Hi guys,
This is a topic I’ve wanted to get off my chest and share with you on this forum for a very long time.Last summer, I took my family on a trip along Poland’s eastern border. There are many beautiful places to see there, but also some tragic ones—Sobibór and Treblinka death camps.
These were German camps designed specifically for extermination, operating with terrifying speed and efficiency. You may have heard about Auschwitz, but Treblinka and Sobibór were on a completely different level. This tragic part of history is often overlooked, and many people are unaware that such places even existed. I had always wanted to see them with my own eyes.
And I did...
It has been several months, and I still carry with me what I saw there.
Many people survived Auschwitz, but almost no one survived Treblinka or Sobibór—and that is what makes these places so terrifying. You may have seen people with tattooed numbers from Auschwitz, but in Treblinka and Sobibór, the Germans didn’t even bother counting their victims. It took them just one hour to exterminate an entire train of people—one hour from arrival to complete disappearance. They even built a fake train station, with schedules, signs, and paved platforms, just to prevent panic on the way to the gas chambers.
Auschwitz remains in people’s memory also because it "operated" for a long time. Treblinka and Sobibór were active for only a few months, yet the number of people the Germans murdered in that short period—and the way they did it—leaves me speechless to this day.
Both Treblinka and Sobibór saw uprisings. The fact that we know so little about them makes me incredibly sad.
I wanted to share this part of history with you because it tormented my Polish nation so deeply and is often overlooked. These wounds are still open, and we struggle with them to this day, but we try to remember.
War is not just about Tigers and Shermans, uniforms and helmets—it should be mainly about the suffering of innocent people.
And Poland and Poles suffered from Germans terribly during that time.
I strongly encourage everyone to learn more about Sobibór and Treblinka. For those who want to read but don’t know where to start, here are a few suggestions:
- An old interview with SS officer Franz Suchomel, who served in Treblinka. For reasons unknown to me, he was not hanged and was eventually released from prison. This is a terrifying interview with a man who completely fails to understand his role in the genocide.
Some parts of this interview are missing from YouTube, but you can still find them online.
(A sad fact: the word “Brendze” he claims they shouted was actually “prędzej,” which in Polish means “faster, faster.”)
Interview with a nazi ss officer - franz suchomel
A rare interview with nazi ss officer franz suchomel (Capitalization purposely unused), discussing his experience as an ss officer at treblinka concentration...
www.youtube.com
- The story of Polish-Jewish educator Janusz Korczak, who died alongside his students. He refused to save himself, choosing to stay with his pupils until the very end.
Janusz Korczak - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia pages for both camps—it's not much, but it’s a good place to start:
Treblinka extermination camp - Wikipedia
Sobibor extermination camp - Wikipedia
