TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter IV: The Alleged Extermination Facilities in Treblinka 119
m × 6 m, 303 and according to the version accepted today, 8 m × 4 m. The maximum
capacity of these chambers varies between 600 (Abe Kon) and 1,000
to 1,200 (Jankiel Wiernik). 304 Last, Elias Rosenberg claims that the second
killing facility was not constructed between August and October 1942, but
rather in March of 1943. 305
The witnesses also disagree about the location of the small observation
windows in the gas chambers. In the front-line report of TASS of September
11, 1944, it says: 306
“The people in the ‘bath’ died under horrible tortures after ten minutes.
The ‘bath-master’ recorded this by means of a small glass window in the
door.”
On the other had, the Polish-Soviet protocol of September 15, 1944, asserted:
307
“On the roof of this – hermetically sealable – building was a small
window, through which the death struggle of the dying could be observed.”
E. Rosenberg also claims that this little window was located on the roof of
the gas chambers. 308
At the same time, the military examining judge of the military administration
of the 65th Soviet Army, First Lieutenant of Justice Jurowski, was drawing
plans of the first as well as the second alleged killing facilities of Treblinka.
The first bears the inscription “Plan of the Building no. 1 of the Treblinka
Camp 2, in which the killing of people of Jewish nationality occurred.”
309 The drawing is furnished with numbers from one to seven and further
with the Cyrillic letters ‘a’, ‘�’, ‘�’.
According to the key of the illustration, the figures and letters show the following
facilities:
1: Annex
2: Room in which the engine was located
3, 4, 5: Chambers
6: Room for employees
7: Ramp
a: Pipeline from engine
�: Window (= opening) through which gas was drawn off to the roof
�: Door
In addition, there is a note without number or letter on the drawing: “Gas
pipe into the chambers.”
303
See Chapter II, 1.
304
J. Wiernik, in A. Donat, op. cit. (note 4), p. 161.
305
E. Rosenberg, op. cit. (note 188), p. 139 (p. 7 of the report).
306
GARF, 7021-115-8, p. 218.
307
GARF, 7021-115-11, p. 44.
308
See below, Section 8.
309
See Document 18 in the Appendix.