Treblinka labor camp
The Treblinka labor camp was a German Nazi labor camp operating from September 1941 to 23 July 1944. It was located in Gmina Kosów Lacki in the Sokołów County, along the Siedlce–Sokołów Podlaski–Małkinia railway line, near the village and railway station of Treblinka, from which it derived its name.
The camp primarily detained men and women accused of economic and criminal offenses, as well as victims of łapankas and raids. Initially, Polish inmates from the Warsaw District predominated, but over time, the number of Jewish prisoners increased. Inmates mainly worked in a gravel pit adjacent to the camp. Overall, approximately 20,000 people passed through the camp, of whom about 10,000 died or were murdered.
Origins
In the interwar period, a gravel pit was established within the triangle marked by the villages of Maliszewa, Poniatowo, and Wólka Okrąglik in Gmina Kosów Lacki in the Sokołów County. The gravel pit was owned by the company Lubelskie Kopalnie Granitu i Żwiru and was connected by a specially built industrial spur to the Treblinka railway station, six kilometers away, on the Siedlce–Sokołów Podlaski–Małkinia railway line.After the beginning of the German occupation, Sokołów County and Węgrów County were merged into one Sokołów-Węgrów County, with its seat in Sokołów Podlaski. This county became part of the Warsaw District of the General Government. In late 1940/early 1941, due to the infrastructure expansion planned for the invasion of the Soviet Union, the occupying authorities took an interest in the gravel pit. At the initiative of County Chief, a concrete company was established to produce materials from the excavated gravel. However, the enterprise suffered from a lack of adequate labor; after the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, gravel extraction had to be temporarily halted. To secure a sufficient supply of free labor, Gramss proposed establishing a forced labor camp nearby.
The camp was established in late summer 1941; Franciszek Ząbecki states that this occurred in September. Initially, it was under the local administrative authorities and occupied the gravel pit's farm buildings. During this period, the number of inmates did not exceed a few dozen. Under German supervision, the prisoners expanded the camp using materials left behind by Wehrmacht units that had been stationed in the county before the invasion of the Soviet Union. The establishment of the camp was officially sanctioned by an order from Ludwig Fischer, the governor of the Warsaw District, on 15 November 1941. Uniquely, the Polish public was informed about its establishment through posters and the Nazi-controlled Warsaw press shortly after Fischer's order was issued.
Name
The camp took its name from the nearby village and the Treblinka railway station. Initially, its official name was Arbeitserziehungslager, later appearing in official German documents as Der SS- und Polizeiführer im Distrikt Warschau Arbeitslager Treblinka. In Polish historiography, it is usually referred to as the forced labor camp in Treblinka. To distinguish it from the nearby extermination camp, which operated from July 1942 to November 1943, the labor camp is also sometimes called Treblinka I.Topography of the camp
The camp had an irregular quadrilateral shape, covering an area of 17 ha. It was divided into two zones: the prisoner zone and the administrative-economic zone. It was surrounded by a barbed wire fence over 2 m high. In the fall of 1943, additional coils of barbed wire and anti-tank barriers were installed outside the fence, transferred from the liquidated extermination camp Treblinka II. The main gate was located in the northeastern corner of the fence, with the inscription Arbeit macht frei above it. Guard towers were erected at key points of the camp. The road leading from the main gate to the commandant's office and the German staff building was paved, while the other internal roads were gravel.The prisoner zone was located in the western part of the camp, occupying about 25% of its area. It was enclosed by a double barbed wire fence. Additional fences were also erected inside the zone, separating men from women and Polish prisoners from Jewish prisoners. The prisoners were housed in wooden barracks measuring 12.5 m by 40 m. Additionally, in the prisoner zone there were: a carpentry shop, a locksmith's workshop, a tailor's workshop, a laundry, a kitchen, a small power plant with a generator, and a vegetable garden whose produce was intended for the camp staff. To the south of the zone was the so-called Holzplatz, a yard where construction wood was initially processed and firewood was chopped. To the north of the zone was a sorting building.
The administrative-economic zone encompassed the eastern and northern parts of the camp. This area contained the commandant's office and the German staff building, which housed the commandant's quarters. Nearby was an underground bunker where prisoners were tortured and held shortly before execution. This part of the camp also had barracks for guards, garages, warehouses, a stable, a pigsty, a henhouse, a bakery, a dairy, a butcher's shop, and a fox farm. Just inside the main gate was a guardhouse. Unlike the prisoner zone, the administrative-economic zone was fully sewered and electrified. Two swimming pools were built here – a large one for the German staff and a smaller one for the commandant.
Personnel
The camp's staff consisted of several dozen German Schutzstaffel men and about 100 guards.The camp commandant for the entire period of its existence was SS-Hauptsturmführer Theodor van Eupen. In civilian life, he was a lawyer practicing in Berlin. Witnesses recalled that van Eupen never personally beat prisoners and even addressed them in a very polite manner. Nonetheless, due to his ruthlessness, he instilled fear both among the inmates and the camp staff, whom he would send to the Eastern Front for various infractions. Karl Prefi served as the deputy commandant and was also responsible for the economic part of the camp.
Other key positions in the camp were held by:
- SS-Untersturmführer Lundecke – the commandant's adjutant, head of the camp office;
- SS-Untersturmführer Herbert Stumpe – head of the guard unit, nicknamed "Laughing Death" by prisoners;
- SS-Untersturmführer Franz Schwarz – supervised the labor Kommando working at the Małkinia railway station, on drainage works along the Bug river, and in peat digging. He conducted "selections" and often personally carried out death sentences. Known as "The Executioner" to prisoners;
- SS-Unterscharführer Hagen – responsible for the camp's economic affairs;
- SS-Untersturmführer Franz Leopold Lanz – head of the workshops, also responsible for training guards;
- SS-Rottenführer Wilhelm Weishar – head of the agricultural farm about 0.5 km from the camp. He also oversaw the camp stable and animal pens;
- Dingelmann – the SS man in charge of the prisoners' condition, conducting daily roll calls;
- Hans Heinbuch – the SS man responsible for the Jewish section of the camp.
It is assumed that most of the guards were Ukrainian. However, the term "Ukrainians" is not entirely accurate, as the Germans sought to recruit primarily Soviet Volksdeutsche and representatives of other non-Russian nations of the Soviet Union. Due to a lack of recruits, native Russians were often also conscripted. It is known that among the Treblinka I camp guards, there were Latvians and Lithuanians. The guard who served as the commandant's orderly was even found to be half-Jewish.
Prisoners
Categories and nationality division
The Treblinka labor camp formally fell under the jurisdiction of the SS and police leader for the Warsaw District. Besides him, decisions to send individuals to the camp could be made by the Governor of the Warsaw District, the City Governor of Warsaw, and the district chiefs of other counties in the district.Primarily, the camp detained men and women accused of economic and criminal offenses, such as smuggling, black market trading, speculation, failing to meet compulsory agricultural quotas or providing labor, running a business without proper authorization, ignoring a work order, or leaving the workplace without permission. Offenses like tardiness or riding a train without a ticket could also result in detention. Polish administrative employees accused of negligence, abuse, or minor economic sabotage were also interned. As Władysław Bartoszewski notes, at times, nearly 20% of the inmates were employees of the Warsaw Municipal Administration. For instance, three residents of Korczew were interned for organizing a dance without German permission.
The camp also held victims of łapankas, often in retaliation for resistance activities. Family members of those caught hiding Jews or escaped Soviet prisoners, those arrested for curfew violations, or minor acts of defiance against German authority, and individuals whose judicial proceedings were incomplete or juvenile offenders were also sent there. From December 1943, Poles without any offenses or charges were sent to Treblinka I simply to meet the demand for forced labor.
Initially, the camp mainly held Poles – first from the Sokołów-Węgrów County, then from other counties in the Warsaw District. There was no initial segregation by nationality. This changed in 1942. In February, a meeting including judicial representatives and the Warsaw Ghetto commissioner Heinz Auerswald decided that juvenile Jews accused of criminal offenses would be sent to Treblinka. From July, with the Holocaust in full swing, Jewish craftsmen and artisans were also sent there. Small groups of young Jewish men were taken from transports to the nearby extermination camp and subjected to "extermination through labor" at Treblinka I. Some Jewish artisans, typically from nearby towns, were interned with their families, who served as hostages. The camp held Polish Jews, as well as Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and France. French Jews worked in the gravel pit and within the camp, while German and Czech Jews included specialists and functionary prisoners.
Governor Fischer’s directive indicated that prisoner terms would range from two to six months. However, the commandant could extend terms indefinitely under various pretexts. Some prisoners, such as escaped forced laborers or family members of those hiding Jews, were held indefinitely. After serving their terms, some were sent to forced labor in Germany.
Each group of ten prisoners was led by a kapo. The highest-ranking prisoner was a 45-year-old Jewish pharmacist from Warsaw named Ignac, who attended roll calls with the Germans in both the Polish and Jewish sections of the camp. Among Polish prisoners, the highest-ranking was kapo Czesław Zeifert, with Witold Jóźwiak as his deputy. Zeifert was executed in September 1943 for misappropriating Jewish gold and dollars.