Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history
Subject: Holocaust Almanac: Change in Command (Treblinka)
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 12:01:02 GMT
Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Eberl,Franz,Globocnic,Oberhauser,Stangl,Wirth

As you will recall from yesterday's article, things at Treblinka had
gotten out of hand. After Himmler ordered that all Jews in the Central
Government area were to be exterminated by the end of December 1942 (I
need documentation for this order - if you can provide it, please
contact kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca.), drastic steps had to be taken to
regain control.

At the same time, SS officials saw clearly that the present method of
gassing the victims was inefficient, and began seeking alternatives to
the diesel exhaust they had been using to suffocate the Jews.

The first step was the appointment of Christian Wirth (ironic, isn't
it?) as Inspector of the camps at Belzec and Sobibor, as well as
Treblinka. He had just completed rebuilding the gas chambers at
Belzec...

"The first problem Wirth had to deal with ...was the chaotic situation
at Treblinka. In the last week of August, 1942, Globocnik and
Christian Wirth visited Treblinka. Josef Oberhauser, Wirth's
assistant, who accompanied him to Treblinka, testified:

	In Treblinka everything was in a state of collapse. The camp
	was overstocked. Outside the camp, a train with deportees was
	unable to be unloaded as there was simply no more room. Many
	corpses of Jews were lying inside the camp. These corpses were
	already bloated. Particularly I can remember seeing many[
	corpses in the vicinity of the fence. These people were shot
	from the guard towers.

	I heard then in Treblinka how Globocnik and Wirth summed up
	the following: Wirth would remain in Treblinka for the time
	being. Dr. Eberl would be dismissed immediately. In his 
	place, Stangl would come to Treblinka from Sobibor as 
	commander. Globocnik said in this conversation that if Dr.
	Eberl were not his fellow countryman, he would arrest him
	and bring him before an SS and police court." <1>

I find it noteworthy that Globocnik, a mass murderer of epic
proportions, would make this comment regarding the inept Dr. Eberl not
because he was murdering Jews, but because he was murdering them
inefficiently and leaving the evidence lying around in the sun for the
world to see. The Nazis, however, were a particularly disgusting
lot, and quite accustomed to the grisly scenes before them. SS 
Oberscharfuhrer Kurt Franz, Stangl's assistant, described his
arrival at Treblinka and then casually adds that he reported to his
superiors in the dining room:

	"It was late summer or the beginning of autumn 1942, when I
	came from Belzec to Treblinka. ...when I arrived it was
	already dark. Everywhere in the camp there were corpses. I
	remember that these corpses were already bloated. The corpses
	were dragged through the camp by working Jews ...

	These working Jews were driven by the guardsmen [Ukrainians]
	and also by Germans... I reported to Wirth in the dining room.
	As I remember, Wirth, Stangl, and Oberhauser were there..."
	<2>

It is not difficult to understand how things got out of hand for the
unfortunate Dr. Eberl, who had managed to murder a quarter of a
million people in the first six weeks of his command.

After a brief period, during which Stangl and Wirth managed to clean
up the untidy mess left behind by Eberl, transports to Treblinka,
which had been halted, resumed on September 3, 1942. The liquidation
of the Warsaw ghetto could be postponed no longer....

<1> Yad Vashem Archives, TR-10/1069, Band 10, p. 1040
<2> (As Above), Band 8, p. 1493

Quotes Excerpted from....---------------------------------------
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7
----------------------------------------------------------------
-- 
" It  may have  been the Propaganda Ministry that  ... thought up the idea of 
forcing all Jews to wear a yellow star ... The marking was intended to hinder 
 ... assistance to Jews who were being harassed.   We wanted  Germans to feel 
embarrassed, ... afraid of having any contact with Jews." [Adolf Eichmann]
Newsgroups: alt.revisionism