Franciszek Zabecki, Dispatcher of Treblinka Station

[pilgrimofdark]

If there were massive burnings of corpses at this place, this spy would have taken many many pics to prove the fallacious claim.

He didn't even take the one picture. His statement attributes it to Zygmunt Wierzbowski, who wasn't in any Home Army unit in the Treblinka region. And Zabecki could have taken photos -- he mentions creeping around T-II quite a bit, and complains about the large number of other Polish spies in the area also conducting recon.

Was going to post this in the T-II evidence thread, but that's already so derailed...

Zabecki, like Abram Goldfarb, is another person who grafts himself onto the Wiernik Writing Committee's A Year in Treblinka narrative, but who is never mentioned in the book.

In his memoirs, Zabecki claimed he had met Jankiel Wiernik, and he (Zabecki) inspired the Jews in the camp to organize. No one takes Zabecki seriously about this meeting, and Wiernik does not mention Zabecki in A Year in Treblinka.

In a typescript description of his experiences dated 1967 titled Plan of the Treblinka Extermination Camp, Zabecki wrote this:

I wanted to reach an understanding with the Jewish staff so that they, too, could organize themselves within the camp and, on a designated day and time, contribute to the collective destruction of the camp. Whether it was a result of conversations between them, or perhaps of arrangements, one day a Jew from a group of Jews, to whom I had told in confidence about the possibility of carrying out a robbery, surreptitiously approached me for cigarettes. He promised that together with other trusted people in the camp, they would organize something. The Jew even gave his surname as Wiernik – but was it real? – I don't know. I once knew a Jewish cartwright in Kosów Ruski named Wiernik – but he wasn't the one. ... At the next meeting, the renewed assurance of the possibility of external assistance was intended to give the Jews encouragement and an incentive to organize resistance among the people from the work group. As it turned out, during a short and quick conversation with Wiernik, a Jewish organization already existed, and they received the information with great hope.

- Treblinka Station Between Life and Death.
PDF

He also reports helping numerous Jews escape from the trains, as well as creating a fake ID for one. Lots of retconning going on.

These are two of his early interrogations.

1944 interrogation protocols with the Soviet Red Army. This testimony was under oath. He counted the numbers written on the side of each train and totaled 3 million.

1945 interrogation with Judge Łukaszkiewicz. This testimony was unsworn (not under oath). It's pretty sparse compared to his 1944 interrogation.

[pilgrimofdark]

I finally got a copy of Zabecki's memoirs to check the famous "Burning of Treblinka" photo.

The memoirs include the photo, but all the caption says is this:

The Treblinka death camp was set on fire by Jews (August 2, 1943).

- Wspomnienia dawne, photo inserts after p. 112.

Spoiler

Nothing credits Zabecki taking the photo in the caption.

This is consistent with his 1940s interrogations and his 1960s typescript memoirs where he never mentions taking a photo.

So unless he writes somewhere in this book that he took it, the last word is his 1965 signed statements that Zygmunt Wierzbowski took it.

[pilgrimofdark]

In his 1977 memoirs, Zabecki says this about the photo in relation to his participation at the 1965 Dusseldorf trial of Kurt Franz and others:

I added that I had a photo of the burning camp from a distance. I thought this would pique the Court's interest and compel them to hear further testimony. Yes, the Court viewed the photos, as did the defense attorneys and prosecutors, but they weren't interested in any other facts. While viewing the photo, the prosecutor asked me a question:

"Did the witness work at the station himself?"

"No!" I reply. "My friend and I worked in shifts; he helped me register arriving trains; this friend was also a member of the underground."

There were no further questions from the court, defense attorneys, or prosecutors. The court adjourned for a short recess and retired for deliberations.

- p. 125.

I think this means that Zabecki is definitely saying he didn't take the photo, but "the witness" was a friend.

Then Zabecki trades a copy of the photo to Miriam Novitch for a photo of Wiernik's model of Treblinka

He also claims Zygmunt Wierzbowski was a supervisory dispatcher at the Treblinka station, so this could be a different Zygmunt Wierzbowski.

The electrical engineer from Warsaw is the only one that shows up affiliated with the Home Army. Zabecki's friend doesn't show up in Home Army records that I can find, or any records for that matter.

Work on the second bridge was nearing completion, and as a result, the station equipment securing train traffic was rebuilt. A signal box was opened at switch post number one on the Małkinia side. A concrete shelter for the train dispatcher was built there. Józef Pogorzelski and I were on duty here again with German railwaymen withdrawn from the east. The supervisory dispatcher, Zygmunt Wierzbowski, and the stationmaster, Józef Kuźmiński, were on duty in the building by the platform. All the station files remained there, including documents relating to the death camp, and until then, they had been kept in a safe place. The German railwaymen had worked with us for only a dozen or so days before being transferred west. During these days, military transport traffic increased in both directions; one had the impression that this movement of troops was due to the constantly changing front and forces, as well as the nervousness of the German front command.

- p. 102.

The bottom line on the photo is that the evidence strongly points to Zabecki not taking it. Nothing outright contradicts his signed statements to Miriam Novitch that it was taken by someone else. And it first showed up in 1965, so it could have been taken any where at any place by anyone. He didn't turn it over to the Soviets in 1944 or the Polish investigators in 1945, probably because it didn't exist yet.

Lots of other interesting information and weird stuff to be found. I'll have to read the entire book (AI translation), despite it being written 30+ years after the war.

[pilgrimofdark]

I don't understand how historians choose to be so wrong about things.

This is in Chris Webb's (of DeathCamps.org, ARC, H.E.A.R.T., Holocaust Historical Society) book The Treblinka Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance:

Franciszek Ząbecki was the Polish stationmaster at Treblinka village station, and a member of the Polish Underground. ... He was therefore the only trained observer on the spot throughout the entire existence of the Treblinka extermination camp.

- p. 19

In addition to not providing a reference for these statement, Webb is wrong.

Did he make this up himself, or plagiarize it from someone else?

During Ząbecki's time at the Treblinka station, there were two stationmasters, neither of which were Ząbecki.

Ząbecki was never stationmaster during the war. When offered the position, he turned it down.

From his memoirs, Wspomnienia dawne i nowe:

After Pronicki's departure, "Zagonczyk" offered me the position of stationmaster. He also asked if it suited me and if it would not conflict with my underground work. After considering the matter, we concluded that I would gain nothing from it: nothing morally, little materially, and I would have less time for "my own affairs."
...
I missed out on promotion. I didn't become a stationmaster.

Józef Kuźmiński took Pronicki's place as stationmaster.

- p. 85-86

The actual stationmasters Józef Pronicki and Józef Kuźmiński are entirely written out of the history of Treblinka station and the Holocaust. The H.E.A.R.T. website has a 5-page excerpt from Ząbecki's memoirs on the Treblinka revolt, so Webb couldn't have missed the other 140+ pages of the book where the stationmasters appear over and over again.

It was only after the Soviets "freed" Poland and installed an NKVD agent as president of the "independent" country that Ząbecki became stationmaster.

I started working at the Polish State Railways in Treblinka in the free homeland as a stationmaster on September 2, 1944.

- p. 112.

Well, I think I've read everything by Ząbecki that I have access to.

Based on what else he says in his memoirs, I understand why historians only focus on what he half-remembers from having read Wiernik's book.

[Stubble]

I wonder if either of the Station Masters ever published anything or if their writings remain extant some place. Be interesting to see what they had to say about 'the war years'.

Pilgrimofdark, you are absolutely relentless and I commend you. Excellent work Sir.

[pilgrimofdark]

I wonder if either of the Station Masters ever published anything or if their writings remain extant some place. Be interesting to see what they had to say about 'the war years'.

That's a good question. I'll try to poke around.

I bet they said "it was really boring sitting in a backwater train station watching gravel and clothing transited around the region all day."

Pilgrimofdark, you are absolutely relentless and I commend you. Excellent work Sir.

Thanks. There are so many layers of schlock and mendacity that need to be scraped away.