Reconstruction of Treblinka: Summary Overview

Figure 14 contains an overview of the camp. The gray, filled-in annotations represent all of the structures found as a result of analyzing the aerial imagery or through positioning buildings and fence lines visible on ground photos. Many features shown were included only after a complex study of numerous sources, including written accounts. Not all of the annotations have the weight of equal confidence. Some identified features are considered certain; others represent a considered estimate in positioning and orientation. In spite of this, the worst error for any building shown is less than 25 meters. The locations of the Ukrainian barracks are, for example, educated guesses. Only fragmentary views were visible in the background of a few snapshots. Most of the positions are deemed accurate to within one or two meters when either the structure could be roughly triangulated, or the aerial photography retained traces where the structures had stood. The following sections describe in detail how I arrived at all of the results. But the most cogent reason for confidence in the map is all the major structures: the gas chambers, the undressing, sorting, and Jewish worker barracks that were identified either through objective evidence gleaned from ground and aerial photography, or by following a convergence of evidence from the facts having the greatest assurance of accuracy, and finally studying the remaining alternatives. This procedure was particularly necessary in the case of the gas chambers, where pinpointing their location initially depended on finding traces of the tube, and then relating these to the access road which had to be east of the tube's mouth, and finally seeing how verbal accounts supported the clues extracted from the photographs.

The following sections describe the discovery process in detail. These are discussed in the order that they appear in the Index: the Living Camp, the Receiving Camp, and finally the Death Camp. The appendices contain more technical information or further detailed descriptions of procedures used.

Treblinka Reconstruction: The Living Camp

Treblinka Reconstruction: The Recieving Camp

Treblinka Reconstruction: The Death Camp

Appendix A - Identifying the Kurt Franz Camera

Appendix B - Dimensions of the Gas Chambers

Appendix C - Military Operations Near Treblinka, 1944

Appendix D - Ash Disposal and Burial Pits

Appendix E - Procedures for Image Enhancment and Restoration