Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience

Treblinka entered its third phase in January 1943. Increasingly fewer transports arrived, meaning the Jewish workers began to starve because for the first time they had to rely on their meager camp rations. They began planning a revolt. An SS guard intuited this and sent a crucial member of the planning committee—Zhelo Bloch—to work in the extermination section, effectively a death sentence. This devastated morale among the prisoners, and their strong emotional reactions to Bloch’s punishment made it clear that the guards’ actions and life at the camp were taking a huge toll on them.

By February, the transports stopped completely, save one of a few hundred Roma. Suddenly, the storehouses that had been full of plundered goods were empty. As Glazar recounts, the working prisoners began fearing for their lives: If there were no goods to process, the guards had no reason to keep them alive. The transports resumed in late March, and Glazar is ashamed that he and the other workers cheered when they learned of this. For them, others’ deaths meant staying alive.

The first of the resumed transports was of 24,000 rich, Bulgarian Jews, each of whom had been allowed to bring 50kg of possessions.