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116 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
certain amount of rails,” presumably used for the construction of the
cremation grate, was brought to camp III around August 1942. 323 The
former Trawniki commandant Karl Streibel testified that, during a brief
visit to Sobibór, he had observed a cremation grate, but no cremation in
process. The visit took place “at the end of 1942.” 324 Bolender’s account
of the mass graves implies that the burial of victims was stopped
at the end of summer 1942. Hubert Gomerski testified in 1950 that no
cremations took place until 1943, 325 and the Ukrainian Razgonayev
dates the start to December 1942, 283 but both are contradicted by Werner
Becher, who relates that the work of burning the corpses was initiated
during his stay in the camp, which lasted from August through November
1942. 326 Another consideration which also speaks out against a later
date is the unlikely idea that the SS would have dug a cremation pit, exhumed
mass graves, and started burning corpses in mid-winter.
While the dates found in eye witness testimony as well as Holocaust
historiography are vague and divergent, the three most authoritative Sobibór
historians – Arad, Rückerl, and Schelvis – all indicate that the beginning
of cremations occurred around the same time as the rebuilding
of the alleged gas chambers, which was accompanied by various other
construction activities. According to Arad, this rebuilding was done
during a two month lull in operations lasting from late July to the end of
September 1942, which was caused by reconstruction work on the railway
between Lublin and Chem. 327 The new gas chambers became operational
at the beginning of October. 328
Given that the reported cause for the interruption of burials was
problems caused by the hot summer weather, 329 it makes most sense
that the preparations for outdoor incineration were carried out during
the aforementioned two month lull when a lot of free hands were available,
rather than in October or November, when the work force was
again busy with receiving transports. We therefore find it reasonable to
assume, as a conservative estimate, that cremations began in the first
days of October 1942.
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
S. Szmajzner, op. cit. (note 31), p. 188.
Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 172.
Referenced in the verdict against Erich Hermann Bauer, LG Berlin, op. cit. (note 277).
Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 171.
Ibid., p. 80. Schelvis (op. cit. (note 71), p. 103) has it that “the rebuilding took place between
June and September 1942,” but such an early start is extremely unlikely considering
that large-scale transports to Sobibór continued at the end of July that year.
Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 49), p. 123.
Ibid., p. 171.