Operation Reinhard The Construction of the Sobibor Extermination Camp
Sobibor, a village in a thinly populated region on the Chelm-Wlodawa
railroad line, was chosen by the Central Building Administration
(SS-Zenttalbauverwaltung) in Lublin as a suitable locality for an
additional extermination camp. (Verdict of LG Hagen AZ:II Ks
1/64,p.64 <AZ.ZSL:208 AR-Z251/59, vol. 14, p. 2835>)
The camp extended westward from the Sobibor railroad station, along
the railroad track, and was surrounded by a thin coniferous wood.
Near the railroad station buildings a siding led into the camp where
the deportation trains were unloaded. Originally there were two
wooden houses in this locality, a former forester's house and a
two-storey post office. The total area of the camp measured 12
hectares, forming a 600 x 400 m. rectangle. Later on the area was
enlarged.
Construction of the camp began in March 1942 after the extermination
operations in Belzec had already started. SS-Obersturmführer
Richard Thomalla, head of the Central Building Administration in
Lublin, was in charge of its construction. The workers employed for
this purpose were local people from the neighborhood.
At the beginning of April 1942 the building operations slowed down.
In order to speed up the work, Globocnik appointed
SS-Obersturmführer Franz Stangl as camp commandant. However, he
first sent him to Belzec to gain experience in operating a (Gitta
Sereny, Into the Darkness, London, 1974 <hereafter -- Sereny>,
pp. 109 f.) camp. The British writer and journalist, Gitta Sereny, had the
opportunity to talk to Franz Stangl, the former commandant of the
Treblinka extermination camp, (while he was in custody.) After
Stangl assumed his post, the construction of the camp was
accelerated. A group of Jews from the ghetto of the Lublin 'Bezirk'
was brought in for construction work.
The first gas chambers in Sobibor were housed in a strong brick
building with concrete foundations, in the northeastern part of the
camp. Inside were three gas chambers; each measured 4 x 4 m. and
could hold 150-200 people at a time. Each chamber had a separate
entrance door leading off from a platform on the long side of the
terrain. Opposite the entrance was another door through which the
corpses were removed. As in Belzec, the exhaust fumes were conducted
through pipes from a nearby shed into the gas chambers.
Upon completion of the construction work, extermination tests were
conducted in mid-April 1942. Wirth came to Sobibor in order to
follow the experiments. He was accompanied by a chemist whose
pseudonym was Dr. Blaurock (or Blaubacke). SS-Unterscharführer
Erich Fuchs, who served in Belzec, described the preparations for the
first gassing trials: On Wirth's instructions I travel led by truck
to Lvov and collected a gassing engine there, which I transported to
Sobibor. In Sobibor... [we] unloaded the engine. It was a heavy
Russian gasoline engine [probably a tank or train engine] with at
least 200 h.p. [V-enginel 8 cylinders, water cooled]. We stood the
engine on a concrete base and connected the exhaust to the pipe
conduit. Then I tried out the engine. To begin with, it did not
function. I managed to repair the ignition and the ventils so that
the motor finally started. The chemist, whom I already knew from
Belzec, entered the gas chamber with a measuring instrument in order
to test the gas concentration. Next, an experimental gassing was
carried out. I seem to recall that 30-40 women were gassed in one
chamber. The Jewesses had to undress on a covered piece of wooded
ground near the gas chamber and were driven into the gas chamber
by... members of the SS as well as by Ukrainian volunteers. When
the women were locked into the gas chamber, 1, together with Bauer,
operated the engine. Initially the engine idled. We both stood next
to the engine and switched from free-exhaust so that the gases were
conducted into the chamber. At the suggestion of the chemist, I
adjusted the engine to a certain number of revs per minute so that no
more gas had to be supplied. After approximately 10 minutes all the
women were dead. The chemist and the SS-Fu"hrer gave the signal to
switch off the motor. I packed up my tools and saw how the corpses
were removed. Transport was by means of a rail-trolley which ran
from the gas chamber to a distant area. (StA Dortmund AZ:45 Js 27-61
<AZ. ZSL: 208 AR-Z 251/59, vol. 9, pp. 1784>)
After this experiment, which confirmed the smooth functioning of the
gas chambers, and the completion of some other construction work, the
Sobibor extermination camp was ready to operate. It was an improved
version of Belzec. The camp was divided into three parts: an
administration sector, a reception sector, and an extermination
sector. The administration and reception sectors were near the
railroad station, while the extermination sector was in a distant
part of the camp, even more isolated than in Belzec.
The administration area in the southeastern part was subdi- vided
into two camps: the "Pre-Camp" (Vorlager) and Camp I. The Pre-Camp
consisted of the entrance gate, the railroad ramp, and the living
quarters of the SS-men, the Ukrainians, and their servants -- in
contrast to Belzec, here all the SS-men lived inside the camp. Camp
I was the area set aside for the Jewish prisoners who worked in
Sobibor. This is where their living quarters and workshops were
located and where a few of them worked as shoemakers, tailors,
blacksmiths, etc.
The reception sector was called Camp II. After being unloaded, the
new arrivals were chased into this area where the huts for undressing
and the storage sheds for their valuables were situated. The former
forester's house, which was also in this area, served as camp offices
and apartments for some of the SS-men. A high wooden fence separated
the forester's house from the reception sector.
The "tube," which connected Camp II with the extermination sector,
began at the northernmost corner of this fence: it was a narrow path,
ca. 3-4 m. wide and 150 m. long, fenced in on both sides with
barbed wire intertwined with branches. Along this path the victims
were chased into the gas chambers which were located at the other end
of the "tube."
Near the entrance to the "tube" were a cow shed, a pigsty, and a
chicken pen. Halfway along the "tube" stood a hut known as the
"hairdresser's," where the Jewish women had their hair cropped before
entering the gas chambers.
The extermination sector, designated as Camp III, was in the
northwestern part. It comprised the gas chambers, the mass graves,
and separate barracks for the Jewish prisoners working there and for
the guards. The mass graves were 50-60 m. Iong, 10-15 m. wide, and
5-7 m. deep. The sidewalls of the ditches sloped in order to
facilitate the unloading of the corpses. A narrow track for a
trolley ran from the railroad station, past the gas chambers, to the
ditches. People who had died in the trains or were too weak to walk
from the ramp to the gas chamber were driven in this trolley.
The extermination sector was surrounded on all sides by barbed wire
with intertwined camouflage material. Watch towers were located
along the fence and in the corners of the camp.
The staffing of the camp was settled simultaneously with the
completion of its basic installations. Stangl's deputy was
SS-Oberscharführer Herrmann Michel, replaced a few months later by
SS-Oberscharführer Gustav Wagner.
The Ukrainian company of guards in Sobibor was made up of three
platoons. Erich Lachmann, a former police official who had trained
the Ukrainians in Trawniki, was placed in charge of this unit. Being
an outsider among the "Euthanasia" group, he was replaced by Kurt
Bolender in the autumn of 1942. In Sobibor, as in Belzec, each
member of the German personnel had a specific function. Upon the
arrival of a transport most of the SS-men were given additional,
specific tasks connected with the extermination procedure.
SS-Oberscharführer Erich Bauer later testified at his trial:
Normally, every member of the permanent staff had a specltic function
within the camp (commandant of the Ukrainian volunteers, head of a
work commando, responsihility for digging ditches, responsibility for
laying barbed wire and the like). However, the arrival of a
transport of Jews meant so much "work" that the usual occupations
were stopped and every member of the permanent staff had to take some
part in the routine extermination procedure. Above all, every member
of the permanent staff was at some time brought into action in
unloading the transports. (StA Dortmund AZ:45 Js 27-61 <AZ. ZSL:
208 AR-Z 251/59, vol. 5, p. 988>) At the end of April 1942 the
Sobibor extermination camp was operational.
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The Extermination
Camps
of
Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka