TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

52 Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf: Treblinka
don on January 6, 1943. 129 This report was widely disseminated. A complete
English translation had already appeared in 1943 in the anthology The Black
Book of Polish Jewry with the subtitle “Treblinka. Official Report Submitted
to the Polish Government” 130 and reads as follows:
“The village of Treblinka is situated near the Warsaw-Bialystok railroad
line, a few kilometers from Malkinia, in a sandy and wooded area.
The population consists of Polish peasant-farmers and forest workers. In
1940, [correct: 1941] the Germans established a penitentiary concentration
camp, Treblinka A, on the sandy stretches near the village, for Poles who
were guilty of transgressions against the occupant, of not supplying the
demanded amounts of agricultural produce, or who were caught smuggling.
The discipline at the camp is very strict; prisoners are shot on any
pretext. The camp is as notorious as the penitentiary camp at Oswiecim.
In March, 1942, the Germans began the construction of another camp,
Treblinka B, in the vicinity. That camp has become the slaughter-house for
the Jews of Poland and of other European countries. Poles from the nearby
Treblinka A, as well as Jews caught in the neighboring villages, were put
to work at the preparatory construction. That work lasted until the end of
April when the central building of the camp, death-house No. 1, was built.
(14). [131]
Treblinka B is situated on the sandy hills among woodland. The area of
the camp is comparatively small, some 5,000 hectares (about 12,500
acres). [132] It is entirely surrounded by a green fence interwoven with
barbed wire entanglements (3). Part of the fence runs through a young forest
in the north (25). At the four corners of the camp, observation points
were placed for the Lagerschutz (Camp Guard). The Lagerschutz consists
mostly of Ukrainians armed with machine-guns. At the observation points
strong searchlights have been placed to light the entire place at night. Observation
posts are also set in the middle of the camp and on the hills in the
woodlands. The western border of Treblinka B is formed by the rail embankment
along which runs a side-track that connects the camp with the
main railroad-line (1). The side-line (2) was constructed in recent months,
in order that the trains of transports might be delivered directly to the
slaughter-house. The northern border of the camp is formed in the forest;
east and south the border cuts through sandy hills. In the area of the camp,
129
The editors of the Biuletyn erroneously give the date of the transmittal of this report to London
as November 15, 1942, the day which the text is dated. It was published in Polish by K.
Marczewska, W. Wa�niewski, op. cit. (note 52), pp. 139-145.
130
Jacob Apenszlak (ed.), The Black Book of Polish Jewry, American Federation for Polish
Jews, New York 1943, pp. 141-147.
131
The numbers in parentheses, not included in the English translation, are from the Polish
original and refer to the sketches appended to the report. See Document 2 in the Appendix.
132
The size of Treblinka amounted to 13.45 hectares. See the following chapter.