It's worth pointing out that Believers claim that Eberl's July 1942 letter discussing "Arbeitslager Treblinka" is not referring to the work camp next to the gravel pit, it's referring to "T-II."
And then a few months later these budget documents also pertain to construction for "Arbeitslager Treblinka."
So what exactly is supposed to be the truth here?
July 1942 letter written by Eberl: Arbeistlager Treblinka == Treblinka II "extermination camp"
October 1942 HSSPF Budget: Arbeitslager Treblinka == Treblinka I labor camp next to the gravel quarry
This doesn't make much sense to me that different camps would be referred to as the same name. It is possible that Eberl's letter is referring to T-I. Mattogno took this position in his response to the HolocaustControversies manifesto. Here is the HolocaustControversies position, from their manifesto:
“Indicative of MGK’s historical ignorance, in M&G’s work on Treblinka, Mattogno incorrectly connects this and other letters from Eberl during summer 1942 to Treblinka I, the labor camp, instead of the new Treblinka II, the extermination camp.” (Myers)
To which Mattogno responded:
As one can notice, Myers studiously avoids to reveal where and most importantly why we have connected the letter to Treblinka I:1973
“In the third of these documents, a letter of June 26, 1942, of Dr. Eberl to the Commissioner for the Jewish residential district of Auerswald on the subject ‘Work Camp Treblinka,’ it reads at the beginning: ‘For the construction of the labor camp Treblinka the following objects are urgently required […].’”
The German text of the document is as follows:1974
“Betrifft: Arbeitslager Treblinka.
Für den Ausbau des Arbeitslagers Treblinka werden noch folgende Gegenstände dringend benötigt:…”
“Subject: Labor camp Treblinka.
For the construction work at the Treblinka labor camp the following items are urgently needed: …”
Myers even carefully avoids indicating the source of Eberl’s letter of 11 July 1942. The reason is the same: to hide the fact that this document also speaks about the “Labor camp Treblinka [Arbeitslager Treblinka]”:1975
“Betrifft: Arbeitslager Treblinka.
Das Arbeitslager Treblinka wird am Sonnabend, den 11.7.1942, betriebsfertig sein.”
“Subject: Labor camp Treblinka.
The Treblinka labor camp will be operational on Sunday 11 July 1942.”
In addition to those mentioned above, there are two other letters concerning materials tied to Eberl: one of 19 June and Auerswald’s reply about the delivery of the requested materials, listed in an identical manner.1976 The significance of these documents will be brought to focus by Thomas Kues in his response to this chapter.
I would like to add that these two documents mention “50 m iron pipe: 1 inch, 3/4 inch, 1/2 inch [50 m Eisenrohr: 1 Zoll, 3/4 Zoll, 1/2 Zoll],” and then also “20 iron pipe T-joints [20 Eisenrohr-T-Stücke]” and “30 iron pipe elbow joints [30 Eisenrohr-Kniestücke]” of the same diameter. According to Shalayev’s witness testimony quoted by Myers,
in the “gas chambers” there was “a gas pipe of approximately 80 millimeter diameter.” (p. 296), which is to say approximately 8 cm, but 1 inch (Zoll) corresponds to 2.54 cm, therefore these pipes were not designated for the alleged “gas chambers,” if we take Shalayev seriously about this.
Basically, Eberl’s requests for the “Arbeitslager Treblinka” not only fail to present the slightest allusion in favor of the “extermination camp” thesis, but rather show clues to the contrary.
Kues took the position that Eberl's letter referred to "Treblinka II" due to the fact there was no evidence that T I was undergoing reconstruction or expansion during this period:
In the 7 July letter, as well as in another letter dated 26 June 1942 already mentioned by Mattogno (point 63 in this chapter), the requested items are specified as needed for the construction or expansion of the “Treblinka labor camp [Arbeitslager Treblinka].” Based on this designation alone one might assume that the camp referred to was the Treblinka I penal labor camp situated at the quarry some 2 km south of Treblinka II. What speaks against this is first the fact that the requests were sent by Irmfried Eberl, whose private correspondence documents his service as commandant of Treblinka II. Eberl may have had some form of jurisdiction also over Treblinka I, 2252 but no evidence exists that Treblinka I – which was established already in 1941 – was undergoing reconstruction or expansion during the period in question.
Since, additionally, Treblinka II was indeed under construction then, most points to the “Treblinka labor camp” and the “Treblinka camp” mentioned in the letters as being the same camp, namely Treblinka II. The fact that the term “labor camp” may have been misleadingly applied to Treblinka II in these two letters does not prove per se that Eberl, in alleged correspondence with other German authorities dealing the “Jewish question,” was attempting to cover up the existence of an extermination camp. There may have been other reasons behind the use of the term, such as a perceived need to camouflage the sensitive nature of a facility used for mass deportations, mass confiscation of personal belongings and possibly also euthanasia, as well as more mundane reasons, for example bureaucratic ones.
2252 “SS Sonderkommando Treblinka,” which is known from Eberl’s private correspondence to have been the designation of the SS unit at Treblinka II, is shown by documents to have been in charge of large-scale deliveries of gravel that was most likely mined at the nearby Treblinka I gravel pit, implying a close formal relationship between the camps; cf. C. Mattogno, J. Graf,Treblinka, op. cit., p. 115, 330-331
Kues's point about no known T-I expansion would now be now moot due to these documents pertaining to expansion at "Arbeitslager Treblinka" around this time. But his point about Eberl having administration authority over Treblinka I stands.
And that leads me to my own proposal that "Arbeitslager Treblinka" referred to the entire operation off of the Treblinka spur, including the quarry and the sorting camp. There was no formal transit camp and of course no formal extermination camp. The Operation Reinhardt camp at this location was a labor camp, as I have suggested in different threads and compared to the Trawniki labor camp. If what I am suggesting is true, then documents pertaining to the expansion of "Arbeitslager Treblinka" would pertain to the construction of facilities, also, in what we currently call "T-II".
