Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Treblinka's "Lazarette"
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Nizkor Project, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Lazarette,Treblinka

Archive/File: camps/aktion.reinhard/treblinka treblinka.laza
Last-Modified: 1994/02/11

"Another extermination facility in Treblinka was the 'Lazarett'. Near the
camp's southern fence were huge pits, where the tens of thousands who had
died in the freight cars on their way to Treblinka were buried alongside
those who had been shot on or near the camp train platform. At these pits,
too, the prisoners who worked in the camp during the first stage of
operation were shot and killed after a day or so of work.

The need for these pits had stemmed from the high morality rate inside the
transport trains and the insufficient capacity of the three original gas
chambers. After construction of the new gas chambers and the resultant
reduction in the time of the train journey to Treblinka, the need for these
pits was sharply reduced. Henceforth, they were used for executing those
who lacked the strength to walk to the 'showers' on their own, as well as
the Jewish prisoners from the camp.

Following these changes, the area set aside for execution by shooting was
reduced in size. The camp command decided to give the area the appearance
of a hospital, which became known in the camp as Lazarett. The Lazarett
covered an area of 150 to 200 square meters and was surrounded by a barbed
-wire fence laced with branches. The entrance to the Lazarett area was
decorated with a red cross, and next to it was a sign, 'Lazarett'. Inside
was a small hut and behind it a ditch 12 meters long and 4 meters deep.
Next to the ditch was an earth rampart with benches. Those about to die
were told to strip and sit on the benches. One of the [staff] shot them.
The dead bodies fell or were pushed into the ditch, where a fire was always
burning, which consumed the bodies."

Excerpted from....----------------------------------------------
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7
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