| Treblinka | |
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| — Village — | |
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Treblinka
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Poland |
| Voivodeship | Masovian |
| County | Ostrów Mazowiecka |
| Gmina | Gmina Małkinia Górna |
| Population | 330 |
Treblinka [trɛˈbliŋka] is a village with 350 inhabitants in the east of Poland. It is now situated in the district of Gmina Malkinia Gorna, within Ostrów Mazowiecka County in Masovian Voivodeship.
The village, which lies close to the Bug River, attained notoriety during the Holocaust through the Treblinka extermination camp, which systematically killed an estimated 850,000 people (800,000 were Jews). "Dr." Irmfried Eberl presided as the first commandant of the death camp, from July 11, 1942 until August 31, 1942, when he was relieved of his duty for not being efficient and secretive enough in the camp's killing process.[1] He was succeeded by Franz Stangl, previously the commandant of Sobibor extermination camp, as the second and last commandant of Treblinka, from September 1, 1942 until its close of operations on October 19, 1943. Treblinka was the first death camp to experience an uprising against the SS, on August 2, 1943. As a result of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 7,000 survivors were sent to Treblinka (on April 19, 1943, the first day of the most significant period of the uprising),[2] where purportedly they developed again into resistance groups, and then planned and executed an uprising.
During several periods of time in the camp's operation, the number of unburied corpses (several thousands) had accumulated and decomposed to such a point that a stench emanated from the camp for approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) in every direction, which could be easily smelled at the village of Treblinka. It was self-evident that unnatural amounts of death were happening nearby, which caused concern among the villagers, but no notable reaction beyond words.[3] The village of Treblinka was not complicit in the events at the Treblinka extermination camp, but rather a bystander.
In an effort to avoid any future inconveniences that would be produced by public outcries such as this, the Nazi hierarchy took measures to modify the camp (under Franz Stangl) so that the killing process was both more efficient and more concealed than before. When the camp ended operations on October 19, 1943, the Nazis attempted (in vain) to remove all evidence that a camp (and the mass murder carried out there) had existed near Treblinka. Relatively little physical evidence remains today.[4]
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