80: Treblinka

Treblinka

Treblinka was an Extermination Camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, 4 km (2.5 mi) south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The Camp operated between July 23, 1942 and October 19,1943 as part of Operation Reinhard, the deadliest phase of the Final Solution.

During this time, it is estimated that between 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered in its Gas Chambers, along with 2,000 Romani People. More Jews were murdered at Treblinka than at any other Nazi Extermination Camp apart from Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Managed by the German SS with assistance from Trawniki guards – recruited from among Soviet POWs to serve with the Germans – the Camp consisted of two separate units.

Treblinka I was a Forced-Labour Camp (Arbeitslager) whose Prisoners worked in the gravel pit or irrigation area and in the forest, where they cut wood to fuel the cremation pits. Between 1941 and 1944, more than half of its 20,000 Inmates were murdered via shootings, hunger, disease and mistreatment.

The Second Camp, Treblinka II, was an Extermination Camp (Vernichtungslager), referred to euphemistically as the SS-Sonderkommando Treblinka by the Nazis. A small number of Jewish Men who were not murdered immediately upon arrival became members of its Sonderkommando whose jobs included being forced to bury the victims' bodies in mass graves.

At 3:45 p.m. on August 2, 1943, 700 Jews launched an insurgency that lasted for 30 minutes. They set buildings ablaze, exploded a tank of gasoline, and set fire to the surrounding structures.

A group of armed Jews attacked the main gate, and others attempted to climb the fence. Machine-gun fire from about 25 Germans and 60 Ukrainian Trawnikis resulted in near-total slaughter.

About 200 Jews escaped from the Camp.  Half of them were killed after a chase in cars and on horses.

Of those who broke through, around 70 are known to have survived until the end of the War, including the future Authors of published Treblinka Memoirs: Richard Glazar, Chil Rajchman, Jankiel Wiernik, and Samuel Willenberg.

Gassing operations at Treblinka II ended in October 1943 following a revolt by the prisoners in early August. Several Trawniki Guards were killed and 200 prisoners escaped from the camp; almost a Hundred survived the subsequent pursuit.

The Camp was dismantled in late 1943. A farmhouse for a watchman was built on the site and the ground ploughed over in an attempt to hide the evidence of Genocide.

The overall amount of material gain by Nazi Germany is unknown except for the period between August 22, and September 21, 1942, when there were 243 wagons of goods sent and recorded.

178,745,960 Nazi Reichsmarks (or $9,971,730 US Dollars in 2023)

2,909 kg of Gold

41,3000 lbs. of Silver

13,458 Carats of Diamonds.

251 lbs. of Pearls

$249,771 US Dollars (or $5,367,221 US Dollars in 2023)

Irmfried Eberl the First German Commandant of Treblinka from July 1942 until August 1942 was arrested by the Allies in 1948. He hanged himself before his trial. 

Franz Stangl was the German Commandant of the Sobibor Death Camp from April 1942-August 1942 and then the Second Commandant of the Treblinka Death Camp from September 1942 until August 1943.  He fled to Brazil after the War where he was arrested and deported to West Germany in 1967. In 1970 he was found guilty of Mass Murder and sentenced to the maximum penalty, Life Imprisonment. He died of heart failure six months later.

Kurt Franz was the Third and Final Commandant of the Treblinka Death Camp from August 1942 until October 1943. He was sentenced to Life Imprisonment in the Treblinka Trials in 1965 and was released in 1993. He died in 1998.

In the Postwar Polish People's Republic, the Government bought most of the land where the Camp had stood and built a large stone Memorial there between 1959 and 1962. In 1964, Treblinka was declared a National Monument of Jewish Martyrdom in a Ceremony at the site of the former Gas Chambers.

In the same year, the first German Trials were held regarding the crimes committed at Treblinka by Former SS Members.

After the end of Communism in Poland in 1989, the number of Visitors coming to Treblinka from abroad increased. An Exhibition Center at the camp opened in 2006. It was later expanded and made into a branch of the Siedlce Regional Museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treblinka_extermination_camp