Leon Weliczker Wells notebooks

Identifier
irn516987
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2005.277
Dates
1 Jan 1943 - 31 Dec 1946
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • Polish
Source
EHRI Partner

Web Source

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn516987

Extent and Medium

oversize boxes

3

Creator(s)

  • Leon W. Wells

Biographical History

Leon Weliczker Wells (1925-2009) was born Leon Weliczker in Stojanów, Poland (now Stojaniw, Ukraine) and moved with his family to Lemberg (Lviv) in 1936. He was imprisoned in the Janowska concentration camp in 1942, escaped after three months, confined to the Lwów ghetto, and in June 1943 assigned to a Sonderkommando 1005 unit at the Janowska concentration camp. He escaped during the November 19, 1943 Sonderkommando uprising and hid for four months with sixteen other Jews in a cellar under a barn at the home of the Kalwinski family. He was liberated in the spring of 1944 by the Red Army. Both of his parents (Abraham and Chana) and all six of his siblings (Elka, Rachel, Judit, Bina, Aaron, and Jakob) were killed in the Holocaust. Weliczker studied engineering, immigrated to the United States in 1949, and changed his last name to Wells. He was interviewed for the Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals and served as a witness at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem.

Archival History

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Acquisition

Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

Leon W. Wells donated his notebooks to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on Jun. 1, 2005.

Scope and Content

The Leon Weliczker Wells notebooks consists of fourteen volumes and two pages written by Wells during his second period of imprisonment in the Janowska concentration camp and while in hiding in the basement of the Kalwinski family following his escape. Wells describes the work of Sonderkommando 1005 in the Janowska camp, his escape, and his hiding place on the Kalwinski family’s farm. These notebooks were widely published as "The Janowska Road" and "The Death Brigade."

System of Arrangement

Leon Weliczker Wells notebooks are arranged as a single series.

Conditions Governing Reproduction

Copyright Holder: Leon W. Wells

People

  • Wells, Leon Weliczker, 1925-

Corporate Bodies

Subjects

  • Jews--Persecutions--Ukraine--Lʹviv.
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Ukraine--Lʹviv--Personal narratives.
  • Concentration camp inmates' writings.
  • Lʹviv (Ukraine)

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.