Sobibor - The Commandant's House and Franz Stangl

The commandant's villa, also called the Swallow's nest, that was occupied in 1942 by Franz Stangl and the other Sobibór commandant Franz Reichleitner, is a green structure, that still exists. The Commandants had a little flat on the top floor.

Obersturmführer Franz Stangl was the first commandant of Sobibór appointed by Heinrich Himmler. Stangl, a member of the SS-, was the manager of the T-4 Euthanasia Program in Nazi Germany at both the Hartheim and Bernburg extermination hospitals. Stangl served as the Sobibór's commandant from 28 April to the end of August 1942. On 1st September 1942 Stangl arrived at Treblinka to be come Commandant.

After the war Stangl escaped to Brazil and worked in a Volkswagen production plant in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo). He was arrested in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany for the mass murder of 900,000 people. In 1970 Stangl was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty, life imprisonment. He died of heart failure six months later.
 

I did not purposely take any pictures of the house but managed to capture some images from the pictures I took of the ramp

 

The original Commandant's villa at Sobibor (Oct 2016)



The railway line outside the Sobibor camp.
The original Commandant's house is just in view on the
right-hand side of the ramp, Jan 2016.

The buffer and railway line and outside the Sobibor camp.
The original Commandant's house is just in view on the
right-hand side of the ramp, Oct 2016.

 

 

Return to Sobbor. Railway Buffer and Ramp

I first visited Sobibor in January 2016, snow was thick on the ground and it was below -10C. I was accompanied by my mother, niece and her boyfriend. I returned in October 2016 as part of my visit to the death camps across Poland that were built as part of Operation Reinard. This blog has already covered my visit to Belzec Extermination Camp, so this part of the blog will include photographs from my visits to Sobibor Extermination Camp in January and October 2016.

Similar to Belzec extermination camp there is nothing remaining from the original camp, only the memorials placed by authorities. The Nazis destroyed plans, documents and stripped the buildings of the former extermination camp down to their foundations, even carrying the rubble away. They levelled structures, planted forests and established farms. It was clear by the time I had walked through the former areas of Lager I and II that the site of the extermination camp had more or less been raised to the ground by the Germans in 1943.  The farms set up by the Germans have long gone and the forest cleared.

The first and most striking feature as you pull up at the entrance of the former area of the Sobibor Extermination Camp is the buffer at the end of the rail rack and the rail track where trains used to stop at the ramp to allow victims to unload. This was a sinister feature seen in the film 'Escape from Sobibor'.

N0. 10



The buffer at the end of the railway track
outside Sobibor



The railway buffer and railway track and
with the ramp in the distance.

I have included some pictures taken of and near the railway buffer during the visit it January.




The railway buffer at Sobibor taken from the original railway spur, Jan 2016 

As far as I can tell the ramp is in the original location from when the camp was in operation in 1942, but was originally made of wood.

 



The ramp taken from the railway buffer
Jan 2016




The railway buffer and spur at Sobibor
taken from the ramp, Jan 2016

The ramp at Sobibor, Jan 2016

Locomotive Shed at Belzec; Loco Shed 1

Locomotive shed at Belzec station. These buildings was used to store the clothes of murdered Jews. The sheds behind the locomotive building served as transit warehouses for clothing, hair, and personal property looted from the camp victims. Such goods were first seized at the trackside unloading area in the camp and were then sorted within the Camp I sector before being shipped to Lublin.

The locomotive sheds were located a short walk from the station on the other side of several railway tracks.


The Loco Shed in 2016

A picture of Loco Shed 1 back in 2004


The remains of Loco Shed 1is in a poor state of disrepair and the roof is missing. Internet searches show the same shed had its roof in 2004.

No. 7

Several photographs showing the outside of the Loco Shed 1

The remains of Loco Shed 1 used to
store clothing, hair and personal
belongings from murdered Jews

The front view of Loco Shed 1 close to
Belzec Extermination camp

No. 8

Photographs of the interior where clothes from murdered Jews were stored.

The front exit of Loco Shed 1

The interior of Loco Shed 1 

The remains of a railway line still runs across the from of the Loco Shed 1.


The railway line running along the front
of Loco Shed 1 in the direction of Belzec
Extermination camp

The railway line running along the front
Loco Shed 1

A video from the railway station a Belzec towards Loco Shed 1

No. 9

Railway Station at Belzec

Located along the Lublin-Lvov railway line, the killing center at Belzec was approximately 1/3 mile from the Belzec railway station. A small rail siding connected the camp and the station. The SS staff and auxiliary police guards assigned to the camp were housed in a separate compound near the railroad station.


A sign near Belzec Railway station. To the left is Loco Shed .
The railway tracks travel in the direction of the memorial and
 the former camp.

The railway station that I visited near to the memorial is located where the original station that existed when the camp was in operation. I believe that the railway station building was rebuilt after the war.






The front entrance of the railway station at Belzec.

Oak Trees

View of the oak trees from Crevice Road 

The trees that grew in the area of the formal extermination camp at Belzec were planted by the Germans following the dismantling of the camp in order to remove the traces of their activities. During construction of the monument most of these trees were cut down with the exception of a group of oak trees in the corner of the Burial Ground nearest the museum.

The oak trees are symbolic 'witnesses' of the genocide committed at the Belzec extermination camp.



Concrete Pavement, Cast iron border

There is a concrete pavement that borders the entire Cemetery Burial-ground.

Concrete Pavement; furthest edge
leading to the oak trees

Concrete Pavement; ZAMOSC



Concrete Pavement; DEUTCHLAND

Concrete Pavement; BERLIN



Concrete Pavement; calendar of the crime

The names of Jewish communes which the victims came from are described in the form of a composition of iron casts placed on the concrete surface marking the border of he Cemetery Burial Ground. The dates given show the calendar of the crimes.

Surface of the Burial Ground

The surface of the Cemetery-Burial grounds is covered with specially prepared material. It reflects the historical topography of the land. Increased graduation and darker colours mark the placed where mass graves are.

No. 6

The field of crushed stone serves as grave marker; the entire perimeter contains human ashes mixed with sand.

Ramp and the Railway Sculpture

Along the front edge of the memorial area running along the front wall of the site is a symbolic ramp. The ramp is a flat concrete surface, with the museum in the far right corner and an integrated sculptural and architectural composition.

Concrete pavement, cast iron border

To the left of the main entrance on the ramp is a railway track sculpture.

 

No. 5

The Railway Track Sculpture

The Railway Track Sculpture



The Railway Track Sculpture

The Railway Track Sculpture

The sculpture is made of railway tracks and slag which has been built into the surface of the ramp. It symbolises the siding where the trains with the deported victims arrived at Belzec extermination camp as well as the stacks in which the bodies of the murdered were buried.

There is a fragment of a poem engraved into the wall near the sculpture reads "Here in this carload, I, Eve, with my son Abel. If you see my older boy, Cain, the son of man, tell him that I...'
(written in pencil in a sealed railway-car)

Written in pencil in a sealed railway car, is a poem about humanity.
 Dan Pagis’ short yet striking Hebrew poem.
 

 

The Stone Wall

At the end of Crevice Road is a T-junction made with the Stone Wall that runs at right angles. The height of the walls created by the monument creates an impressive and imposing area bordered by white stone. 

The stone wall is made of monumental white granite, with the surface covered with hand-made relief which has been incised, polished and burnished in several places.

The Stone Wall

The Stone Wall

No. 4

There is an engraved quotation from the Book of Job "Earth, do not cover my blood; let there be no resting place for my outcry.

 Opposite the stone wall there is 'Ohel Niche' to the left and the right. This is a type of Jewish tomb or chapel, in the shape of a cuboid, there is a list of victims names on its burnished concrete walls.

There is evidence of visitors to the memorial paying their resects to the victims

Evidence of visitors paying their respect to those who were
murdered at Belzec.

At the end of each side of the wall is a stone staircase totalling 78 stairs, which I climbed. The staircases led to the top edge of the Cemetery-burial grounds and the concrete pavement.

Photo taken from the top of the staircase to the right of the stone
wall leading to the concrete pavement.