SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

24 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
shops in the camp making use of human raw materials, e.g. women’s
hair for the manufacture of mattresses. The belongings of those
murdered as well as the ‘products’ of the death camp were shipped
to Germany. […] On 14 October 1943 the detainees revolted, as
they had done at Treblinka. […] Due to the complete absence of any
official documents it is difficult to say how many people perished in
this camp. […] The figures given by the witnesses range from one to
2.5 million. It is difficult to judge this matter, but if we take into account
that the camp operated from April or May of 1942 through
October of 1943, we may set the number of persons killed at Sobibór
over the whole period of the existence of this camp at about one million.”
Both the succinct character of this description as well as the lack of
any significant details are truly astonishing! The introduction says nothing
about the number and the structure of the “gas chambers,” nothing
about the nature of the gas used, whereas L. Feldhendler and Z. Metz,
the two witnesses quoted later, assert that the mass killings were done
by means of chlorine! According to Z. Metz, the gas chamber had a collapsible
floor, allowing the victims to drop right into railway cars located
below. 24 Zelda Metz states that the number of victims was around
two million (p. 210)!
As we can see, this first “scientific” description of the events at Sobibór
differs from today’s version in two fundamental respects: the killing
method used and the number of victims.
2.3.2. Report by the “Main Commission for the
Investigation of German Crimes in Poland” (1947)
A ten-page account concerning the “Sobibór extermination camp”
appeared in the Bulletin of the “Main Commission for the Investigation
of German Crimes in Poland” in 1947. It is based on 25
“the statements by former Jewish detainees of the camp and by a
number of Poles – mainly railway personnel, as well as on experts’
opinions and investigations carried out on site.”
Concerning the rooms in which the mass murders were allegedly
carried out the report by the commission stated (p. 52):
24 Cf. chapter 3, p. 71.
25 Z. �ukaszkiewicz, Glowna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, “Obóz
zag�ady w Sobiborze,” (The extermination camp at Sobibór) in: Biuletyn Glownej Komisji
Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, No. III, Posen 1947, p. 49.