Sobibor - Holocaust Propaganda And Reality - Unity of Nobility ...

310 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
Jews were working “on a drainage project” at the Ujazdòw labor
camp. 950
Altogether 117 Jewish work camps of various categories were in operation
in the district of Lublin between 1939 and 1944: 951
Table 5: Jewish Labor Camps in Lublin District 1939–1944
TYPE OF LABOR
NO. OF CAMPS
Military border fortifications 9
airports 6
Road Works construction 18
quarries 4
Soil Improvement general 51
agricultural 12
SS Enterprises 7
Railroads 5
Other 5
The camps located between Sobibór and Chem were handling soil
improvement tasks (drainage), as was the case for Luta (400 detainees),
Osowa (400), Krychów (1,500), Ujazdów (400), Sawin (500), Sajczyce
(600), Ruda (1,500), Nowosióki (400), Dorohusk (300), in the same
way as two camps in the west and southwest, Sosnovica (300) and Siedliszcze
(2,000) . 952
Schelvis, however, reports also the testimony of an engineer from
Organisation Todt, Otto Weissbecker, who accompanied a transport of
1,400 Jews from the Lida ghetto to Sobibór presumably on 10 September
1943. On his arrival at the camp he went to see Gomerski: 953
“He said, I might as well send back half of them, as he needed
only saddlers, shoemakers, sewers and tailors. […] The Jews had to
line up in two groups without luggage. Although I had been promised
specialists, I received 630 workers without any experience,
among them women. The children remained at Sobibór. […] I was
ordered to take the Jews at my disposal to Trawniki, where half of
them, in fact, remained. The others I took back to Lublin into a camp
that was located next to a [railway?] stop (Old Airport).”
950
951
952
953
Ibid., p. 125.
Edward Dziadosz, Józef Marszaek, “Wizienia i obozy w dystrykcie lubelskim w latach
1939-1944,” in: Zeszyty Majdanka, vol. III, 1969, p. 122.
Ibid., pp. 109-121.
Ibid., pp. 274f.