The Germans offered food to any one who will volunteer to go on the train. The Jews believed that they are really being sent to working camps as they were told and had no idea about what’s going to happen to them.
The destruction of the Jews started on the train itself.
Hundreds of Jews where stuffed in little cattle vans without food, water or clean air. The trip, which was supposed to be a few hours, lasted even a day or two, and many Jews, which hadn’t had any reasonable conditions in the vans died. The ones who survived lived in the vans in terrible conditions.
The destruction process
The destruction technique in the camp was copied from the camps “sobibor” and “belzech”.
A train, loaded with six up to seven thousands of Jews arrived to the train station, and the people who came off the train were told that they have to remove every valuable cloth of jewelry.
The camp staff was about 40 Germans and about 120 Ukraine officers. This small number was able to do what they wanted with thousands of people every day thanks to the sophisticated lies that made the people who came believe that nothing bad will happen to them, so they didn’t try to do anything against the Germans.
Some of the ways the German used to manipulate the Jews were exit doors, signs to waiting rooms and to other docks etc. In addition to all that mentioned above, there was also a shack that had the sign “Hospital” on. All the sick, old, handicaps and young children who where not able to work or serve the Nazis in any other way, were send there and got shot in the head by SS soldiers the second they were in.
All the others were directed to the gas chambers.
In the entrance the women plus the children and the men were separated, men to the right and women to the left.
The women and children were put in a shack, when they had to undress. The Germans cut their hair and being naked they were leaded to the gas chambers in the “Heaven Path”. The Germans thought that especially being naked the Jews wouldn’t resist anything at all. Along the path there were Ukraine soldiers with dogs who ordered their dogs to attack the Jews. The Jews, who just realized the hard truth, and with the fact that they where naked didn’t resist at all – just like the Germans expectations.
In the end of the path there was a cement building, which his chambers looked like showers. The Jews where shoved into the building with force, with their hands lifted up so there will be more room for more people. The children where shoved above all the people. The building was hermetically sealed and gas, produced by an engine of a tank filled the chambers. The gas came from pipes, which connected the dispenser pipe to special openings in the ceiling of the chambers. The process took fifteen minutes but just to be sure, the Germans left the Jews in there for forty minutes. Then Jewish workers were collecting and piling up the bodies, and throw them into big graves. Some time later they started to burn the bodies instead of burying them. The Average amount of Jews who were killed in the gas chambers where 11-12 thousand people. The maximum number of dead Jews was 15-18 thousand people dead in one day.
A Picture Of A Mass Grave In Treblinka:
A Picture Taken These Days Of The Fire Ovens Where The Jew’s Bodies Where Burnt.
There were Jewish workers also cleaning up all the “mess” which the Jews left behind them. They were about 200-300 Jews there and they were held separately from the other prisoners. The yellow patches and all other identities where removed from the dead bodies, for example if a guy had a tattoo on his body they would have pealed it off and
use it as painting or other decorations.
Passports and identity cards were destroyed to remove all evidence that the Jews who where killed ever lived. Those Jews were also removing gold teeth and any valuable or identifying item from the dead bodies.
The gas chambers were only 48 square meters and that slow up the destruction process. Because of that new gas chambers were added but this time larger – 320 square meters.
A Plan To A Gas Chamber In Treblinka :
The victims of the concentration camps
The actions of mass destruction started in Treblinka in July 23rd, 1942.
The first arriving shipment was from Ghetto Warsaw (as mentioned above under “The First Shipments”). Between July 23rd and September 21st 25,000 Jews were murdered in Treblinka - all of them were from Warsaw. In conclusion there were 366,000 Jews from Ghetto Warsaw who were killed in Treblinka. Only from Poland there were 738,000 Jews murdered in Treblinka. Jews were killed in Treblinka from other countries too like Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium, Holland, Greece and France.
Three shipments a day were the ordinary amount in Treblinka. The amount of Jews killed a day was 10,000-13,000. There were days that the gas chambers were operating even at night and then there were 20,000 Jews killed in 24 hours.
Not only Jews were killed in Treblinka, but there were almost only Jews. There were gypsies and even Polish people who where killed in the death chambers.
Clothes, shoes and other stuff that was belonged to the murderered was repaired and sent to Germany.
Between the first and the 21st in September, there were 203 trailers sent from Treblinka to Germany filled with clothes and other stuff that the Germans stolen from the bodies.
Once in every two weeks there were send a trailer to Germany filled with diamonds, gold, watches and other jewelry that were worth a couple hounderds millions of dollars.
A Pile Of Shoes Collected By The Nazis
The Nazis sent everything including gold teeth and hair of the dead people and the German people used the gold and hair with no shame.
Resistance And Rebellion Against The Nazis
Although the manipulation and terror that the Nazis tried to dominate among the Jews in Treblinka there were cases of objection.
A few Jews that were led into the death chambers refused to enter the chambers of death and even one of them threw a grenade at Ukraine guards. Off course immediate fire was shot on the Jews and killed them.
Except the Nazi staff there were 1,500 Jews employed in the camp, most in office jobs and some next to the gas chambers – the “cleaners”.
These people knew what the SS is planning on them and at September 10th 1942 one of the Jewish workers stabbed a Nazi gourd. The Nazis killed him the next morning after they have concentrated all the Jews so that they’ll see what happens if one tries to escape or attempt something against the Nazis. They killed the “Rebellion” and for a while there were no attempts against the Nazis.
In October 20th a man has succeeded to escape over the fence and he got eventually to Warsaw – He was the prisoner Ya’acobovich.
The Big Rebellion In Treblinka
At August 2nd 1943 broke an armed rebellion against the Nazis region. Many Jews were killed and the few who survived managed to find an entrance to the weapon supply.
The rebels got away from the camp.
In the head of the underground rebellions stood Zialo Bloch who was a Jewish officer in the army of Czechoslovakia.
The rebels, headed by doctor Horonizski removed several dozens of rifles, ammo and grenades.
The rebel’s goal was to destroy the devices of destruction and to revenge the dead Jews. At that day the rebels cut down the phone lines, burnt the gas chambers and other building including the weapons warehouse and assaulted German and Ukraine soldiers. They took the weapons of the dead gourds and try while shooting to escape the camp.
Most of the rebels were killed during the escape trial but some managed to escape.
Most of the camp was burnt during the rebellion – because of the fact that it was made by wood. 200 prisoners managed to escape the burning Treblinka but only 70 survived because of the guards.
The guards chased the escapers and the prisoners that were captured were killed in the spot. The others who were captured had to dismantle the camp and cover any tracks to the crimes committed there.
The camp area was harvested, planted with trees and became a farm – all to cover up all the crimes which were committed there.
The Dismantle Of The Camp And Treblinka As A Memorial Site
After the rebellion, the camp was destroyed.
The year was 1943 somewhere around October.
The areas of the camp were memorialized(וחצנוה)
In the tenth of May 1964 there was a ceremony to the memory of all the victims who died there. There were 30,000 people in the ceremony.
In the area of the camp a memorial site was founded - A national Polish Site – shaped as a cemetery. On the hundreds of tombstones are written the names of the towns and cities which people were brought from to be killed in Treblinka.
Treblinka today:
The End
