Archaeologist researchers at the Treblinka Death Camp publicized the end of last week in Britain that they found the first traces of gas chambers on that site. In a documentary film shown on the Smithsonian channel, the archaeologists claimed that they also found the site of three mass graves. This discovery is very significant in the light of the fact that the Nazis hardly left a single trace of the camp after the revolt of the prisoners which took place in 1943, and only the few survivors remained.
The report tells that before beginning the research work, the archaeologists received permission from the Polish government and from rabbinical authorities. Dr. Caroline Sturdy Colls a legal archaeologist who specializes in locating mass graves, expressed hope that the finds will help repudiate the claims of Holocaust deniers.
Aided by sophisticated technology that scanned the camp with laser beams, the team was able to discover hidden corners and expose buried corpses. They succeeded in locating one of the two gas chambers of the camp. They found the mass grave in the course of excavations when they saw human bones in two locations in the camp. They found Magen David symbols near the chambers which corroborates the many testimonies of Treblinka survivors who told that the gas chambers looked like bathhouses. The archaeologist developed computerized maps of the area through photos, radar and GPS technology.
This past Monday, archaeologist Yoram Chimi who has been studying the Sobibor death camp for many years, said that one should not rush to definite conclusions. He added that at the end of WWII, the Nazis completely wiped out the death camps of Treblinka, Sobibor and Belsatz, the three camps established by the S.S. in the Reinhardt project to eradicate Polish Jewry and efface all traces thereof. The gas chambers were bombed and on some of those sites forests were planted, he noted. Even today, one can find relics, including bones.
The Prisoner Rebellion in Treblinka
In August 1943, after two Jewish prisoners succeeded in escaping and returning to the Chanstochova ghetto, an armed revolt was organized by the inmates of Treblinka which drew the guards into a fight. Most of the rebels were killed in the clash but 200 prisoners succeeded in escaping, though most of them were subsequently killed by the fire of the guards and the Polish residents in the area. As a result of the revolt, the camp went up in flames, resulting in heavy damage. The Nazis decided to liquidate it altogether and destroy all of the buildings on site.
