Driving to Treblinka: A long search for a lost father

A profound account of Diana Wichtel's search for her lost father. During World War II Benjamin Hersz Wichtel (16 May 1910 to 26 November 1970) and his family are rounded up from the Warsaw Ghetto and placed on a train to the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland. Ben escapes from a tiny window and runs off into the forest where he joins a Jewish resistance group. His mother, six of his siblings, their wives and children, are all murdered at Treblinka by the Nazi's. After the war, Ben finds a surviving brother before moving to Vancouver where he marries Diana's mother, New Zealander Patricia, and tries to carve out a new life. But he cannot escape from his past which continues to haunt him. Years later, his wife and children end up in show more New Zealand, not knowing what has happened to Ben who was to join them later. This book is Diana's search for what happened to her father, her search for the truth about her family, and her chance to walk in her murdered family's footsteps. She uncovers names and stories, but there are still many relatives whose names and stories are unknown. Incredibly sad, very moving. show less

An amazing story researched and written after many harrowing years of searching for information about her late father. At the unveiling of a new headstone for their father, the author's brother Jeff spoke: "We need to acknowledge all the difficult journeys we've had both physically and spiritually to get us all here today. In our own ways we have all tried to honour the memory of Benjamin Hersz Wichtel, but our inability to be with him (through their own straightened circumstances) in his final years when he needed us most is a heavy scar on our hearts". Terribly, terribly sad for the entire extended family.