SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 115
out that none of the numerous eye witness accounts studied by the authors
of this book mentions the removal of ashes by train (or for that
matter by trucks).
5.2.2. The Switch from Burial to Cremation
In order to proceed with our analysis of Kola’s report, we must first
determine the answers to the following two questions: when did cremations
commence at Sobibór, and how many of the hypothetical corpses
were cremated without prior interment?
The first question is especially difficult to answer, because mainstream
Holocaust historians as well as eye witnesses provide widely divergent
statements. Arad strongly implies that cremations started at
some point in late summer or early autumn 1942. He writes that the operation
began “as a result of the hot weather in the summer of 1942.” 315
In his entry on Sobibór for the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust he writes
confusingly that cremations commenced “toward the end of 1942,” only
to later date this event to “the end of the summer of 1942.” 316 Novitch
asserts that, “beginning with the winter of 1942, they [the corpses] were
no longer buried, but were burned in large open crematoria.” 317 Neither
Arad nor Novitch provide a source for their respective statement. According
to Rückerl the burial pits were used only during the “first phase
of extermination, lasting approximately half a year,” 318 which implies
that cremations began in October or November of 1942, since the first
transports to the camp arrived in the first days of May that year. 319
Schelvis is slightly more exact, writing that cremations had begun “by
September or October 1942,” 320 while de Jong dates the commencement
of both cremations and exhumations to October 1942. 321
As for the eye witnesses, there are seven who provide some form of
dating of the beginning of cremations. We have mentioned Bahir’s
claim that flames were visible already when he arrived at the camp in
late April or early May 1942. 322 This, however, is not supported by any
other testimony. According to Szmajzner, a digger “accompanied by a
315 Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 171.
316 See chapter 2.1.
317 M. Novitch, op. cit. (note 39), p. 24.
318 A. Rückerl (ed.), op. cit. (note 36), p. 165.
319 Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 36, 390.
320 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 38. In the German edition of his book (op. cit. (note 70),
p. 51) Schelvis dates the commencement to “about September 1942.”
321 L. de Jong, op. cit. (note 244), p. 21.
322 See chapter 4.3., p. 96.