TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

62 Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf: Treblinka
“When the process of exterminating Jews was initiated, Treblinka became
one of the first camps to which victims were brought. They were put
to death in gas chambers, by steam and electric current” (Emphasis
added.)
Charge no. 6 of the Polish government against Hans Frank, according to
which “The German authorities acting under the authority of Governor General
Dr. Hans Frank established in March 1942 [sic!] the extermination-camp
at Treblinka, intended for mass killing of Jews by suffocating them in steamfilled
chambers,” is based in essence on the report of November 15, 1942,
from which large excerpts were cited. In these the description of the structure
of the two “death-houses” as well as the alleged system of killing is given particular
attention. 140
As late as 1961, a witness in Düsseldorf testified in a deposition – presumably
in the preliminary stage of the trial against the (alleged) last Treblinka
Commandant Kurt Franz 141 – that the victims had been killed with steam
in Treblinka. 142
3. Significance of the Report of November 15, 1942, for
Historiography
The report of November 15, 1942, is the most important historical source
for the Treblinka camp during the time of its existence, and the entire subsequent
official historiography relies on this report, beginning with the description
of the alleged ‘gas chambers.’ Nevertheless, it has been such a headache
for the official historians that they occasionally cite it with blatant falsification.
The Israeli historian Yitzhak Arad summarizes it as follows: 143
“In this document there is a description of the construction of the Treblinka
extermination camp, its location, its size, and a detailed plan, including
a sketch of the area. This report also includes a description of the dozens
[sic] of new gas chambers and other structures in the camp. With regard
to the camp staff, it states that, in addition to the Germans and
Ukrainians there are also Jews, whom the document calls ‘Jewish auxiliaries’,
who are employed at ancillary works, in sorting of clothes of the
murdered and removing the corpses from the gas chambers and burying
140 PS-3311, IMT, vol. XXXII, pp. 154-158. On December 5, 1945, the document was sanctioned
by its author, Dr. Tadeusz Cyprian, the Polish deputy representative at the War Crime
Commission of the United Nations in London, through his signature.
141 See Chapter V.
142 K. Marczewska, W. Wa�niewski, op. cit. (note 52), p. 134.
143 Yitzhak Arad, op. cit. (note 72), pp. 354f.