The aim of
Aktion Reinhard, decided at the secret January 20, 1942,
Wansee conference of leading Nazis in Berlin, was to kill
2,284,000 Jews in Poland. Three extermination camps were
constructed - Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka. For security
reasons these had to be in isolated areas, remote from
population centers, but close to railway connections.
Bełżec was
constructed on the Lublin-Lvov railway, and began killing
operations in May 1942.
Sobibór, east
of Lublin, began at about the same time. Treblinka, 80
kilometers northeast of Warsaw, commenced its mass murder
program on July 23, 1942.
Bełżec, where
600,000 Jews were killed, was closed and dismantled in
December 1942. About 250,000 Jews perished at
Sobibór.
During an armed uprising of prisoners on October 14, 1943,
several guards were killed and 300 prisoners escaped.
Immediately after that the camp was closed, and by the end
of 1943, no trace of it remained. Some 870,000 Jews were
murdered at Treblinka, the largest number having come from
Warsaw and the Warsaw district. In an unsuccessful
prisoners' revolt on August 2, 1943, nearly all the
insurgents died, but the camp structures went up in flames.
The grounds were plowed under, trees were planted, and the
site was turned into a farm.
No mail was
allowed from the Aktion Reinhard camps. This 24-groszy
stamped envelope with added 32-groszy stamp was posted at
Sobibór
(undated three-line purple postmark) by a Nazi officer at
the nearby Ossawa air base (purple cachet on flap), and
canceled March 3, 1944, at Cholm, less than five months
after the prisoner revolt that brought the killings there to
an end. |