Treblinka is a concentration camp near Warsaw (Poland), where from 1942 to 1943 the Nazis destroyed the Jewish population of the occupied country. Researchers believe that about eight hundred thousand people died here, and most of them are Jews. Now about those terrible events reminds a memorial in memory of the innocent victims of the Holocaust.
The executioners acted in a regime of special secrecy: along the perimeter at a kilometer distance from the camp, a guard was fired, opening fire on everyone who came closer than expected. Railroad workers and military escorts were not allowed into the camp on pain of death. Moreover, even Luftwaffe planes were forbidden to fly in these coordinates.
Jews of Poland
Poland is a country in which a huge Jewish diaspora was concentrated. By the beginning of the German occupation, its number was more than three million people. Among them were outstanding scientists, educators, and artists - Hitler’s machine spared no one.
Some, sensing danger, promptly moved to the territory of the USSR and Belarus, another part fled to Vilnius. Thus, under the leadership of the Nazis on September 1, 1939 (date of the capture of Poland), 2 million Jews remained. All of them were subjected to a “final decision”. Already on September 21 a working group was gathering, which decided to create reservations where Jews from the occupied territories would be concentrated.
So, on the territory of Poland, three ghettos are created - special places where the Nazis place the Jewish population. Life in the ghetto is hunger, disease, deprivation and humiliation. But this did not solve the issue of destruction. So there is a monstrous plan - the so-called Reinhard operation, at the peak of which destruction sites are created, including the Treblinka concentration camp. Jews were sent here mainly from the Warsaw ghetto. But we will talk about this later.
History of creation
When was Treblinka built? The concentration camp, whose history is so sad, begins to exist in 1942. By order of the Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler of April 17, the construction of the extermination camp began. Arpad Wiegand, the fascist governor of Warsaw, was appointed responsible.
After solving bureaucratic delays, construction began at the end of May, and already on July 22 of that year, the Treblinka concentration camp received the first Warsaw Jews. Initially, the unfortunate were not exterminated in such terrifying quantities, but soon, by October 1942, after the construction of additional gas chambers and crematoriums, the infernal destruction machine was fully operational.
Treblinka (concentration camp) existed until 1943. The turning point was the uprising of the prisoners of the labor camp, after which this terrible place was liquidated.
Infrastructure
How did this place function? How did the Nazis manage to destroy thousands of people at once: women, old people and children? The trains of twenty cars filled with people left immediately for destruction in gas chambers. By the way, the d / f “Treblinka concentration camp” describes these moments well, allowing you to plunge into the horror of what is happening.
Consider the structure of Treblinka. So, 80 km from Warsaw on the field, four kilometers from the village of the same name, there is a place where Polish Jews were brought for reprisal. A large glade of 24 hectares was fenced with a three-meter-long fence of barbed wire, to which a high voltage was applied.
In addition, there was a three-meter ditch - an additional means of protection against shoots. The territory itself was in a ring of woods. A branch of the railway approached the camp, along which the doomed were delivered.
The camp itself was divided into two. In the first (Treblinka 1), the prisoners were concentrated, providing partly the infrastructure of the camp. Of course, for the most part, the so-called "labor camp" was the site of the slow death of the unfortunate. The second - Treblinka 2 - was intended exclusively for the murder of Jews. On its territory were barracks for stripping, gas chambers, crematoriums and ditches for burial. In addition, the so-called Sonderkommands, Jews who were selected to serve the killing, also lived here. At certain intervals, they changed (the "old" Sonderkommands were killed).
Treblinka is a concentration camp, which was served by 30 SS soldiers, in addition, Ukrainians and prisoners of war were attracted, who went over to the side of the enemy. Franz Stengel was appointed commandant. After the war he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Famous prisoners: J. Korczak
Treblinka claimed many lives. The concentration camp deprived the world and outstanding people. There died the great Polish teacher Janusz Korczak, author of the book "King Matiusz I". He also wrote many books on pedagogy, in which he explained how to love a child correctly, and focused on children's rights to respect. His whole life was in children, and when the Nazis came to power, Korczak in every possible way took care of his pupils - children from the Orphanage. First in the ghetto, and then in Treblinka.
They wanted to save him, to take him out of the ghetto, then there was another chance - they were ready to remove Korczak from the car, leaving from Warsaw to the last refuge - Treblinka. He refused. Heroically, Korczak entered the gas chamber with his children, comforting the kids, cheering the elders.
S. Pullman: a tortured musician
Simon Pullman - an outstanding musician and teacher - another one whose life was cut short by Treblinka. The concentration camp was for him the last station after living in the Warsaw ghetto. There he created a symphony orchestra, and then, along with fellow musicians, died in a gas chamber. The exact date of death of the musician is unknown, as are the events preceding it.
Uprising of 1943
In 1943, a wave of rebellion captures the death camps and the ghetto. Most likely, the brutally suppressed rebellion in the Warsaw ghetto served as the impetus. Although the prisoners understood their weakness in comparison with the German military machine, they preferred to die in the struggle for freedom.
The rebellion in Treblinka was initially doomed to failure. Indeed, what can exhausted by labor and hunger people, armed only with picks and shovels, do against the camp staff with machine guns in their hands? However, the prisoners deliberately went for it.
The reason was the so-called "Operation 1005". After the deportation of the last train with Jews from Warsaw, the Nazis needed to carefully hide the traces of crimes. The remaining 1000 prisoners were forced to dig up the ditches with the buried victims and burn the decayed corpses.
Gradually, the unfortunate people come to the realization that as soon as they finish work, they will be killed. And so the idea of rebellion was born. During the rebellion, the camp was burned almost completely. Most of the prisoners were shot while trying to escape, others were caught in the woods, forced to finish work and also shot. Only a few managed to escape. Among them was Samuel Wallenberg.
Samuel Wallenberg - one of the survivors
By happy coincidence, she did not take the life of Samuel Wilenberg Treblinka. The concentration camp (you can see his photo in the article), where he arrived at one of the convoys, immediately seemed strange to Samuel. Therefore, he heeded the advice of one of those who met to be called a mason. Thus, he became the only survivor from thousands of doomed from his composition.
He lived in Treblinka, performing various work: from a sorter of things to a member of the Sonderkommando. Wilenberg's escape was successful - he was injured in the leg, but was able to escape. Moreover, Samuel found his father alive and joined the underground. He died at the end of February 2016. After himself, Wallenberg left a book of memoirs, "The Rebellion in Treblinka."
Memorial
What is Treblinka (concentration camp) now? The memorial at the site of the monstrous killings makes everyone remember the horrors of the Holocaust. It was opened in 1964. It is a monument, and around 17 thousand stones - symbolic. That is how many people were destroyed in the camp at a time.
A place that evokes particularly strong emotions, where corpses were burned in 1943, is a few rails burned and covered with a black layer of soot.
In the same 1964, a museum was opened in Treblinka in memory of the victims of Nazism.