Treblinka Camp Restructure

Treblinka Death Camp

The Removal of Dr Eberl and the Re-Organisation of the Camp – August 1942

Odilo Globocnik, the SS Police Leader for Lublin, and head of Aktion Reinhard appointed Christian Wirth, the first commandant of Belzec death camp, as Inspector of the Aktion Reinhard death camps at the beginning of August 1942.

Wirth set up his temporary headquarters in two rooms of the Julius Schreck Kaserne on Pierackiego Street in Lublin, which also served as the staff headquarters for Odilo Globocnik, and the headquarters of Aktion Reinhard, whose administrative chief was Herman Julius Hofle.

As his adjutant Wirth took Josef Oberhauser, from Belzec, who was also given responsibility for the control of Ukrainian guard units responsible for security at various workshops in Lublin.

Wirth carried out an initial inspection of Treblinka death camp on the 19 August 1942 have been described by Josef Oberhhauser who accompanied him on this visit:

“In Treblinka everything was in a state of collapse. The camp was overstocked. Outside the camp, a train with deportees was unable to be unloaded as there was simply no more room. 

Many corpses of Jews were lying Inside the camp, these corpses were already bloated. Particularly I can remember seeing many corpses in the vicinity of the fence. These people were shot from the guard towers.”

Christian Wirth and Josef Oberhauser went to Warsaw where they held a conference with Odilo Globocnik at the Bruhl Palace and two unidentified men in civilian clothes, who then travelled back with Globocnik, Wirth and Oberhauser to the death camp at Treblinka.

After inspecting the camp Globocnik decided that Dr Eberl should be relieved of his command and that Christian Wirth would remain in the camp to sort out the chaotic mess created by Dr Eberl.

Josef Oberhauser recalled:

“I heard them in Treblinka how Globocnik and Wirth summed up the following; Wirth would remain in Treblinka for the time being. Dr Eberl would be dismissed immediately. In his place Stangl would come to Treblinka from Sobibor as commander, Globocnik said in this conversation that if Dr Eberl were not his fellow countryman, he would arrest him and bring him before an SS and police court.

Globocnik said to the two civilians in uniform that all the transports from Warsaw to Treblinka had to be stopped. Wirth was ordered to enlarge the camp and to report when transports could be dealt with again. I then travelled back to Warsaw with Globocnik and the two gentlemen in civilian clothes. We were then in Warsaw for two or three days. I know that Eberl also showed up there about a day later.

I learned then in Warsaw that Dr Eberl would be sent back to Berlin, and everything would be further controlled from there by the Fuhrer Chancellery.”  

Franz Stangl in an interview with Gitta Sereny in 1971 his arrival in Treblinka, during late August 1942:\

Read more here: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/treblinka/camprestructure.html

The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team

www.HolocaustResearchProject.org

Carmelo Lisciotto Copyright 2008 H.E.A.R.T