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| Camp Map |
Although the
Aktion Reinhard camps were
intended in the main to kill the deported Jews
as soon as possible, for some death in the gas chamber (or in the "
Lazarett"
for those who could not make it to the gas chamber by themselves) was delayed for a time.
A number of Jews were selected for the
Sonderkommandos in the camp itself, but also,
from the
beginning of 1943 and on a much smaller scale
than, for example, in
Auschwitz, where many thousands of deportees were sent
to local labour camps, on arrival at
Sobibor, a small number of Jews were
selected for slave labour in work camps (
Arbeitslager) in the
Lublin District.
Out of over 34,000 Dutch Jews deported from
Westerbork to
Sobibor, an estimated 1,000 were sent to the forced labour
camps in the
Lublin and
Trawniki
areas. One of those camps was the peat digging camp of Dorohucza.
Sixteen of these Dutch Jews survived the war, 13 women and 3 men. Because in
Sobibor there were no registrations taken of those who arrived at and
those who left from
Sobibor, we do not know exactly which of the deportees from
Westerbork were sent to the
Sobibor labour camps.
The
SS-Arbeitslager Dorohucza was situated about 5 km NE of
Trawniki, on the river Wieprz. The camp consisted
of three almost equally large barracks, placed in a 'U' around the roll-call square (
Appellplatz).
On the fourth side was a barrack for the SS-personnel. On the left of this barrack was another structure
where the Ukrainian guards lived; on its right the camp kitchen. These three latter buildings were situated
outside the fence. Inside the prisoner's camp was a watch tower, situated next to the river. The
peat fields were on the other side of the river.
The camp became operational in
early March 1943. Its capacity
was approximately 500 Jews. Almost 50% were Dutch, the others came from Poland.
Their ages varied from 16 to 50. The first Dutch group arrived on
13 March.
They were normally brought in groups of 80. On
4 June the group
consisted of 81 persons; the 81st was
Jules Schelvis, who,
together with his wife
Rachel and her family, had
been deported from
Westerbork
on
1 June 1943.
Schelvis survived
Sobibor and the war,
his wife and her family were gassed on
4 June 1943.
The working and living conditions in the labour camp were extremely bad. The SS labour camps
were usually worse than the labour camps exploited by private enterprises. That is the reason why
most of the prisoners did not survive longer than a couple of weeks, some a few months at most.
The circumstances were as largely described by
Jules Schelvis
in his books “Inside the Gates”, and “Extermination Camp Sobibor” (expected 2006):
"
In Dorohucza there were hardly any provisions at all. The 500 prisoners had
to sleep in dilapidated barracks. There were huge holes in the roofs, so lying on the bare floor one had
an almost clear sight of the stars. There was always a penetrating stench of stained clothes and unwashed
bodies. There was no drinking water. The water we received to drink was in a black substance, provided
twice daily, which they called coffee, and in the soup, which consisted of half a litre of water
containing some pieces
of Sauerkraut and an almost transparent slice of dog’s meat. One could not drink from the
water in the river that ran alongside the camp. It was severely polluted because the river was also used as a
bath by the prisoners, who after work tried in vain to get rid of lice. Whoever drank from the river would
get typhoid right away. Dorohucza was so unreal to the Dutch, one wondered in what absurd theatrical
play one found himself lost.”
The commander of the camp was
SS-Hauptscharführer Gottfried Schwarz,
promoted on
21 June 1943 to
SS-Untersturmführer because of his
exemplary service in connection with
Aktion Reinhard. Right in front of his office he had a machine gun
placed with which could be fired at the prisoner’s camp at any time. Before coming to Dorohucza,
Schwarz had driven hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in
Belzec. The last camp commandant, according to
accounts by SS men
Jührs and
Zierke, was
Fritz Tauscher.
The guarding of the camp and the peat fields was the responsibility of the Ukrainian guards, led
from
7 May 1943 by
Omsk born
Karl Diner. In the camp were several Polish and Dutch
Kapos.
One of them was
Nathan Peperwortel, who on
20 April 1943was deported from
Westerbork to
Sobibor
as a “
Strafhäftling”.
From Dorohucza a total of 171 written messages (postcards) were received at the
Judenrat
in
Amsterdam. The senders of 160 of these
cards could be identified, together with the dates of their deportation. They were on 8 different transports.
With these 8 transports, plus the first deportation of
10 - 13 March 1943,
from which there were no survivors, the number of Dutch Jews put to work at Dorohucza, can be calculated
as at least (9 x 80 + 1 =) 721.
The
Joodse Raad in
Amsterdam attached
great importance to these postcards. They were seen as evidence that the people deported to Poland indeed
ended up in labour camps, where life was hard but at least bearable.
Three Dutch Jews were allowed to leave Dorohucza on
13 June 1943.
Joop Wins (who had arrived on
14 May),
Leo de Vries, and
Jules Schelvis
(both arrived on
4 June). Sent via
Lublin,
they were employed as typographers in
Radom.
During the night of
3 November 1943 almost all Jews in the labour camps
in the
Lublin district (40 - 50,000) were shot. This massacre
was conducted under the code name of
Aktion Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival).
In this operation the Jewish slave labourers in Dorohucza and
Trawniki were murdered. It also meant the end of the
work camps. In the digital ‘In Memoriam-Lezecher’ book are the names of 144 Dutch Jews who were murdered
during
Aktion Erntefest in Dorohucza, for administrative reasons with
30 November 1943 given as their date of death for administrative reasons. See the
testimony of
Robert Jührs.
Gottfried Schwarz, born
1913 in
Fürth, was a member of the
euthanasia organization T4.
He began his career burning corpses at
Grafeneck,
Brandenburg, and
Bernburg.
Schwarz was deputy commander and head of the
gassing squad in
Belzec from
Winter 1941.
Himmler praised him as one of the most meritorious men
of
Aktion Reinhard. After the conclusion of
Aktion Erntefest he was
sent to Trieste in Italy, where he died on
19 June 1944 in
San Pietro.
Fritz Tauscher committed suicide in prison in
1965.
Sources:
Schelvis, Jules.
Vernichtungslager Sobibor, Metropol Verlag, Berlin, 1998
Schelvis, Jules.
Binnen de poorten, 7
e druk, De Bataafsche Leeuw, Amsterdam, 2003
Klee, Ernst.
Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2003
Bajcar, Adam.
Reiseführer durch Polen, Verlag Interpress, Warschau, 1977
Digital In Memoriam-Lezecher book: http://www.snunit.k12.il/sachlav/dutch/maineng/search.html
© ARC 2006
