Talk:Chaim Sztajer

This draft
I have just drafted up this article for a notable Treblinka survivor named Chaim Sztajer. It is very much a work in progress because I have a lot more information that I need add to the section on his post-war life; right now I just have a couple sentences there as a placeholder.

He doesn't seem to be mentioned a lot in the general scholarship on Treblinka, but he is well known in Melbourne, Australia because of his contributions to the Holocaust museum here. Right now, most of my information is pulled from a single biography, penned by his daughter after his death. There is a connection between his story and the John Demjanjuk aka Ivan the Terrible case, and I think he would definitely be better known if the prosecution had allowed him to testify. There was a whole thing in February 1987 with the defence making erroneous claims about Sztajer having actually killed Ivan the Terrible during the uprising. It is not mentioned in the Netflix documentary about the trial that was just released, but it may have been mentioned in Israeli newspapers at the time (I can't read Hebrew though).

Anyway, this is also my first article so I would love general help and feedback. If anyone here has a lot of knowledge about Treblinka, or the Demjanjuk case, or if by chance there are any Melbourne Jews here who actually know about this guy and his family — I would especially appreciate your input. --Apriljennifer (talk) 09:37, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Names of people who hid (with) him?
The article states "Sztajer survived in hiding with a man named Uryn and a fifteen year old boy named Joel Pandrik". Those names are likely wrong. Uryn could be someone's surname, same for Pandrik, but Joel is a French name, probably a translation of the boy's Polish name. This needs further verification.

Additionally, this sentence is a bit confusing. Did Uryn and Pandrik helped him (hid him), or where they hiding together with him? Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 06:06, 27 August 2021 (UTC)


 * These are the names given by his daughter in the biography she wrote on his life. Chaim and Joel reunited in Australia decades after the war and supposedly there was an article in an Australian newspaper but I can't find it in arhcives, only the clipping his daughter put in the book. Joel is identified in this article as Joel Pyne. As for Uyrn, I just checked the book again and upon first mention he is referred to as "Uryn Glatt". Glatt is a Yiddish surname. I don't have any seperate verification for this name, Chaim's full escape story is not documented anywhere else except his recorded video testimony which is in Yiddish so I can't understand it.
 * As for the name Joel, this is a Hebrew name which originated in the Tanakh. It is not a Polish name but it is very common among Ashkenazi Jews. The Hebrew version is Yo'el.
 * The Uryn and Pandrik were also Jews in hiding. The three hid together in a burrow that they dug out under a tree in the Siemiatycze forest and covered with leaves.  April Jennifer   (she/her • talk • contributions) 06:48, 27 August 2021 (UTC)
 * @Piotrus - "Joel" - that was the name --> he would be also called (by others or parents in Poland) - "Joelek" when he was a young boy - GizzyCatBella  🍁  07:58, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

@User:Apriljennifer - Here is one example from ''They burned with anger. Autobiography of a Young Jew'' of the name Joel or Joelek being used. It was common in pre-war Poland among the Polish Jews. The person is unrelated to the subject, I'm just showing this as an example. People of my age still remember those names. Polish --> Jaakow Kramer to Joelek Najmark, bliskiprzyjaciel Beniamina R. --> English Jaakow Kramer is Joelek Najmark, a close friend of Beniamin R. -  GizzyCatBella  🍁  09:48, 27 August 2021 (UTC)


 * Thank you for this :)  April Jennifer   (she/her • talk • contributions) 10:11, 27 August 2021 (UTC)
 * , - thank you both, I think I was confused by the similarity between Joel and Noel. I've adjusted the text to make it clear  he was hiding with other Jewish refugees and not being hidden by some local who helped them - as I said, this was ambiguous. Please double check my changes to make sure I didn't misunderstood something. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here  02:40, 28 August 2021 (UTC)