TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

70 Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf: Treblinka
5. Origin of the Carbon Monoxide Version
Let us summarize: at the end of 1945, three different methods of mass
murder were still contending for first place: steam, evacuation of air, and engine
exhaust. As mentioned, the Polish government gave preference to steam
at the Nuremberg Trial and thereby conferred upon this method the official
consecration of ‘historical fact.’
In what came next, this ‘historical fact’ was declared a myth, and the steam
had to give way to the exhaust gases of a diesel engine.
What was the origin of this version? And why did the latter ultimately prevail?
The claim that in Treblinka murder was committed by engine exhaust was
surfacing (with no indication of the type of engine) here and there as early as
1942, but soon vanished into oblivion again. It was picked up anew and
enlarged on by Jankiel Wiernik. By his own testimony, Wiernik was deported
to Treblinka on August 23, 1942, and remained there until August 2, 1943, the
day of the prisoner uprising. In May 1944 he published a report about Treblinka
in the Polish language, which was published in English translation in the
United States that same year. 165 Wiernik has the following to report about the
first gassing facilities: 166
“When I arrived at the camp, three gas chambers were already in operation;
another ten were added while I was there. A gas chamber measured
5 × 5 meters and was about 1.90 meters high. The outlet on the roof
had a hermetic cap. The chamber was equipped with a gas pipe inlet and a
baked tile floor slanting towards the platform. The brick building which
housed the gas chambers was separated from Camp No. 1 by a wooden
wall. This wood wall and the brick wall of the building together formed a
corridor, which was 80 centimeters taller than the building. The chambers
were connected with the corridor by a hermetically fitted iron door leading
into each of the chambers. On the side of Camp No. 2 the chambers were
connected by a platform four meters wide, which ran alongside all three
chambers. The platform was about 80 centimeters above ground level.
There was also a hermetically fitted wooden door on this side.
Each chamber had a door facing Camp No. 2 (1.80 by 2.50 meters),
which could be opened only from the outside by lifting it with iron supports
and was closed by iron hooks set into the sash frames, and by wooden
bolts. The victims were led into the chambers through the doors leading
from the corridor, while the remains of the gassed victims were dragged
165 R. Czarkowski, Cieniom Treblinki, op. cit. (note 76), p. 30; Yankel (sic) Wiernik, A Year in
Treblinka, published by American Representation of the General Jewish Workers’ Union of
Poland, New York 1944. The text can also be found in A. Donat, op. cit. (note 4).
166 A. Donat, op. cit. (note 4), p. 157-159.