SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 113
where, even though the new grave was not yet ready. I still clearly
remember arriving for work at the second grave one morning to find
that the bodies which had already been piled up along one side had
decomposed to such an extent that in the sweltering heat blood and
body fluids had run all along the bottom of the unfinished grave. It
was clear that we could not continue working under such circumstances.”
Due to such problems the burial of uncremated corpses was stopped.
Schelvis writes: 307
“It was then decided to start burning the bodies instead and to
get a machine in to dig up the tens of thousands of buried bodies to
burn them as well. […]
The machine was taken to Lager 3 and, within a few days, work
was begun on the very spot where the third grave was to be dug,
with the digger pulling out trees and roots. A pit was excavated, but
it was smaller and shallower than the other two. Once it was finished,
rails were criss-crossed over the top, forming a rudimentary
grid.”
Accordingly there are said to have been three pits in camp III: two
used for the interment of corpses and one on top of which the cremation
pyre was constructed. The number of burial pits was confirmed by a
sketch drawn by Bolender while in custody. 308 This shows two graves,
one of which is only half the size of the other.
Arad gives the following description of the Sobibór mass graves: 309
“The burial pits were 50 to 60 meters long, 10 to 15 meters wide,
and 5 to 7 meters deep. For easier absorption of the corpses into the
pits, the sandy sidewalls were made oblique.”
Arad never states the number of graves, and the map reproduced by
him does not outline the graves. 310 Novitch only mentions an unspecified
number of “common graves,” 311 while Schelvis accepts Bolender’s
claim that there only were two burial pits. 307
Arad’s description lacks a reference, but it is apparent that he has
simply copied it from Adalbert Rückerl, 312 who in turn is summarizing
307 J. Schelvis, ibid, p. 111.
308 Viewable online at: www.deathcamps.org/sobibor/pic/bmap4.jpg
309 Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 33.
310 Ibid., p. 35. This map is identical with the so-called Blatt-Bauer map.
311 M. Novitch, op. cit. (note 39), p. 24.
312 “A camp railway led from the outer doors of the cells of the gas chamber building to
large pits for placing the corpses, which had been dug, one after another during the first