TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter III: Investigations, Camp Plans, Statistics 99
the middle of September, 1943. The largest number of transports were
brought in during the months of August, September, October, November,
and the first half of December, 1942. At the end of August there was a hiatus
of one week because too many corpses and too much clothing had accumulated
and the camp staff was unable to cope with the workload. Subtracting
that one week, there still remain four and one half months, with
144 days of full ‘production,’ in the gas chambers. According to all the testimony
that has been heard, one to three transports would arrive at Treblinka
each day. Each transport consisted of an average of 60 boxcars, and
each boxcar held between 80 and 150 people. According to a number of
witnesses, there were days when the transports had above-average passenger
loads, and the number of transports arriving was more than three. On
such days the gas chambers were in operation until 1 a.m. and finished off
more than 20,000 corpses within 24 hours. But on the other hand there
were days when the transports were much smaller, particularly those from
Germany, Czechoslovakia, and other West European countries, with the
deportees arriving in passenger cars which were not so crowded (except
that there were many trunks and special baggage cars). Besides, we must
take into account the possibility that the witnesses might have counted each
20-car section which was brought onto the camp siding from the Treblinka
station as a separate transport. […]
Thus, we are assuming an average of one transport daily with 60 boxcars
each, and 100 people in each car, for the ‘busy season’ of Treblinka
‘production.’ This would be equivalent to an average of 6,000 persons per
day. Multiplied by 144 days this would yield a total of 864,000 souls.
From the middle of December, 1942 until the middle of January, 1943 –
the Gentile holiday season – there was a pause in transports, a vacation of
sorts. After this pause, the shipments became much less frequent. Two, or
at most three, transports arrived each week. During March and April
hardly any transports arrived. The last transport seen by the Jewish witnesses
arrived in mid-May, 1943; it consisted mainly of people deported
from Warsaw after the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
[…] We know for certainty that transports of Jews from Bia�ystok arrived
during that period. Taking into account all the information available
to us, we figure that at least 25 transports of Jews perished in Treblinka
between mid-January and September, 1943 (or about the time of the uprising)
and about 10 transports after the uprising – or about 35 transports in
all. According to our previous estimate of average number of cars per train
and deportees per car, this makes a total number of 210,000 souls. Added
to the total for the ‘busy season’ of transports, this would yield a grand total
of 1,074,000; in other words, just over one million Jews.”