Sobibor Interviews 1983-1984, interview 04, Stanislaw Szmajzner

Interview with Stanislaw Szmajzner (Pulawy 13 March 1927). Szmajzner arrived in Sobibor at age fifteen. He was a goldsmith and had to make signet rings and other jewellery for the guards. During the uprising he managed to get hold of three rifles wrapped in blankets. He shot one of the Ukrainian guards in the watchtower: 'That was the first time in my life I fired a gun'. Apart from making gold jewellery Stanislaw Szmajzner had to check the prams that came in with the transports. He was also the foreman of the maintenance mechanics. After the uprising he joined the partisans. In 1947 he emigrated to Brazil. At the police station in Sao Paulo he recognized Gustav Wagner, who committed suicide not much later. Szmajzner died on 3 March 1989 in Goiania, Brazil.