SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 77
4. Critical Analysis of Eye Witness Testimonies
4.1. Alleged Contacts with Inmates in camp III
At Sobibór, in contrast to Be��ec and Treblinka, there were (supposedly)
no survivors among the inmates working in the death camp proper,
which is usually designated “Lager III” (camp III) and described as
“hidden in the thickness of the trees.” 158 All first-hand accounts of the
alleged killing installations derive from testimonies left by former SS or
Ukrainian auxiliary camp personnel years or even decades after the end
of the war. On the other hand we have a fairly large number of witness
accounts from former Jewish inmates in other parts of the camp, some
of whom divulge “knowledge,” or rather hearsay, on details of the alleged
mass killings.
The already mentioned Ya’akov Biskovitz (Jacob Biskubicz), born
in the Polish town of Hrubieszów in 1926, is the only former inmate
who claims to have seen the gas chambers with his own eyes. 159 On 5
June 1961 he testified at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem: 160
“Not everybody had the opportunity [to see the killing installations],
but I, by chance, did. By chance I was taken to bring a cart
with a barrel of chloride. When I was passing by the two larger
stores in Camp 2, I detached the cart and pushed it towards Camp 3.
I was supposed to leave it near the gate, but I could not hold the vehicle
back. The gate opened and it pushed me inside.
Since I knew I would not get out alive from there, I began to run
back at top speed and managed to reach my place of work without
anyone noticing. I kept this a secret – I am stressing this – even from
the inmates of the camp who worked with me. From a distance, I
saw the pit and the hollow and the small train that carried the dead
158 From the testimony of Moshe Bahir, reproduced in M. Novitch, op. cit. (note 39), p. 144.
159 According to Schelvis, an inmate named Chaim Trager (spelled Haim Treger by Novitch)
“claimed to have seen all the goings-on in Lager 3 while building a chimney on a
rooftop in that part of the camp.” Curiously, Schelvis provides neither a quote nor a reference
for this remarkable piece of testimony. J. Schelvis, op. cit. (note 71), p. 238.
160 State of Israel, op. cit. (note 137), vol. III, p. 1188.