SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 165
ticle’s publication in early 2009. This, however, has not prevented the
team from writing the following on their official website: 478
“In 2001 Polish archaeologists under the direction of Andrzej
Kola carried out an excavation at the camp in Sobibór. The magnometric
survey was carried out at the site in order to create a plan of
the camp. Excavations revealed seven concentrations of mass graves
and the structure that functioned as a gas chamber.”
Thus in their online writings the team claims that Kola did find the
gas chamber building, despite their own statement to the contrary and
despite the fact that Kola interpreted Object E as an undressing or sorting
barrack!
It should not come as a surprise that the team considers the search
for the gas chambers to be of utmost importance, since they state on the
same webpage that their archeological work “will constitute a basis for
countering the claims of Holocaust deniers.” In other words, they are
looking for physical evidence supporting the mass gassings allegation.
This task, long neglected by orthodox historians, is of course to be welcomed.
There are, however, strong reasons to doubt the scientific honesty
of Gilead et al. In their article we read: 479
“We regard the Nazi extermination of Jews during the Second
World War as a past reality. There is ample written and oral documentation
to support it, as well as comprehensive and detailed historical
studies that authenticate what Hilberg (1985) calls ‘The Destruction
of European Jews.’ Arad (1987), in his study of the Einsatz
[480] Reinhardt extermination centres, further establishes the role
of Treblinka, Sobibór and Be��ec in the destruction process. Beyond
the written documents, the evidence consists also of oral accounts of
the survivors and SS perpetrators who served in the extermination
centres and committed the murders […]. Thus, the extermination of
Jews in general, and the extermination of Jews at Sobibór and other
centres in particular, is a historically established truth which does
not need to be proven by archaeological excavations. Archaeology
has the role of supplementing information on the layout of the sites,
structures and artifacts in use there, thus providing data for the historical
reconstruction of the sites. […]
478 “The Project,” www.underSobibór.org/project html
479 I. Gilead, Y. Haimi, W. Mazurek, op. cit. (note 293), pp. 13f.
480 The term “Einsatz Reinhardt” is atypical, but it is used in some documents, for example
in the Kuno Ther letter (note 83) the staff of the camps is designated “Sonderkommando
‘Einsatz Reinhardt.’” Y. Arad used the term “Operation Reinhard,” though.