Signs at Treblinka
Treblinka actually consisted of two camps.
The first was a labor camp built by the Nazis
in 1941, housing about 20,000 political prisoners, mostly Poles. (About half of the prisoners of Treblinka I died in the camp.)
In 1942, the Nazis added a second camp, the
now-infamous Treblinka Extermination Camp. Treblinka II was not an
Auschwitz-style "concentration camp," no prisoners lived here, they were
sent here only to die. Perhaps 800,000 Jews were murdered at Treblinka
in a little less than
a year and a half.
Map of Treblinka
The Nazis demolished the extermination
camp before they abandoned Treblinka
in late 1943 - although some remnants of
the labor camp still exist, nothing remains
of the extermination camp. This sign
includes a map that shows how
the camp was laid out.
It stands where the gas chambers of
the extermination camp once stood.
It is surrounded by a forest of stones,
symbolically representing each of the
communities and nations that lost Jews in
the camp. The memorial includes 17,000
stones, which represents the number of
people who were murdered each day
when the camp was in full "production."