Afbeelding van de auteur.

Thomas Blatt (1927–2015)

Auteur van From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival

3 Werken 115 Leden 2 Besprekingen Favoriet van 1 leden

Over de Auteur

Fotografie: Thomas Blatt, 2013 (by Anton-kurt, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Werken van Thomas Blatt

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Algemene kennis

Gangbare naam
Blatt, Thomas Toivi
Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
Blatt, Toivi
Geboortedatum
1927-04-15
Overlijdensdatum
2015-10-31
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Geboorteplaats
Izbica, Lublin, Poland
Plaats van overlijden
Santa Barbara, Kalifornien, USA
Woonplaatsen
Santa Barbara, California, USA
Beroepen
Buchautor
public speaker
writer
Holocaust survivor
memoirist
journalist
Organisaties
Überlebender des Aufstandes im Vernichtungslager Sobibór
Korte biografie
Thomas Blatt was born Tomasz Blatt to a Jewish family in Izbica, Poland. In 1943, when he was 16, he, his younger brother, and their parents were among the Jews rounded up and transported to the Nazi death camp of Sobibor. All of his family were killed there, along with most of the others from his village.

Blatt was among the 300 prisoners who took part in an uprising on October 14, 1943 and escaped from Sobibor. He was shot in the jaw while hiding in the nearby forest, but survived. When his wound had healed, he pretended to be a Christian Pole and joined a group of partisans with whom he fought the Germans until the end of the war. Afterwards, he studied journalism in Poland. In 1958, he emigrated to Israel, where he married an American, and later to the USA. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he worked with author and journalist Richard Rashke to locate and interview Sobibor survivors.

The resulting book, Escape from Sobibor (1983), was adapted into an award-winning 1987 television movie; Blatt served as a technical adviser on the film.

Blatt later wrote two books of his own about Sobibor, including his memoir, From the Ashes of Sobibor (1997).

His book The Forgotten Revolt (1997), a history based on his years of research, was the basis for the website by the same name.

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Besprekingen

I heard about Sobibor from a television movie called "Escape from Sobibor" in 1987 starring Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer. I highly recommend the movie. Ten years later, I was lucky enough to notice that Thomas (Toivi) Blatt was going to be in my local Barnes and Noble. I listened to a small talk he gave and purchased an autographed copy of his book. I value it greatly. Watch the movie to get a feel for the story, and read the book for details.
 
Gemarkeerd
vickster1 | Jan 14, 2022 |
Being an amateur historian, the Holocaust is one of the things that fascinates & scares me. 60 years have pasted & my mind still can't wrap around the facts of the Holocaust, that humans could inflict such pain & horror on other animals, let alone on other humans.

My main thought throughout the book was how incredibly lucky Blatt was. Repeatedly, throughout the book, in sections on every page, he chose left or right, up or down, go or stay, raise his hand or not, steal some bread or not, and every time he chose the right path. In each one of those cases, in every single case, if he had chosen wrong, he would have been dead. I'm not being melodramtic; Blatt illustrated over & over again that with his recreations of past events.

As always, I'm a little skeptic, but even if half of his choices are true, then my God, how did this person survive? How did anyone survive? As so many people have asked before, why did the Jews not fight back? I think Blatt in his autobiography/memoirs, explain this better then any book I've read before.

I bought this book as part of a book lot about the Holocaust at a field auction.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
anastaciaknits | Oct 29, 2016 |

Statistieken

Werken
3
Leden
115
Populariteit
#170,830
Waardering
½ 4.7
Besprekingen
2
ISBNs
5
Talen
2
Favoriet
1

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