Nov 1942 Treblinka Report, Ringelblum (the "Steam Chamber" report)

[Wetzelrad]

"Death House" or "House of Death No. 2" strikes me as a very particular phrasing. You only see it in these old underground reports. Anything using that phrase probably stemmed from the same source, yeah? Possibly a clue to determine authorship.

Authorship or derivation/spread of the information. It would at least indicate the Polish Workers Party writer for Glos Warszawy read the Oyneg Shabes November report and used the term. Or they both utilzed an original source that contains the "house of death no. n" phrase.

Here is a list of instances of that phrase. Obviously the instances from 1943 were mere news reports of the Oyneg Shabes report, but the earlier instances may be worth exploring further.

1942 September 20 - Oif der Vach - "house of murder"
1942 September 27 - Abraham Lewin diary entry on Jakub Rabinowicz - "dom śmierci"
1942 November 15 - Oyneg Shabes report - "death-house No. 1"
1942 December - Głos Warszawy article - "dom śmierci nr 1"
1943 April 21 - Pravda - "dom smerti"
1943 August 8 - The New York Times - "Treblinka Death House"
1944 - Jankiel Wiernik - "house of death"
1945 - Vassili Grossmann - "house of death"

In one sense, the Oyneg Shabes report could be read as a sequel to the earlier Oif der Vach article. Both claimed an execution time of "fifteen minutes". Oif der Vach claimed the floor of the bathhouse opened up and "the people fell into a machine" which either gassed or electrified them. It described this as "a house of murder" and gave it a capacity of 200. Then two months later the Oyneg Shabes report acknowledged there was a "much smaller" "death house" but put more focus on "The new death-house" with its improved capacity of 8-10,000. This looks like narrative evolution, with the authors loosely condoning previous atrocity stories while simultaneously and immensely escalating the scale of the atrocity to put more pressure on the Germans. However, these two documents differ on some other details. It would be helpful if the original article could be found.

The Lewin diary entry also described the place as a "house of death", and its method as "steam". However, it lacks detail and differs on the time required for execution. One can easily imagine that Rabinowicz invented this turn of phrase and someone in the Oyneg Shabes club took it from him at this time.

That Wiernik also copied this phrase adds, however slightly, to the body of evidence that he plagiarized his story.

[Hektor]

"Death House" or "House of Death No. 2" strikes me as a very particular phrasing. You only see it in these old underground reports. Anything using that phrase probably stemmed from the same source, yeah? Possibly a clue to determine authorship.

Authorship or derivation/spread of the information. It would at least indicate the Polish Workers Party writer for Glos Warszawy read the Oyneg Shabes November report and used the term. Or they both utilzed an original source that contains the "house of death no. n" phrase.

Here is a list of instances of that phrase. Obviously the instances from 1943 were mere news reports of the Oyneg Shabes report, but the earlier instances may be worth exploring further.

1942 September 20 - Oif der Vach - "house of murder"
1942 September 27 - Abraham Lewin diary entry on Jakub Rabinowicz - "dom śmierci"
1942 November 15 - Oyneg Shabes report - "death-house No. 1"
1942 December - Głos Warszawy article - "dom śmierci nr 1"
1943 April 21 - Pravda - "dom smerti"
1943 August 8 - The New York Times - "Treblinka Death House"
1944 - Jankiel Wiernik - "house of death"
1945 - Vassili Grossmann - "house of death"

In one sense, the Oyneg Shabes report could be read as a sequel to the earlier Oif der Vach article. Both claimed an execution time of "fifteen minutes". Oif der Vach claimed the floor of the bathhouse opened up and "the people fell into a machine" which either gassed or electrified them. It described this as "a house of murder" and gave it a capacity of 200. Then two months later the Oyneg Shabes report acknowledged there was a "much smaller" "death house" but put more focus on "The new death-house" with its improved capacity of 8-10,000. This looks like narrative evolution, with the authors loosely condoning previous atrocity stories while simultaneously and immensely escalating the scale of the atrocity to put more pressure on the Germans. However, these two documents differ on some other details. It would be helpful if the original article could be found.

The Lewin diary entry also described the place as a "house of death", and its method as "steam". However, it lacks detail and differs on the time required for execution. One can easily imagine that Rabinowicz invented this turn of phrase and someone in the Oyneg Shabes club took it from him at this time.

That Wiernik also copied this phrase adds, however slightly, to the body of evidence that he plagiarized his story.

'Oif der Vach ' would translate to 'on guard'. It's similar to High German "Auf der Wache", which is more a reference to a police station.

As the article and texts are a product of a propaganda campaign that actually lacked primary or direct evidences I'd expect a lot of this plagiarized from each other, which was however further embellished by the authors.

[pilgrimofdark]

Here's the Lewin diary entry from September 27. He also mentions Treblinka and Rabinowicz on September 25.

Spoiler

These pages come from Volume 8 of the Ringelblum Archive in English, Diaries from the Warsaw Ghetto. Used to be open access on the JHI's website before their data migration.

From the plain reading of the diary entry, Lewin didn't hear about "bath house -- death house" from Treblinka survivor Jakub Rabinowicz, but from his relative.

So "for hours on end," Lewin and the Wassers listened to atrocity rumors via hearsay. Wasser was one of the three who wrote the "Liquidation of Jewish Warsaw" November report.

---

This is the testimony from (maybe) Jakub Rabinowicz (?), from Volume 5 of the Ringelblum Archive in English.

Spoiler

Rabinowicz mentions no means of killing. During Soviet air raids, the Diesel engines powering the camp lights were turned off.

The English translation has "slaughter house," not "death house," but I'm not sure about the original Polish. It's undated, assumed to be "September 1942."

---

Emanuel Ringelblum reported hearing news about Treblinka gravediggers via Rabinowicz. This is in the paragraph where Ringeblum writes "The method of killing: gas, steam, electricity." It seems to be dated October 29 or later in Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto.

(A copy is easily findable online from the usual suspects.)

---

There's some back-and-forth between Mattogno and Terry in TECOAR regarding Rabinowicz that's mildly interesting. It looks like Terry believed Rabinowicz refers to "gas chambers" somewhere.

In Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. Holocaust Denial and Operation Reinhard. A Critique of the Falsehoods of Mattogno, Graf and Kues (hereafter referred to as BSTHDAORACOTFOMGAK), Terry expresses mild confusion that Wasser referenced steam chambers in the November report. I think we've solved that mystery: he got it from hearsay passed around by Rabinowicz's relative who regaled his audience "for hours on end" with tales of the steam chamber, and Wasser repeated it to Ringelblum and Gutkowski.

Being easily duped by third-hand hearsay because they lacked relevant training and expertise to differentiate an eyewitness from that eyewitness's relative, two doctors of history and an accountant decided it was reliable enough to print for international distribution in the November report.

Apparently, by no later than September 27, 1942, Treblinka bath-steam-death rumors were being spread via hearsay to the upper reaches of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish Underground.

[Wetzelrad]

Being easily duped by third-hand hearsay because they lacked relevant training and expertise to differentiate an eyewitness from that eyewitness's relative, two doctors of history and an accountant decided it was reliable enough to print for international distribution in the November report.

Thank you for working out to my satisfaction how this narrative was fabricated.

[pilgrimofdark]

"The Jews feared the Germans more than they feared death." This could be a generic saying/sentiment.

However...

Abraham Lewin (Oyneg Shabes member): "For hours on end, he recounted the horrors of Tr. His central observation: it has nearly reached the point that the Jews are more afraid of a German than of death."

- September 25, 1943. Diary entry reporting hearsay about Treblinka from Jakub Rabinowicz's relative (likely cousin Shie Rabinowicz who was a member of Oyneg Shabes (page scan above). JHI translation, p. 200 (Volume 8).

November report (written by Oyneg Shabes members Ringelblum, Wasser, Gutkowski): "Throughout the whole second stage of the Aktion the Germans gave nobody any time to rest or think. The blows were dealt one after another. Consequently, the Jews' fear of the Germans grew greater than their fear of death."

- November 15, 1942. JHI translation, p. 382 (Volume 3).

Rachel Auerbach (Oyneg Shabes member) recording Jakub (Abraham) Krzepicki: "Someone said very correctly that the Jews were more afraid of the Germans than they were of death. They ran right into the arms of the Angel of Death just so they did not have to look into the faces of any more Germans."

- January-March 1943. Auerbach's Yiddish version of Krzepicki. JHI translation, p. 216 (Volume 5); Donat translation, p. 112.

Auerbach reports Krzepicki reports that "someone" said this. Could be someone at the camp, but it's just an interjection into the middle of the narrative -- so could have come from someone in Warsaw. It could also be something Auerbach just added based on conversations she'd had with other OS members.

[pilgrimofdark]

Hejnoch Brenner also mentions a "death house" (Дом смерти) in an August 17, 1944 Soviet interrogation.

The Germans took beautiful Jewish women and lived with them. In the camp was the sister of psychiatrist Professor Sigmund Freud, who was living in America. She showed the Germans documents proving she was the famous psychiatrist's sister. The Germans received her "hospitably." They offered her a bathhouse and some rest, no work. They showed her the way to the death house. She went and was killed. Afterward, the Germans laughed and boasted to us: "The sister of the famous Sigmund Freud has also been killed."

- Link

Since the 1944 investigations are a "Wiernik book club" to a large degree, it's not surprising someone latched onto the phrase.

It would be interesting to see the Oif der Vach Yiddish original. Yad Vashem has a copy, but not digitized. They reference the Jewish Historical Institute, but that is also down for a data migration.

A Ringelblum Archive catalog states that the RA had two issues of Oif der Vach, #2 and #3, both from December 1942. So, presumably, #1 was printed in September.

[pilgrimofdark]

The USHMM has a PDF of the Oyf der Vakh article on this page, and their translation is "murder house."

פון דער „באַד“ קערט זיך קיינער נישט צוריק, און עס גייען אהין כסדר נייע טראנספארטן. די „באַד“ איז פאקטיש אַ מאָרד־הויז.

“No one returns from the ‘bath,’ and new transports constantly go there. The ‘bath’ is actually a murder-house.” - AI translation

Of the Treblinka witnesses in the Ringelblum Archive, the majority of them were involved in the Jewish Warsaw ghetto underground.

• David Nowodworski - commander of a Jewish Combat Organization unit in the ghetto uprising
• Jakub Krzepicki - died fighting in the ghetto uprising
• Jakub Rabinowicz - related to Shie Rabinowicz of the Oyneg Shabes group
• "unidentified Częstochowa resident" - unknown

[Wetzelrad]

"מאָרד־הויז" is read as "mord-hoyz". Pretty close to "Mörderhaus". To get from there to "Dom śmierci" you have to substitute "death" for "murder" and swap the order, so it becomes like "house-of death". I think translating it into Polish automatically entails this swap in word order.

Easy enough to do. Whether or not that is what actually happened is beyond me.