Extermination Camp, in the northeastern part of the Generalgouvernement Located 2.5 miles from the train station of Malkinia on the main line running from Warsaw to Bialystok. Treblinka was established in early summer 1942 as part of Aktion Reinhard - the Nazis' plan to exterminate the Jews in the Generalgouvernement area. In total, approximately 870,000 people were murdered at Treblinka. The first transports reached Treblinka on July 23, 1942; including Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. From that day until September 21, 1942, approximately 254,000 Jews from Warsaw and 112,000 Jews from other...
That afternoon, we were ordered for the first time to load bundles of victims’ belongings onto the empty trains. We knew that the goods were going to be shipped to the central warehouse in Warsaw, or perhaps to Germany. Several times I tried to enter a car and hide under the suitcases, but the loaders working in the train did not let me in. Before they locked each car, the Germans checked to make sure no one was hiding inside. Had they caught a stowaway, they would have held the loaders responsible. But when the second group of cars came, I found two husky teenagers from Łosice working in it. I remember...
"L’histoire commence en mars 1966 avec la publication de Treblinka. L’auteur, Jean-François Steiner, fils de déporté, décrit l’insurrection du camp d’extermination de Treblinka (2 août 1943), où 800 000 Juifs furent assassinés entre 1942 et 1944.
Lancé par une campagne publicitaire tapageuse, préfacé par Simone de Beauvoir, Treblinka obtient le Prix littéraire de la Résistance. Le succès, immense, en France comme à l’étranger, déclenche une controverse publique violente, impliquant nombre d’historiens et d’intellectuels, parmi lesquels Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Léon Poliakov, Claude Lanzmann, David Rousset, Emmanuel...
The next morning, August 26, I crawled out of my hideout and saw three young men drinking. Half-dead with thirst, I asked them to share the water with me. One of them replied that they were drinking urine, not water. I pointed to my chest, told them that I had been shot and could not go outside, and was very thirsty. One of the men poured a little of the cloudy liquid into a cup, measuring it as if it were a rare treasure, and gave it to me. I sipped a little but it did not quench my thirst.On Thursday, August 27, I heard from the men in the hut that a transport had arrived from Miedzyrzec...
The other workers were nearly finished with the job of clearing all the corpses from the platform. Some of the bodies had lain there for ten days and were in an advanced state of decomposition. Armed guards patrolled among us. SS men kept showing up to pick a few of us out of the rest and lead them to the edge of the huge cremation pit. There the victims were ordered to disrobe and stand facing the pit. Then they were shot to death. At first, each of the victims had to drag the body of his predecessor into the pit; his reward, when he climbed out, was a bullet. Anyone who pleaded for his life was ordered...
Station The guards opened the gate and we left the camp. The Ukrainians told us that we would not be coming back there; we were going to work in the forests.Soon we found ourselves at the Treblinka railroad station. Dozens of corpses were strewn on the platform and along the tracks—evidently persons murdered the previous day. Amidst shouting and blows of rifle butts we were ordered to load the corpses onto the flatcar. We worked on the run, without a moment’s rest. Those who could not run or who moved too slowly were beaten with rifle butts. Later, two guards ordered me and three boys to...
Sorting Clothes The next day, August 29, marked a week since I had left Łosice. That morning, I heard men at work near the main entrance to our hut, and discovered they were nailing it shut. I realized that we had to abandon the refuge; if we stayed there, we would die of thirst. Julke was afraid to leave because the bandage on his elbow was visible, so he stayed anyway.When I left the hut, my first thought was to look for my brother. I hoped he was still among the living. I looked around, scouting for someone whom I knew. My eyes fell on Gedalia Rosenzweig, my friend from cheder and the son...
The locomotive came back and towed away twenty more cars. Our car stayed where it was. I sat down in a corner and fell asleep; night had begun to fall. I awoke to the sound of my brother’s sobbing. Everyone around us was sobbing. A few people prayed; mainly I heard Shema Israel. Others embraced their loved ones and told them goodbye. A few, in their despair, pounded their heads against the walls of the car. I pushed my way toward the small peephole and looked out. All along the platform, corpses were heaped up. We couldn’t see any farther, because a long building blocked our view. Nothing was moving....