About: Julian Chorążycki

Julian Chorążycki (August 19, 1885 – April 19, 1943) served as doctor-in-chief of the infantry regiment in the Polish Army during the reconstitution of sovereign Poland. In the interwar period, he was a throat surgeon practising in Warsaw. Born Jewish, Chorążycki spent two years in the Warsaw Ghetto. During the Holocaust in Poland he became the first leader of the perilous prisoner uprising at the Treblinka extermination camp. On August 2, 1943 – after the long period of preparation posing an immediate threat to life – an armed revolt in Treblinka erupted, however, Chorążycki committed suicide on April 19, 1943 when faced with imminent capture, to avoid revealing details of the uprising and its participants under torture.