by Yitzhak Arad
From all the women prisoners at Treblinka, only two survived.
Since most of the women were young and pretty, they caught the eyes of the SS men. Suchomel tells of one: “Chesia Mendel was the only true blond in the camp. . . . Everyone agreed that she stood out for her intelligence, and she was proud and bold. She was one of the few Jews whom we Germans all addressed not in the familiar du but in the third person sie.”11
The women prisoners, who were at the mercy of the SS men, were in some cases sexually abused and later murdered. Two women from Austria, Ruth and Gisela, who were film or theater actresses, were kept in Sobibor in the kitchen of the forester house, where some SS men lived. After being used by the SS men, they were shot. SS Oberscharführer Erich Bauer testified:
I was blamed for being responsible for the death of the Jewish girls Ruth and Gisela, who lived in the so-called forester house. As it is known, these two girls lived in the forester house, and they were visited frequently by the SS men. Orgies were conducted there. They were attended by Bolender, [Hubert] Gomerski, Karl Ludwig, Franz Stangl, Gustav Wagner, and Steubel. I lived in the room above them and due to these celebrations could not fall asleep after coming back from a journey. . . . One evening Karl Ludwig banged on the girls’ door. Evidently he wanted to enter. The girls opened the door in my presence. Ludwig ordered the girls to put on their dressing gowns, and both of us took them in the direction of Camp III. I went half way only and then returned. Ludwig went with them alone. Next day Ludwig told me that by his order a Ukrainian had shot the two girls.12
Another case, what may be considered a love affair, transpired in Sobibor between an SS man, Paul Groth, and a Jewish girl. Favorably effected by his love, Groth changed his behavior toward the Jewish prisoners, and acted more humanely. This relationship was viewed by the commanders of Sobibor as an abuse of the Aryan race (Rassenschande), and one day, while Groth was outside the camp, the Jewish girl was taken to Camp III and killed.13
The women in the camps lived in separate barracks from the other prisoners, and at morning and evening roll call they formed up separately from the men. They slept on double-decker bunks and their food was like that served the men—though occasionally they received extras from the SS men or Ukrainians at their place of work. The camp guards treated the women more humanely than they did the men, and there were few instances of women being beaten or otherwise punished.
Women also had easier access to the means for maintaining personal hygiene. In the laundries and kitchen they could use the water to wash daily, while the male prisoners were denied this “luxury.”
Men also assisted the women in their work, carrying out the more physically strenuous tasks. In the laundries the men carried the water in buckets from the wells, while the women washed and ironed. A similar setup existed in the kitchen and elsewhere where men and women prisoners worked together.
The last Operation Reinhard camp to introduce Jewish women prisoners to work was Belzec. This was in October 1942. Rudolf Reder wrote:
A transport with Jewish women from Czechoslovakia arrived in October. . . . It was decided that from this transport a few dozen women would remain. . . . Forty women were assigned to work in the kitchen, in the laundry and in the tailor shop. . . . I don’t know what happened to them. No doubt, they shared the fate of all the others. They were intelligent women. They brought their baggage with them. Some of them had butter with them. They gave us what they had. Those who worked in the kitchen helped us with food. They lived in a separate barrack and had their own capo. . . . They were not so badly treated as we were. They finished their work at dusk and waited in line for soup and coffee. As we, they were dressed in their own dresses and had no particular mark. . . . Through the windows of the kitchen and tailor shop they watched the daily arrival of the transports of death. . . .14
No women survived Belzec death camp.
The presence of the women in the camps influenced the behavior of the male prisoners and even the SS men there. The small, closed world of the doomed prisoners took on an added dimension. They had some reference point, some vague reminder of a different life they had once led.
16
Improving Extermination Techniques and Installations
In the course of the reorganization that followed the first stage of operation, larger gas chambers and other attendant facilities were erected in Treblinka and Sobibor. The new gas chambers that had been built in Belzec in June/July 1942 served as a model in the other two camps.
Treblinka
The commanders of Operation Reinhard were of the opinion that the most urgent need was to increase the absorptive capacity of the gas chambers in Treblinka; as a result of their limited capacity, the extermination process suffered from complete chaos as early as the first month of activity. Therefore, one of Stangl’s first priorities when appointed commander of the camp was to erect a new building for the gas chambers next to the old one. This was carried out while the extermination activities in the old one continued. Wirth, as inspector of the death camps, dispatched Scharführer Lorenz Hackenholt, who was in charge of the gas chambers in Belzec, to assist in the erection of the new gas chambers in Treblinka.
Construction of the new gas chambers began in early September. The new building comprised ten gas chambers, each 4 × 8 meters, although according to some sources the new building included only six gas chambers.1 In place of the three old chambers, which together covered 48 square meters, the ten new chambers had a combined area of 320 square meters (or 192 square meters if there were only six). The height of the new rooms was 2 meters—about 60 cm lower than the old ones. There had been instances in the old chambers in which little children had not been asphyxiated because the gas rose to the ceiling, and this was taken into account in planning the height of the ceilings in the new chambers. Lowering the ceiling also reduced the chambers’ total cubic volume, reduced the total gas requirement for killing the victims, and shortened asphyxiation time.
The new structure was rectangular. A corridor ran through the length of the building down the middle, with gas chambers on either side. The entrance doors and body-removal doors for each chamber were similar to the old setup. The doors contained a small glass window, through which the SS men and Ukrainians checked to see what was happening and ascertained whether the victims were already dead. The entrance to the corridor was covered by a dark Jewish ceremonial curtain taken from an unidentified synagogue. On it was inscribed in Hebrew: “This is the Gateway to God. Righteous men will pass through.” A gable over the entrance door bore a large Star of David. To reach the door, one climbed five wide steps with potted plants on either side.
The new building, with its decorative steps, plants, and curtain, was located at the end of the “tube.” The victims who were forced to run through the “tube” continued straight up the entrance steps and into the corridor flanked by the gas chambers. The engine room was at the end of the building close to the old gas chambers.
To speed up the pace of construction, a group of Jewish builders was brought from Warsaw. They were selected from a transport that had been scheduled to be sent to Treblinka in early September 1942. Forty Jewish prisoners were employed in building the new gas chambers.2 Jacob Wiernik describes the emotional state of the Jewish prisoners engaged in the construction work:
The work of building the new chambers lasted five weeks. To us it seemed an eternity. The work went on from sunrise to sunset, under the whips and rifle butts. One of the guards, Woronikov, beat and maltreated us mercilessly. Every day a few workers were murdered. While our physical distress was far beyond normal human concepts, it was our morale that suffered even more. Every day new transports arrived; the deportees were ordered to strip, and then they were taken to the three old gas chambers. The way to the chambers passed near the construction site. Several of us discovered their children, wives, or relatives among the victims. If anyone was moved by his anguish to run to his family, they shot him on the spot. Thus we built the death cha
mbers for ourselves and for our brothers.3
The new gas chambers could absorb a maximum of 2,300 people (six chambers) or 3,800 people (ten chambers) simultaneously, whereas the old one could hold only 600. With the inauguration of the new gas chambers, in the middle of October 1942, the old ones ceased to function. The old structure was now converted into a tailor’s shop, where several prisoners from the extermination area worked. The SS officials in charge of the gas chambers were Gustav Münzberger and Fritz Schmidt.4
When asked during his trial how many people could be murdered in one day, Stangl answered:
Regarding the question of what was the optimum amount of people gassed in one day, I can state: according to my estimation a transport of thirty freight cars with 3,000 people was liquidated in three hours. When the work lasted for about fourteen hours, 12,000 to 15,000 people were annihilated. There were many days that the work lasted from the early morning until the evening. . . .5
SS Oberscharführer Heinrich Matthes, who was in charge of Camp III (with the gas chambers), described the killing operations there:
During the entire time that I was in Treblinka, I served in the Upper Camp. The Upper Camp was that part of Treblinka with the gas chambers, where the Jews were killed and their corpses laid in large pits and later burned.
About fourteen Germans carried out services in the Upper Camp. There were two Ukrainians permanently in the Upper Camp. One of them was called Nikolai. The other was a short man, I don’t remember his name. . . . These two Ukrainians who lived in the Upper Camp served in the gas chambers. They also took care of the engine room when Fritz Schmidt was absent. Usually this Schmidt was in charge of the engine room. In my opinion, as a civilian he was either a mechanic or driver. He came from Pirna. . . .
I carried out the roll calls of the working Jews in the Upper Camp. There were about 200–300 such working Jews. They took away the corpses and later burned them. There were also working Jews who had to break out the gold teeth from the corpses. When I asked whether a special working group examined the corpses for hidden jewelry and valuables, I answered: “About this I don’t know.” In the Upper [Camp] in the area of the gas chambers were stationed about six to eight Ukrainians. These Ukrainians were armed with rifles. Some of them also had leather whips. . . .
The people who were brought through the passage were forced to enter the separate [single] gas chamber. Later, in summer 1942, the new gas chambers were built. I think that they became operational only in the autumn. All together, six gas chambers were active. According to my estimate, about 300 people could enter each gas chamber. The people went into the gas chambers without resistance. Those who were at the end, the Ukrainian guards had to push inside. I personally saw how the Ukrainians pushed the people with their rifle butts. . . .
The gas chambers were closed for about thirty minutes. Then Schmidt stopped the gassing, and the two Ukrainians who were in the engine room opened the gas chambers from the other side.6
Another extermination facility in Treblinka was the Lazarett . Near the camp’s southern fence were huge pits, where the tens of thousands who had died in the freight cars on their way to Treblinka were buried alongside those who had been shot on or near the camp train platform. At these pits, too, the prisoners who worked in the camp during the first stage of operation were shot and killed after a day or so of work.
The need for these pits had stemmed from the high mortality rate inside the transport trains and the insufficient capacity of the three original gas chambers. After construction of the new gas chambers and the resultant reduction in the time of the train journey to Treblinka, the need for these pits was sharply reduced. Henceforth, they were used for executing those deportees who lacked the strength to walk to the “showers” on their own, as well as the Jewish prisoners from the camp.
Following these changes, the area set aside for execution by shooting was reduced in size. The camp command decided to give the area the appearance of a hospital, which became known in the camp as Lazarett. The Lazarett covered an area of 150 to 200 square meters and was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence laced with branches. The entrance to the Lazarett area was decorated with a red cross, and next to it was a sign, “Lazarett.” Inside was a small hut, and behind it a ditch 12 meters long and 4 meters deep. Next to the ditch was an earth rampart with benches. Those about to die were told to strip and sit on the benches. One of the Germans or Ukrainians shot them. The dead bodies fell or were pushed into the ditch, where a fire was always burning, which consumed the bodies.
Scharführer August Miete, who was in charge of the Lazarett and was called the “Angel of Death” by the prisoners, described the Lazarett executions in his testimony at the Treblinka trial:
There were always sick and crippled people in the transports. . . . There were also those who had been shot and wounded en route by SS, policemen, or Latvians who guarded the transports. These ill, crippled, and wounded passengers were brought to the Lazarett by a special group of workers. Inside the Lazarett they placed or lay these people at the edge of the pit. When all the sick and wounded had been brought, it was my job to shoot them. I fired at the nape of the neck with a 9 mm pistol. Those shot would fall . . . into the pit. . . . The number of people shot in this way from each transport varied. Sometimes two or three, and sometimes twenty or even more. They included men and women, young and old, and also children. . . .7
The construction work on various camp facilities continued for months. Originally the train platform where deportees arrived had none of the accoutrements of a normal railroad station. Stangl, as camp commander, decided that, to enhance the illusion and deception that was intended to dupe the arriving victims—and particularly those in transports coming from outside Poland—the platform should be made to look like a genuine train station. The front of the northern barrack, which was adjacent to the platform and served as a storage shed for victims’ belongings, was altered completely. Fake doors and windows were installed, along with signs that read “Ticket Counter,” “Waiting Room,” “Information,” “Telegraph Office,” “Station Manager,” “Rest Rooms,” etc. An incoming and outgoing train schedule was posted at the station, complete with signs and arrows directing passengers “To the Bialystok Train” or “To the Volkovysk Train.” A large dummy clock was affixed to the building. Trees and flower beds were planted nearby. The barrack itself continued to serve as a storage shed.8
These changes were carried out at the end of 1942. Deportees arriving in Treblinka disembarked into what seemed to be an ordinary railroad station from which trains continued in various directions.
Sobibor
The last camp at which the new, larger gas chambers were installed was Sobibor. The three single-room gas chambers, with a killing capacity of a mere 600 people, could not cope with the tasks imposed on this camp. During the two-month lull in extermination activities in autumn of 1942, the old gas chambers were partially dismantled and the three additional gas chambers were built. The construction of these gas chambers was done under the guidance of SS Unterscharführer Erwin Herman Lambert, who had erected the new gas chambers in Treblinka, and SS Scharführer Lorenz Hackenholt, who was in charge of the gas chambers in Belzec. They were both sent to Sobibor by Christian Wirth. Lambert testified:
As I mentioned at the beginning, I was in the extermination camp of the Jews for about two to three weeks. It was sometime in autumn 1942, but I don’t remember exactly when. At that time I was assigned by Wirth to enlarge the gassing structure according to the model of Treblinka. I went to Sobibor together with Lorenz Hackenholt, who was at that time in Treblinka. First of all, I went with Hackenholt to a sawmill near Warsaw. There Hackenholt ordered a big consignment of wood for reconstruction in Sobibor. Finally, both of us went to Sobibor. We reported there to the camp commander, Reichleitner. He gave us the exact directives for the construction of the gassing installations. The camp was already in operation, and there was a gassing installation. Probably the old installation was
not big enough, and reconstruction was necessary. Today I cannot tell exactly who participated in the reconstruction work. However, I do remember that Jewish prisoners and so-called “Askaries” [Ukrainian auxiliaries] took part in the work. During the time that building was in progress, no transports with Jews arrived.9
The new six-room gas chamber building had a corridor that ran through its center, and three rooms on either side. The entrance to each gas chamber was from the corridor. The three gas chambers were the same size as the existing one, 4 × 4 meters. The killing capacity of the gas chambers was increased to nearly 1,300 people simultaneously. With the renewal of the extermination activities in Sobibor, in October 1942, the new gas chambers became operational.
Another technical improvement introduced in Sobibor was a narrow railway trolley that ran from the disembarking platform to the burial pits in Camp III. It was to replace the carts pushed by prisoners or the horse-drawn carts on which the dead, the sick, and those unable to walk from the train were transferred to the pits. According to Oberscharführer Hubert Gomerski, who was in charge of Camp III, the length of the narrow railway was about 300–400 meters. It included five or six trolleys and a small diesel locomotive.10
Scharführer Erich Bauer testified:
. . . Part of the trolleys and rails originated from the sawmill that bordered the Sobibor camp. Additional trolleys and rails arrived by train from Trawniki. The locomotive of this train came later, about two months after the trolley was in operation. At the beginning horses pulled the trolleys. As I explained in previous interrogations, the trolley was laid to transport the sick and handicapped Jews from the arriving trains to Camp III. I know that these people, including the handicapped and sick, children, and particularly infants, were taken to the so-called Lazarett, and there they were shot by those serving in Camp III. . . . It was known in the camps that this Lazarett was used not for healing but for the extermination of the people. . . .11