{"id":12459,"date":"2018-07-07T13:12:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T13:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/informacje\/treblinka-ii\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T10:24:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T08:24:46","slug":"treblinka-ii","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/informacje\/treblinka-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Treblinka II Extermination Camp (1942- 1943)"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1530965056405{padding-top: 60px !important;padding-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1530965062953{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Treblinka II Extermination Camp (1942- 1943)” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=””][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1780647832379{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]<\/p>\n

Mass killings of the Jewish population began in the summer of 1941, following Germany\u2019s invasion of the Soviet Union. Members of the German mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen, carried out shootings of Jewish inhabitants in the occupied towns and villages [1]<\/a>. The decision to implement the systematic extermination of European Jews was most likely taken in the autumn of 1941, although historiography continues to debate the exact moment of its formalisation. On 20 January 1942, during the Wannsee Conference [2]<\/a>, Reinhard Heydrich informed senior officials of the Third Reich about actions connected with the so-called \u201cFinal Solution to the Jewish Question in Europe\u201d. The meeting was primarily administrative and organisational in nature, serving to coordinate extermination policy, rather than constituting the moment at which the decision itself was taken. One of the elements in the implementation of this plan was \u201cOperation Reinhardt\u201d, conducted under the direction of Odilo Globocnik, SS and Police Leader in the Lublin District.<\/p>\n

In mid-1942, in the vicinity of the Treblinka I Labour Camp, German Nazis established the Treblinka II Extermination Camp [3]<\/a>. It was the last camp created as part of \u201cOperation Reinhardt\u201d. It operated from July 1942 until November 1943. It is estimated that between 800,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered there, primarily Polish citizens, as well as Jews deported from other European countries, including Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Macedonia and Germany. The victims also included Roma and Sinti.<\/p>\n

The camp covered an area of approximately 17 hectares [4]<\/a>. It was staffed by 30\u201340 Germans and Austrians [5]<\/a>, as well as 100\u2013120 guards [6]<\/a> recruited from Soviet prisoners of war, mainly of Ukrainian origin. All guards had previously undergone training at the training camp in Trawniki near Lublin. A large proportion of the German personnel had previously participated in the so-called \u201cAction T4\u201d, the programme carried out between 1939 and 1941 within the Third Reich to murder people with mental illnesses and disabilities.<\/p>\n

The camp commandants were Austrians [7]<\/a>: Irmfried Eberl, who was dismissed in August 1942, followed by Franz Stangl, who served for approximately one year. Stangl\u2019s deputy was the German Kurt Franz, who assumed the position of commandant in August 1943 [8]<\/a>. The first transport of deportees arrived at the camp on 23 July 1942 from the Warsaw Ghetto. Victims were brought mainly from the Warsaw and Radom districts, from the northern part of the Lublin District, and from the Bia\u0142ystok District [9]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The camp consisted of three main sections: the administrative area, the reception area, and the so-called upper camp (Totenlager [10]<\/a>), where deportees were killed using exhaust fumes in gas chambers. Initially, bodies were buried in mass graves within the camp site. From early spring 1943, corpses were burned on grates constructed from railway rails. Labour detachments composed of Jewish prisoners existed within the camp and were forced to perform tasks connected with its operation. The average number of prisoners present in the camp was approximately 1,000 [11]<\/a>. Turnover was high. The sick and the weak were sent to the gas chambers, and new prisoners were selected from among newly arrived transports. The Germans also murdered some members of the labour detachments, fearing uprisings and eliminating individuals who possessed knowledge of the camp\u2019s functioning [12]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On 2 August 1943, an uprising prepared in secrecy by the prisoners broke out [13]<\/a>. Of the approximately 840 [14]<\/a> Jews present in the camp at that time, nearly 200 managed to escape.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that around 1,000 [15]<\/a> individuals may have escaped over the entire period of the camp\u2019s operation. The names of 143 [16]<\/a> former prisoners who survived the war are known.<\/p>\n

Following the uprising, the liquidation of the camp was accelerated [17]<\/a>. In November 1943, the camp buildings and installations were dismantled, the area was ploughed over and sown with lupins. A farm was established on the site, inhabited by two former guards together with their families [18]<\/a>. Before the Red Army entered the area in August 1944, these buildings were burned down.<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_text_separator title=”References” title_align=”separator_align_left” align=”align_left” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””][1]<\/a> Libionka, Dariusz, Zag\u0142ada \u017byd\u00f3w w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie. Zarys problematyki, Lublin 2017, pp. 73\u201374.<\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., pp. 86\u201387.<\/em><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> M\u0142ynarczyk, Jacek Andrzej, \u2018Treblinka \u2013 Ob\u00f3z \u015bmierci \u201eAkcji Reinhardt\u201d\u2019, in: Akcja Reinhardt. Zag\u0142ada \u017byd\u00f3w w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie, ed. Dariusz Libionka, Warszawa 2004, pp. 217\u2013232; see also: Hilberg, Raul, Zag\u0142ada \u017byd\u00f3w europejskich, vol. III, Warszawa 2014, pp. 1085\u20131086.<\/em><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> R\u00f3\u017cycki, Sebastian, Kop\u00f3wka, Edward and Zalewska, Natalia, Ob\u00f3z zag\u0142ady Treblinka II. Topografia zbrodni, Treblinka\u2013Warszawa 2021, p. 20.<\/em><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Sprawozdanie oparte na dochodzeniu s\u0105dowym, dotycz\u0105ce udzia\u0142u organizacji SS w obozie strace\u0144 w Treblince oraz wykaz fakt\u00f3w ustalonych na podstawie dokument\u00f3w akt dochodze\u0144 w sprawie Treblinki, ref. no. 180\/5, pp. 2\u20133, cited in: R\u00f3\u017cycki, Sebastian, Kop\u00f3wka, Edward and Zalewska, Natalia, Ob\u00f3z zag\u0142ady Treblinka II. Topografia zbrodni, Treblinka\u2013Warszawa 2019, p. 32.<\/em><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Arad, Yitzhak, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, revised and expanded edition, Indiana University Press, 2018, p. 41.<\/em><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> R\u00f3\u017cycki, Sebastian, Kop\u00f3wka, Edward and Zalewska, Natalia, Ob\u00f3z zag\u0142ady Treblinka II. Topografia zbrodni, Treblinka\u2013Warszawa 2021, p. 32.<\/em><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., pp. 35\u201336.<\/em><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Arad, Icchak, Obozy \u015bmierci akcji \u201eReinhardt\u201d: Be\u0142\u017cec, Sobib\u00f3r, Treblinka, Warszawa 2021, pp. 240, 255.<\/em><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Arad, Yitzhak, op. cit., pp. 63\u201364; see also: Libionka, Dariusz, op. cit., p. 135.<\/em><\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Wiernik, Jankiel, Rok w Treblince. A Year in Treblinka, Warszawa 1944, p. 77.<\/em><\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> R\u00f3\u017cycki, Sebastian, Kop\u00f3wka, Edward and Zalewska, Natalia, op. cit., p. 15.<\/em><\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Libionka, Dariusz, op. cit., p. 218; see also: Arad, Icchak, op. cit., pp. 479\u2013490.<\/em><\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> Sereny, Gitta, W stron\u0119 ciemno\u015bci. Rozmowy z komendantem Treblinki, trans. Jan K. Milencki, Warszawa 2002, p. 215.<\/em><\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> Skibi\u0144ska, Alina, \u2018My m\u00f3wimy zamiast nich, m\u00f3wimy w ich imieniu\u2019, in: Oto wida\u0107 i oto s\u0142ycha\u0107. \u015awiadkowie Zag\u0142ady w okupowanej Polsce, ed. Barbara Engelking, Jan Leociak, Dariusz Libionka and Alina Skibi\u0144ska, Warszawa 2024, p. 708.<\/em><\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> Ibid., p. 639.<\/em><\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Arad, Icchak, op. cit., pp. 606\u2013608; see also: Sereny, Gitta, op. cit., pp. 217\u2013218.<\/em><\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Oral Testimony of Eugeniusz Goska, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History collection, accession no. 1998.A.0300.27, RG-50.488.0027; Oral Testimony of Henryk \u015alebzak, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Oral History collection, accession no. 1998.A.0300.28, RG-50.488.0028; see also: Rusiniak, Martyna, Ob\u00f3z zag\u0142ady Treblinka II w pami\u0119ci spo\u0142ecznej (1943\u20131989), Warszawa 2008, p. 21.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11481,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","class_list":["post-12459","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_category-oboz-en","portfolio_tag-glowna-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/12459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}