Kapo Rakowski

RAKOWSKI, Benjamin. A farm owner from Jędrzejów, between Kraków and Kielce in Świętokrzyskie Province. He was tall, well-built and strong, which explained his selection in Treblinka as a Kapo. For a short time deputized for the Camp Elder (Lagerälteste) Galewski, when he contracted typhus. According to Abraham Bomba, Rakowski’s brother escaped from the death camp, and he was questioned about it by SS-Untersturmführer Kurt Franz. Rakowski was brought into the prisoners Organizing Committee preparing for the revolt, but following a postponement of an actual date, Kapo Rakowski decided to organize an escape form the camp for about 15 prisoners, including his girlfriend Tchechia Mendel in late April or early May 1943. Richard Glazar wrote in his book Trap with a Green Fence that Rakowski „is the biggest speculator in the entire camp, a glutton, a boozer, a belly-acher and he is not looking out for anyone but himself; everything he does is for his own benefit”. This is in sharp contrast with Samuel Willenberg’s opinion of Rakowski. Willenberg saw in him a man preparing others for a revolt, who planned the escape with the help of two Ukrainian guards, whom he bribed with large sums of money. The escape was planned through the tailors’ workshop, but before it could take place, the SS-Scharführer August Miete found money, gold and valuables hidden in the walls. He had Rakowski arrested. Despite claiming his innocence and that the money and valuables belonged to dr. Chorążycki, with whom he lived in the same room before his death, Rakowski was taken to the „Lazarett” and shot. 

Źródło / source:

The Treblinka Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance - Chris Webb, Michal Chocholaty, 2014