TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

Chapter I:
The Description of Treblinka
in Historiography
1. Treblinka in Orthodox ‘Holocaust’ Literature
An historian normally makes a sharp distinction between books of nonfiction
and novels. In the case of the orthodox literature on Treblinka, i.e., that
supporting the thesis of the mass extermination in gas chambers, this distinction
is hardly possible: even advocates of the official account of Treblinka
who lay claim to scholarship must, in view of the total absence of material and
documentary evidence, necessarily rely upon witness testimony, the value of
which will be dramatically demonstrated to the reader by the following examples.
For this reason, we have forsworn any attempt at making such a distinction
in our chronological overview of the most important works, which have
appeared since 1945 and are dedicated entirely or in part to the Treblinka
camp.
a. Vassili Grossmann
We begin with the publication Treblinka Ad (The Hell of Treblinka) by the
Soviet-Jewish author Vassili Grossmann (also spelled Vassili Grossman),
which appeared in 1945. The work was not available to us in book form, but
rather in the form of a marked-up manuscript that we found in a Russian archive.
23 It is not dated, but it emerges from the context that it must have originated
at the end of 1944 or beginning of 1945. A French 24 as well as a Polish 25
version appeared in 1945 under the titles L’enfer de Treblinka and Piek�o
Treblinki, respectively. Likewise, a German version followed in 1945 in a
book, which also contained a report by Konstantin Simonov on Majdanek; 26 a
23 GARF 7021-115-8, pp. 168-203.
24 V. Grossman, L’enfer de Treblinka, B. Arthaud, Grenoble and Paris 1945. The text is also
found in: Le Livre Noir, Textes et témoignages, Ilja Ehrenburg, Vassili Grossman (eds.),
Actes Sudes, Arles 1995, pp. 868-903. The latter book represents the translation of a Russian
original, the publication of which was prohibited by the Soviet government in 1947 and
which was first published in 1993 in Vilnius (Lithuania).
25 Published by Wydawnictwo Literatura Polska, Kattowitz 1945.
26 Die Vernichtungslager Maidanek und Treblinka, Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1945.
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