View source for Soviet Treblinka Investigation 1944-SMERSH

In September and November 1944, the Soviet organization SMERSH ("Death to Spies") conducted interrogations of a number of alleged former guards of the Treblinka camps.

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= In the case of the arrested guards of the Treblinka camp – Kozlov, Shkarup-Poleschuk, Sirota, Rekalo, Rozhansky and Shevchenko =

Top secret

TO THE COMBAT COUNCIL OF THE 65TH ARMY

<u>DETAIL NOTE</u>

In the case of the arrested guards of the Treblinka camp KOZLOV, SHKARUPA-POLESHCHUK, SIROTA, REKALO, ROZHANSKY AND SHEVCHENKO.-

I inform you that during the investigation into the case of the guards of the Treblin camp, Kozlov, Rozhansky, and others, whom we arrested, it was established, according to the latter's statements, that the camp began its existence in the second half of 1941 and operated until the end of July 1944. The Germans used Polish tax evaders for its construction. Simultaneously with the construction of the camp, a railway line was built, along which trains loaded with people doomed to death were brought from the Małkinia station to the camp.

In July 1942, the Treblinka camp was divided into two branches: "work camp" No. 1, where highly skilled, able-bodied citizens were imprisoned, and Camp No. 2, the so-called "death camp" for people of all ages, who were exterminated in various ways upon arrival at the camp.

The first camp was located one and a half to two kilometers from the second, between which there was a telephone connection and a highway was built.

Camp No. 2, the so-called "death camp," occupied an area of more than three hectares and was surrounded by two rows, a wire fence intertwined with barbed wire and pine needles, and curtained with old blankets and various rags for camouflage, so that it would not be visible what was happening inside the camp.

Eleven buildings were built on the southern half of this camp: a "gas chamber," "changing rooms-barracks," a "hospital," and storage facilities. All of these areas were in turn isolated by a system of barbed wire fencing. The northern half of the camp was separated from the southern half by barbed wire with two gates. This area was filled with large pits, where the corpses were carried out from the "gas chamber."

This camp in Treblinka was built by the Germans specifically for the mass extermination of mainly the Jewish and Polish population.

Every day, trains with people arrived at this camp from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, France and other European countries, in quantities of up to 3-4 echelons per day, and all those delivered in these trains were people of both sexes and different ages, including the decrepit, the elderly and infants, thousands were exterminated daily by the Germans in gas chambers and brutally murdered in other ways.

People arriving at Camp No. 2 / "death camp"/ were pre-sorted before they were even admitted to this camp, and the most able-bodied people were sent to "work camp" No. 1 for their use in work.

In this "work camp," prisoners were deliberately starved, forced to work around the clock, systematically subjected to beatings, torture, and abuse, and then shot. The survivors, exhausted by hunger, backbreaking labor, and torture, were transferred from the "work camp" under heavy guard to Camp No. 2, the "death camp," for extermination in a "gas chamber."

Thus, the investigation has established that in the Treblinka camp / both of its branches / seven million Jews, Poles and Gypsies brought here by the Germans from various European countries they occupied were exterminated in various ways.

The watchmen we brought in for this crime, KOZLOV, ROZHANSKY and others, took an active part in these atrocities.

Additionally, a guard of Treblinka Camp No. 2, the “death camp,” was identified and delivered to us.

<blockquote><u>SHEVCHENKO Ivan Semenovich</u>, born in 1921, injured in the village of Maidanovka, Zvenigorod district, Kyiv region, Ukrainian, citizen of the OOOR, former member of the peasant committee, education – 5th grade, single, no criminal record, former serviceman of the Red Army</blockquote>

who, while serving in the Red Army, was captured by the Germans in July 1941, after which in April 1942 he "expressed a desire and voluntarily entered the school for guards, after which he initially completed practical training in guard duty, and then from August 1942 to July 1943 served in the Treblinka death camp" as a guard.

The arrested SHEVCHENKO, interrogated in this case, testified:

<blockquote>...During the period of my service from August 1942 to July 17, 1943, in the Treblinka camp, I was an eyewitness and participant in the atrocities committed to the extermination of the civilian population, mainly of Jewish nationality. Three to four trains arrived at the camp daily, loaded with civilians of all ages, who were exterminated on the same day. Jewish families arriving daily at the camp with their property from Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, France and Bulgaria were transported under the guise of supposedly going to a collection point for subsequent shipment to Palestine. For the purposes of deception, the Germans posted signs and posters on the walls of the barracks located parallel to the railway line, where the trains arrived, with the inscriptions: "Palestine awaits you" and others. There was even a train schedule and a ticket office. This appearance continued until the trains were completely unloaded and the train went beyond the camp.

The trains carrying the population were unloaded in two or three batches of 17-20 cars each. This was done because the camp grounds could not accommodate more cars for unloading, and the number of people brought in these batches corresponded precisely to both the "carrying capacity" of the gas chambers and the simultaneous extermination of the people in them.

As soon as the gas chamber was emptied of the first batch of murdered people, a second batch arrived, and then a third. This happened daily for a year.

The convoy arriving at the camp was cordoned off from the rear by guards so that none of the people arriving at the camp could escape or get through the barbed wire fence.

A "work team," led by a "captain," consisting of 20-25 Jews, would approach the train, one by one, open the doors, and direct those arriving with their belongings to the buildings and "dressing rooms." The "work team" loaded sick and weakened elderly people who were unable to move independently and carried them on stretchers to the "changing room" buildings...</blockquote>

Continuing his testimony, the accused SHEVCHENKO said:

<blockquote>...After the cars were completely unloaded and the train departed, the prisoners condemned to death were told to leave their belongings and enter the barracks, where they were to undress and prepare for the 'bathhouse.' From that moment on, the prisoners were convinced of their destination and the purpose for which they had been brought. A horrific scene began, the heart-rending screams of those condemned to death, especially women and children, which continued with increasing force until the moment of their death. But despite everything, the 'work crew,' guards, and Germans herded the people into the 'dressing rooms,' brutally beating them with whips, buttocks, and sticks. The men were sent from here to the 'dressing room,' while the women and children were sent to another 'dressing room' barrack.

In the "changing rooms" everyone, without exception, including infants, undressed completely.

In the barracks where the women undressed, there was a passageway where everyone's hair was cut off and piled before being sent to the gas chamber. In the barracks—the "changing rooms"—the "kada" (cabinet) declared that valuables—watches, gold, and money—were to be deposited at the cash register, which was located along the route to the "bathhouse" and the "gas chamber." That is why many of those heading to the gas chamber did not yet fully believe that they were being taken to destruction; they took with them tenge, chairs, gold, rings and other valuables and handed them over to the cashier.

The Germans, guards, and the "work crew" first stripped the men, then the women and children, and drove them into the gas chambers, up to 200 people in each, where they were killed by gassing...</blockquote>

On the issue of killing people in the "gas chamber" and the arrangement of the death chambers, the unindicted SHEVCHENKO testified:

<blockquote>...From July 1942 to March 1943, the gas chamber was in a small stone building, consisting of three gas chambers, which, due to the daily arrival of a large number of people of Jewish nationality in the camp, did not ensure their extermination. Therefore, over the course of several days in March 1943, a large "gas chamber" was built, consisting of nine chambers, the "throughput" of which ensured the destruction of the population entering the camp.

The tenth chamber housed a high-power motor, which released exhaust gas into the chamber. The chambers were located on either side of a corridor that ran down the center of the building and was two meters wide. Each chamber had iron entrance doors from the corridor, which were hermetically sealed, then locked with three iron latches and covered with curtains. The five gas chambers, located on the north side of the building, had iron exit doors through which the corpses were thrown into pits located 10-20 meters away. Each gas chamber was up to 5 meters long and 4-4.5 meters wide.

The floor and ceiling were cement, and the walls were lined with ceramic tiles. The last chamber, the tenth, housed a gasoline or naphtha-powered engine, the exhaust pipe of which was inserted into the ceiling, from which small-diameter pipes with a tip, supposedly for a shower, extended into the chambers. At first glance, this building was difficult to distinguish from a very ordinary bathhouse.

As soon as all nine chambers were filled to capacity with people, the doors were hermetically sealed one by one on the orders of Unterscharführer FUCHS. The motorman of the gas chamber, Vaktman Ivan MARCHENKO, started the engine, from which exhaust gas flowed through specially installed pipes into the chambers, and within 15-20 minutes, the people inside died, the "work crew" carried the bodies to the pits. Those who did not have time to die in the gas chamber were killed by the Germans and guards with rifle and pistol shots at the pits.</blockquote>

Speaking about the so-called "lazaret" SHEVCHENKO testified:

<blockquote>...People who were unable to move independently in the gas chambers were not placed, but usually remained near the barracks until everyone was driven into the chambers of the gas chambers, and then they were carried naked on stretchers to the so-called "infirmary", where there was a Jew in the guise of a doctor, who supposedly "examined" and from there directed them to the pits, where the Germans and guards shot them. In this way, all people who entered the territory were destroyed-foxes...</blockquote>

In terms of the destruction of people from the "workers' command" SHEVCHENKO testified:

<blockquote>...The Germans selected the "work team" from among the men arriving at the camp for extermination, the physically weak, and renewed it daily, with the goal of avoiding an uprising.

Usually, a person stayed in the team for several days, sometimes up to a month, and then they were destroyed in the same “murder chamber”.</blockquote>

The investigation failed to establish that, until the spring of 1943, the bodies of those killed in the "extinguisher van" were buried in large pits and covered with earth. In order to conceal traces of the criminal atrocities from the world public, by order of the German command, in the spring of 1943, the camp administration began excavating the graves, removing the bodies, and burning them.

The interrogated SHEVCHENKO testified regarding the destruction of corpses:

<blockquote>...until the spring of 1943, the bodies of those killed in the "gas van" and those shot were buried in large pits and covered with earth. Then, by order of the German command, two excavators were used daily in the camp, removing decomposed bodies from the pits. A "work crew" carried these bodies onto specially laid rails on bricks, doused them with flammable liquid, and burned them. At the same time, the bodies from the "gas van" were carried out and burned on bonfires.

Almost daily, day and night, five or six such large fires burned in the camp, burning tens of thousands of human corpses. The stench of burning corpses spread for several kilometers around, making it impossible to breathe day or night.

The "work team" passed the ashes of the burned corpses through specially made sieves. The ashes were then dumped into pits cleared of corpses and mixed with sand. After the bodies were destroyed, the ash pits were leveled, and later that same year, 1943, the area was sown with grain. In this way, the Germans covered up the traces of their heinous crimes of exterminating the civilian populations of occupied European countries...</blockquote>

SHEVCHENKO testified about his participation in the atrocities carried out to exterminate the population in the Treblinka camp:

<blockquote>...During my service at the Treblinka death camp, I, along with the guards and Germans, participated in the extermination of the population. Along with the guards and the "work squad," I drove people into the changing rooms and "gas chambers," and systematically beat those who did not want to go there with the butt of a rifle. Two or three times a month, or more, I was present at the unloading of corpses from the chambers into the pits and onto the fires, where I personally finished off with a rifle shot those people who did not have time to die in the "gas chamber." I cannot say exactly how many people I personally shot, since I do not remember. During my service, I shot approximately 50 people...</blockquote>

The testimony of the arrested SHEVCHENKO is confirmed by witnesses KATZ, PUKHOV, KORTH and others, as well as by the accused, brought in on this body.

In addition to extermination in the "death camp," the Germans and guards shot and massacred people in the so-called "work camp." Every day, they employed ever newer methods of humiliation and torture: throwing people off cliffs, covering them with sand, beating them with sticks, and so on.

KOZLOV, who was asked to be accused, told about the extermination of people and his participation in these atrocities and testified:

<blockquote>...During my service in Treblin "work camp" No. 1 from March 1943 until the end of July 1944, in the position of a guard, I took part in the mass extermination of prisoners, beat them and shot them.

In June 1943, while driving prisoners out of the barracks to work, I beat them with a stick, and when one of the prisoners went to the well to wash his hands, I walked up to him, hit him on the head several times with a stick and killed him.

At the end of July 1943, during a prisoner escape from a camp, I raised the alarm and, along with the Germans, pursued the escapees, shooting them with a rifle. I personally killed one person, and several others were killed by the Germans.

In the last days of March 1944, I, along with a group of guards and several Germans, on the orders of Unterparführer SHTUMPE, led more than 50 Jewish prisoners from the barracks to the camp courtyard, beat them with sticks and rifle butts, and then stabbed them all to death with bayonets.

On the second day, I was part of the same group of guards. We led a group of more than 50 prisoners out of the barracks and shot them all.

In April 1944, on orders from Unterierführer STUMPE, I took two sick Jewish prisoners from the camp into the forest and shot them there. Furthermore, in July 1944, I took part in the mass execution of 575 Jewish, Polish, and Roma prisoners, who were shot on the same day by the Nazis and the Nazis.

Guards POLESHCHUK, REKALO and others took part in these executions...</blockquote>

The accused ROZHANSKY, who was interrogated in this entire case, testified:

<blockquote>In Treblin, the so-called 'work camp' No. 1, Jewish, Polish, and Roma prisoners were systematically exterminated in various ways, and I took an active part in their extermination. The Germans and guards carried out mass executions, during which they shot 50-100 or more people. In addition to the executions, the guards and Germans beat prisoners with sticks, threw them from six-meter towers, buried them in sand, drowned them in barrels, and killed them with specially bandaged mallets for entertainment."

In addition, dozens of prisoners died daily from hunger and the unbearable weight of the corpse. In July 1943, during my service in the camp, the camp commandant, Hauptsturmführer VON EUPPEN, with Unterscharführers LIANG, GAGEN and other Germans and group watchmen, having gotten drunk, went into a barracks, took 5 Jews from there to a tower and, having fun, threw them out of a window to the ground, after which they finished them off with pistols and went back to drinking.

In the summer of 1943, while prisoners were working loading sand into train cars-, the guard of our group SVDERSKIY and the guard of OLMANNIKOV buried a Jew alive in the sand for fun, where he lay for 15-20 minutes and died.

In July 1944, by order of the camp commandant, the Nazis and Germans, including KOZLOV, POLETSUK and I and others, shot more than 500 Polish, Jewish and Gypsy prisoners in one day...</blockquote>

Obernakhtman REKALO, Nektman SHKARUPA-POLESHCHUK and SIROTA, interrogated as defendants in this case, gave similar testimony and spoke about their participation in these atrocities.

Furthermore, the meeting established that a camp similar to the Treblinka camp existed in Krakow. Regarding the nature of this camp, the defendant in this case, Rozhansky, who served there as a guard from January to April 1943, testified:

<blockquote>...After finishing the guard school, I was sent to serve in the Krakow camp, located in a large Jewish cemetery, which held more than two thousand Jewish prisoners who were used for various types of work and starved.

In the camp, the Germans and the guards systematically shot prisoners, one by one and in groups, and new groups of Jews from various German-occupied countries arrived in their place.

In February 1943, on the orders of the camp commandant, a group of guards, including myself, selected more than 200 prisoners from the general population, stole their gold and valuables, and then shot them all. I personally shot seven people on this occasion. The mass extermination of prisoners in the Krakow camp was systematic and almost daily...</blockquote>

The investigation into the case continues in the direction of uncovering all criminal activities of the accused and identifying their participants.

The participants in these crimes that we have identified are wanted.

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COUNTER AZ EDKI "SMERI" 65 ARMY

COLONEL

"17" September 1944/TRAPEZNAKOV/

No. 4/6451

= On the arrest of Guard of the Treblinka Death Camp – Leleko Pavel Vladimirovich =

TOP SECRET

TO THE CHIEF OF THE SMERSH COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT OF THE 2ND BELARUSIAN FRONT-GENERAL-LIEUTENANT U-

<u>TO COMRADE YEDUNOV.</u>

<u>SPECIAL MESSAGE</u>

about the arrest of the guard of the Treblin death camp – Pavel Vladimirovich LELEKO.

On November 17, 1944, the Army's SMERSH Counterintelligence Department detained a guard at the Treblin "death camp" /Poland/, a former Red Army soldier.-

<blockquote>LELEKO Pavel Vladimirovich, born in 1922, native of the village of Chaplinka, Chaplinsky district, Nikolaev region, Ukrainian, citizen of the USSR, non-party member, 7th grade education, single, according to his words, no criminal record,</blockquote>

who, fearing responsibility for the crime he had committed, hid in Poland under the name "VOZNIAK Kazimierz."

During the process of identifying himself, LELEKO was caught in criminal activity and arrested.

It was established through the accused that the Treblinka "death camp" was built by the Germans-by the Nazi invaders in the autumn of 1941 to exterminate the Jewish population of the occupied countries of Europe and operated until July 1944.

The "death camp" covered an area of up to 6 hectares and was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Anti-tank obstacles, entangled with barbed wire, were installed 100-150 meters from the barbed wire fence. A deep ditch and earthen embankment ran nearby around the "camp." All this made escape impossible.

A railway line ran from the Małkinia station to the "camp," along which trains of Jewish children, women, and elderly people arrived daily from various European countries. Those sent to Treblinka were given documents stating that they were going to work in Ukraine or resettling as beggars in Palestine.

On the "camp" grounds, trains were unloaded near two barrack-type buildings. While unloading, they were surrounded by a heavy guard. A clock and train schedule to Tarnopol and other stations were painted on the "station" building. After unloading, the train passengers were sorted into two or three groups: the elderly, the sick, and the exhausted. A "work team" of condemned prisoners led them to the so-called "hospital," where they were undressed and then executed by the Germans and guards.

Men and women capable of working were led in groups to the “changing room”, from where they were supposedly heading to the bathhouse and along the way they “handed over their belongings, clothes and valuables”.

During the "sanitary treatment" the women had their hair removed, which was then packed into bags and sent to Germany.

The naked ones were driven in groups along a path surrounded by barbed wire fencing to the "bathhouse", while the Germans and guards beat them with whips and rifle butts.

"Banya" was a brick building containing eight gas chambers. When the chambers were full, a motor would turn on, and after 15-20 minutes, people would be poisoned by exhaust gas.

The bodies of the "work crew" were carried out and piled into pits, then burned. Those who didn't die from the gas were shot by the Germans and guards. Special furnaces were built for burning the bodies, consisting of racks of rails fixed to a cement foundation. Thousands of bodies were burned in a single batch over the course of four to five hours.

Thus, in the Treblinka "death camp" up to five million Jews, brought there by the Germans from France, Belgium, Holland and other European countries they occupied, were exterminated in various ways.

The investigation established that LELEKO, whom we arrested, surrendered to the enemy while serving on the front lines of the Great Patriotic War in May 1942 during a battle near Kerch. He was subsequently held in the Rivne prisoner-of-war camp, where in August 1942 he voluntarily enrolled in a guard school located in Trawniki, Poland. After graduating in September 1942, he was sent to the Treblinka "death camp" as a guard, working there until August 1942.

During interrogation, LELEKO testified about the mass extermination of the population imprisoned in the camp:

<blockquote>...During the 11 months of my service in the "death camp," more than two million of the Jewish population were exterminated. Women and men capable of working were killed in "gas chambers," and those who were sick or weakened were passed through the so-called "hospital," led to pits, shot, and burned...</blockquote>

LELEKO testified about his participation in the atrocities committed by the Germans in the Treblinka "death camp":

<blockquote>...During my service in the Treblinka “death camp”, I, together with the Germans and guards, took part in the extermination of the population.

I personally participated in the executions of prisoners in the "camp" ten times. Twice in the autumn of 1942, at night, I was part of the cordon around the "work brigade" that the Germans and other guards were executing. Six times in the winter of 1942-43, I participated in the executions of the sick and elderly who had been through what was called the "hospital." During these six times, I personally executed 25-30 people...</blockquote>

We continue the investigation into the case.

Head of the Counterintelligence Department "SMERSH"

65th Army – Guards Colonel-/s. Los/

22 November 1944

No. 8186/SO

2ex.gam.

= Sources =

Ausen, S.L. ''Special message No. 8186/SO chief of the Smersh ROC of the 65th Army of Colonel S.L. Ausen to the head of the UKR “Smersh” of the 2-nd Belarusian Front, Lieutenant-General Y.A. Edunov “On the arrest of Wachmann of the Treblin Death Camp - Leleko Pavel Vladimirovich.”'' No. 8186/SO. SMERSH, 1944. FSB of Russia in the Omsk region. [http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/history/archival_material/Treblinka.htm http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/history/archival_material/Treblinka.htm].

Trapeznikova, N.G. ''Special note No. 4/6451 of the head of the ROC “Smersh” of the 65th Army of Colonel N.G. Trapeznikova to the Military Council of the 65th Army “In the case of the arrested wakhmans of the Treblin camp - Kozlov, Shkarup-Poleschuk, Sirota, Rekalo, Rozhansky and Shevchenko.”'' No. 4/6451. SMERSH, 1944. FSB of Russia in the Omsk region. [http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/history/archival_material/Treblinka.htm http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/history/archival_material/Treblinka.htm].

= See also =

*[[Soviet_Treblinka_Investigation_1944-August|August 1944, 65th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front]]
*[[Soviet_Treblinka_Investigation_1944-September|September 1944, Soviet-Polish Commission]]
*[[Soviet_Treblinka_Investigation_1944-ChGK|October/December 1944, Extaordinary State Commission (ChGK)]]