the mass is splashed with buckets of cold water brought from the nearby
well. The bodies come unstuck and it is easier to remove them. Generally
speaking, aside from heads and buttocks which become purple, the bodies
are unchanged as far as their external appearance is concerned. Constantly
beaten and hurried by the Germans, the gravediggers place the corpses on the
platform until the chambers are empty. The bodies lie there like cattle meat
and the burials begin. Not long ago (in early August) the Jewish gravediggers
had hand carts at their disposal to transport the corpses to the pits, which had
to be done at a frantic pace. Recently, however, that convenience has been cancelled
by the boss. Ein Mann zwei Leiche – one gravedigger, two corpses, which
means that one gravedigger must bury two corpses. The gravediggers tie the
arms or legs of the corpses with trousers belts, drag them from the platform
into the pits, throw them in, and have to return running for the next burden.
Graves used to be in the immediate vicinity of the house of death, so the
burial of the murdered proceeded more quickly. But with the increasing number
of the victims the border of the graves gradually moved east and the
dragging of corpses to their eternal resting place is becoming increasingly
time-consuming. Having filled [29] the grave, the gravediggers quickly cover
up the buried, while a digging machine digs another grave nearby.
The execution of the men proceeds in the same way. They are also rushed
along the forest road to death. People react differently to all this, while being
rushed towards the house of death. Some recite penitential psalms out loud or
confess their sins, while others curse God, but a sudden scream of a German
and the blows falling on the morituri’s⁹⁶⁰ backs immediately pacify the whole
crowd. Sometimes when some of the victims cannot fit in the packed chambers,
the Germans order them to stop in a copse by the house of death. Even
though these people see and hear everything, they exhibit no self-preserving
reflexes. This fact is irrefutable evidence for the brutal terror used by the
Germans on their victims.
The new house of death has been designed for the extermination of
8,000–10,000 victims. If one takes into account that currently up to 2,000,000
(two million) murdered Jews⁹⁶¹ (the majority of Polish Jewry) are buried in
Treblinka, then one should ask a disturbing question: For whom have the
960 (Lat.) Morituri – those who are about to die.
961 The number of victims of the death camp in Treblinka is currently estimated at 870,000.
