Holocaust Hero To Be Memorialized During Commemoration of Kristallnacht
A local hero of the Holocaust will be memorialized this weekend in Santa Barbara, during a commemoration of the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass.
Thomas “Toivi” Blatt was a survivor and escapee from the Sobibor extermination camp in occupied Poland.
“I slid out from this leather coat, left the coat in the barbed wires, and I was running. I was probably the last one,” Blatt recounted during an interview for the University of Southern California Shoa Foundation. The five-minute video can be accessed through YouTube.
Decades after traveling to the United States, Blatt and his family settled in Santa Barbara.
“He devoted his life to getting the word out that we should never forget the Holocaust, which was the charge he was given by the head of the (Sobibor) Revolt at 16 years old,” said Ruth Steinberg, director of Portraits of Survival at the
Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara. “He vowed to never forget.”
Blatt wrote a book titled, “Sobibor – The Forgotten Revolt,” based on the daring prisoner-led revolt and escape on Oct. 14, 1943. It was the premise for the film, “Escape From Sobibor,” starring Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer.
Among Blatt’s achievements, he established Sobibor as an historic site and confronted Karl Frenzel, the SS commandant, third in the chain of command at Sobibor.
“Also, testified at a number of very high profile crimes against war criminal and put some of them away.” said Steinberg, including John Demjanjuk, an elderly former Ohio car worker convicted as a Nazi death camp guard.
Blatt died at his home in Santa Barbara on Oct. 31 at the age of 88.
This weekend’s commemorative event will be held Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Jewish Federation center at 524 Chapala St. The public is invited to attend.
