He was a member of the Sonderkommando work detail for nearly two weeks at the Chełmno extermination camp in occupied Poland.
[2] Podchlebnik was one of three who escaped into the surrounding forest from the mass burial zone out of a population of 400,000 prisoners.
[2][3] He was born to a family of Jacob Podchlebnik and Sosia (Zosia) née Widawska from Koło, known also by the Polish equivalent of his first name, Michał.
[5] Decades later in 1961 he gave testimony at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem.
[6][7] Podchlebnik was also interviewed by Claude Lanzmann for the documentary film Shoah.