Szlama Ber Winer

Szlama Ber Winer, nom de guerre Yakov (Ya'akov) Grojanowski, was a Polish Jew from Izbica Kujawska, who escaped from the Chełmno extermination camp during the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland. Szlamek is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Szlamek Bajler in literature by the surname of his nephew, Abram Bajler, from Zamość (see postcard). Szlama Ber Winer escaped from the Waldlager work commando at Chełmno, and described in writing the atrocities he witnessed at that extermination camp, not long before his own subsequent murder at the age of 30, in the gas chambers of Bełżec. The original testimony transcribed from Winer's testimony is called 'The Account of a Forced Grave Digger' and was recovered from the Ringelblum Archive after the war. This material was reworked and transmitted through the Polish underground. The deposition that was sent out through the underground is commonly known as the Grojanowski Report.