Treblinka | |
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Village | |
.jpg) Treblinka extermination camp museum | |
  Treblinka | |
| Coordinates:52°39′30″N22°01′15″E / 52.65833°N 22.02083°E /52.65833; 22.02083 | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship |  Masovian |
| County | Ostrów Mazowiecka |
| Gmina | Małkinia Górna |
| Population | 330 |
Treblinka (Polish pronunciation:[trɛˈblinka]) is a village located in easternPoland, situated in the present-daydistrict ofGmina Małkinia Górna, withinOstrów Mazowiecka County inMasovian Voivodeship, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north-east ofWarsaw.[1] The village lies close to theBug River. It has 350 inhabitants.
It is known as the site during World War II ofone of the Nazi extermination camps, named after the village. An estimated 850,000 people were murdered here duringthe Holocaust in Poland, from the summer of 1942 to October 1943. In addition, theTreblinka IArbeitslager, a forced labor camp, had operated about six miles away, from June 1941 to 23 July 1944. During this period, more than 10,000 prisoners are estimated to have died from executions, malnutrition, disease and mistreatment.
Treblinka was the location ofTreblinka extermination camp, where an estimated 850,000 people were systematically murdered duringthe Holocaust in Poland.[2] About 800,000 of them werePolish Jews.
The first deportations took place in the course of theGrossaktion Warsaw with about 254,000Warsaw Ghetto inmates brought in to their deaths inHolocaust trains in the summer of 1942. At the layover yard of Treblinka railway station, the wagons waiting for "processing" were witnessed byFranciszek Ząbecki.[3] During the early period of the camp's operation, when thousands of dead bodies of victims were left unburied, the putrid odor of decaying human remains could be smelled for approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) in every direction. It was evident that mass extermination was taking place at the camp, which caused panic among the villagers.[4]
The onset of theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising inspired renewed hopes for an escape among the TreblinkaSonderkommandos. On 19 April 1943, one of the last Jewish transports of 7,000 victims, along with the Warsaw insurgents, were brought in for gassing. Soon after the first prisoner uprising at adeath camp against theSS erupted on 2 August 1943, under the leadership of formerPolish Army officer Dr.Berek Lajcher.[4] Some of these prisoners were aided in escaping across the Bug River by the Polish resistance, but few survived.
The first commandant of the camp, from 11 July 1942 until 31 August 1942, wasIrmfried Eberl, relieved of his duties for not being efficient and secretive enough about the camp's murder operation.[5] He was succeeded byFranz Stangl (previously the commandant ofSobibor extermination camp) as the second commandant of Treblinka IIVernichtungslager from 1 September 1942 until the 1943 Jewish uprising.[5]
The Nazi hierarchy took measures to modify the killing process under Stangl, who built more efficientgas chambers and massive cremationpyres for the incineration of corpses.[4] When the Treblinka death camp ended operations in October 1943, the Nazis attempted (in vain) to remove all evidence of its existence and the mass murder carried out there. Relatively little physical evidence remains. It can be examined at the Treblinka Museum, which is led byEdward Kopówka. The number of visitors there has been steadily growing.[5]
An earlier forced-labor camp known as Treblinka IArbeitslager, equipped with heavy machinery, was located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Treblinka. Between June 1941 and 23 July 1944, more than half of its 20,000 inmates mining gravel for the German military road construction, died fromsummary executions, hunger, disease, and mistreatment under CommandantTheodor van Eupen.[6]
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The construction of a stone monument with abstract reliefs and Jewish symbols was inaugurated on 21 April 1958 based on a design by sculptorFranciszek Duszeńko. He expressed the European trend toward stylized and avant-garde forms.[8] The monument was unveiled byZenon Kliszko, theMarshal of theSejm of the Republic of Poland on 10 May 1964; attendees included survivors of the Treblinka uprising from Israel, France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The official ceremony was attended by 30,000 people, when Treblinka was declared a national monument of martyrology.[a][9]
The camp custodian's house (built nearby in 1960)[b] was adapted as an exhibition space following thecollapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. Since the late 20th century, the number of visitors coming to Treblinka from abroad has steadily increased. An exhibition centre at the former camp opened in 2006. It was later expanded and made into a branch of theSiedlce Regional Museum, under DrEdward Kopówka.[7][11]
Beginning with the Buchenwald memorial and numerous designs for the Birkenau competition, and continuing with theÎle de la Cité in Paris, Treblinka, and Yad Vashem near Jerusalem, such experiential spaces have become a hallmark of major Holocaust memorials.
with list of Catholicrescuers of Jews imprisoned at Treblinka, selected testimonies, bibliography, alphabetical indexes, photographs, English language summaries and forewords by Holocaust scholars.
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