SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

168 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
dump (item #81), despite Kola’s description of it as a cremation site,
not a deposit for ashes. Apparently we are to believe that the SS had
cremation grates built on top of unincinerated corpses! It is clear that
Bem in producing the map has dishonestly “improved” upon Kola’s excavation
results in order to better make them fit the official historiographic
picture.
5.7. Estimate of the Sobibór Death Toll
How many people died and were buried at Sobibór? We can affirm
with certainty that the number of Sobibór dead is far less than the figures
advanced by mainstream Holocaust historians. However, to answer
with exactitude the question of the actual victim figure is, at the present,
more or less impossible due to the absolute lack of documentary evidence
pertaining to the number of deceased deportees, as well as quantifiable
forensic evidence. Nonetheless we will provide a rough estimate
of this figure, which may be divided into three categories of deaths.
As for the first category, it is beyond any doubt that a large number
of the Jews selected for work in the camp also perished there. As already
mentioned, the October 1943 uprising led to the death of between
380 and 420 inmates. It is further to be assumed that an unknown number
of inmates were executed in connection with earlier, failed escape
attempts 483 or for violating camp rules. Many eye witnesses also speak
of epidemic diseases, such as typhus, claiming victims among the inmate
population, 484 which was replenished with new arrivals in case of
losses. All in all the number of deceased inmates may have amounted to
approximately 1,000 people.
The second category is that of those who died en route. This figure is
difficult to estimate, but we know that the transports from the Netherlands
and France took place under relatively humane conditions, 485 often
using passenger trains, so that the number of en-route deaths among
this group of in total (34,313+3,500=) 37,813 deportees is likely to have
been small. In order to avoid accusations of underestimating the number
of en route dead, we will assume, however, that 3% of all 170,165 deportees
perished on board the trains due to dehydration, illness, and
483 J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), pp. 140-142.
484 Ibid., pp. 86f.
485 Ibid., pp. 53-55.