TREBLINKA DEATH/LABOR CAMP

By Lbiyemi Ojo

INTRODUCTION

The Holocaust started in 1933, murder or genocide

towards Jews during the World War II, led by Adolf Hitler

and the Nazi Party which swept through Poland and the

Soviet Union. “The Holocaust was the Nazis’ systematic

murder of millions of Jews and non-Aryans during World

War II”. Treblinka Death Camp, where Jews are deported

to, put to work, and later exterminated but some escaped

at this camp, just like other death/labor camps.

TREBLINKA I

In November 1941, the SS and police

authorities established a forced-labor

camp for Jews, known as Treblinka, later

called Treblinka I.

Also served as a so-called Labor

Education Camp for non-Jewish poles.

TREBLINKA II

In July 1942, the Reinhard authorities

completed the construction of a killing

center, known as Treblinka II,

approximately a mile from the labor

camp.    

T.II. CONT.

The Treblinka II killing center was located

near the Polish village of Wolka Okraglik along

the Malkinia-Siedlce railway line. The Germans

built a rail spur that led from the labor camp,

Treblinka I, to the killing center, Treblinka II,

and that connected as well to the Malkinia

station. The site of the killing center was

heavily wooded and hidden from view.

The camp was laid out in a trapezoid. Branches

woven into the barbed-wire fence and trees

planted around the perimeter served as

camouflage, blocking any view into the camp

from the outside. Watchtowers 26 feet high were

placed along the fence and at each of the four

corners.

The camp was divided into three parts: the

reception area, the living area, and the killing area.

The living area contained housing for German staff

and the guard unit. It also contained administrative

offices, a clinic, storerooms, and workshops. One

section contained barracks that housed those Jewish

prisoners selected from incoming transports to

provide forced labor to support the camp’s function:

mass murder.

DEPORTATION

Late July - September 1942, the Germans deported around

265,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka.

August - November 1942, SS and police authorities deported

around 346,000 Jews to Treblinka II from the Radom District.

October 1942 - February 1943, the Germans deported more

than 110,000 Jews from the Bialystok District to Treblinka II.

At least 33,300 Jews from District Lublin.

H T T P : / / W W W. Y O U T U B E . C O M / W A T C H ? V = G F N V V S Q X T D W

Deportations Cont.

RESISTANCE & REVOLT

The “Organizing Committee”, a group composed of

prisoners from Treblinka I and II, was created to plan an

uprising and mass escape.

August 2, 1943, the Committee launched their revolt: the

leaders broke into the weaponry and the prisoners

stormed the main gate and escaped.

300 prisoners escaped, but 2/3 were tracked down and

killed.

END OF TREBLINKA

The Germans had ordered that Treblinka II be dismantled

in the fall of 1943.

Treblinka I, the forced-labor camp, continued operations

until late July 1944.

Treblinka had murdered about 800,000 individuals.

Compared to Auschwitz, believed about 1,290,000 were

killed, Treblinka’s numbers were not horrifying.

Treblinka had more deaths than Belzec (400,000) and

Sobibor (200,000)

CONCLUSION

For fourteen months the Treblinka's operation, that began in July 1942,

murdered between 870,000 and 925,000 Jews by a staff of 150. From all

the thousands of Jews murder, fewer than one hundred survived. This

topic was very interesting to me from learning how and where the Jews

were deported, what caused the camp to end, and how the Jews attempted

to escaped. Throughout my years of going to school and learning about the

Holocaust this is the first time I’ve heard about Jews planning or

attempting to escape from a concentration, death, or labor camp.

TREBLINKA TODAY