Treblinka Survivor: The Life and Death of Hershl Sperling (39 page)

Barry, the St Bernard dog, probably taken by his owner
SS-Oberscharführer
Kurt Franz. Barry was trained to attack Jews on the order ‘Man, get that dog’. (H.E.A.R.T.)

SS-men on the buckets of the excavator (left). These photographs were probably taken in the first half of 1943. At least two types of excavators were used in Treblinka, bucket and cable excavators. It was later realised that the bucket excavator was not very effective for digging burial pits.

The Treblinka excavator was brought over from Treblinka I and used to help bury the dead and dig corpse pits. The photograph (right) was taken by Kurt Franz, found in his Treblinka album
Schöne
Zeiten
(‘Pleasant Times’, or ‘Happy Days’). (H.E.A.R.T.)

The Treblinka station sign, now held at the Yad Vashem complex.

The camp zoo constructed near the Ukrainian barracks on the orders of Stangl in the early summer of 1943. Here the SS spent their leisure time sitting on wooden benches and tables relaxing and looking at the animals. (ARC)

German soldiers round up Jewish men on Strazcka street in Częstochowa some time between 3 and 8 September 1939. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of B. Ashley Grimes II)

Treblinka today – The large granite memorial stone, designed to resemble a Jewish tombstone. It was built between 1959 and 1963 and is located approximately on the spot where the gas chambers stood.

Treblinka today – A view of some of the 17,000 stones in the symbolic cemetery. Each stone represents a Jewish community wiped out at the camp.

Auschwitz – The infamous gates with the words
Arbeit Macht Frei
. Hershl arrived there on 2 October 1943 and was assigned the number 154356.

Auschwitz – ovens in the crematorium.

Auschwitz – Dr Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death. Hershl spent time in Mengele’s barracks.

Sachsenhausen – Hershl arrived there on 26 October 1944, and was assigned the number 110572.