Project 'Long shadow of Sobibor' Survivors: Interview 05 Alexsy Wajcen (Aleksej Waitsen) Project 'Late gevolgen van Sobibor'

Alexsy Wajcen was born in the shtetl of Hodorov, a Jewish community not far from the town of Lvov in Ukraine. Horodov was part of Poland before the Second World War, but annexed by the Soviet Union after 1939. Alexsy was the oldest of five children. He served in the Soviet army from 1940 onwards and as a prisoner of war arrived in Sobibor, where he was selected for forced labour. With the exception of one brother all other family members were killed by Ukrainian fascists during the war. Alexsy took part in the Sobibor revolt that was led by Alexander Pecherski and Leon Feldhendler. He fled and enrolled with the partisans. Later on he served in the Soviet army and continued to do so after the war as, among other things, a parachutist. Alexsy Wajcen's recollections are confused and fragmentary. He says he didn't speak to anyone about Sobibor until well into the 'nineties, not even in private with his wife and children. It was forbidden to talk about Sobibor in the Soviet Union; anyone who did was punished severely. In Sobibor, Selma met Khaim Engel, a Pole and her future husband. Together they escaped on October 14, 1943 during the revolt. They hid for nine months in a barn not far from Khelm. They were not well received in the Netherlands after the war; Khaim even went into hiding for a while. They emigrated with their two young children via Israel to the United States. Although Khaim, in contrast to Selma, could not feel at home there, the two of them managed to build up a good life in the US. For a long time Selma was angry with the Dutch because she and her husband were treated so badly after the war.