Treblinka, Masovian Voivodeship

Treblinka
Village
Treblinka extermination camp museum
Treblinka
Coordinates: 52°40′N 22°01′E / 52.667°N 22.017°E / 52.667; 22.017
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Masovian
County	Ostrów Mazowiecka
Gmina	Gmina Małkinia Górna
Population	330

Treblinka [trɛˈbliŋka] is a village located in eastern Poland with 350 inhabitants. It is now situated in the district of Gmina Malkinia Gorna, within Ostrów Mazowiecka County in Masovian Voivodeship, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) north-east of Warsaw. The village lies close to the Bug River.

Treblinka was the location of Treblinka extermination camp where an estimated 850,000 people were systematically murdered during the Holocaust in Poland. About 800,000 of them were Polish Jews. The first deportations took place in the course of the Grossaktion Warsaw with about 254,000 Warsaw Ghetto inmates brought in to their deaths in Holocaust trains in the summer of 1942. At the layover yard of Treblinka railway station the wagons waiting for "processing" were witnessed by Franciszek Ząbecki. During the early period of the camp's operation, thousands of dead bodies of victims left unburied had accumulated to such a point that the putrid odor of decaying human remains could be smelled for approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) in every direction. It was evident that mass extermination was taking place at the camp, which caused panic among the villagers.

The onset of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising inspired renewed hopes for an escape among the Treblinka Sonderkommandos. On 19 April 1943 one of the last Jewish transports of 7,000 victims along with the Warsaw insurgents were brought in for gassing. Soon later Treblinka became the first death camp ever to experience a prisoner uprising against the SS, which erupted on 2 August 1943 under the leadership of former Polish Army officer Dr. Berek Lajcher.