Trip to Treblinka

Submitted by Steven Becton and Leora Schaefer

Pictures added soon

Steven: On the bus to Treblinka I was anxious. I wanted to rest a bit as I had not slept well most of the trip. But we viewed this powerful film full of images of Warsaw before and during the Nazi occupation.  Now I am not just anxious any more I am deeply troubled. I am troubled by the unknown.  Not unknown about what I would see but not knowing how I would feel in that sacred space.  It will be my first time in any concentration, correction, death camp, correction murder camp.  After the film I now have a greater sense of the enormity of the loss, not just the loss of life but total loss. Loss of the very essence of being a person,of being a Jew.  

We are about an hour away. Stay tuned.

Leora: On the bus to Treblinka I sat quietly, and anxiously.  When I first began working at Facing History, Marc Skvirsky recommended that I read Into the Darkness, which is essentially the transcribed interview which took place between Gita Sereny a reporter and Franz Stagle, the commandant of Treblinka while he was in prison.  This book had a significant impact on me, it made me contemplate the way that Stangl appeared to be able to do what he did, making it seem so easy for him to simply ignore the humanity in his victims.  We read a section of this text from a Commandant’s View, a reading from Holocaust and Human Behavior,   https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/readings/commandants-view while driving to the camp.  Hearing Stangl's horrifying words read out loud was very powerful. I had read this book, and had seen pictures of the memorial at Treblinka, and yet could not begin to imagine what the experience of being at Treblinka would be like.  

Steven: When I stepped off the bus, I really did not expect this. The trees, the greenery, the birds chirping, the air was crisp and fresh.  If I did not know what happened here I could have enjoyed just being out in nature taking in all that it has to offer. But I resist any notion that anything about this place can be gratifying. I started to think about how the Nazi would try and disguise these camps as nice places to live and work.  I imagine that the beauty of the surroundings contributed to this sinister misconception.  People see what they want to see. This place can fool you if you don't know what happened or what was happening beyond the hedges. Unfortunately the victims did not know. They could not have known. Who expects to be gassed at a train station.

Leora: When I stepped off the bus, I was immediately taken aback by the smell of nature, the air had that beautiful smell of hikes in the woods, and camping with my family.  The trees in the woods that surround the area that was once the death camp, must have been filled with a huge number of birds, as the songs that they were singing were louder than I have ever heard. Unfairly I wanted these signs of life and of nature to stop.  My irrational and purely emotional reaction was that beauty should not be permitted to exist in this place.  

Steven:  When I first saw the model of the camp I was amazed at the thought that went into it.  There had to be a model as all physical evidence of Treblinka was destroyed by the Nazis.  The train would pull up to a station that looked like any other train station, the sign, the train schedule, the train station hurrying "passenger" off and "helping" with their luggage.  It was all a part of the deception. No one knew that the next three hours will be the final three hours. 

Leora: When I first saw the model, from where I stood I focused in on what appeared to be two long tables with red embers that burned the entire length of each of the tables.  Given that this is a miniature model, at first it was not entirely clear what lay on top of each table.  I could for the time being not think about what deep down I already knew. Our guide walked us through the mechanism of murder at the camp, from the moment when the prisoners arrived, through the selection in which women and children and men and boys were separated, to the gas chambers and finally to what I would learn was called the grill.  The tables that first caught my eye, were the final locations where people were burned, and then the ashes were finally placed into large pits.  This whole process from arrival until the horrific and unimaginable end took 3 hours. 

Steve: As I entered the actual memorial I did sense that I was on sacred ground. The memorial is made up of thousands of huge rocks that represented the many countries from which the murdered came. It worked. The stones filled the space and where in stark contrast to the surrounding greenery. I felt the pain and suffering of this place. I wanted to hate the perpetrators but I was thinking more about the victims and wanting to comfort my colleagues, especially the Jewish ones. Then something beautiful happened. We prayed and there was an impromptu song (Psalm 23) seemingly fitting from the youngest voice among us. It was so beautiful.  I now feel the presence of God, a paradox I wished for everyone.

Leora: As I entered the actual memorial the vastness was the first thing that I noticed.  Walking through on my own in silence, I could not help but think of what my own fate would have been if I transplanted myself to Warsaw 1942; a Jewish mother with 2 young children.  It was all too difficult and painful to contemplate, and so for a moment I allowed myself to escape by focusing on the sounds of the birds and the smells of the woods that I had found so infuriating when I first arrived.