Editing Treblinka extermination camp (section)

==Background==
{{further|The Holocaust in Poland}}

Following the [[invasion of Poland]] in 1939, most of the 3.5&nbsp;million [[Polish Jews]] were rounded up and [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|confined to newly established ghettos]] by the Nazis. The system was intended to isolate the Jews from the outside world in order to facilitate their exploitation and abuse.<ref name="Trunk">{{cite book |last=Trunk |first=Isaiah |author-link=Isaiah Trunk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ugVsNrbMSx4C&q=%22Although+Nazi+propaganda%22 |title=Establishment of the Ghetto |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2006 |isbn=0253347556 |pages=9–10 |access-date=15 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527095131/https://books.google.com/books?id=ugVsNrbMSx4C&q=%22Although+Nazi+propaganda%22 |archive-date=27 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The supply of food was inadequate, living conditions were cramped and unsanitary, and Jews had no way to earn money. Malnutrition and lack of medicine led to soaring mortality rates.<ref name="Friedman">{{cite book |title=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |first1=Walter |last1=Laqueur |author-link1=Walter Laqueur |first2=Judith |last2=Tydor Baumel |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nPbr0XzlTzcC&q=Warsaw+caloric+rations |pages=260–262 |isbn=0300138113}} ''See also:'' {{cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Philip |date=January 1954 |title=The Jewish Ghettos of the Nazi Era |journal=Jewish Social Studies |publisher=Indiana University Press |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=76–85 |jstor=4465209}}</ref> In 1941, the [[Operation Barbarossa|initial victories]] of the [[Wehrmacht]]{{efn|''Wehrmacht'' is German for "Defence Force". It was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945.}} over the Soviet Union inspired plans for the [[Generalplan Ost|German colonisation]] of [[occupied Poland]], including all territory within the new district of [[General Government]]. At the [[Wannsee Conference]] held near Berlin on 20 January 1942, new plans were outlined for the genocide of Jews, known as the "Final Solution" to the Jewish Question.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gerlach |first=Christian |date=December 1998 |title=The Wannsee Conference, the Fate of German Jews, and Hitler's Decision in Principle to Exterminate All European Jews |journal=Journal of Modern History |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago |volume=70 |issue=4 |pages=811–812 |doi=10.1086/235167 |s2cid=143904500 |url=http://boris.unibe.ch/74383/1/235167.pdf |access-date=17 September 2019 |archive-date=11 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200211134330/https://boris.unibe.ch/74383/1/235167.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The extermination programme was codenamed [[Operation Reinhard]].{{efn|The operation was named in honour of [[Reinhard Heydrich]], Himmler's deputy and predecessor as head of the [[Reich Security Main Office]]. Heydrich died in a Czech hospital, a few days after being wounded in an attack by members of the Czech resistance on 27 May 1942.{{sfn|Arad|1987|pp=20, 31}} }} and was separate from the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' mass-murder operations in Eastern Europe, in which half a million Jews had already been murdered.<ref name="CFCA">{{cite book |last=Yahil |first=Leni |author-link=Leni Yahil |title=The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1945 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_aRvKpLUf0C&pg=PA270 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1991 |page=270 |isbn=0195045238 |access-date=13 January 2018 |archive-date=14 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814021153/https://books.google.com/books?id=e_aRvKpLUf0C&pg=PA270 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Treblinka was one of three secret extermination camps set up for Operation Reinhard; the other two were [[Bełżec extermination camp|Bełżec]] and [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arad |first1=Yitzhak |title=Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka |url=https://archive.org/details/belzecsobibortre00arad_0 |url-access=limited |date=1999 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=0-25321305-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/belzecsobibortre00arad_0/page/37 37]}}</ref><ref name="YV-Reinhard-pdf">{{cite web |author=Yad Vashem |title=Aktion Reinhard |publisher=Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies |year=2013 |access-date=16 June 2015 |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205724.pdf |pages=1–2 |archive-date=15 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171215130625/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205724.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> All three were equipped with [[gas chamber]]s disguised as shower rooms, for the murder of entire transports of people. The method was established following a pilot project of mobile extermination conducted at [[Soldau concentration camp|Soldau]] and at [[Chełmno extermination camp]] that began operating in 1941 and used [[Nazi gas van|gas van]]s. Chełmno (German: ''Kulmhof'') was a testing ground for the establishment of faster methods of murdering and [[Cremation#World War II|incinerating]] bodies.<ref name="Golden2003">{{cite journal |last=Golden |first=Juliet |date=January–February 2003 |title=Remembering Chelmno |journal=[[Archaeology (magazine)|archaeology]] |publisher=Archaeological Institute of America |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=50}}</ref> It was not a part of Reinhard, which was marked by the construction of stationary facilities for mass murder.<ref name="Yad Vashem-Chelmno">{{cite web |author=Yad Vashem |author-link=Yad Vashem |title=Chelmno |publisher=Shoah Resource Center |work=Holocaust |year=2013 |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205915.pdf |access-date=21 August 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921060828/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205915.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Treblinka was the third extermination camp of Operation Reinhard to be built, following Bełżec and Sobibór, and incorporated lessons learned from their construction.<ref name="Arad-1984/pdf">{{Citation |first=Yitzhak |last=Arad |author-link=Yitzhak Arad |contribution=Operation Reinhard: Extermination Camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka |contribution-url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203576.pdf |title=Yad Vashem Studies&nbsp;XVI |year=1984 |pages=205–239 (12–25 of 30 in current document) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318073143/http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203576.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |id=Internet Archive: direct download, 108 KB.}}</ref> Alongside the Reinhard camps, mass-murder facilities using [[Zyklon B]] were developed at the [[Majdanek concentration camp]] in March 1942,<ref name="YV-Reinhard-pdf" /> and at [[Auschwitz II-Birkenau]] between March and June.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|pp=942, 955|loc=Bunker I and II}}

Nazi plans to murder Polish Jews from across the General Government during ''Aktion Reinhard'' were overseen in occupied Poland by [[Odilo Globocnik]], a deputy of [[Heinrich Himmler]], head of the SS, in Berlin.<ref name="Fischel2010">{{cite book |last=Fischel |first=Jack R. |title=Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzBZP92xwUUC&pg=PA99 |access-date=3 September 2013 |date=17 July 2010 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7485-5 |page=99 |archive-date=31 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231132408/http://books.google.com/books?id=EzBZP92xwUUC&pg=PA99 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=401}} The Operation Reinhard camps reported directly to Himmler.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://phdn.org/archives/www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Eichmannr.htm |title=Trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem: Judgment Part 17 |website=phdn.org |access-date=26 August 2020 |archive-date=20 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220230713/https://phdn.org/archives/www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Eichmannr.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The staff of Operation Reinhard, most of whom had been involved in the [[Action T4]] "involuntary euthanasia" programme,{{sfn|Levy|2002|pp=684,686}} used T4 as a framework for the construction of new facilities.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Burleigh |first=Michael |date=1991 |title=Racism as Social Policy: the Nazi Euthanasia Program, 1939–1945 |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |publisher=Routledge |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=453–73 |doi=10.1080/01419870.1991.9993722 |pmid=11652073}}</ref> Most of the Jews who were murdered in the Reinhard camps came from ghettos.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=306}}
The Operation Reinhard camps reported directly to Himmler, and not to the [[Concentration Camps Inspectorate|concentration camps inspector]] [[Richard Glücks]].<ref name="saul">{{cite book |last=Friedländer |first=Saul |author-link=Saul Friedländer |title=The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945|title-link=The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939–1945 |pages=346–347 |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-06-019043-9}}</ref>

===Location===
[[File:WW2-Holocaust-Poland.PNG|thumb|Treblinka in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupied Poland]] with Nazi [[extermination camp]]s marked with black and white skulls. [[General Government]] territory: centre. [[District of Galicia]]: lower–right. [[Province of Upper Silesia#World War II|Upper Silesia]] with [[Auschwitz]]: lower–left.]]

The two parallel camps of Treblinka were built {{cvt|50|mi|order=flip}} northeast of [[Warsaw]].<ref name="USHMM-Treblinka">{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005193 |title=Treblinka |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |author=Holocaust Encyclopedia |date=10 June 2013 |access-date=16 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503084809/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005193 |archive-date=3 May 2012 |format=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{sfn|Arad|1987|p=247}} Before World War II, it was the location of a gravel mining enterprise for the production of concrete, connected to most of the major cities in central Poland by the [[Małkinia Górna|Małkinia]]–[[Sokołów Podlaski]] railway junction and the [[Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship|Treblinka village]] station. The mine was owned and operated by the Polish industrialist Marian Łopuszyński, who added the new {{cvt|6|km|mi|adj=on}} railway track to the existing line.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=35}} When the German SS took over Treblinka I, the quarry was already equipped with heavy machinery that was ready to use.{{sfn|United States Department of Justice|1994|ps=: Appendix 3: 144.}} Treblinka was well-connected but isolated enough,{{efn|All three Reinhard camps (Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka) were built in rural forest complexes of the [[General Government]] to hide their existence and complete the illusion that they were transit points for deportations to the east.{{sfn|Arad|1987|pp=27, 84}}}}{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=76}} halfway between some of the largest Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe, including the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] and the [[Białystok Ghetto]], the capital of the newly formed [[Bialystok District]]. The Warsaw Ghetto had 500,000 Jewish inmates,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Einwohner |first=Rachael L. |date=November 2003 |title=Opportunity, Honor, and Action in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=109 |issue=3 |pages=657 |doi=10.1086/379528 |s2cid=142845298}}</ref> and the Białystok Ghetto had about 60,000.<ref name="Friedman"/>

Treblinka was divided into two separate camps {{cvt|2|km}} apart. Two engineering firms, the Schönbronn Company of Leipzig and the Warsaw branch of Schmidt–Münstermann, oversaw the construction of both camps.{{sfn |Webb|Chocholatý|2014|p=20}} Between 1942 and 1943, the extermination centre was further redeveloped with a [[crawler excavator]]. New gas chambers constructed of brick and cement mortar were freshly erected, and mass cremation [[pyre]]s were also introduced.<ref name="ARC-mapping">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html |title=Mapping Treblinka |publisher=Death Camps.org |work=Treblinka Camp History |date=4 September 2006 |access-date=12 August 2013 |author=Webb, Chris |archive-date=9 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709165334/http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The perimeter was enlarged to provide a buffer zone, making it impossible to approach the camp from the outside. The number of trains caused panic among the residents of nearby settlements.{{sfn|Rees|2005|loc=BBC}} They would likely have been killed if caught near the railway tracks.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=405}}

===Treblinka I===
{{Main|Treblinka labor camp}}
Opened on 1 September 1941 as a forced-labour camp (''[[Arbeitslager]]''),{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=74}} Treblinka I replaced an ''ad hoc'' company established in June 1941 by [[Sturmbannführer]] Ernst Gramss. A new barracks and barbed wire fencing {{cvt|2|m}} high were erected in late 1941.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=36}} To obtain the workforce for Treblinka I, civilians were sent to the camp ''en masse'' for real or imagined offences, and sentenced to hard labour by the [[Gestapo]] office in Sokołów, which was headed by Gramss.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=49, 56}} The average length of a sentence was six months, but many prisoners had their sentences extended indefinitely. Twenty thousand people passed through Treblinka I during its three-year existence. About half of them were murdered there via exhaustion, hunger and disease.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=74|loc=''Summary''}} Those who survived were released after serving their sentences; these were generally Poles from nearby villages.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=368–369,380}}
[[File:German ID issued to a worker who was posted to the Malkinia train station near Treblinka.jpg|thumb|German ID issued to a worker who was posted to the Malkinia train station near Treblinka. He was in charge of supplying coal to the trains going to and leaving from the death camp.]]

[[File:Treblinka I Arbeitslager 2-12-1941.jpg|thumb|Official announcement of the founding of Treblinka I, the forced-labour camp]]
At any given time, Treblinka I had a workforce of 1,000–2,000 prisoners,{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=36}} most of whom worked 12- to 14-hour shifts in the large quarry and later also harvested wood from the nearby forest as fuel for the open-air crematoria in Treblinka II.{{sfn |Webb|Chocholatý|2014|p=90}} There were German, Czech and French Jews among them, as well as Poles captured in ''[[łapanka]]s'',{{efn|''Lapanka'' is Polish for "roundup" and in this situation refers to the widespread German practice of capturing non-German civilians ambushed at random.<ref>Ron Jeffery, "Red Runs the Vistula", Nevron Associates Publ., Manurewa, Auckland, New Zealand, 1985.</ref>}} farmers unable to deliver food requisitions, hostages trapped by chance, and people who attempted to harbour Jews outside the Jewish ghettos or who performed restricted actions without permits. Beginning in July 1942, Jews and non-Jews were separated. Women mainly worked in the sorting barracks, where they repaired and cleaned military clothing delivered by freight trains,{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=35–57}} while most of the men worked at the gravel mine. There were no work uniforms, and inmates who lost their own shoes were forced to go barefoot or scavenge them from dead prisoners. Water was rationed, and punishments were regularly delivered at roll-calls. From December 1943 the inmates were no longer carrying any specific sentences. The camp operated officially until 23 July 1944, when the imminent arrival of Soviet forces led to its abandonment.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=35–57}}

During its entire operation, Treblinka I's commandant was ''Sturmbannführer'' [[Theodor van Eupen]].{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=36}} He ran the camp with several SS men and almost 100 ''Hiwi'' guards. The quarry, spread over an area of {{cvt|17|ha}}, supplied road construction material for German military use and was part of the strategic road-building programme in the war with the Soviet Union. It was equipped with a mechanical digger for shared use by both Treblinka I and II. Eupen worked closely with the SS and German police commanders in Warsaw during the deportation of Jews in early 1943 and had prisoners brought to him from the Warsaw Ghetto for the necessary replacements. According to [[Franciszek Ząbecki]], the local station master, Eupen often murdered prisoners by "taking shots at them, as if they were partridges". A widely feared overseer was ''[[Untersturmführer]]'' Franz Schwarz, who killed prisoners with a pickaxe or hammer.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=44, 74}}

===Treblinka II===
[[File:Treblinka Memorial 05.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial at Treblinka II, with 17,000 quarry stones symbolising [[gravestones]].<ref name="MWiMT" /> [[Inscription]]s indicate places of [[Holocaust train]] departures, which carried at least 5,000 victims each, and selected ghettos from across Poland.]]
Treblinka II (officially the ''SS-Sonderkommando Treblinka'') was divided into three parts: Camp 1 was the administrative compound where the guards lived, Camp 2 was the receiving area where incoming transports of prisoners were offloaded, and Camp 3 was the location of the gas chambers.{{efn|The order was reversed by Yankel (Jankiel) Wiernik in his book ''A Year in Treblinka'' (1945); he named the receiving area of Treblinka II as Camp 1, and the gassing zone (where he worked) as Camp 2.{{sfn|Wiernik|1945|loc=chapt. 10}}}} All three parts were built by two groups of German Jews recently expelled from Berlin and [[Hanover]] and imprisoned at the Warsaw Ghetto (a total of 238 men from 17 to 35 years of age).{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=77|loc=chapt. 3:1}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/acdiary.html |title=Adam Czerniakow and His Diary |publisher=Holocaust Research Project |access-date=17 April 2017 |archive-date=31 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070831110136/http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/acdiary.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' [[Richard Thomalla]], the head of construction, brought in German Jews because they could speak German. Construction began on 10 April 1942,{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=77|loc=chapt. 3:1}} when Bełżec and Sobibór were already in operation.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=289}} The entire death camp, which was either {{cvt|17|ha}}{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=77|loc=chapt. 3:1}} or {{cvt|13.5|ha}} in size (sources vary),<ref name="Sokołów-Treblinka II">{{cite book |url=http://www.sokolow.4web.pl/treblinka.htm |title=Treblinka II |date=18 May 2006 |publisher=Biblioteka Regionalna Sokołowskiego Towarzystwa Społeczno-Kulturalnego |isbn=83-906213-1-2 |editor1=Władysław Piecyk |editor2=Wanda Wierzchowska }}</ref> was surrounded by two rows of barbed-wire fencing {{cvt|2.5|m}} high. This fence was later woven with pine tree branches to obstruct the view of the camp from outside.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=78|loc=section 2}} More Jews were brought in from surrounding settlements to work on the new railway ramp within the Camp 2 receiving area, which was ready by June 1942.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=77|loc=chapt. 3:1}}

The first section of Treblinka II (Camp 1) was the ''Wohnlager'' administrative and residential compound; it had a telephone line. The main road within the camp was paved and named ''Seidel Straße''{{efn|The ''ß'', called ''Eszett'' or ''scharfes s'' ("sharp s") in German, is roughly equivalent to ''ss''.}} after ''[[Unterscharführer]]'' Kurt Seidel, the SS corporal who supervised its construction. A few side roads were lined with gravel. The main gate for road traffic was erected on the north side.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=79–80}} [[Barracks]] were built with supplies delivered from Warsaw, Sokołów Podlaski, and [[Kosów Lacki]]. There were a kitchen, a bakery, and dining rooms; all were equipped with high-quality items taken from Jewish ghettos.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=77|loc=chapt. 3:1}} The Germans and Ukrainians each had their own sleeping quarters, positioned at an angle for better control of all entrances. There were also two barracks behind an inner fence for the Jewish work commandos, known as ''[[Sonderkommandos]]''. ''SS-Untersturmführer'' Kurt Franz set up a small [[zoo]] in the centre next to his horse stables, containing two foxes, two peacocks and a [[roe deer]] (introduced in 1943).{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=79–80}} Smaller rooms were built as laundry, [[tailor]]s, and [[shoemaker|cobbler]]s, and for woodworking and medical aid. Closest to the SS quarters were separate barracks for the Polish and Ukrainian women who served, cleaned, and worked in the kitchen.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|pp=79–80}}

[[File:Treblinka II aerial photo (1944).jpg|thumb|upright=1.8|The 1944 aerial photo of ''Treblinka II'' after efforts at "clean-up", or disguising its role as a death camp. The new farmhouse and livestock building are visible to the lower left.<ref name="ARC 2005">{{Citation |author=National Archives |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html |title=Aerial Photos |publisher=Washington, D.C. |year=2014 |quote=Made available at the Mapping Treblinka webpage by ARC. |access-date=12 August 2013 |archive-date=9 July 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130709165334/http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The photograph is overlaid with outlines of already-dismantled structures (marked in red/orange). On the left are the SS and ''Hiwi'' (Trawniki) guards' living quarters (1), with barracks defined by the surrounding walkways. At the bottom (2) are the railway ramp and unloading platform (centre), marked with the red arrow. The "road to heaven"{{sfn|Smith|2010}} is marked with a dashed line. The undressing barracks for men and women, surrounded by a solid fence with no view of the outside, are marked with two rectangles. The location of the new, big gas chambers (3) is marked with a large X. The burial pits, dug with a [[crawler excavator]], are marked in light yellow.]]
[[File:2 Nota 8.jpg|thumb|Page 7 <!-- page # is visible on page -->from "[[Raczyński's Note]]" with Treblinka, Bełżec and Sobibór extermination camps identified- Part of the official note of the [[Polish government-in-exile]] to [[Anthony Eden]], 10 December 1942.]]
The next section of Treblinka II (Camp 2, also called the lower camp or ''Auffanglager''), was the receiving area where the railway unloading ramp extended from the Treblinka line into the camp.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=80|loc=section 3}}<ref name="Yeger" /> There was a long and narrow platform surrounded by barbed-wire fencing.{{sfn |Webb|Chocholatý|2014|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mV0ZBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA28 28–29]}} A new building, erected on the platform, was disguised as a railway station complete with a wooden clock and fake rail terminal signs. SS-''[[Scharführer]]'' [[Josef Hirtreiter]], who worked on the unloading ramp was known for being especially cruel; he grabbed crying toddlers by their feet and smashed their heads against wagons.{{sfn|Levy|2002|p=342}} Behind a second fence, about {{cvt|100|m}} from the track, there were two large barracks used for undressing, with a cashier's booth where money and jewelry were collected, ostensibly for safekeeping.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=100}} Jews who resisted were taken away or beaten to death by the guards. The area where the women and children were shorn of their hair was on the other side of the path from the men. All buildings in the lower camp, including the barber barracks, contained the piled up clothing and belongings of the prisoners.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=100}} Behind the station building, further to the right, there was a Sorting Square where all baggage was first collected by the ''Lumpenkommando''. It was flanked by a fake infirmary called "Lazarett", with the [[Emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] sign on it. It was a small barracks surrounded by barbed wire, where the sick, old, wounded and "difficult" prisoners were taken.{{sfn |Webb|2014|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=mV0ZBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 pp. 23–24]}} Directly behind the "Lazarett" shack, there was an open excavation pit seven metres (23&nbsp;ft) deep. These prisoners were led to the edge of the pit{{sfn|Klee|1988|p=246}} and shot one at a time by ''[[Blockführer]]'' [[Willi Mentz]], nicknamed "Frankenstein" by the inmates.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=100}} Mentz single-handedly killed thousands of Jews,<ref name="ARC">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/perpetrators.html |title=The Treblinka Perpetrators |publisher=Aktion Reinhard Camps ARC |work=An overview of the German and Austrian SS and Police Staff |date=23 September 2006 |access-date=1 November 2013 |quote=''Sources:'' Arad, Donat, Glazar, Klee, Sereny, Willenberg et al. |archive-date=5 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805232207/http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/perpetrators.html |url-status=live }}</ref> aided by his supervisor, [[August Miete]], who was called the "Angel of Death" by the prisoners.{{sfn|Arad|1987|pp=122, 194}} The pit was also used to burn old worn-out clothes and identity papers deposited by new arrivals at the undressing area.<ref name="Yeger">{{Citation |author=Ministry of State Security of Ukraine |url=http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/y/yeger-aleksandr-ivanovich/yeger-002.html |title=Testimony of Aleksandr Yeger |publisher=The Nizkor Project |date=2 April 1948 |quote=Excerpt from report of interrogation |access-date=22 August 2013 |archive-date=20 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130920032253/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/y/yeger-aleksandr-ivanovich/yeger-002.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=100}}

The third section of Treblinka II (Camp 3, also called the upper camp) was the main killing zone, with gas chambers at its centre.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=82}} It was completely screened from the railway tracks by an earth bank built with the help of a mechanical digger. This mound was elongated in shape, similar to a retaining wall, and can be seen in [[Treblinka#Organization of the camp|a sketch]] produced during the 1970 trial of Treblinka II commandant [[Franz Stangl]]. On the other sides, the zone was camouflaged from new arrivals like the rest of the camp, using tree branches woven into barbed wire fences by the ''Tarnungskommando'' (the work detail led out to collect them).{{sfn |Webb|Lisciotto|2007}}{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=89}} From the undressing barracks, a fenced-off path led through the forested area to the gas chambers.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=82}} The SS cynically called it ''die Himmelstraße'' ("the road to heaven"){{sfn|Smith|2010}} or ''der Schlauch'' ("the tube").{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=83}} For the first eight months of the camp's operation, the excavator was used to dig burial ditches on both sides of the gas chambers; these ditches were {{cvt|50|m}} long, {{cvt|25|m}} wide, and {{cvt|10|m}} deep.{{sfn |Webb|Lisciotto|2007}} In early 1943, they were replaced with cremation [[pyre]]s up to {{cvt|30|m}} long, with rails laid across the pits on concrete blocks. The 300 prisoners who operated the upper camp lived in separate barracks behind the gas chambers.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=84}}