|
|
Treblinka
Historical Background
Introduction
According to Nazi ideology the Nordic Germans were the master race. Other races were inferior to them and the Jews were considered
to be the ‘anti-race’ –the exact opposite of the Germans—an evil and destructive race. According to Nazi ideology, Germans were meant to be
the natural rulers of Europe and in order to achieve that position, Jewish influence needed to cease. This racist ideology eventually led to what
became known as ‘The
Final Solution to the Jewish Question.’
The mass extermination of Jews in German-occupied Europe began in Summer 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union.
Upon entering the Soviet Union, the Germans, with some help from local collaborators, rounded up thousands of Jewish men, women
and children, led them to nearby forests, and murdered them in pits which became mass graves.
This method of wide-scale murder posed numerous problems for the units that carried out these killing operations. As a result,
the
SS authorities looked for additional methods and improved technical means that would enable them to carry out the killings more efficiently.
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the Nazis’ plan to murder European Jewry, beginning with those living in the Generalgouvernement
area of Poland. To facilitate this operation, three extermination centers were set up in Poland, with the sole purpose of murdering Jews.
These centers were established according to the following guidelines:
1) The extermination centers were to be near railways, to facilitate transports and deportations.
2) The location of the extermination centers was to be desolate, as far as possible from inhabited areas. This was in order to maintain
secrecy about what was happening.
3) The extermination centers were to be near the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, in an effort to encourage the belief that
deported Jews were actually being sent for resettlement in the East.
The three extermination centers that were established as part of Operation Reinhard were
Belzec,
Sobibor and
Treblinka. The village of Treblinka was 60 miles northeast of Warsaw, and the extermination center there was built after Belzec
and Sobibor were already in operation. In building Treblinka, the Nazis were able to implement the ‘expertise’ they gained from the first
two extermination centers. Thus, Treblinka became the ‘perfected’ extermination center of Operation Reinhard.
The Nazis surveyed the Treblinka premises in April 1942, and determined exactly where the center would be built. By mid-July 1942,
Treblinka was ready for its first transport of Jews.
Deportations to Treblinka
On July 22, 1942, the Great Expulsion of the Jews of
Warsaw began, and continued for 3 weeks. Approximately 5000-6000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto
were deported daily to Treblinka.
Although the train cars that transported Jews to Treblinka could hold 60-70 people, they were packed with double the number.
Deprived of air, water, and food, without sanitary facilities, prisoners were forced to spend many hours traveling or waiting in stations
in the packed freight cars, and many died en route. In the following testimony, Edi Weinstein discusses the transport to Treblinka:
“…I sat down in a corner and fell asleep. I awoke to the sound of my brothers sobbing. Everyone around us was sobbing.
A few people prayed; maybe I heard Shema Israel. Others embraced their loved ones and told them good-bye. A few, in their
despair, pounded their heads against the walls of the car. I pushed my way toward the small peephole and peeked out. All along the platform,
corpses were heaped up…. when the doors were opened, we were struck by the stench of burning flesh…An order was given: men and older
boys to the right, women, children, and the elderly to the left….We were ordered to remove from the train those who had suffocated or who
lay motionless…In some cases, entire families had died together…mothers still clutched their children, husbands still embraced their wives…
I knew some of the dead, they all came from my town….’’
Source: E. Weinstein, Quenched Steel: The Story of an Escape from Treblinka. (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2002) pp. 39-41.
|
Deportations to Treblinka during Summer 1942 were especially difficult because of intense heat. Many people died of thirst, dehydration and
suffocation. The guards at Treblinka were not equipped to handle the transports that arrived there during the night. Often when a transport of
Jews arrived at Treblinka at nighttime, the Nazis held the train on the tracks with thousands of Jews locked inside for hours—often all night long.
As the trains approached Treblinka, the engine sounded a long whistle that signaled the arrival of a transport of Jews. This was a sign for the
Ukrainian guards to take up their guard positions around the reception area. In the following testimony, a Holocaust survivor describes the experience
of pandemonium upon arrival at Treblinka:
“The train moved slowly through the strange, sad countryside. A moment later it came to a stop. The door opened noisily. The emptiness
and sadness of the sand countryside disappeared. Within seconds a strange fear seized us all..’Get out, out!’ came the familiar shouts.
People began to push…We held one another’s hand and jumped down into the sand…. We went through a wide gate in the fence, in front of
us was a square…Several SS men with whips jumped at us. ‘Fast! Fast!’ they yelled, and lashed with the whips. Women to the barrack, men to
form groups of six…The confusion was tremendous, difficult to describe. We ran…”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives 0.16/77 |
Mass Murder at Treblinka
The Nazis, masters of deception, led Jews who arrived at Treblinka to believe that they were in fact at a transit camp, and would soon continue
their journey eastward.
The deportees were brutally rushed from the trains to the platform, and men and women were immediately separated. A large sign in German
and in Polish was erected:
‘Jews of Warsaw, Attention!
You are in a transit camp, from which you will be sent to a labor camp. In order to avoid epidemics, you must present your clothing
and belongings for immediate disinfection. Gold, money, foreign currency, and jewelry should be deposited with the cashiers in return for a
receipt. They will be returned to you later when you present the receipt. Bodily cleanliness requires that everyone bathe before
continuing the journey.’ |
The Jews, who were already disoriented after an exhausting and painful journey, were rushed to undress for their
”showers.” After they undressed, they were forced to run through a “tube” on their way to the “showers,” which were really
gas chambers.
The Nazis also called this “tube”- the Himmelstrasse-“Heaven Street.” On both sides of the “tube,” German guards stood with
dogs. The Germans beat the people who passed through the “tube” with iron bars and whips, pushing them to get into the “showers.”
The Nazis yelled: “Faster, faster, the water’s getting cold, and others have to take showers too!” Eager to escape the blows and the dogs,
the Jews unknowingly ran into the lethal chamber.
The Germans placed a Torah curtain with a verse from Psalms (Chapter 108, Verse 20) inscribed on it at the entrance to the gas
chamber: “This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous will pass through it.”
In front of the gas chamber, guards forced the Jews to enter the chamber as quickly as possible. Once all the Jews were inside
(200-250 each time), the doors were shut and locked, and the Ukrainians turned on the engine. After twenty to twenty-five minutes,
all of the Jews inside had suffocated and were dead from carbon monoxide inhalation.
The SS had arranged an orchestra in order to drown out the victims’ screams, so that they would not be heard throughout the camp.
During the first 5 weeks of extermination at Treblinka, between July 23 and August 28 1942, about 312,500 Jews had been
deported and murdered there.
In October 1942, a new order was given to cut the hair of the women who arrived at concentration camps or extermination centers.
The victims’ hair was to be shipped back to Germany to be manufactured as slippers for submarine crews. Yechiel Reichman, whose job was
to cut the hair of Jewish women who arrived at Treblinka, submitted the following testimony to Yad Vashem:
|
“I looked at the victims- and I cannot believe my eyes. Every woman sits near a barber. In front of me, a young woman sits down. My hands
become frozen, and I cannot move my fingers…My friend next to me yells at me: “ Remember, you’ll be finished- the murderer is looking at you,
and you’re working slowly!” I move the fingers of my dirty hand, cut the woman’s hair, and throw it into the suitcase. The woman stands up….
Another woman sits down. She takes hold of my hand, wants to kiss it and say, ‘I beg of you, what will they do with us? Is this the end of us?’
She is crying and asks me, to tell her whether the death is long and difficult. Will they die of gas, or electric shock? I do not answer her…I cannot
tell her the truth and comfort her. The entire conversation lasts only a few seconds, the time it takes to cut her hair. I turn my head away, because
I am ashamed to look her in the eye. The murderer standing near us yells : ‘Cut faster!’ Thus the victims come one after the other, and the scissors
cut the hair without stopping. All around there is crying and yelling, and we must see all this and remain silent.”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives 0.3/3816 |
After their heads were shaved, the women were rushed along the Himmelstrasse “tube,” into the gas chambers. The women’s hair was
utilized for the German war effort, but the women themselves were murdered in the gas chambers.
Prisoner Life at Treblinka
Although Treblinka was an extermination center, and most Jews were murdered upon arrival, there were at any given time a few hundred
Jewish prisoners who were kept alive at Treblinka in order to maintain the camp and its extermination process for the Nazis.
After trains were unloaded, most Jews were sent to the gas chambers. However, a few dozen men were selected for work. They cleaned
the freight cars and sorted of the clothes and baggage left behind by the victims. Until December 1942, they were able to go through the
belongings of the deportees, which often contained hidden food, since the deportees believed that they would be taken to work camps in
the East. In light of this situation those who were selected for labor were often able to obtain a little extra food to eat.
The average life expectancy of Jewish prisoners at Treblinka was only a few months. Prisoners lived under terrible conditions, subject to daily
selections, torture, punishment, hunger and disease.
Among the prisoners in the camp were those who worked at the train platform, whose job was to open the freight trains upon arrival and
remove the bodies of those who had died en route; prisoners who were assigned to assist the victims with undressing, and take the clothing
that was left behind to the sorting area; prisoners who received and sorted the money and gold taken from the arriving Jews; prisoners who
worked as barbers; prisoners who sorted clothing and belongings; and the forest team, who cut the wood for the heating and the cooking in
the camp. Some prisoners worked near the Himmelstrasse as well.
All the physical work was forcibly carried out by Jewish prisoners. Living on meager food portions, these prisoners had to work endless hours
in this kingdom of death, and endure severe emotional pain. More often than not, before they could collapse physically, they would break
emotionally. Their days began early in the morning with roll call, after which they were divided into forced labor battalions. The night provided a
bit of little rest from the long day.
Yechiel Reichman, who was a prisoner at Treblinka, describes one of his first nights there in the following way:
“We came into the hut, which was so full to capacity that people were lying on the floor. I looked at my friend Leibel, and he looked at me,
and our tears poured down like rain. We asked each other : ‘Why the tears?’ I couldn’t answer. I wasn’t able to talk. We tried to encourage
and calm each other. ‘Leibel,’ I said to him, ‘Yesterday at this time my little sister was still alive.’ And he answered, ‘And my whole family, my
relatives, and 12,000 poor Jews from our city.’
And we were alive, spectators to this great calamity, and we became like stone, so that we could eat and carry with us this great pain.
Where did this unnatural strength to keep going come from? Among the people in the hut we suddenly saw Moshe Ettinger from our city.
He embraced us with bitter tears. After he calmed down somewhat, he told us how he had been saved… Now he was crying and could not
forgive himself for remaining alive while his wife and son had died. We were like drunkards. Yesterday all those who were close to me were still
alive, and today- everyone was dead. I was crying over my fate, what had become of me. At that moment I saw in the corner of the hut the
poor people who had remained alive standing and praying the afternoon and evening services, and then, with tears in everyone’s eyes, reciting
the Kaddish…The time was nine o’clock. The hut is locked. The lights are put out. We lie down with our pain…At five in the morning we
are awoken by the signal to get up and we are torn from the night and sleep…”
Source: Yad Vashem Archives 0.3/3816 |
Resistance at Treblinka
There were a few isolated acts of resistance at Treblinka, the most famous of which was the prisoner revolt that took place on August
2, 1943. After months of planning, the members of the Treblinka underground coordinated a rebellion for this date. However, the uprising
did not proceed as scheduled. On August 2, one of the Jewish prisoners fired a shot to protect another prisoner. The fighters who heard
that shot believed that it was the signal for the rebellion to begin. As a result of this confusion, the group of fighters that had previously been
well-coordinated, began to operate separately. As the underground members fought with the Ukrainian guards, the prisoners burst through
the fences that were behind the barracks and began to escape into the fields in the direction of the forest.
On the day of the uprising there were about 850 prisoners at Treblinka. Approximately half, including most of the members of the
underground, were killed trying to escape. Some 100 prisoners decided to remain in the camp and made no attempt to escape. Despite the
heavy gunfire, a few hundred escapees managed to get over the fences. Many were subsequently turned over to the Nazis by local peasants,
but between 60-70 of the Treblinka escapees remained alive at the end of the war.
The underground at Treblinka operated under extremely difficult conditions. The camp was small and easy to supervise,
and prisoners were under constant surveillance. The fact that the uprising took place attests to outstanding leadership among the
Jewish prisoners, as well as to the strong will amongst the prisoners themselves.
The End of Treblinka
Heinrich Himmler decided to end Operation Reinhard and close the extermination centers at Belzec, Sobibor,
and Treblinka during his visit to Lublin in March 1943. The SS authorities planned to leave no trace of the extermination centers; they
were to be evacuated and destroyed.
After the uprising at Treblinka, the one hundred prisoners who remained there dismantled the camp. On October 20, 1943,
30-50 Jewish prisoners were brought from Treblinka to Sobibor to help carry out similar operations.
The 30 remaining prisoners were shot on November 17, 1943. These Jews were the last victims of Treblinka.
Overall, it is estimated that approximately one million Jews were murdered at Treblinka.
Photographs
Deportation to Treblinka
Railway station at Treblinka
Blueprint of the camp, Treblinka
Prisoners standing near a barrack in the camp, being inspected by a doctor, Treblinka
Smoke rising from burning bodies in Treblinka, 1943
Mass grave at Treblinka
Pages of Testimony
Pages of Testimony serve as symbolic gravestones, providing a unique memorial for victims of the Holocaust.
The following are five Pages of Testimony that were submitted to Yad Vashem, in memory of individuals who were
murdered during the Holocaust at Treblinka:
Page of Testimony for Shifra Kaplan
Page of Testimony for Sander Libfeld
Page of Testimony for Samuel Wikinski
Page of Testimony for Rose Nurtman
Page of Testimony for Meir Topas
You might want to print these Pages and take them with you on your journey to Poland. When you visit Treblinka,
you can read the names and stories that are recorded on these Pages of Testimony.
For more Pages of Testimony, search the
Central
Database of Shoah Victims' Names.
Back to "Journey to Poland" Homepage
|
