SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

142 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
supervision of a few SS men and Ukrainian guards. To begin with,
only young, strong men were chosen for the commando; later young
women also became eligible. One of the few postcards that remain
reveals that Walter Poppert from the Netherlands was the commando
foreman at the end of August 1943.
The mass cremations resulted in huge fires, which flared up so
high they could be seen far and wide, especially at night. The Ukrainians
in their watchtowers could see the flames whenever the wind
blew in their direction, making it hard for them to breathe. They
were visible even from Piwonski’s house in the village of Zlobek
three kilometres to the north-west, and the stench was also noticeable
from there. Some Ukrainians told him that in a single day as
many as 5,000 to 6,000 bodies were exhumed and burnt.”
Schelvis later comes back to this question and writes: 417
“When it was decided around September 1942 to burn the bodies
instead of burying them, firewood had to be collected from the nearby
forest. A Waldkommando was formed, initially consisting of 20 to
25 men – the composition varying each day – who had to fell trees
and chop them up. […] The work was carried out in an area situated
between one and three kilometres away.”
Finally, Zdzis�aw �ukaszkiewicz writes: 418
“The burning of the corpses was, however, difficult to hide, as
the wind would spread a specific smell of fire all around and because
the smoke and the fire from the burn sites were visible from
far away.”
As we have already seen, Sobibór was surrounded by a forest consisting
mainly of red pines. The wood of that tree has an upper heating
value of 9,078 BTU/lb or 5,040 kcal/kg. 419 However, green wood contains
at least 60% of water 420 and has a heating value of only some
417 Ibid., p. 138.
418 Z. �ukaszkiewicz, op. cit. (note 25), p. 55.
419 Peter J. Ince, “How to Estimate Recoverable Heat Energy in Wood or Bark Fuels,”
www fpl fs fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr29.pdf.
420 “The green moisture content of wood is normally above 60 percent, and can range as
high as 120 percent for some species,” in; “Moisture Content of ‘Seasoned’ Firewood,”
www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/wfiles/W179.pdf; “Mostly English and European
Oak, when freshly felled, has a moisture content of between 60% and 80%,” in: “South
Downs Green Wood Centre – Timber Frame Green Oak Timber Frames,”
www.southdownsgreenwoodcentre.co.uk/timberframes html; “What is the moisture content
(MC) of wood compared to its dry weight? Typically 60% for green hardwoods, up
to double that for softwoods.” John Sankey, “Wood Moisture,”
www.johnsankey.ca/wetwood.html