SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

122 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
been careful when carrying out mass burials of their own, so as to not
risk having mass graves with corpses usable for atrocity propaganda fall
into Soviet hands. Buried at a depth of 3-5 meters, the uncremated
corpses would be difficult to find.
5.2.5. Area and Volume of the Graves
What is the actual area and volume of the Sobibór mass graves? In
order to discuss this issue, one has to consider it as a two-fold problem:
how reliable is Kola’s estimate of the area and volume of the mass
graves in their present state, and how large were the mass graves in
their original state at the time of the liquidation of the camp in late
1943?
The method used by Kola to locate the Sobibór mass graves – a grid
of manually executed probing drills with 5 meter intervals – is identical
with that previously used by him at Be��ec. It goes without saying that
this method is highly approximative and that the mapped outlines of the
graves are arbitrary to a certain degree. There is a very real possibility
that the actual present volume of the graves is smaller than the stated
14,719 cubic meters. On the other hand we have no reason to believe
that Kola has underestimated their dimensions.
As for the original area and volume of the graves, we know that,
similar to Be��ec and Treblinka, extensive wildcat diggings were carried
out by local Poles at the former Sobibór camp site following the
German retreat and that those clandestine searches for buried valuables
continued for several years. 343 According to the witness Thomas Blatt,
who lived in Poland until 1957, 344 the diggings continued “for about ten
years” after the end of the war. 345 The Polish witness Parkola describes
one of the first wildcat excavations – carried out by a single man – as
covering an area of about fifteen square meters. 346 Gilead et al. report
that such diggings have continued to occur even into the present century.
347 Diggings are naturally aided by the fact that the soil at the former
camp site is soft and sandy.
The witness Piwonski has further stated that, during the liquidation
of the camp, Jewish workers had to fill in holes “that had been caused
343 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 191.
344 R.L: Rashke, op. cit. (note 44), p. 345.
345 Ibid., p. 365.
346 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 191.
347 I. Gilead, Y. Haimi, W. Mazurek, op. cit. (note 293), p. 15.