Holocaust Historical Society Privacy Holocaust Historical Society HomeWelcome Chris Webb Private Archive Holocaust Memorial DayHolocaust Memorial Day - Remembrance Remembering Artur Hojan Robert KuwalekRemembering Robert Kuwalek William - Billy RutherfordRemembering William - Billy Rutherford Statement of Intent Mission Statement Contents Aktion Reinhardt Hoss on Globocnik Death of Globocnik Adolf Eichmann and Aktion Reinhardt Amon Goth Christian Wirth Aktion Reinhardt Decodes Aktion Reinhardt Documents Hermann Dolp Dr Imfried Eberl Ernst Lerch Franz ReichleitnerFranz Reichleitner Franz StanglFranz Stangl Georg Michalsen Gottlieb Hering Hermann Hofle Jakob Frank - Lipowa Street Kurt Franz Lublin - Globocnik Austrian Connections Odilo Globocnik Aktion Reinhardt Plunder Richard Thomalla San Sabba Trawniki-Manner T4 Rest Home - Haus Schoberstein Aktion Reinhardt Personnel Documents Georg Wippern Eugeniusz Maytchenko Belzec The Belzec Area Labour Camps The Belzec Death Camp Belzec Excavations Escapes from transports Wilhelm Cornides Report The Paintings of Waclaw Kolodziejczyk Report by Kurt Gerstein Roma - Sinti Interview with Martha W Rudof Reder - Lemberg to Belzec SS Sonderkommando Belzec Stanislaw Kozak Testimony Statement by Robert Lorent Belzec survivors and escapees Concentration CampsConcentration camps Apeldoorn - The Netherlands - Deportation to Auschwitz Bergen & Belsen Buchenwald Dachau Dora - Nordhausen Flossenburg Gross-Rosen Izieu - France - Deportation of Children to Auschwitz Mauthausen Natzweiler Neuengamme Paris - France - Deportation to Auschwitz Ravensbruck Sachsenhausen Stutthof Einsatzgruppen Byelaya Tserkov - Massacre of Children Eyewitness Accounts Babi Yar Babi Yar - The Perpetrators Paul Blobel Affidavit Hermann Graebe Himmler Visits Minsk Karl Jaeger Report Report on Gas Vans - Becker to Rauff Rivka Yosselevska Sonderkommando 1005 Euthanasia Bernburg Werner Blankenburg Brandenburg Chelm Dameron Report August Dietrich (Dieter) Allers Grafeneck Hadamar Hartheim Koscian Meseritz - Obrawalde Pirna-Sonnenstein German Biographies German Figures in the Warsaw Ghetto Klaus Barbie Werner Best josef blosche Martin Bormann Philipp Bouhler Viktor Brack Alois Brunner Kurt Daleuge theodor dannecker Oskar Dirlewanger Erich von Dembach Zelewski Adolf Eichmann Hoss on Eichmann Hoss on Glucks Joseph Goebbels Hermann Goering Arthur Greiser Frank Hans Reinhard Heydrich Heinrich Himmler adolf hitler Rudolf Hoss Friedrich Jeckeln Ernst Kaltenbrunner Georg Konrad Morgen Friedrich-Wilhelm Kruger Wilhelm Kube Kurt Lischka Erich Koch Dr Josef Mengele Heinrich Muller Arthur Nebe Franz Nowak Karl Oberg Otto Ohlendorf Karl Plagge Oswald Pohl Ernst Rohm Alfred Rosenberg Oskar Schindler Baldur Von Schirach Hans and Sophie Scholl Eberhard Schongarth Albert Speer Franz Walter Stahlecker Bruno Streckenbach Julius Streicher Jurgen Stroop Dieter Wisliceny Karl Wolff Ghettos - overview Ghettos A-I Augustow Bedzin Belzyce Biala Podlaska Bialystok Bilgoraj Bochnia Brody Chelm Czestochowa Dabie Nad Nerem Debica Deblin-Irena Falenica Gora Kalwaria Grodno Hrubieszow Izbica Ghettos J-R Jaworow Jedrzejow Jedwabne Jozefow Kazimierz Dolny Kielce Kolo Kolomea Komarow Kosow Lacki Kowale Panskie Kozienice Krakow Krasnik Krasnystaw Krosniewice Kutno Legionowo Lochow Lodz Lomazy Losice Lubartow Lublin Lvov Miedzyrzec Podlaski Mielec Minsk Mogilew Mordy Nowy Dwor Nowy Targ Olkusz opatow Otwock Ozarow Ozorkow Piaski Piotrkow Przemysl Pulawy Radom Radomsko Radzyn Rawa Ruska Rejowiec Rembertow Rzeszow Ghettos S-Z Sandomierz Sanok Siedlce Slawkow Sokal Sokolow Podlaski Sompolno Sosnowice Stanislawow Stryj Szczebrzeszyn Tarnopol Tarnow Terezin Tluszcz Tomaszow Lubelski Tomaszow Mazowiecki Turek Warsaw Wegrow Wloclawek Wlodawa Zamosc Zloczow Zmigrod Nowy Zwierzyniec Zwolen Zolkiew HHS members articlesHHS members articles Warren Grynberg Eli Rabinowitz Inside the Reich Hertha Beese - Berlin Housewife Ernst Krombach - From the Ruhr to Izbica Eric Lucas - Leaving Hoengen Inge Deutschkron - Berlin Kristallnacht Nisko Jewish accounts The 13 in Warsaw Testimony of Nochem Babikier Paul Beder Ilse Domke Eisner Testimony Eyewitness in Mielec Ludwika Fiszer Anne Frank - Families in Hiding Leo Freitag Yacov Gurfein Hrubieszow Deportation Chaim Kaplan Diary Henje Kozszuchowicz - Surviving the Occupation Years 1939-1944 Abraham Lewin - Diary Estracts Franceska Mann - Act of Resistance in Birkenau Chaim Rumkowski Speech - Give Me Your Children Ignacy Schwarzbart Dawid Sierakowiak Diary - Lodz Bertha Sokolovskaya Szymon Srebrnik Ber Warm Zygmunt Warman Testimony Jewish Biographies Mordechai Anielewicz Frank Bright David Cohen Adam Czerniakow Marek Edelman Sigmund Freud and his sisters Abraham Gepner Kurt Gerron Mendel Grossman Katzenelson Itzhak Warsaw Judenrat Members Janusz Korczak Jakub Lejkin Aahron Liebskind Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski Alfred Nossig Kartin Pinkus Nachum Remba Emanuel Ringelblum Rose Rotenberg Walter Suskind Raoul Wallenberg Alfred Wiener Simon Wiesenthal Poland ResistsPoland Resists Poland Occupied Joseph Bau Jan Karski Irena Sendlerowa Polish Fortnightly Review - The Real New Order: Terror Polish Fortnightly Review - The German Rule in Poland Polish Fortnightly Review - Slaughter of the Jews in Poland Tadeusz Pankiewicz - Krakow Ghetto Account Warsaw Ghetto - Guest Article Warsaw Uprising 1944 Zegota Sobibor Sobior Gas Chambers Chaim Engel Interview Iwan Karakasz Testimony Liquidation of Sobibor Johann Niemann Photographic Collection Jules Schelvis - Arrival in Sobibor Selma Engel Interview The Sobibor Area Labour Camps Sobibor death camp Ignat Danilchenko Sobibor Death Camp Mikhail Razgonayev Sobibor survivors and escapees SS Sonderkommando Sobibor Stanislaw Szmajzner Extracts Vienna Sobibor transport Westerbork Transit Camp treblinka Death Camp The Armoury Avraham Bomba Interview Barry - Kurt Franz's Dog Eliau Rosenberg Testimony Pinchas Epstein - Czestochowa to Treblinka Gas Chambers Artur Gold Kalman Teigman Testimony Kon Testimony Kudlk Testimony Malagon Interview Kurt Franz Interview The Lazarett Ivan Marchenko Polish Government Report Jerzy Rajgrodzki Statement Richard Glazar Interview Shmuel Goldberg Interview SS Sonderkommando Oskar Strawczynski Franz Suchomel Statement Survivors and Escapees Treblinka Eyewitness Statements Treblinka Labour Camp The Tube Wolf Sznajdman Testimony Nazis Eastern Empire Yankiel Wiernik Model Yankiel Wiernik Testimony Franciszek Zabecki Testimony Zabecki Aftermath Zabecki Station Master Aktion Erntefest Auschwitz Auschwitzii-Birkenau Auschwitz - Birkenau Gassing Facilities Bad Rabka and Zakopane SIPO Schools Blizyn Labour Camp Borek Forest Bruno Israel Budzyn Labour Camp Chelmno Dorohucza Deportations to Riga from the Reich The Extermination of the Jews in Sosnowiec and Bendzin Hans Frank Interview HASAG Eichmann in Hungary - Meeting at Mauthausen Eichmann in Hungary Eichmann Trial Testimonies Franz Schalling Friedel Rau Fritz Chelmno Hensen Georg Holzel Izbica - Eyewitness Accounts of Deportations Heinrich Wied Himmlers Speech at Posen Jakob Sporrenberg Janowska Joel Brand Josef Muller Testimony Kalisz-Aktion Karl Maischen Krepiecki Forest Lemberg Ghetto Litzmannstadt - Jugendlager Litzmannstadt - Radogoszcz Prison Lidice Lublin - Under The Clock Lublin Judenrat Meeting - March 31 1942 Lublin Old Airfield Lublin Sportplatz Camp Lublin - Lipowa Street Camp Majdanek Maly Trostinets Camp Pawiak Plaszow Police Battalion 101 Poniatowa Posen Fort VII Report on a Duty Journey Through Poland - Franke Gricksch Syrets Concentration Camp Testimony by Avraham Gordon at the Eichmann Trial Testimony by David Wdowinski at the Eichmann Trial Transports from Slovakia Trawniki Wannsee Conference Warsaw Concentration Camp Warsawis No More Denmark - Preben Munch-Nielsen Italy - Primo Levi Norway - Vidkun Quisling Baltic States Warsaw Ghetto - Grosaktion Summer 1942 Zabikowo Camp Kovno Riga Ghetto Vilnius Education Partnership with Teesside University Guest Article - Resistance in DenmarkResistance in Denmark About UsWhat we stand for Publications Recommended publicationsRecommended publications Contact UsFeedback welcome MembersMembers Treblinka Gas Chambers Treblinka Gas Chamber – Drawing by E. Rosenberg The gas chambers of the three Aktion Reinhardt death camps, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, as recalled by eyewitness accounts will be described in a series of articles. The individual developments in each camp will be traced. It is worth noting that in each of the three camps, the original gas chambers were found to be inadequate to the task of killing hundreds of thousands innocent Jewish men, women and children. These facilities were by and large primitive affairs, not like the massive, large-scale gas chambers and crematorium constructed in Auschwitz- Birkenau concentration camp. Jan Sulkowski a Polish bricklayer was sent to the Treblinka labour camp on 19 May 1942, and he worked on the construction of the nearby Treblinka death camp: SS men said it was to be a bath. Only later on, when the building was almost completed, I realised that it was to be a gas chamber. What was indicative of it was a special door of thick steel insulated with rubber, twisted with a bolt and placed in an iron frame; and also the fact that in one of the building compartments there was put an engine, from which three iron pipes led through the roof to the three remaining parts of the building. A specialist from Berlin came to put tiles inside and he told me that he had already built such a chamber elsewhere. Abraham Krzepicki was deported from Warsaw on 25 August 1942, and he spent eighteen days in Treblinka before escaping and returning to Warsaw. His description of the gas chambers at the death camp, are amongst the earliest recorded: But the longish, not too large brick building standing in the middle of the death camp had a strange fascination for me: this was the gas chamber. Before I left the area, I felt I had to obtain a glimpse of this, the most terrible part of the camp where the sinister crime was perpetrated on the Jews. I had already come quite close to it several times when I and others had been carrying water for the lime and clay from the well which stood right next to the building.... only as we were returning from our midday meal and our column halted for a while, did I sneak away from them and move towards the open door of the gas chamber. I think I have already noted that this building was surrounded by a wooded area. Now I noticed that, spread over the flat roof of the building, there was a green wire net whose edges extended slightly beyond the building's walls. This may have been for protection against air attacks. Beneath the net on top of the roof I could see a tangle of pipes. The walls of the building were covered with concrete. The gas chamber had not been operating for a week. I was able to look inside through one of the two strong whitewashed iron exits which happened to be open. I saw before me a room which was not too large. It looked like a regular shower room with all the accoutrements of a public bathhouse. The walls of the room were covered with small white tiles. It was very fine, clean work. The floor was covered with orange terra cotta tiles. Nickel-plated metal faucets were set into the ceiling. That was all. A comfortable neat little bathhouse set in the middle of a wooded area. Jankiel Wiernik was deported from Warsaw on 23 August 1942, and he was involved in the construction of the larger second gas chambers in Treblinka, as he was a master craftsman. He was a leading figure in the prisoner uprising and escaped during the revolt on 2 August 1943. He provided a written account of his time in Treblinka under the title 'A Year in Treblinka.' He wrote: When I arrived at the camp, three gas chambers were already in operation; another ten were added while I was there. A gas chamber measured 5 x 5 meters and was about 1.90 meters high. The outlet on the roof had a hermetic cap. The chamber was equipped with a gas pipe inlet and a baked tile floor slanting towards the platform. The brick building which housed the gas chambers was separated from Camp No 1 by a wooden wall. This wooden wall and the brick wall of the building together formed a corridor which was 80 centimetres taller than the building. The chambers were connected with the corridor by a hermetically fitted iron door leading into each of the chambers. On the side of Camp No.2 the chambers were connected by a platform four meters wide, which ran alongside all three chambers. The platform was about 80 centimetres above ground level. There was also a hermetically fitted wooden door on this side. Each chamber had a door facing Camp No. 2 – 1.80 by 2.50 meters – which could be opened only from the outside by lifting it with iron supports and was closed by iron hooks set into the sash frames, and by wooden bolts. The victims were led into the chambers through the doors leading from the corridor, while the remains of the gassed victims were dragged out through the doors facing Camp No.2. The power plant operated alongside these chambers, supplying Camps 1 and 2 with electric current. A motor taken from a dismantled Soviet tank stood in the power plant. This motor was used to pump the gas which was let into the chambers by connecting the motor with the inflow pipes. Eliahu Rosenberg who was deported from Warsaw to Treblinka during September 1942 worked in the Totenlager, as a cleaner of the chambersand as a corpse carrier, described the small gas chambers: The first thing which appeared before our eyes was a barn-like building built of rough bricks. As I found out later, these were the gas chambers in which a large number of people died. There were three sections there, the size of a regular dining room. The ground (floor) and a half of the wall was covered with red tiles in order to camouflage the blood sticking to the walls. In the ceiling there was a small sealed window which was never opened, and through which the gassing procedure could be watched. The ceiling had been equipped with showers through which water did not run. Due to the dark inside the chambers, it could not be seen that along the walls ran pipes some five centimetres in diameter through which flowed the gas- it was the exhaust gas produced by an engine placed in the cabin. There were pushed some four hundred people into each chamber. As the transports from the Warsaw ghetto continued and from other parts of the Generalgouvernement it became evident during August 1942 that the three gas chambers were inadequate. The camp under Dr Irmfried Eberl was in constant chaos and breakdown with thousands of un-buried corpses. Christian Wirth was ordered by Odilo Globocnik to re-organise the camp and increase the gassing capacity with improved and larger facilities. SS–Unterscharführer Erwin Lambert the gas chamber construction expert from T4 in Berlin played a key role in the construction of the new gas chambers and he testified after the war: At Treblinka I laid the foundations for the large gas chambers. I had some Jewish prisoners and some Ukrainians in my work force. The Ukrainians were guards, but there they worked as masons and carpenters. We never officially spoke of gas chambers but of shower rooms. We must have worked for six to eight weeks on that job. In addition to building the large gas chambers, I also did other construction jobs. I remember that a baker's oven was built, a stable, and a detention block for the guards. I got the building material from ruined buildings near the camp. I was given Jewish prisoners for this work Jankiel Wiernik recalled the construction of the new gassing facility: It turned out that we were building ten additional gas chambers, more spacious than the old ones, 7 by 7 meters or about 50 square meters. As many as 1,000 to 1,200 persons could be crowded into one gas chamber. The building was laid out according to the corridor system, with five chambers on each side of the corridor. Each chamber had two doors, one door leading into the corridor through which the victims were admitted; the other door, facing the camp, was used for the removal of the corpses. The construction of both doors was the same as that of the doors in the old chambers. The Corridor in the New Gas Chambers ( CAD by Peter Laponder - ARC) The building, when viewed from Camp No. 1, showed five wide concrete steps with bowls of flowers on either side. Next came a long corridor. There was a Star of David on top of the roof facing the camp, so that the building looked like an old-fashioned synagogue. Oskar Strawczynski, who was deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka arrived in the death camp on 5 October 1942. Oskar received information about the Totenlager from Hershel Jablkowski, he was a Smithy in Treblinka, whilst Oskar Strawczynski was a tinsmith; Over in Camp 2 there was also the 'bath'. It was a large concrete building standing on a cement platform. On its roof and visible from a distance was a wooden Star of David. Running through the middle of the building was a corridor. The entrance was covered with a red curtain. Off the corridor there were doors leading to small cubicles into which the arrivals from the transport were introduced. Outside over the platform, there were large openings covered by panels hinged at the top and fastened with steel bands. Inside the cubicles smooth tiles covered the slightly slanted floors and went halfway up the walls. On the ceiling a few shower heads were mounted. There was also a small window in the middle of the ceiling. As mentioned before, the people leave all their belongings in Camp 1. Everyone is undressed there. The women already naked, are seated on a long bench and their hair is cut off. This is accomplished by about forty 'hairdresers'. The hair is then cleaned with steam, using a steam kettle brought especially for this purpose. The hair is then packed in bales, and sent out along with the clothing and other wares. The victims come into Camp 2 already naked and shorn, and are immediately squeezed into the cubicles. There is no more division: men, women and children are all pressed together in the small cubicles so tightly that this alone would be enough to suffocate them. The doors are hermetically sealed, the motors start to work. The air from inside is sucked out and fumes from burnt gasoline forced in. The cries from inside can be heard for about for about ten minutes and then it becomes quiet. The entire process, from the arrival at the camp to the oven lasts only about half an hour. Most of the victims in the cubicles start to haemorrhage. A German controls the progress of the work through the little window in the ceiling. When he is sure that everyone inside is dead, he opens the side panels, and the corpses fall out onto the cement platform. An elderly Jew from Czestochowa called the 'dentist' checks the bodies for gold or metal teeth, which he pulls out. Abraham Bomba was deported from Czestochowa to Treblinka where he arrived on 30 September 1942 and he worked as a barber for a short time in the Totenlager. He was interviewed by the USHMM on 28 August 1990: They took us into the gas chamber..... in the gas chamber before they gassed them. There were benches about 20 benches maybe less. And on a row of benches women were sitting and the barber went through cutting hair, with me cutting hair. The gas chamber –how it looked? Very simple. Was all concrete. Was no windows. There was nothing in it. Besides on top of you, there were wires and it looked like, you know the water going to come out from it. Had two doors – steel doors. From one side and the other side. The people went into the gas chamber from the one side. Like myself I was in it doing the job as a barber. When it was full the gas chamber, the size of it was, i would say 18 by 18 or 18 by 17. Yekhiel Meyer (Chil) Rajchman was depo… truncated (14,894 more characters in archive)