Thomas "Toivi" Blatt will discuss his experiences during World War II. Blatt endured many hardships during these years, particularly at Sobibor, an extermination camp where perhaps 250,000 Jews were gassed. But he also participated in the uprising and escape of October 1943, an event that, aside from the Warsaw Ghetto Rising of April-May 1943, is the best-known act of defiance by the Jews during the Holocaust. Blatt was one of about 300 prisoners to escape from Sobibor; only about fifty survived the war, and only seven are known still to be alive.

Thomas "Toivi" Blatt

(left) Thomas Blatt c.1945

Over the past thirty years, Blatt has become established as the main source of information on the escape and he has published two noteworthy books about it, Sobibor: The Forgotten Revolt (a history of the camp) and From the Ashes of Sobibor (a memoir, but also a study of his time in Sobibor and the escape).

 

Thomas Blatt
Location: 
Austin Auditorium, LaSells Stewart Center
Event Date: 
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 07:30