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.

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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."

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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.)

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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.