SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 163
“In October 2007, acting on the assumption that we knew roughly
where the gas chamber was located, we decided to dig first in the
area bordering the west of Kola’s Building E. We worked in 5 × 5m
squares which correspond to Kola’s grid, screened all the sediments
we dug and used soft hair brushes to clean the surfaces we exposed.
The sediment we excavated was sand, heavily mixed with ashes and
burnt materials and artifacts. It was approximately 10 cm deep and
overlaid deep layers of sterile sand. The nature and the extension of
the archaeological deposit and the types of artifacts embedded in it
indicate that the part of Sobibór we excavated is neither the gas
chamber nor the undressing barrack.”
Thus while knowing “roughly” the location of the alleged gas chamber
building, the archeologists failed to turn up any evidence for its existence.
How likely is this, if the gas chamber allegation is indeed true?
While the former area of camp III was divided into four hectares by Kola’s
grid, the Rutherford map, 473 which is partially based on the 1944 air
photo and therefore fairly reliable when it comes to the dimensions of
the camp sections, shows that the actual surface of that camp amounted
to no more than approximately 3 hectares. Thanks to the previous research
results of A. Kola, the area to be searched for gas chamber remains
could be reduced by approximately 0.5 hectare, i.e. 5,000 square
meter (equaling the surface of the identified graves and structures and
some of the space between them). For a reasonably well founded and
equipped archeological team, such as that of Gilead et al., locating the
remains of a large building within such a small area would have been a
matter of weeks, if not days – provided, of course, that the building really
had existed. Given that the new team had at least the published results
of Kola as well as ground penetrating radar and other advanced
equipment available to them, it is radically impossible that no remains
of any existing gas chambers were found during the several months
long survey period. The situation that Gilead et al. find themselves in
can thus be likened to a checkmate.
Continuing with the article we learn that the artifacts discovered in
the new excavation area to the west of Object E included, among various
mundane objects, “larger jars, some […] produced in the Netherlands,
[which] could contain disinfectants.” 474 This might possibly refer
to a type of substance applied to the heads, armpits, and genital areas of
473 www.deathcamps.org/sobibor/pic/bmap21.jpg
474 I. Gilead, Y. Haimi, W. Mazurek, op. cit. (note 293), p. 30.