Editing Treblinka extermination camp (section)

===Franz Stangl===

Stangl arrived at Treblinka in late August 1942. He replaced Eberl on 1 September. Years later, Stangl described what he first saw when he came on the scene, in a 1971 interview with [[Gitta Sereny]]:
{{blockquote|The road ran alongside the railway. When we were about fifteen, twenty minutes' drive from Treblinka, we began to see corpses by the line, first just two or three, then more, and as we drove into Treblinka station, there were what looked like hundreds of them – just lying there – they'd obviously been there for days, in the heat. In the station was a train full of Jews, some dead, some still alive&nbsp;... that too, looked as if it had been there for days.{{sfn|Sereny|2013|p=157}} }}

Stangl reorganised the camp, and the transports of Warsaw and Jews from the [[Radom Ghetto]] began to arrive again on 3 September 1942.<ref name="USHMM" /> According to Israeli historian [[Yitzhak Arad]], Stangl wanted the camp to look attractive, so he ordered the paths paved in the ''Wohnlager'' administrative compound. Flowers were planted along ''Seidel Straße'' as well as near the SS living quarters.{{sfn|Arad|1987|p=186}} He ordered that all arriving prisoners should be greeted by the SS with a verbal announcement translated by the working Jews.<ref name="Eberl" /> The deportees were told that they were at a transit point on the way to Ukraine.{{sfn|Klee|1988|p=246}} Some of their questions were answered by Germans wearing lab coats as tools for deception.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=96}} At times Stangl carried a whip and wore a white uniform, so he was nicknamed the "White Death" by prisoners. Although he was directly responsible for the camp's operations, according to his own testimony Stangl limited his contact with Jewish prisoners as much as possible. He claimed that he rarely interfered with the cruel acts perpetrated by his subordinate officers at the camp.<ref name="Wistrich">[[Robert S. Wistrich]]. ''Who's Who in Nazi Germany'', pp.&nbsp;295–296. Macmillan, 1982.</ref> He became desensitised to the murders, and came to perceive prisoners not as humans but merely as "cargo" that had to be destroyed, he said.{{sfn|Arad|1987|p=186}}

====Treblinka song====
According to postwar testimonies, when transports were temporarily halted, then-deputy commandant Kurt Franz wrote lyrics to a song meant to celebrate the Treblinka extermination camp. In reality, prisoner Walter Hirsch wrote them for him. The melody came from something Franz remembered from [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]]. The music was upbeat, in the key of [[D (musical note)|D major]]. The song was taught to Jews assigned to work in the ''Sonderkommando''.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=90|loc=section 2}} They were forced to memorise it by nightfall of their first day at the camp.<ref>Claude Lanzmann (director, ''[[Shoah (film)|Shoah]]'', New Yorker Films, 1985, DVD disc 3, ch. 1<!--check disc 3, ch 1-->; Claude Lanzmann, ''Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust'', New York: Pantheon Books, 1985, 95.</ref><ref>For more about the song, see Erin McGlothlin, "The Voice of the Perpetrator, the Voices of the Survivors", in Erin Heather McGlothlin, Jennifer M. Kapczynski (eds.), ''Persistent Legacy: The Holocaust and German Studies'', Rochester: Campden House, 2016, 40–49.</ref> ''Unterscharführer'' [[Franz Suchomel]] recalled the lyrics as follows: "We know only the word of the Commander. / We know only obedience and duty. / We want to keep working, working, / until a bit of luck beckons us some time. Hurrah!"<ref name="perp">Suchomel's lyrics in German: ''"Wir kennen nur das Wort des Kommandanten / und nur Gehorsamkeit und Pflicht / Wir wollen weiter, weiter leisten / bis daß das kleine Glück uns einmal winkt. Hurrah!"'' {{cite web |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13518094.html |title=Der zähe Schaum der Verdrängung |last1=Von Brumlik |first1=Micha |date=17 February 1986 |website=Der Spiegel |publisher=Spiegel-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG. |access-date=16 June 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924235014/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13518094.html |url-status=live }} {{cite web |author=Webb, Chris |year=2007 |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/arperpsspeak.html |title=The Perpetrators Speak |publisher=H.E.A.R.T HolocaustResearchProject.org |work=Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka Death Camps |access-date=30 October 2013 |archive-date=6 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906021944/http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/arperpsspeak.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

A musical ensemble was formed, under duress, by [[Artur Gold]], a popular Jewish [[Polish culture in the Interbellum|prewar composer]] from Warsaw. He arranged the theme to the Treblinka song for the {{nowrap|10-piece}} prisoner orchestra which he conducted. Gold arrived in Treblinka in 1942 and played music in the SS mess hall at the ''Wohnlager'' on German orders. He died during the uprising.{{sfn|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p=90}}