SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

More documents

Recommendations

Info

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 15 2. The Sobibór Camp and its Historiographic Representation 2.1. Sobibór as Described in the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust Under the heading “Sobibór,” the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust has the following text: 13 “Extermination camp near the village and railway station of Sobibór, in the eastern part of the Lublin district in Poland, not far from the Che�m-W�odawa railway line. Established as part of the operation of Aktion Reinhard, [14] the camp was built in a sparsely populated, woody, and swampy area beginning in March 1942. Local inhabitants and a group of eighty Jews from nearby ghettos were employed to construct it; Obersturmführer Richard Thomalla, [15] a staff member of the SS construction office in Lublin, was in charge. In April 1942, SS-Obersturmführer Franz Stangl was appointed camp commandant and assumed responsibility for completion of the camp. In building Sobibór, the Germans drew on experience gained in the construction and operation of the Be��ec extermination camp. The camp staff included 20 to 30 German SS men, most of whom had previously taken part in the euthanasia program, as had Stangl. In addition, 90 to 120 Ukrainians served in the camp. Most were Soviet prisoners of war who had been trained for the job at Trawniki, some were Volksdeutsche, Soviet nationals of German origin The German staff filled most of the command and administrative positions, while the Ukrainian unit acted as a guards and security per- 13 Israel Gutman (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, vol. 3-4, MacMillan, New York 1990, pp. 1373-1377. 14 See chapter 8.2. about this campaign “Aktion Reinhard(t)”; the spelling in original documents and in the literature varies between Reinhard and Reinhardt. Editor’s remark. 15 The higher quality German edition gives Thomalla’s rank as Hauptsturmführer; Israel Gutman, Eberhard Jäckel, Peter Longerich, Julius H. Schoeps (eds.), Enzyklopädie des Holocaust. Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden, Argon Verlag, Berlin 1993.
16 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR sonnel, their function being, among other things, to quell any resistance offered by the Jews who were brought to the camp and to prevent their escaping. Jewish prisoners were employed as well, on various physical tasks. The camp was in the form of a rectangle 1,312 by 1,969 feet (400 × 600 m) in area, surrounded by a barbed wire fence 9.8 feet (3 m) high, with tree branches intertwined in it to conceal the interior. There were three camp areas, each individually fenced in: the administration area, the reception area, and the extermination area. The administration area consisted of the Vorlager (‘pre-camp’; the part of the camp closest to the railway station) and Camp I. The Vorlager included the railway platform, with space for twenty railway cars to be stationed, as well as the living quarters for the German and Ukrainian staff. Camp I, which was fenced off from the rest, contained housing for the Jewish prisoners and the workshops in which some of them were employed. The reception area, also known as Camp II, was the place where Jews from the incoming transports were brought, to go through various procedures prior to their being killed in the gas chambers – removal of clothes, cutting of women’s hair, and confiscation of possessions and valuables. The extermination area, or Camp III, located in the northwestern part of the camp, was the most isolated. It contained the gas chambers, the burial trenches, and housing for the Jewish prisoners employed there. A path, 9.8 to 13 feet (3-4 m) wide and 492 feet (150 m) long, led from the reception area to the extermination area; on either side was a barbed-wire fence, and here too branches were intertwined to conceal the path from view. It was along this path that the victims were herded, naked, toward the gas chambers from the shed where they had undressed. The gas chambers were inside a brick building. Each chamber was square, measured 172 square feet (16 sq m), and had a capacity of 160 to 80 persons. The chambers were entered from a platform at the front of the brick building; each gas chamber also had another opening, through which the bodies were removed. The gas, carbon monoxide, was produced by a 200-horsepower engine in a nearby shed, from which it was piped into the gas chambers. The burial trenches were nearby, each 164 to 197 feet (50-60 m) long, 33 to 49 feet (10-15 m) wide, and 16.4 to 23 feet (5-7 m) deep. From the
Page 1 and 2: BARNES REVIEW HOLOCAUST HANDBOOK SE
Page 3 and 4: Jürgen H.P. Rieger, * 11 May 1946,
Page 5 and 6: HOLOCAUST Handbooks Series, vol. 19
Page 7 and 8: 6 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SO
Page 9 and 10: 8 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SO
Page 11 and 12: 10 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, S
Page 15: 14 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, S
Page 64 and 65: J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBI
Page 66 and 67:
J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBI
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200 and 201:
Page 202 and 203:
Page 204 and 205:
Page 206 and 207:
Page 208 and 209:
Page 210 and 211:
Page 212 and 213:
Page 214 and 215:
Page 216 and 217:
Page 218:
Page 221 and 222:
220 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO,
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
Page 247 and 248:
Page 249 and 250:
Page 251 and 252:
Page 253 and 254:
Page 255 and 256:
Page 257 and 258:
Page 259 and 260:
Page 261 and 262:
Page 263 and 264:
Page 265 and 266:
Page 267 and 268:
Page 269 and 270:
Page 271 and 272:
Page 273 and 274:
Page 275 and 276:
Page 277 and 278:
Page 279 and 280:
Page 281 and 282:
Page 283 and 284:
Page 285 and 286:
Page 287 and 288:
Page 289 and 290:
Page 291 and 292:
Page 293 and 294:
Page 295 and 296:
Page 297 and 298:
Page 299 and 300:
Page 301 and 302:
Page 303 and 304:
Page 305 and 306:
Page 307 and 308:
Page 309 and 310:
Page 311 and 312:
Page 313 and 314:
Page 315 and 316:
Page 317 and 318:
Page 319 and 320:
Page 321 and 322:
Page 323 and 324:
Page 325 and 326:
Page 327 and 328:
Page 329 and 330:
Page 331 and 332:
Page 333 and 334:
Page 335 and 336:
Page 337 and 338:
Page 339 and 340:
Page 341 and 342:
Page 343 and 344:
Page 345 and 346:
Page 348 and 349:
Page 350 and 351:
Page 352 and 353:
Page 354 and 355:
Page 356 and 357:
Page 358 and 359:
Page 360 and 361:
Page 362 and 363:
Page 364 and 365:
Page 366 and 367:
Page 368 and 369:
Page 370 and 371:
Page 372 and 373:
Page 374 and 375:
Page 376 and 377:
Page 378 and 379:
Page 380 and 381:
Page 382 and 383:
Page 384 and 385:
Page 386 and 387:
Page 388 and 389:
Page 390 and 391:
Page 392 and 393:
Page 394 and 395:
Page 396 and 397:
Page 398 and 399:
Page 400 and 401:
Page 402 and 403:
Page 404 and 405:
Page 406 and 407:
Page 408 and 409:
Page 410 and 411:
Page 412 and 413:
Page 414 and 415:
Page 416 and 417:
Page 418 and 419:
Page 420 and 421:
Page 422 and 423:
Page 424 and 425:
Page 426 and 427:
Page 428 and 429:
Page 430 and 431:
Page 432 and 433:
Page 434 and 435:
Page 436 and 437:
HOLOCAUST HANDBOOKS — The Series
Page 438 and 439:
G. Rudolf, C. Mattogno: Auschwitz L
Page 440:
Carlo Mattogno: Auschwitz: Cremator
show all

SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?