Sobibor - The location of the Gas Chambers

Following extensive archaeological works in the past few years at Sobibor it is now thought' that the foundations of up to eight chambers have been found on the ground in front of the Polish monument. After Sobibor had been lost to history following its obliteration by the Germans in 1943, could the recent discoveries finally begin to reveal exactly what happened at the Sobibor extermination camp?

As these excavations have been re-buried I have included an aerial photograph produced as a result of the archaeological work in 2014 led by Yoram Haimi that shows where the foundations to several buildings had been discovered, thought to be gas chambers, with the crematorium laying somewhere behind.

The area around the Polish Monument was cordoned off by large metal fences on both of my visits.

During my first trip to Sobibor back in January 2016 the area that had been excavated in 2014 where building foundations that are thought to represent the gas chambers were covered in snow.

The area cordoned off by the security
fence with the Sobibór extermination
camp memorial in the distance

Polish Monument surrounded by the
security fence, Jan 2016.

The metal fences contain an area of loosely scattered sandy soil that covers the area where excavations had been carried out in 2014. Although it was covered in snow I took several photographs of the area contained by the security fences.

Area in front of the Polish Memorial
thought to contain the foundations of
the gas chambers.

Area to the left of the Polish Memorial
thought to contain the foundations with
the crematorium in the distance

Area directly in front of the Polish Memorial
thought to contain the foundations of
the gas chambers

Area to the right of the Polish Memorial.
The gap in the trees in the distance leads
back to the railway amp
 

Area in front of the Polish Memorial taken
next to the memorial.

Returning in October I managed to get some photographs of the area contained within the security fencing without the snow.

 

There is decent in the camp amongst the experts concerning the significance of the foundations found in 2014. Apparently it has been pointed out that the foundations unearthed by the excavations and dimensions revealed contradict all earlier eye witness reports from survivors and former guards. Apparently the shape of the walls and the building do not match the buildings described by eye witnesses. While the foundations uncovered in 2014 showed several irregular shaped and different sized rooms, the eye witness accounts talk about rooms of the same size.

Historian Peter Winters pointed out that there was no evidence that the foundations uncovered were actually those of the gas chambers. Therefore to finish this section which is one of the most important as it represents 'the gas chambers location', the existence of which have become synomonous across the various extermination camps of Operation Reinhard, I note that the foundations unearthed are 'thought' to be those of gas chambers in Lager III of the Sobibor extermination camp and I am sure the arguments will continue.

Personally I feel that these people are transfixed on finding any solid foundations that they can claim are gas chambers without, as far as I can see, any firm evidence.

Sobibor - Lager III, Polish Monument and the Sobibór extermination camp memorial

There are two monuments currently positioned in the grounds of the former extermination camp, located in an area that was formally Lager III. The first is a cuboid block that for the purposes of this blog will be called the 'Polish Monument' and the other is a large spherical dome that this blog will call the Sobibór extermination camp memorial, located towards the back of the site.

The Polish Monument

The cuboid block represents where a brick building with gas chambers once stood. Previously there was a red stone sculpture in front of the cuboid structure that represents a woman, looking up at the sky, holding a small child in her arms. I have seen this in photographs taken by other people. There has been a huge amount of archaeological work all across the site over he past 7 years, especially around the area previously occupied by the two monuments. I can only assume that the red stone sculpture was removed during this work, while it was deemed too big to move the cuboid block. I did not see this sculpture during my visit in January, but in October I found it tied to a pallet behind the temporary museum building. It is a breath-taking sculpture and I am glad I saw I in the flesh, finally.



Red stone sculpture represents a woman
looking up at he sky holding a small child

Red stone sculpture at the former grounds
of the Sobibor Extermination camp

In January: The large spherical dome I have called the Sobibór extermination camp memorial is apparently a mound of the sand mixed with ashes and bone fragments of the Jewish victims surrounded by a wall. In January we walked to the memorial. The area around the  Sobibór extermination camp memorial and the pathway is thought to contain several mass graves.

The relative position of the Cuboid block and the Sobibór
extermination camp memorial

The large spherical dome at Sobibor



When we returned in October the whole area leading to the Sobibór extermination camp memorial was cordoned off and access forbidden. I can only assume that the archaeological work continues. The photographs below show where several mass graves are thought to be located around the Sobibór extermination camp memorial.


No entry to the pathway or area around
the Sobibor ExterminationCamp
Memorial in October 2016.



The pathway to the  Sobibor Extermination
Camp Memorial and surrounding area
cordoned off.



 

The Sobibor Extermination Camp Memorial.
In the foreground is the suspected location
 of the various mass graves.
The area had been cordoned off.

The area of ground to the right of the
pathway leading to the Sobibor
Extermination Camp Memorial thought
to contain mass graves..
The area had been cordoned off.






Sobibor - The Road to Heaven 'Himmelfahrtstrasse' or 'the tube' leading to Lager III

Once the victims had been stripped of everything they were driven along the 'Road to Heaven' which lead directly to the gas chambers. During operation of the extermination camp the path would have been lined with barbed wire and camouflaged to prevent those outside from seeing what was happening.

The barb wire and camouflage was removed along time ago and replaced by a neat and well manicured 'Lane of Remembrance' lined with stones inscribed with the names of villages and towns where victims came from (similar to those towns displayed at Belzec and Treblinka). At the far end of the path is a small monument remembering those that were murdered at Sobibor.

The Lane of Remembrance

The Lane of Remembrance

The Lane of Remembrance. The proposed position of the 'Road to Heaven'.

The Lane of Remembrance

The monument at the end of the Lane
of Remembrance that contains an
inscription.

The plaque at the end of the Road to Heaven.

The road to heaven is not straight so that people coming from behind could not see what was happening to the people in front.





I have noted from my reading on the Sobibor extermination camp that some people feel that the position of what now represents the path of the Road to Heaven should be further to the right.

Although it is now suggested that the remains of the gas chamber have been found near the Polish memorial, I took a series of pictures in an ark from left to right at the end of the Road to Heaven near the memorial. Within this series of photos, the area of woodland in front of the Road to Heaven includes the area where Lager III is thought to have been located which contained the gas chambers. No one will ever know the pain and torture people went through on their way to certain death.



The area of Lager III No. 1

The area of Lager III No. 2

The area of Lager III No. 3

The area of Lager III No. 4

The area of Lager III No. 5

The area of Lager III No. 6.
The monument can be seen in the distance

The area of Lager III No. 7

The area of Lager III No. 8

I took the same series of photographs back in January 2016 with my Niece standing near the small monument at the end of the Lane of Remembrance as it is represented today.

The last photograph of the series panned round further to the right and shows the distance to the Polish monument where it is suspected the gas chambers were located



The view of the Polish Monument from the end of the Lane
of Remembrance.  

Sobibor - Lager II and the modern roadway leading to the 'Road to Heaven and Lager III

Lager II  included the railway platform, where the victims were taken off the trains, as well as barracks where vital services for both the killing process and the everyday operation of the camp were carried out by Jewish Sonderkommando. Lager II also contained the warehouses used for storing the items taken from the victims, including clothes, food articles, cut-off hair, gold, and all other valuables. This section also housed the main administration office.

At Lager II the Jews were prepared for their death. Here they undressed, women's hair was shaved, clothing was searched and sorted, and documents were destroyed in the nearby furnace. The victims' final steps were taken on a path surrounded by barbed wire. It was called the "Road to Heaven", or der Schlauch (the hose) and led directly to the gas chambers in Lager III.

The location of Lager II using features that exist today:

Opposite the railway buffer on the opposite side of the road is the 'modern' main entrance which leads via the modern access road to the Polish monument. Looking into the camp area from the ramp (in front of the railway buffer) or to the left while walking up the modern road towards the Monument is the rough location of Lager II.

No. 11




Rough location of Lager II, taken
from the ramp

Information boards situated near the
entrance. Behind the boards is the rough
location of Lager II

 

Estimated location of Lager II,
to the left of the modern access road,
including the location of the original
main entrance for victims.

The Road to Heaven originated from within Lager II. The modern interpretation of the Road to Heaven branches to the left from the modern access road and is where we head next.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Sobibor - The Layout of the Extermination Camp

Sobibor - The camp was divided into three to four sections; Lager I to IV.

Lager I included the administration and garrison area including the main gate entrance for the road-bound traffic and living quarters for the staff. Nearest the ramp and next to the Commandant's villa were the SS quarters, canteen and armoury. Directly behind the administration and garrison area prisoner's barracks were built, leading to the work area.

Lager II  included the railway platform, where the victims were taken off the trains, as well as barracks where vital services for both the killing process and the everyday operation of the camp were carried out by Jewish Sonderkommando. Lager II also contained the warehouses used for storing the items taken from the victims, including clothes, food articles, cut-off hair, gold, and all other valuables. This section also housed the main administration office.

At Lager II the Jews were prepared for their death. Here they undressed, women's hair was shaved, clothing was searched and sorted, and documents were destroyed in the nearby furnace. The victims' final steps were taken on a path surrounded by barbed wire. It was called the "Road to Heaven", or der Schlauch (the hose) and led directly to the gas chambers I Lager III.

Lager III is where the victims were killed in brick gas chamber with metal roofing.  It was in the northwestern part of the camp, where were only two ways to enter the camp, from Lager II. The camp staff and personnel entered through a small plain gate. The entrance for the victims descended immediately into the gas chambers and was decorated with flowers and a Star of David above the entrance to the gas chambers. In the Sobibór gas chambers 500 people were murdered at a time.

Copyright: W. Rutherford.Only recently, following an eight-year-long investigation, Polish and Israeli researchers have 'confirmed' the 'exact' location of the gas chambers at Sobibór (I shall briefly discuss the relevance of these findings later and I am sure it will become clear why I have hi-lighted the words confirmed and exact). The discovery of the remains of the building's foundations, unearthed in 2014, was confirmed by Tomasz Kranz, the director of Poland's Majdanek State Museum at Lublin. In May 2013, archaeologists conducting excavations near Camp III unearthed an escape tunnel, an open-air crematorium, human skeletal remains, as well as a substance that appeared to be blood, and the identification tag of a Jewish boy who was murdered in the camp.  Dr. Kranz also commented that "the whole former camp is one huge crime scene", with traceable evidence of the Holocaust present everywhere although the SS leader, Heinrich Himmler ordered the camp to be destroyed and the area planted with trees.

Sobibor - The Old Railway Station and sign

Before entering the camp there are two other structures that survived the war. The first being the original railway station building. The railway station building is located opposite the extermination camp on the other side of the railway lines, opposite the Commandant's villa. I did not venture as far as the station during the first trip, so the photographs were taken in October.



Original railway station building in Sobibor

Original railway station building
located on the opposite side of the
railway tracts to the camp

Interestingly, in the film 'Escape from Sobibor' scenes of victims leaving the train show the ramp to the left of the railway station building, which is on the wrong side of the railway tracks as the railway station and ramp are positioned today. Also the position of the buffer in the film is to the left of the building. Otherwise the railway station building has been moved or probably more likely the film is not accurate.

Sobibor Extermination camp was built along the Chelm-Wlodawa railway line, in a wooded, swampy area close to the thinly populated Sobibor village and Railway station. Starting in May 1942 trains with between 40 to 60 freight cars arrived at the Sobibor railway station.

The Sobibor sign is an iconic symbol of Sobibor, surviving the dismantling of the extermination camp. Time has not been friendly to the sign which is very rusty and in disrepair. The sign is located just down from the railway station building.

Taken from the railway buffer,
the Sobibor sign is located in the
distance to the right

The Sobibor sign

The Sobibor sign

My Niece standing underneath the
Sobibor sign