nassau , and Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland .

Schelvis was born in Amsterdam, part of a secular Jewish family. After high school, he trained as a printer and worked for Printing Office Lindenbaum in Amsterdam. He worked at various newspapers and participated in a local youth labour organization, where he met and courted a woman named Rachel Borzykowski. Schelvis grew close to Borzykowski and her family, whose residence was a local center of Yiddish culture . Schelvis and Borzykowski married in 1941, partly in the hope that this would protect her and her Polish Jewish immigrant family from deportation. ^[1]

However, Schelvis and his family were rounded up in Amsterdam on 26 May 1943. They were deported to Westerbork transit camp , where they spent six days before being sent to Sobibor extermination camp . They were among the 3,005 Dutch Jews on the 14th transport to Sobibor. The journey lasted for 4 days. At the Sobibor arrival ramp, Schelvis was selected to join a work unit sent to Dorohucza labor camp . The rest of his family and the Borzykowskis were gassed immediately. ^[2]

At Dorohucza, Polish and Dutch Jews were forced to work in abominable conditions building latifundia for Generalplan Ost . Schelvis survived because he asked for a meeting with the camp commandant, who happened to be aware that another nearby labor camp needed a printer. However, for unclear reasons, Schelvis was instead sent to Lublin airfield camp , where he was forced to build barracks. From there, he was transferred to Radom Ghetto , where he was tasked with reassembling a printing press which had been disassembled for transport from Warsaw . Conditions in Radom where significantly better than Schelvis had experienced in Lublin or Dorohucza. With the Red Army approaching, Schelvis was sent on a death march to Tomaszow Mazowiecki . From there he eventually reached Vaihingen near Stuttgart, where he was liberated by the French army on 8 April 1945. ^[2]

Schelvis was a plaintiff and expert witness during the trials of Karl Frenzel , John Demjanjuk , among other Holocaust perpetrators. ^{[2] [3]} He is the founder of Stichting Sobibor as well as the author of several memoirs and historical studies about Sobibor. ^[4]

Notable works [ edit ]

• Sobibor: A History of a Nazi Death Camp (2014) Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN   978 14 7258 906 4
• Vernietigingskamp Sobibor (1993) Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw. ISBN   978 90 6707 629 6
• Binnen de poorten , 1995, Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw. ISBN   978 90 6707 369 1
• Sobibor. Transportlijsten , 2001, Amsterdam: Bataafsche Leeuw. ISBN   90 6707 516 7

References [ edit ]