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Treblinka: Reconstruction of the Living Camp (Continued)
Reconstruction Treblinka: The Living Camp - Continued
Having determined the location of the zoo, it also became possible to position - to varying degrees of accuracy - all of the surrounding buildings visible in the pictures showing the zoo. Some sites of other structures were identified from the aerial imagery alone. The function of the identified building sites was based on available accounts. For example, the SS barracks is shown on all maps of Treblinka as being situated between the rail siding and Kurt Seidel Street. Finding a building scar in this area on the aerial photography therefore permitted assigning this identity to the vanished building, as was done in Figure 19.
On the other hand, the objective truth of the aerial imagery clashes with many of the layouts in the same maps, because of the way the maps show building orientations and relative positions. They do not jibe with the way traces of many structures are shown in the aerial photos. As a result some sites, such as the one expressly noted as unidentified in Figure 19, remain moot. That structure may have functioned either as a textile store, as quarters for the Ukrainian and Polish women, or as something else not yet known. A further illustration of these difficulties is the case of Stangl's house. All maps show the Commandant's quarters as located on the east side of Kurt Seidel Street, next to the entrance. The building indicated as this feature is on the west side of the street and well back from the entrance. It is the only building in the camp with a pyramidal roof. This feature, in conjunction with its location, is the tip-off to its identity. The German elite's quarters could be expected to have been clustered together. The other groups such as the slave workers, the Ukrainians, and the Polish female contingent were segregated to the east of Seidel Street.
Jewish Workforce Barracks
The large barracks that housed the Jewish slave labor force was "U" shaped. It was fenced and situated to the south of the rest of the living camp, and north of the reception area. During the mass revolt in August of 1943, it was probably burned down. The May 1944 aerial photographs evince only subtle signs of the remains of this big building. In Figure 20,
annotations A and B refer to the outlines made by a slight darkening tone. In the middle image, the arrows point to marks that are probably scrape marks left after the removal of burnt debris. In Figure 21 a ground view shows the area after occupation by the Soviet Army. The picture was taken in late 1944 looking to the southwest. The debris that is visible is the personal possessions of the barracks prisoners. Small pine trees can be seen in the aerial photos at the bottom of the frames. The strewn about trash lay between the barracks - as annotated in Figure 20 - and the trees below them. In the middle distance, along the fence line and behind the right hand cluster of pines, is the gate through which the trains carried the convoys. Figure 22 shows another photograph taken at the same time. A portion of the ground occupied by the barracks is just to the right of the shed-roofed building. Of interest is the fencing still in place (arrows on the inset). The direction of the angled overhangs points in the direction that the fence was intended to secure, namely the barracks and the Appelplatz. Just on the other side of this fence line the mostly obscured service which led to the barracks road can be seen. This is sufficient information to permit a reconstruction of the fence line around the worker's compound. This fence, however, must have been erected after the Franz photographs of 1942-43, since it does not appear in the foreground of Figures 15 or 16.
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