The extermination camp of Treblinka was the largest Nazi concentration camp. It stood near the road, rail, near the village of Treblinka, between the towns of Siedlce and Polish Malkinia, northeast of Warsaw. The space was divided into two distinct camps: one, the smaller (Treblinka I), was intended to forced labor, and the other (Treblinka II) was used to exterminate Jews.
The extermination camp of Treblinka in which hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered was built in the spring of 1942 around a labor camp, occupying an area of ??about 17 hectares. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and very camouflaged by a dense forest, hiding what was happening on the field. Outside the field were also placed anti-tank obstacles. Watchtowers were scattered along the fence.
The Treblinka camp was initially supervised by SS-Obersturmfuhrer Imfried Eberl. However, SS-Obersturmfuhrer Franz Stangl replaced him in August 1942, taking with Kurt Franz who held the post of deputy commander.
The first prisoners destined to be dead came transported by train, arriving at the Treblinka camp on June 22, 1942, and since then the arrival of new prisoners was constant.
Were women shaved their heads. Men, women and naked children were transported to the gas chambers, being told they were going to bathe.
Entries in the gas chambers was usual to find that some Ukrainians, cruelly, forced the prisoners to come in those gas chambers using some dogs. In addition, prisoners were sometimes struck by knives by these guards. The victims drove to the gas chambers with their hands raised, so that as many people fit into the chamber.
The gasification process in the chambers lasted approximately 15 minutes. After having observed the state of victims through a small window was opened the doors of the building exterior, with the body onto the floor. Immediately, workers removed the bodies, setting the camera to the next group of prisoners.
Initially, the corpses were stacked in a focus, and was later burned. Between the time of arrival of the train to the field until the end of the gasification process passing only a few hours. When asked at his trial about the number people who were killed in one day, Franz Stangl, commandant of the Treblinka camp, said:
Regarding the question of the exact number of people on a day aerated, I can state that according to my estimate the number of passengers carried in 3000 about thirty wagons was liquidated in three hours. When the work lasted fourteen hours, 12,000 to 15,000 prisoners ages annihilated. There were many days when the work lasted from morning to night ... I did not do anything to anyone that was not my duty. My conscience is clean.
Treblinka was undoubtedly a place of mass execution? an extermination camp like Auschwitz. After the beginning of 1943 the number of shipments began to decline. In February or March of that year, Himmler visited Treblinka and ordered the destruction of all traces of the crime, which necessitated the cremation of corpses.
It was estimated that about 850,000 people were brutally murdered in the Treblinka camp. Jews were killed in the occupied territories of Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Yugoslavia and USSR, as well as Germany and Austria. Polish and German Gypsies were also sent and killed in Treblinka.
The Treblinka extermination camp was finally closed in November 1943.
Legend of the map of the concentration camp:
- Entrance to the camp near Seidel Street
- Room guards near the entrance
- Quarters of the SS
- Warehouse weapons
- Gas pump
- Garage
- Entrance to the Station Square
- Bed and Franz Stangl
- SS Services (barber shop, doctor and dentist)
- Quarters of the field staff
- Bakery
- Market
- Quarters of the Jews previligiados
- Quarters of Ukrainians
- Zoo
- Stables, pigsty and the chicken coop
- Rooms of the Capos, women, tailor, shoe repair and carpentry
- Kitchen of prisoners
- Rooms for male inmates, laundry and tool magazine
- Blacksmith
- Latrine
- Square of calls from prisoners
- Station platform
- Warehouse for articles taken from prisoners
- Square deportations
- Where the prisoners undressed
- Where the hair of prisoners was cut
- Where the prisoners undressed
- Reception area of ??new prisoners
- Location plays ('Lazarett')
- 'The Tube' - path to the gas chambers
- The most recent gas chambers (10 chambers)
- The oldest gas chambers (3 chambers)
- Mass graves
- Crematoria
- Rooms, kitchens and latrines of the prisoners
The english version of this article will be available soon. In the meanwhile, the text above was the result of a Google translation from portuguese version to english.
