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

70 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR
dinary matters, and we, the new arrivals who had lived through
some unusual experiences ourselves, shuddered as we listened to his
story.
‘As soon as you were separated from them,’ he said, ‘they were
taken to a second yard where everyone, without exception, must
gather. There they are told to lay down their bundles and undress
before going to the ‘bath.’ The women’s hair is cut off. Everything is
done quietly and efficiently. Then the bareheaded women, wearing
only their undergowns, and the children go first. About a hundred
steps behind them go the men, completely naked. All are heavily
guarded. There is the ‘bath’’ he pointed with his hand, ‘not far from
where you see the smoke. Two buildings are standing there, one for
the women and children, the other for men. I myself haven’t seen
what it looks like inside, but people who know have described it.
At first glance, everything looks as a bath should look – faucets
for hot and cold water, basins to wash in… As soon as the people
enter, the doors are clamped shut. A thick dark substance comes spiralling
out from vents in the ceiling. Horrible shrieks are heard, but
they don’t last long. They are soon transformed into gaspings of suffocation
and convulsive seizures. Mothers, they say, cover their little
ones with their bodies.
The ‘bath’ attendant observes the entire procedure through a
small pane in the ceiling. In fifteen minutes it is all over. The floors
open up and the dead bodies tumble down into small wagons that
are standing ready below, in the ‘bath’s’ cellars. The full wagons
roll out quickly. Everything is organized in accordance with the last
word in German technology. Outside the bodies are laid out in a
certain order. They are soaked with gasoline and set aflame. That is
where they are burning.’”
In 1945 the Dutch Red Cross published a summary of the testimony
given by Ursula Stern, deported to Sobibór on 9 April 1943: 124
“There was a gas chamber which could hold 600 persons; the
gas came into the chamber through showers; once the people were
dead, the floor opened up and they fell through. Gassing of a group
took about a quarter of an hour.”
124
Het Nederlandsche Roode Kruis. Afwikkelingsbureau Concentratiekampen. Sobibór. ‘S-
Gravenhage, April 11, 1945, p. 11.