Treblinka Death Camp

Treblinka, more specific Treblinka II, is the second-biggest death camp, after Birkenau, where German and Austrian Nazis murdered more than 800 000 Polish Jews with dozens of thousands more Poles in forced labour camp nearby. In the camp, located 1,5-hour drive from Warsaw, we can’t see barracks nor crematoriums. It’s not here now, and wasn’t before. Jews from Warsaw Ghetto were brought there in unhuman condition by trains and were herded from railway ramp straight to gas chambers. 40 minutes later, victims’ bodies were buried in giant mass graves. Everything in just one and a half year.
Death camp in Treblinka is different from any other similar places. A thick forest surrounding the area creates an almost mystical atmosphere. The beauty of the nature along with an awareness of a big tragedy that happened here to so many innocent people evoke deep emotions. The most captivating is silence. Silence and peace. Only murmuring trees seem to whisper something to each other in almost forgotten Yiddish language. A walk between seventeen thousand boulders spread around execution zone helps to realize something startling – human cruelty in our history has no limits.