Treblinka extermination camp

"Treblinka" redirects here. For the town, see Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship. Or see Treblinka (disambiguation)

Treblinka
Extermination camp
Symbolic concrete blocks mark the path of the former railway line at Treblinka
Location of Treblinka in Poland
Coordinates	52°37′35″N 22°2′49″E / 52.62639°N 22.04694°E / 52.62639; 22.04694Coordinates: 52°37′35″N 22°2′49″E / 52.62639°N 22.04694°E / 52.62639; 22.04694
Known for	Genocide during The Holocaust
Location	Near Treblinka, German-occupied Poland
Built by	Richard Wolfgang Thomalla (death camp) Erwin Hermann Lambert (gas chambers) Christian Wirth Schoenbronn Company, Leipzig Schmidt und Muenstermann, Warsaw[1][2]
Operated by	SS-Totenkopfverbände
Original use	Death
First built	April 1942 — July 1942
Operational	22 July 1942 — 19 October 1943[3]
Number of gas chambers	debated
Inmates	mainly Jews
Number of inmates	est. 1,200
Killed	est. 850,000 — 1.4 million
Liberated by	closed before end of war
Notable inmates	Richard Glazar, Martin Gray, Janusz Korczak, Sol Rosenberg, Jankiel Wiernik
Notable books	Into That Darkness

Treblinka (Polish pronunciation: [trɛˈbliŋka]) was a Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. The camp, which was constructed as part of Operation Reinhard, operated between 01942-07-23 July 23, 1942 and 01943-10-19 October 19, 1943,.^[3] During this time, approximately 850,000 men, women and children were killed at Treblinka.^[4] This figure includes more than 800,000 Jews,^[5] but also thousands of Romani people.

The camp, which was operated by the SS and Eastern European Trawnikis, consisted of Treblinka I and II. The first camp was a forced-labour center. Inmates worked in either the nearby gravel pit or irrigation area. Between June 1941 and July 23, 1944, more than half of its 20,000 inmates died from execution, exhaustion, or mistreatment.

Treblinka II was designed as a death factory. More than 99% of all arrivals at this site were immediately sent to its gas chambers where they were killed by exhaust fumes from captured Soviet tank engines^{[citation needed]}. The small number who were not killed immediately became Sonderkommandos.^[6] These slave labor groups were forced to bury the victims' bodies in mass graves. Later corpses were burned on massive open-air pyres.^{[citation needed]}

Treblinka II ended operations on 01943-10-19 October 19, 1943 following a revolt by its Sonderkommandos. Several German guards were killed when 300 prisoners escaped.^[7] Beginning in March 1942, the SS implemented Sonderaktion 1005 to cover up the murder of millions of people during Aktion Reinhard. Prisoners at Treblinka were formed into Leichenkommandos ("corpse units") that exhumed and cremated the corpses buried in mass graves.^{[citation needed]} Relatively little physical evidence of the camps remains today.^[6]

Prelude

Sign from Treblinka railway station on display at Yad Vashem

Main article: Operation Reinhard

Unlike some death camps that also used forced labour, Treblinka II was designed purely for the extermination of people^{[citation needed]}. It was one of five secret camps of Operation Reinhard. Kulmhof (Chełmno) extermination camp was built first. It was a pilot project for the development of the next four camps; the remaining three being Belzec, Sobibor, and Majdanek.^[8] In addition, killing facilities were developed in Auschwitz II-Birkenau within the already existing camp (Auschwitz I). Operation Reinhard was overseen by SS-Obergruppenführer Odilo Globocnik in occupied Poland as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's deputy. Unlike other Nazi concentration camps, Operation Reinhard camps reported directly to the RSHA, which in turn reported directly to Himmler. Himmler kept the control of the program close to him but delegated the work to Globocnik. Operation Reinhard used the forced euthanasia program (Action T4) for site selection, construction and the training of personnel.^[9]

The camp

Nazi extermination camps in occupied Poland (marked with black and white skulls)

The camp of Treblinka was located 100 kilometres (62 mi) northeast of the Polish capital Warsaw,^[10] near the village of Małkinia Górna, 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) from the Treblinka railroad station.^[11] It was conveniently located approximately halfway between the Warsaw and Białystok Ghettos. The camp was organized in two subdivisions: Treblinka I and Treblinka II.

Treblinka I

Treblinka I was a forced labour camp located 2 km to the south of the extermination camp. Treblinka I operated between June 1941 and July 23, 1944. In this time half of the 20,000 inmates died from execution, exhaustion, or mistreatment. Treblinka I inmates worked in either the nearby gravel pit or irrigation area.^[12]

Treblinka II

Treblinka II, the extermination camp, was divided into three parts, covering in total an area measuring 600 metres by 400 metres (1,968 feet by 1,312 feet). The first part was the administrative section, which included barracks for the SS-Totenkopfverbände and Ukrainian guards, the camp commanders' quarters, a bakery, a storage and barracks for up to 800 prisoners, who were used to operate the camp. A road left this part of the camp and rejoined the highway.

The second section of Treblinka II (lower camp) was the receiving area where the railroad extended from the Treblinka station into the camp. There were two barracks near the tracks that were used to store the belongings of prisoners; one was disguised to look like a railway station, complete with a wooden clock.^[13] There were two other buildings about 100 metres (328 feet) from the track. All of the buildings were used to contain the clothing and belongings of the prisoners. One was used as an undressing room for the women, who were also shorn of all of their hair. There was a cashier's office, which collected money and jewellery for "safekeeping". There was also an "infirmary", where the sick, old, wounded, and already dead were taken. It was a small barracks, painted white with a red cross on it. There, the prisoners were led to the edge of a ditch where bodies were continuously burning. They had to strip naked and then sit in the edge of the pit before they were shot in the back of the head. Then they fell in the ditch and burned.

A memorial at Treblinka. Each stone represents a Jewish town or city, the population of which was exterminated at the camp

The third section of Treblinka II, the upper camp or death camp, was on a small hill. From the lower camp there was an uphill path, cynically called Himmelstraße ("the Road to Heaven") by the SS, which was lined with barbed wire fences — der Schlauch ("the tube") — and which led directly into the gas chambers. Behind this building there was a large pit, 1 metre wide by 20 metres long, inside which fires burned. Rails were laid across the pit and the bodies of gassed victims were placed on the rails to burn. There was also a barracks for the prisoners who operated the upper camp.

Organization of the camp

Sketch plan of Treblinka extermination camp, made by commandant Franz Stangl

The camp was operated by 20–25 SS overseers (Germans and Austrians) and 80–120 guards. The historical records show that the Treblinka camp guards were of varied ethnic groups and nationalities, comprising not only Germans (Volksdeutsche) but also a number of Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Moldovans, Latvians, and representatives of Soviet Central Asia (including a number of collaborating Soviet prisoners of war). Among them served former Red Army soldiers Ivan o Marchenko and Nikolay Shaleyev.^[14]

The majority of the camp work was performed on a forced basis by 700–800 Jewish prisoners, organised into specialised squads (Sonderkommandos). The blue squad was responsible for unloading the train, carrying the luggage and cleaning the wagons. The red squad had the task of undressing the passengers and taking their clothes to the storage areas. The Geldjuden ("money Jews") were in charge of handling the money, gold, stocks, and jewellery. They were forced to search the prisoners just before they went into the gas chamber. Another, the dentist, would open the mouths of the dead and pull out gold teeth. Another group, dubbed the Totenjuden ("the Jews of death"), lived in Treblinka II and were forced to carry the dead from the gas chamber to the furnaces, sift through the ashes of the dead, grind up recognisable parts, and bury the ashes in pits.^[15] Yet another group took care of the upkeep of the camp. Lastly, the camouflage Kommando went every day into the forest and gathered branches to camouflage the camp and the "funnel" by weaving branches in the barbed wires.^[16] The work squads prisoners were continuously whipped and beaten by the guards and were often killed. New workers (usually the most healthy people) were selected from the daily arrivals and pressed into the commandos.

There was a bruise rule: if a prisoner had been bruised on the face, he would be shot that evening at roll call, or the next morning if the bruise first began to show then^{[citation needed]}. Many prisoners, in utter despair at the horrible deaths of their families and unwilling to go on living, committed suicide by hanging themselves in the sleeping barracks with their belts.^[17] Normally, the work crews were almost entirely replaced every 3–5 days, with the members of the old crew being sent to their deaths.

Timeline of Treblinka II

Main article: Timeline of Treblinka

History of the camp

Before Operation Reinhard, over half a million Jews had been killed by the Einsatzgruppen, mobile SS extermination units, in territories conquered by the German army. It became evident, however, that they could not handle the millions of Jews that they had concentrated in the ghettos of occupied countries. So Treblinka, along with the other Operation Reinhard camps, were especially designed for the rapid elimination of the Jews in ghettos. Treblinka was ready on 24 July 1942, when the shipping of Jews began: "According to the SS Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop report, a total of approximately 310,000 Jews were transported in freight trains from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka during the period from 22 July to 3 October 1942."^[18]

Further information: Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)

Irmfried Eberl

Irmfried Eberl presided as the camp's first commandant on 01942-07-11 July 11, 1942. Eberl was a licensed psychiatrist, and the only physician to ever command an extermination camp.

The camp received its first shipment of victims, 6,500 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, on 01942-07-22 July 22, 1942. The gas chambers became operational the following day, 01942-07-23 July 23, 1942. Shipments continued on a daily basis thereafter, usually ranging from about 4,000 to 7,000 victims per day, Jews from the ghettos of Poland, mainly Warsaw, most of whom were immediately sent to the gas chambers. Hundreds of the prisoners died from starvation, dehydration or suffocation while in transit to the camp in the cramped rail cars.

Eberl's poor organizational skills soon caused the operation of Treblinka to turn disastrous. At the very beginning, the corpses were buried in mass graves, but within days the burial pits were overflowing with bodies, and corpses were instead piled up in camp II because the workers did not have proper time to bury them. At the same time, the gas chambers continually broke down. Therefore, the SS resorted to shooting incoming Jews in the arrival area of the camp and piling bodies throughout the camp.^[7]

According to SS-Unterscharführer Hans Hingst:

“

Dr. Eberl's ambition was to reach the highest possible numbers and exceed all the other camps. So many transports arrived that the disembarkation and gassing of the people could no longer be handled.[19][20]

”

The stench from the decomposing bodies could be smelled up to 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away, such as at the nearby village of Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship. It was evident that large scale killings were happening nearby, which caused concern among the villagers.^[6] The village of Treblinka was not complicit in the events at the Treblinka extermination camp, but rather a bystander. On incoming train convoys to Treblinka, many of the soon-to-be-murdered Jews waiting in the railway wagons correctly guessed what would happen to them based upon the stench; thousands instead chose suicide in the trains over death at the hands of the Nazis.

Oskar Berger, a Jewish eyewitness, tells of the camp's state in August 1942:

“

...all over the place there were hundreds of human bodies. Piles of packages, clothes, suitcases, everything in a mess. German and Ukrainian SS men stood at the corners of the barracks and were shooting blindly into the crowd...[21]

”

Changes in leadership

The Nazi hierarchy swiftly responded to these problems by developing a more efficient, more concealed, more sophisticated system of mass murder. On August 26, 1942, Odilo Globocnik, the head of Operation Reinhard, visited Treblinka along with Christian Wirth and Josef Oberhauser. Irmfried Eberl was immediately relieved of his duties. Among the reasons for his dismissal:^[6]

1. for incompetence in disposing of the bodies of the tens of thousands of people who had been killed.
2. for not killing people in an efficient and timely enough manner.
3. for not properly concealing the mass murder from locals.
4. for being part of a ring at the camp that was stealing the possessions of the people who had been murdered and sending them back to cohorts at Hitler's Chancellery in Berlin. This last activity had been expressly forbidden by Heinrich Himmler, as he had wanted this property to be contributed to the German war effort.^[22]

Christian Wirth was ordered to temporarily move in to Treblinka to help clean up Eberl's mess. On August 28, Globocnik temporarily suspended deportations to Treblinka. Globocnik chose Franz Stangl, who had previously been the Commandant of Sobibor extermination camp, to assume command of Treblinka as Eberl's successor. Stangl had a reputation as a highly competent administrator and people manager with an excellent grasp of detail, and therefore Globocnik trusted that Stangl would be capable of restoring order at Treblinka.^[1]

On September 1, Franz Stangl replaced Irmfried Eberl as Commandant of Treblinka. When Stangl arrived at the camp, he was appalled at the disorganized, disheveled state of the camp. He described Treblinka when he first came to the death camp while it was still under Eberl's command:

“

I drove there, with an SS driver....We could smell it kilometers away. The road ran alongside the railway tracks. As we got nearer Treblinka but still perhaps fifteen, twenty minutes' drive away, we began to see corpses next to the rails, first just two or three, then more and as we drove into what was Treblinka station, there were hundreds of them – just lying there – they'd obviously been there for days, in the heat. In the station was a train full of Jews, some dead, some still alive – it looked as if it had been there for days. When I entered the camp and got out of the car on the square I stepped knee-deep into money; I didn't know which way to turn, where to go. I waded in notes, currency, precious stones, jewelry, clothes... The smell was indescribable; the hundreds, no, the thousands of bodies everywhere, decomposing, putrefying. Across the square in the woods, just a few hundred yards away on the other side of the barbed-wire fence and all around the perimeter of the camp, there were tents and open fires with groups of Ukrainian guards and girls – whores from Warsaw I found out later – weaving, drunk, dancing, singing, playing music – Dr Eberl, the Kommandant showed me around the camp, there was shooting everywhere ... .[22]

”

Franz Stangl

Franz Stangl restored order in the camp, and the transports of Warsaw and Radom Jews began to arrive again on September 3, 1942.^[7] Stangl wanted his camp to look attractive, so he ordered the paths paved and flowers planted along the sides of Seidel Street, near camp headquarters and SS living quarters.^[23] The appearance of Treblinka concealed the deadly fate that awaited arriving prisoners.

Stangl liked to wear a white uniform and carry a whip, and so he was nicknamed "The White Death" by prisoners. Despite being directly responsible for the camp's operations, Stangl limited his contact with Jewish prisoners as much as possible. Stangl rarely interfered with unusually cruel acts (that is to say, other than the gassing) perpetrated by his subordinate officers at the camp. He claimed that his dedication had nothing to do with ideology or hatred of Jews.^[24] Stangl accepted and grew accustomed to the killings, perceiving prisoners not as humans but merely as "cargo" that must be destroyed. Stangl accepted the extermination of the Jews as a fact. Stangl is quoted as saying:

“

To tell the truth, one did become used to it...they were cargo. I think it started the day I first saw the Totenlager [extermination area] in Treblinka. I remember Wirth standing there, next to the pits full of black-blue corpses. It had nothing to do with humanity — it could not have. It was a mass — a mass of rotting flesh. Wirth said 'What shall we do with this garbage?' I think unconsciously that started me thinking of them as cargo....I rarely saw them as individuals. It was always a huge mass. I sometimes stood on the wall and saw them in the "tube" — they were naked, packed together, running, being driven with whips....[23]

”

Kurt Franz

Instead, the man most responsible for day-to-day interactions with the prisoners was Kurt Franz. These interactions are described in depth in his article.

The Treblinka song

As reported by lower-ranking SS officers and soldiers, Kurt Franz, one of the commanding officers of the camp, wrote lyrics to a song, which celebrated the Treblinka extermination camp. This song was taught to the few newly arriving Jews who were not killed immediately, who were instead forced to work as slave laborers at the camp (known as Sonderkommandos). These Jews were forced to memorize the song by nightfall of their first day at the camp. The melody for the song came from an SS officer at Buchenwald concentration camp. The music was written in a happy way, as though the deaths at the camp were a joyful process rather than one of mourning, in the key of D major. Franz's lyrics for the song are listed below:

Looking squarely ahead, brave and joyous, at the world. The squads march to work. All that matters to us now is Treblinka. It is our destiny. That's why we've become one with Treblinka in no time at all. We know only the word of our Commander. We know only obedience and duty. We want to serve, to go on serving until little luck ends it all. Hurray!

• Lyrics by Kurt Hubert Franz
• Testimony of SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal) Franz Suchomel, who worked at Treblinka.^[25]

New gas chambers

In September 1942, Stangl supervised the building of new, larger gas chambers to augment the previously existing gas chambers. The new gas chambers became operational in early autumn 1942. It is believed that these death chambers were capable of killing 3,000 people in two hours, and 12,000 to 15,000 victims easily every day,^[1] with a maximum capacity of 22,000 deaths in 24 hours.^[26]

Extermination

Treblinka memorial stone for Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. More than 310,000 people were sent from Warsaw to Treblinka in just over three months

Nazi timetable for a "special resettlement train" (Umsiedlersonderzug) from Lukow to Siedlce to Treblinka, August 1942

Arriving by train, victims were pulled from the train, separated by sex, and ordered to strip naked. In winter, the temperature often dropped to –20 °C (–5 °F). The guards chose who would go to the "infirmary". Jews who were too resistant to the process were taken to the infirmary and shot. Women had their hair cut off before going into the gas chamber.^[13][25] This hair was used "in the manufacture of hair-yarn socks for 'U'-boat crews and hair-felt foot-wear for the Reichs-railway", to quote from a directive sent to all concentration camp commanders in 1942.^[27]

The newly arrived Jews, particularly the men, were beaten incessantly with whips in order to drive them towards the gas chambers. According to testimony of SS officers, men were always gassed first from the transports, while women and children waited outside the gas chamber for their turn. During this time, the women and children could hear the sounds of suffering from inside the gas chamber, and they became well aware of the fate that awaited them, which naturally caused panic and distress, and involuntary defecation.^[25]

An entire train transport of people could be killed in a matter of two or three hours.^[25]

Gas chambers: exhaust instead of gas

The gas chamber had portholes through which it was possible to view the death of the victims.^[13] The victims were gassed with carbon monoxide generated by diesel engines.^[28] There is some historical debate over whether these engines were diesel or petrol. The engines were those of Soviet Red Army tanks that had been captured during the war, and subsequently transported to Treblinka by the Nazis^{[citation needed]}. Most Soviet Red Army tanks from this period in time had diesel engines.

This killing process differed significantly from the process at Auschwitz and Majdanek, where the poisonous gas Zyklon B was used. At Sobibor and Belzec, exhaust fumes from petrol engines was used. The victims died from suffocation and carbon monoxide poisoning. This also means that, frequently, victims were not completely dead as a result of the exhaust. The few prisoners who had worked in the Sonderkommandos and survived the camp later testified that victims frequently let out a final gasp of breath from their lungs when they were extracted from the gas chambers.

After the suffocation of the victims in the gas chamber, when the doors of the gas chamber were opened, "the disfigured, bitten prisoners, with ears torn off, lay on top of each other in the most varied posture." The bodies were initially buried in large mass graves; in a later stage of the camp's operation, they were burned on open-air grids made of concrete pillars and railway tracks. Sometimes, the people were not dead and began to revive in the fresh air, especially pregnant women. They were shot by the guards and burned like the others. Some 800–1,000 bodies were burned at the same time, and would burn for 5 hours. The incinerator operated 24 hours a day.^[29]

The killing centres had no other function, unlike concentration camps, in which prisoners were used as forced labour for the German war effort. In order to prevent incoming victims from realising their fate, the camp was disguised as a railway station, complete with train schedules, posters of destinations, and what appeared to be a working clock (in reality, a prisoner would move the hands to the approximate time before each convoy arrived).^[30] The camp and the process of mass murder is described by Vasily Grossman, a Jewish correspondent serving in the Red Army, in his work A Hell Called Treblinka, which was used as evidence and distributed at the Nuremberg Trials.

A simulation of the cremation pits used during Treblinka extermination camp's operation.

Cremation Pits

Within the compounds of the Treblinka extermination camp, there were two cremation pits used to incinerate bodies. The bodies were placed on grates and burned in whole within the wood and ash. These pits were roughly located just east of the new gas chambers. The camp memorial has recreated a simulation of the "extermination pits" using melted basalt and stone which is placed on a concrete fundamental plate. The bodies that were previously burned during the camp's operation were dug up and cremated pending the orders of Heinrich Himmler after he had visited the camp in 1943.^[31]

Resistance

On August 2, 1943, the prisoners in the work details rebelled. They seized small arms, sprayed kerosene on all the buildings and set them ablaze. In the confusion, a number of guards were killed but many more prisoners perished. Of 1,500 prisoners, about 600 managed to escape the camp, but only 40 are known to have survived until the end of the war. There was also a revolt at Sobibor two months later.

After the revolt, Treblinka ceased operation. Camp commander Kurt Franz recalled during his testimonies: "After the uprising in August 1943 I ran the camp single-handedly for a month; however, during that period no gassings were undertaken. It was during that period that the original camp was levelled off and lupins were planted."^[32]:247 The camp had been badly damaged during the uprising, and the murder of the Polish Jews was also largely complete. It was decided to shoot the last of the Jewish prisoners and shut down the camp.^[32]:373 Odilo Globocnik wrote to Himmler: "I have (on October 19, 1943), completed Operation Reinhard, and have dissolved all the camps."^[33] The final group of about 30 Jewish girls at Treblinka was shot at the end of November.

Aftermath

A mass grave in Treblinka opened in March 1943; the bodies were removed for burning. In the background, dark grey piles of ash from cremated bodies can be seen

In 1965, after a report by Dr. Helmut Krausnick, director of the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, the Court of Assize in Düsseldorf concluded that the minimum number of people killed in Treblinka was 700,000.^[34] In 1969, the same court, after new evidence revealed in a report by expert Dr. Wolfgang Scheffler, reassessed the number to be 900,000.^[34] According to the Germans and the guards who were stationed in Treblinka, the figure ranges from 1 million to 1.4 million^{[citation needed]}. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the death toll in the gas chambers of Treblinka II (not including the deaths from forced labor in Camp I) falls in the range of 870,000 to 925,000.^[7] It is somewhat difficult to assess exactly the number of those killed, but the approximate number can be established on the basis of the Höfle telegram (see next paragraph) and surviving transport documentation.

Höfle Telegram

Main article: Höfle Telegram

The Höfle Telegram

In 2001, a copy of a decrypted telegram sent by the deputy commander of Operation Reinhard was discovered among recently declassified information in Britain.^[35] The Höfle Telegram listed 713,555 Jews killed in Treblinka up to the end of December 1942. With the addition of the transports in 1943 listed in Yitzhak Arad's book, one may arrive at the figure 800,000. On the basis of the telegram and additional data for 1943, Jacek Andrzej Młynarczyk estimates the minimum death toll as 780,863.^[4]

Treblinka Trials

Main article: Treblinka Trials

The Austrian Franz Stangl was the commandant at Treblinka from the summer of 1942. In 1951, Stangl escaped to Brazil, where he found work at a Volkswagen factory in São Paulo. His role in the mass murder of men, women, and children was known to the Austrian authorities, but Austria did not issue a warrant for Stangl's arrest until 1961. In spite of his registration under his real name at the Austrian consulate in Brazil,^[36] it took another six years before he was tracked down by Simon Wiesenthal and arrested in Brazil. After extradition to West Germany he was tried for the deaths of around 900,000 people. He admitted to these killings but argued: "My conscience is clear. I was simply doing my duty." Found guilty on 22 October 1970, Stangl was sentenced to life imprisonment. He died of heart failure in prison in Düsseldorf on 28 June 1971.

Chain of command

Organizers of the camp

• Odilo Lotario Globocnik, SS-Hauptsturmführer (at the time) (Captain) and SS-Polizeiführer (SS Police Chief), Head of Operation Reinhard^[1][37][38]
• Hermann Julius Höfle, SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain), Coordinator of Operation Reinhard^[38]
• Richard Wolfgang Thomalla, SS-Obersturmführer (at the time) (First Lieutenant), Head of death camp construction during Operation Reinhard^[1][37][38]
• Erwin Hermann Lambert, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), Head of gas chamber construction during Operation Reinhard (constructed large gas chambers)^[38][39]
• Christian Wirth, SS-Hauptsturmführer (at the time) (Captain), Inspector of Operation Reinhard^[1][38]

Commandant

• Dr. Irmfried Eberl, SS-Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant), 01942-07-11 July 11, 1942—01942-08-26 August 26, 1942 (relieved of duty due to incompetence)^[1][37]
• Franz Paul Stangl, SS-Obersturmführer (First Lieutenant), 01942-09-01 September 1, 1942—01943-08 August 1943 (transferred from Commandant of Sobibor extermination camp)^[1][37]
• Kurt Hubert Franz, SS-Untersturmführer (Second Lieutenant), 01943-08 August 1943—01943-10-19 October 19, 1943 (promoted from deputy commander after camp's revolt in August 1943)^[1][37][39]

Deputy commanders

• Heinrich Arthur Matthes, SS-Scharführer (Sergeant), Deputy commandant, chief of the Totenlager (extermination area)^[39][40][41]
• Karl Pötzinger, Deputy commandant, head of cremation^[1][42]
• Theodor von Eupen, Commandant of Camp I (forced labor camp)^[1]

Executioners

• Fritz Schmidt, SS-Sturmbannführer (Major), operated gas chambers^[1][40]
• Gustav Münzberger, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), operated gas chambers^[1][39]

Other officers

• Max Biala — stabbed to death by prisoner Meir Berliner on September 11, 1942
• Paul Bredow, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal)^[37]
• Herbert Floss, SS-Scharführer (Sergeant)^[42]
• Erich Fritz Erhard Fuchs, SS-Scharführer (Sergeant)^[29][43]
• Lorenz Hackenholt, SS-Hauptscharführer (First Sergeant)
• Josef Hirtreiter, SS-Scharführer (Sergeant)^[37][39]
• Otto Richard Horn, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), corpse detail^[39]
• Kurt Küttner, SS-Oberscharführer (Staff Sergeant)^[39][44]
• Karl Emil Ludwig^[1][45]
• Willy Mätzig^[29]
• Willi Mentz, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), Lazaret/Infirmary^{[1][37][39][40]}
• August Wilhelm Miete, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), Lazaret/Infirmary^[1][39][42]
• Max Möller^[37]
• Willi Post, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), Head of Ukrainian Guard, Volksdeutsche/SS squad leaders^[1]
• Albert Franz Rum, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), gas chambers^[39]
• Karl Schiffer, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), command of twelve Ukrainians^[46]
• Otto Stadie, SS-Stabsscharführer (Staff Squad Leader), camp administration^[25][39]
• Ernst Stengelin, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal) — killed in revolt on October 14, 1943^[45]
• Franz Suchomel, SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal), "Goldjuden" supervisor^[1][25][39]

Guards

Ukrainians

• Ivan Demjanjuk^[1]
• Feodor Fedorenko^[47]
• Ivan Ivanovich Marchenko^[1][42]

Russians

• Nikolay Yegorovich Shalayev^[42]

Others

• other Volksdeutsche and prisoners of war (90 to 120)^[1]

See also

• List of Nazi-German concentration camps
• Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics
• Research Materials: Max Planck Society Archive
• Shark Island, German South West Africa
• Richard Glazar
• Martin Gray
• Sol Rosenberg
• Natan Spigel

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u} Treblinka Death Camp, with photographs, Ounsdale, PDF (2.2 MB)
2. ^ Yitzhak Arad (1987). Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pg. 37.
3. ^ ^{a b} Holocaustresearchproject.net
4. ^ ^{a b} Treblinka - ein Todeslager der "Aktion Reinhard", in: "Aktion Reinhard" - Die Vernichtung der Juden im Generalgouvernement, Bogdan Musial (ed.), Osnabrück 2004, pp. 257-281.
5. ^ Donald L. Niewyk, Francis R. Nicosia, The Columbia guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-231-11200-9. Page 210
6. ^ ^{a b c d} BBC History of World War II. Auschwitz; Inside the Nazi State. Part 3, Factories of Death.
7. ^ ^{a b c d} Treblinka: Chronology
8. ^ Höfle Telegram Public Record Office, Kew, England, HW 16/23, decode GPDD 355a distributed on January 15, 1943, radio telegrams nos 12 and 13/15, transmitted on 11 January 1943.
9. ^ Lanzmann, Claude, Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust.
10. ^ Steiner, Jean-Francois, and Weaver, Helen. Treblinka.
11. ^ United States Department of Justice. Excerpts from Interrogation of Defendant Pavel Vladimirovitch Lelenko.
12. ^ Crowe, D. The Holocaust Roots, History, and Aftermath page 247. 2008.
13. ^ ^{a b c} Testimony of Alexsandr Yeger at the Nizkor Project
14. ^ Surviving Treblinka by Samuel Willenberg – Basil Blackwell 1989.
15. ^ Wright, Michael (2002). What They Didn't Teach You About World War II. I Books. p. 310. ISBN 0743445139. 
16. ^ Steiner & Weaver, pp. 92–95.
17. ^ Steiner & Weaver, p. 84.
18. ^ Court of Assizes in Düsseldorf, Germany. Excerpts From Judgments (Urteilsbegründung). AZ-LG Düsseldorf: II 931638.
19. ^ Saul Friedländer. The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, p. 432.
20. ^ Yitzhak Arad. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard death camps. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1987, p. 87.
21. ^ Chrostowski, Witold, Extermination Camp Treblinka, page 37, London, Vallentine Mitchell, 2004 ISBN 0-85303-456-7
22. ^ ^{a b} Sereny, Gitta, The Healing Wound -- Reflections on Germany 1938-2001, page 117, Norton, 2001 ISBN 0-393-04428-9
23. ^ ^{a b} Arad, Yitzhak: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard death camps. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1987, p. 186.
24. ^ Robert S. Wistrich. Who's Who in Nazi Germany, p. 295-296. Macmillan, 1982.
25. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Documentary film Shoah (1985).
26. ^ David E. Sumler, A history of Europe in the twentieth century. Dorsey Press, ISBN 0256014213.
27. ^ Concentration Camp Dachau 1933-1945, ISBN 3-87490-528-4, p. 137; Plate 282 with translation.
28. ^ The Construction of the Treblinka Extermination Camp
29. ^ ^{a b c} Klee, Ernst, Dressen, Willi, Riess, Volker The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders. ISBN 1-56852-133-2.
30. ^ Lanzmann.
31. ^ Gilbert, Martin (15 May 1987). The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. Henry Holt and Company, LLC. ISBN 0-8050-0348-7. http://www.amazon.com/Holocaust-History-Europe-During-Second/dp/0805003487/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1318293296&sr=1-8. Retrieved 10 October 2011. 
32. ^ ^{a b} Arad.
33. ^ The Nizkor Project. The Killing Centers.
34. ^ ^{a b} Operation Reinhard: Treblinka Deportations
35. ^ Public Record Office, Kew, England, HW 16/23, decode GPDD 355a distributed on January 15, 1943, radio telegrams nos 12 and 13/15, transmitted on January 11, 1943.
36. ^ Sereny, Gitta Into That Darkness: from Mercy Killing to Mass Murder, a study of Franz Stangl, the commandant of Treblinka, 1974
37. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} The Holocaust: Lest we forget: Extermination camp Treblinka
38. ^ ^{a b c d e} Sobibor - The Forgotten Revolt
39. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} First Treblinka Trial
40. ^ ^{a b c} Treblinka testimony
41. ^ Yitzhak Arad. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard death camps, p. 121. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1987.
42. ^ ^{a b c d e} H.E.A.R.T. - Holocaust & Education Archive Research Team
43. ^ Arad, Yitzhak: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard death camps. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1987, p. 43.
44. ^ Arad, Yitzhak: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard death camps, p. 191. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1987.
45. ^ ^{a b} Sobibor Interviews: Biographies of SS-men
46. ^ Yitzhak Arad. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard death camps, p. 371. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1987.
47. ^ Federenko trial

References

• Court of Assizes in Düsseldorf, Germany. Excerpts From Judgments (Urteilsbegründung). AZ-LG Düsseldorf: II 931638, 1965. Online. ftp1.us.nizkor.org
• Arad, Yitzhak, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987. ISBN 0-253-34293-7
• Glazar, Richard. Trap with a Green Fence. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois, 1999.
• Klee, Ernst., Dressen, W., Riess, V. The Good Old Days: the Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders. New York: The Free Press, 1988. ISBN 1-56852-133-2
• Lanzmann, Claude, Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust. New York: Pantheon Books. 1985.
• The Nizkor Project. The Killing Centers. 1995. Online. Available: ftp1.us.nizkor.org
• Steiner, Jean-François; Trans. Helen Weaver (1967). Treblinka. New York: Simon and Schusters, Inc.. ISBN 0452011248. 
• Rückerl, Adalbert, hrsq. NS-Prozesse. Karlsruhe, Germany: Verlag C F Muller, 1972.
• "Treblinka." Encyclopedia Americana. Ed. unknown.
• United States Department of Justice. Excerpts from Interrogation of Defendant Pavel Vladimirovitch Lelenko. Original source: Directorate of Counterintelligence of the 2nd Belorussian Front, USSR. 1978. Acquired by US in 1994. Available online: nizkor.com, nizkor.com
• Originally based on writing by Christopher Mahan as a Pierce College English 101 assignment: christophermahan.com
• Sereny, Gitta Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience, 1983
• Vassily Grossman's article The Treblinka Hell (1944) was disseminated at the Nuremberg Trials as a document for the prosecution. (The original in Russian: Треблинский ад)
• Martin Gray (with Max Gallo), For Those I Loved, Little Brown Company, 1984, hardcover, ISBN 0-316-32576-7, 351 pages
• Testimony of Treblinka survivor Ya'akov Wiernik during the Adolf Eichmann trial: nizkor.org
• Höfle Telegram, Public Record Office, Kew, England, HW 16/23, decode GPDD 355a distributed on January 15, 1943, radio telegrams nos 12 and 13/15, transmitted on January 11, 1943.
• Smith, Mark S. (2010). Treblinka Survivor: The Life and Death of Hershl Sperling. The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5618-8. 

External links

• Treblinka - About the Holocaust - Yad Vashem - Including Video Testimony of Treblinka Survivor Eliyahu Rosenberg

• Treblinka from Holocaust Survivors and Remembrance Project: "Forget You Not"
• Zchor.org, A year in Treblinka, eye-witness report by an escaped prisoner of the camp, Yankel Wiernik.
• Frontline - Treblinka
• Treblinka
• Treblinka Death Camp History
• (Polish) Treblinka II
• (Czech) Josef Gross: Přežil jsem (I survived)
• Interview (video) with Franz Suchomel (SS guard at Treblinka)