Treblinka Survivor

Archival Summary & Scope

Hershl Sperling was one of fewer than seventy survivors of Treblinka, where over 800,000 perished. Fifty years later, he died by suicide. Mark S. Smith's *Treblinka Survivor* delves into this profound mystery, tracing Sperling's life from his Polish childhood through five concentration camps to his final days in Scotland. Central to Smith's investigation is Sperling's own long-forgotten eyewitness account of Treblinka, written immediately after liberation and reproduced here for the first time. Smith personally follows Sperling's harrowing journey, revealing the unimaginable choices made for survival and the enduring trauma that haunted even those who escaped the Nazis' most efficient death factory.