Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience

The Nazis destroyed Treblinka at the end of 1943 after they’d murdered nearly all of the Polish Jews. Sereny visits the site in 1972, where the Polish government reconstructed the camp as a memorial. Sereny is accompanied by 65-year-old Franciszek Zabecki—a former operative for the Polish Resistance who, as the traffic superintendent of the Treblinka village railway station, recorded every transport of people into the camp. They are also accompanied by 60-year-old Berek Rojzman, a survivor who lost his whole family there.

Sereny includes a detailed map of the camp, which was split into four sections: the reception area, the death camp, the living camp (for the prisoners who worked sorting plundered possessions), and the SS and Ukrainian guard camp. Stangl’s quarters were as far as possible from the death camp and abutted, among other things, the zoo and the barbershop. In the death camp, the quarters of the Jews forced to work there were next to the burial pits and gas chambers.

When transports of Jews began arriving at Treblinka, some of the villagers began bringing water to the trains, especially when they learned babies were also being killed. The SS began shooting at those who did this.