Treblinka II Through the Written, Artistic, and Oral Testimonies of Seven Jewish Prisoners

Of the three Aktion Reinhardt camps (Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka II), Treblinka II is the extermination camp in which the largest number of Jewish victims were murdered (between 870,000 and 925,000 Jewish men, women, and children). The harrowing and heartbreaking testimonies of the few Jewish prisoners who managed to escape are an invaluable source for Holocaust research. In this paper, I present the three Aktion Reinhardt camps (highlighting the high number of Jewish victims and the low number of survivors), making a clear distinction between Treblinka II (extermination camp) and Treblinka I (labour camp) while describing the three ‘sections’ of Treblinka II (reception area, camp 1, and camp 2 – where the gas chambers were). I rely on the historiography of Treblinka and, above all, on the written, artistic, and oral testimonies of seven Jewish prisoners who were forced to work in Treblinka II (Jakub Krzepicki, Eliahu Rozenberg, Richard Glazar, Abraham Leib Bomba, Chil Rajchman, Kalman Teigman, and Samuel Willenberg). Moreover, I discuss the problems we may encounter when using the testimonies of victims and survivors, arguing that these testimonies are a priceless and an invaluable source for both Treblinka and Holocaust research.