Treblinka Uprising

An important historical event that occurred during Treblinka’s history was the uprising of the Kapos (prisoners who supervised the operations) and Sonderkommandos (slave laborers). Chil Rajchman recalls the plan to bring down the camp in 1943. It was a secret amongst few prisoners. According to him, “the plan of the revolt is as follows: everyone will work normally, very carefully, not revealing the least change in our routine or demeanor. Everyone knows what his responsibility is. In order to carry it out, each of us must place himself close to his appointed task. According to the plan, when we hear two shots coming from Camp 1 that will be the signal for the revolt. All of us are ready. Several comrades are assigned to set the gas chambers on fire. Others have the task of killing SS men and Ukrainians and seizing their weapons. Several men who work near the observation posts are to try and distract the Ukrainians there with pieces of gold.” [(11) Page. 97]

When I visited the camp, the guide dedicated a fair amount of time recounting the uprising. In 1943, a plan for an uprising was set, however there was an unforeseen issue. The day they had chosen to set the uprising had to be changed, as an unplanned train arrived at dawn with several Ukranians, and they were forced to postpone their plan [(11) Page. 97]. The next chosen date was August 2nd at around 4 am, and at the chosen date, the work units initiated launched the revolt against the camp officials. There were no German casualties during the uprising, but it caused significant damage to the structure of the camp, which was never rebuilt.

A fair number of prisoners escaped the camp, around 200, including the last survivor of Treblinka, and the uprising was successful in ruining the facilities that were used to kill and dispose of their victims. However, Treblinka was never rebuilt. Why? The majority of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto had already been exterminated, the commission of the Operation Reinhard decided not to spend money rebuilding the facility, and was the end of Treblinka [(5) Page. 293]. Furthermore, in 1943 the war had already gone in the wrong direction for the Nazi’s, and attempts to cover up the holocaust were initiated.