To the south-east of Warsaw, near the town of Malkinia Gorna, the Nazis established a forced labour camp in 1941 which later operated under the name Treblinka I. Throughout its existence till 1944 over 10,000 prisoners passed through the camp most of which were killed. Near this camp, in July 1942, another extermination camp for Jews was built which was called Treblinka II.

The first transport of prisoners from the Warsaw Ghetto arrived here in July 1942 and since then daily shuttle trains between Warsaw and Treblinka operated with the alleged displaced from the Polish and European ghettos (mainly from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Belgium). The average number of prisoners in the camp at any one time ranged between 1000 and 2000. The stay, in conditions of hunger and terror, ended most often in death. In the thirteen gas chambers the Nazis could murder 2000 victims at any one time. In total in the extermination camps Treblinka I and II around 750,000 people were killed.

On the site of the former camp, which is a symbolic burial ground, the Museum of the Struggle and Martyrdom was opened in 1964. A specific impression is made by the monumental cemetery created from 17,000 boulders.

Museum of the Struggle and Martyrdom in Treblinka (woj. Mazowieckie)

www.muzeum-trblinka.pl