THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

“Treblinka” is a documented, non-fiction work, of the Treblinka death camp.  Set up by the Nazis as an experimental killing camp, Treblinka laid in wait for the Jews of Europe.  From the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1943, 800,000 Jews were murdered in the camp, almost all by gas.  The Jews arrived to Treblinka, via cattle car, from Vilna.

The most famous saying in Treblinka was “from door to door in 45 minutes”, meaning from the cattle car to the gas chamber in less than an hour.  

The author describes the mechanics of the German liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto, concentrating on the psychological war the Germans played, against the Jews.  The Germans offered enough hope to the Jews to live, if they obeyed the rules.  The Germans would offer work permits but for only specific segments of the people, for example, only people without children.  The next day, those work permits would be invalidated and new ones provided, with new trickery.

The Germans dangled the possibility of survival to keep law and order.  Rounds up were easier with no resistance. The Germans wanted law and order; the Jews wanted to survive.  The Germans intend to send the Jews of Vilna to Treblinka.

The German war against the Jews suffered little resistance.  One of the transports to Treblinka carried the Jewish German war veterans of WW1 who entered Treblinka death camp with their medals on.  The Germans, so fixated on the policy of non resistance, allowed the veterans transportation on a passenger train, along with their families, who then went the gas chambers.

One of the psychological games the Germans played was clepsydras.  This meant the prisoner had a mark on his face from a beating.  At roll call, the German Officer would ask all with this mark to step forward and for his prize he would receive an easy death.  If the prisoner did not step forward and had clepsydras, he would be beaten to death with a shovel.  The prisoners had no mirrors, no way of judging their wounds.

The Jews lived in a constant state of shock.  Surviving rampant disease, filth and constant starvation, they also endured the constant anxiety for loved ones.  The prisoners lost any sense of judgment.  They followed orders like automatons, with no sense of reason.

The murder of the Jews and the collection of their goods were the only priorities of Treblinka.  Commandant Kurt Franz insisted his camp run smoothly.  To accomplish this he kept the original Jewish workers at their jobs throughout their time in the camp.  This was unusual in most camps, but in Treblinka, Franz believed job stability, contributed to the success of the camp.

The camp was divided into three sections.  The first group was the largest and responsible for the new arrivals.  Under the constant guard and the whip of the kapos, the prisoners were charged with routing their fellow Jews off the trains, getting them undressed and to the gas chambers where the victims then passed before SS guards. 

The second unit helped the Germans move, bury and destroy the dead bodies.  Huge ditches held the bodies which were then covered.  Eventually the Germans would need specialists to help destroy the evidence of the 800,000 bodies of the Jews they murdered.  Not an easy task.  The bodies would be dug up and burned.

The third unit sorted the clothes, shoes, hats, coats, sweaters, scarves, gloves, eye glasses, wallets, purses, money, tools, musical instruments, books, and suitcases brought by the Jews, and the loads of human hair collected.  Gold was also extracted from the mouths of the dead Jews.  These stolen possessions were then sent to Germany.

As individuals, the Jews held out hope for survival.  Collectively, they held out hope that the world would learn of the abject evil of their German conquerors and the story of their horror would be known.

The prisoners in Treblinka decided to take action on their own.  Together they organized, collected weapons, bribed guards, planned their strategy, waited, set the date, postponed, and set the date again; they hoped and dreamed of success, and in the end they fought their oppressors, the German monsters and though many died, many of the Jews  escaped winning their freedom, even though for a short time.  Of the 1000 prisoners in the camp at the time of the revolt, August 2, 1943, 600 made it to the forests.  Of those 600, 40 survived.  The others were cut down by Ukrainian bands, Gestapo, the Polish Home Army, Special German Units, and German deserters.

 

The factual, historical account of the Treblinka death camp, reads like a faced past novel.

Gypsies, considered undesirable by the Germans, also perished in Treblinka.