Berek Lajcher
| Dr. Berek Lajcher | |
|---|---|
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Photograph from the university years
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| Born |
October 24, 1893 , Piotrków Governorate, Vistula Land |
| Died | August 2, 1943 (aged 49) Treblinka extermination camp, Poland |
| Residence | Wyszków |
| Occupation | Medical doctor |
| Known for | Holocaust resistance |
Berek Lajcher (October 24, 1893 – August 2, 1943) was a Jewish physician and social activist from Wyszków before the Holocaust in Poland, remembered for his leadership in the prisoner uprising at Treblinka extermination camp. More than 800,000 Jews, as well as unknown numbers of Romani people, were murdered at Treblinka in the course of Operation Reinhard in World War II.
Lajcher was a graduate of the Warsaw University Faculty of Medicine in 1924, and a retired officer of the Polish Army from the Polish–Soviet War of Independence. After the German invasion of Poland during World War II, Lajcher was expelled by the Nazis along with all Polish Jews from Wyszków, and relocated to Węgrów, from where he was deported to Treblinka, the secretive forest camp where Jewish men, women and children were being put to death in gas chambers.
Lajcher became the leader and clandestine organizer of the Treblinka revolt. On August 2, 1943, after a long period of preparation, the prisoners stole some weapons from the arsenal and made an attempt at an armed escape from the Totenlager. Lajcher was killed in the fighting. Several Trawniki guards were killed and some 150 Jewish prisoners escaped. Gassing operations at the camp ended soon after the revolt. Lajcher was remembered by survivors incorrectly as either Dr. Lecher (sic), or Dr. Leichert from Wegrów.
Berek Lajcher was born in under the Russian Partition, into a family of assimilated Polish Jews. He was the fourth of six children of Szmul (Shmuel) and Chai (Chaya) Lajcher née Frydman. His father spoke Yiddish, Polish, and Russian. They lived near the city centre in a house at Stary Rynek 11. Berek occasionally used his Polonized name, Bernard. He attended the multicultural State Henryk Sienkiewicz Secondary for boys in 1907. A year after graduation, in 1915, his father died. Berek moved to the capital and enrolled at the Warsaw University Faculty of Medicine. He supported himself financially by working as a part-time tutor.
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