Updates and New Discoveries 

Thus far, the most significant discovery since the first publication of On the Run in Nazi Berlin is the fate of Bert’s parents, Johanna Wolff Lewin and Leopold Lewin. Information in the Yad Vashem Gedenkbuch (or memory book) seemed to suggest that they were deported to, and  perished in, the Trawniki concentration camp in Eastern Poland. However,  updated Gedenkbuch information tells us the following: on March 28, 1942, Johanna and Leopold were deported to the Trawniki station. From there they were forced to march twelve kilometers to a ghetto near Lublin called Piaski, where they lived for an indeterminate time in horrible conditions.  There were two transports of Jews from Piaski in 1942: one to the Belzec death camp on April 11, one to the Sobibor death camp on July 22. In November, the remaining Jews of the ghetto were shot to death at the local cemetary. We do not know whether Johanna and Leopold were killed in Piaski, Belzec, or Sobibor.

To the right are Johanna and Leopold’s entries in the updated Gedenkbuch, showing their final known locations as Piaski.