SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 179
respect at least the court did not go quite as far in its arbitrariness as is
common practice in today’s Germany, where the nonagenarian John
Demjanjuk is awaiting trial merely for having served (actually or allegedly)
at the Sobibór camp.
The trial was accompanied by a massive campaign in the media still
under Allied control, a campaign which was later orchestrated during all
major NS trials. In an article entitled “Sobibór – the death factory behind
the barbed wire fence” the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote on 24
August 1950: 513
“During the hearing, a number of written depositions were read,
stemming from survivors who had emigrated to the United States.
Hersch Cuckirmann, whose wife and three children had been gassed
at Sobibór, spoke about a transport of 1,600 Jewish detainees who
were brought in from the Majdanek camp. He said that at the time
the gas chambers were out of order and the starved and decrepit detainees
had to wait for three days before they were gassed. But close
to half of them had previously been beaten to death. Gomerski had
used a watering can for this purpose, whereas SS-Oberscharführer
Wagner had used a steel water hose. As opposed to this, Klier had
not behaved inhumanely. […]
The witness Zelda Metz was present when detainees had to fetch
water from a village. On the way, some detainees killed the Ukrainian
guard and fled; the others were shot, and Gomerski participated
in the shooting. One could learn from this witness that on certain
days 5,000 people were brought into the camp and gassed.
Prior to that, they had to write letters to their families saying they
were fine. Jewish laborers working in camp III also met their death.
‘Sobibór was a murder factory’ said witness Kurt Thomas. […]
Gomerski had not only taken part in the execution of 71 Jews who
were shot because they were suspected of trying to escape, he also
participated in the execution of 100 young Jews who were killed by
being shot in the head. Sometimes Gomerski and SS-Oberscharführer
Wagner would amuse themselves by using infants as missiles
trying to outdo each other as to the distance thrown. When trees
were felled, detainees were made to climb up the trees where they
had to fix a rope with which both the tree and the detainees were
then brought crashing down. Those who did not die from the crash,
513 “Sobibór – Mordfabrik hinter Stacheldraht,” Frankfurter Rundschau, 24 August 1950.