Today I am blogging about a news article which you can read in full at: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/06/28/vandal-smashes-holocaust-memorial-glass-but-survivors-spirit-remains-resolute/YuSqLke3WYoz5zRNxvEdyO/story.html
The following quote is from the news article:
Begin quote
[Israel] Arbeiter, 92, has spent a lifetime telling their [Holocaust survivor] story, and his, recounting the October night in 1942 when they [the Jews] were herded into a marketplace in the Polish ghetto of Starachowice and sorted into two lines by German soldiers. He and two of his brothers were sent to a labor camp outside town. The rest of his family was loaded onto trains bound for Treblinka, where he believes they were murdered right away.
End quote
You can read about Treblinka on my website at http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Poland/Treblinka/introduction.html
The news article continues with this quote:
Begin quote
The tower at which Isaac threw that rock memorializes Belzec, a [concentration] camp in Southeastern Poland. There, beginning in 1942, German soldiers unloaded 20 packed freight cars at a time and ordered Jews to run through a tube that led directly into the gas chambers. Afterward, other prisoners were forced to bury the dead in mass graves, or to burn them. More than 400,000 Jews perished there.
End quote
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I I have a section on my website about Belzec: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Poland/Belzec/index.html
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Continue quote from news article:
We allow their lives to recede — to become abstract artifacts of history — at our own peril. As survivors leave us, and anti-Semitism regains more of a foothold than we might have dreamed possible, we need physical reminders more than ever.
End quote from news article
Scrapbookpages Blog 
The Aktion Reinhardt camps are easily the most preposterous part of the tale. The three camps, which for the record are Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, were all located at points where the railroad gage changed from 1435 mm to the Russian standard 1520 mm. Everyone had to change trains there. What happened next? Nobody knows, but one likely explanation is that they were resettled in the the vicinity of Vitebsk and Polotsk in Byelorus, where they would serve as conscripted labor for 3rd Panzer Army that controlled the area of operations from October 1941 to August 1944 under the command of Generaloberst Georg-Hans REINHARDT. When the Russians overran the area in 1944, who knows what happened to anyone? There was a displaced person problem in Europe involving millions for 20 years after the war.
Comment by Peter Hardy — June 29, 2017 @ 1:30 pm
You wrote: “The Aktion Reinhardt camps are easily the most preposterous part of the tale.”
You are very well informed. Thank you for your comment.
Comment by furtherglory — June 29, 2017 @ 2:37 pm
“The Aktion Reinhardt camps are easily the most preposterous part of the tale. The three camps, which for the record are Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, were all located at points where the railroad gage changed from 1435 mm to the Russian standard 1520 mm. Everyone had to change trains there. What happened next? Nobody knows, but one likely explanation is that they were resettled in the the vicinity of Vitebsk and Polotsk in Byelorus, where they would serve as conscripted labor for 3rd Panzer Army that controlled the area of operations from October 1941 to August 1944 under the command of Generaloberst Georg-Hans REINHARDT. When the Russians overran the area in 1944, who knows what happened to anyone? There was a displaced person problem in Europe involving millions for 20 years after the war.”
As you’re most likely aware, the mainstream/court historians would have us believe that the Reinhardt camps were pure extermination camps and that no-one came out alive or were transited through those camps.There are YouTube videos where many Jewish eyewitnesses tell a different story saying that they were in fact transited through the camps to places like Auschwitz and Majdanek etc.On arrival in Treblinka and Sobibor, their clothes were deloused, their hair cut and then they were showered then asked for people who may have had certain skills like carpenters, seamstresses, cobblers etc.
Comment by D.D. — June 30, 2017 @ 12:52 pm
There were not multiple rail lines into these camps. That being the case, how did railroad gauge change at these camps? Obviously it did not. The Germans changed the track gauge itself and drove standard gauge trains into the occupied territories.
“Everyone had to change trains there”
Do you have one iota of evidence for this silly assertion?
Comment by blake121666 — June 30, 2017 @ 10:34 pm
I found a February 1941 DeutscheBahn railroad map. The three towns are all on the edge of the service area at that time. You could spend time researching it yourself instead of demonstrating that you are brainwashed and can’t think for yourself.
Comment by Peter Hardy — July 1, 2017 @ 5:50 am
I somehow get the feeling that I’ve probably researched it more than you.
So tell me how your alleged track gauge switch was done.
Here’s some info for you to research about what existed in 1939
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_Poland#World_War_I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_State_Railroads_in_summer_1939
Do you think the Germans outfitted cars with different gauge rather than just modify the the track gauge of the existing lines?
Or did they come across trains of different gauge that they were able to use? Do you think that was their logistical plan – to steal the enemy’s train cars for their logistical purposes?
Or do you think Germans produced new trains specifically for this different gauge and used those?
Which was it:
1. They used their own train cars with different gauge
2. They stole existing train cars of the different gauge and used those.
Of course there is the obvious option:
3. They switched the gauge of the rail lines and just used standard gauge cars.
What option do you think the Germans actually did: 1, 2, or 3?
Comment by blake121666 — July 1, 2017 @ 12:35 pm
BTW, let me give you an illustrative analogy. Say that the enemy territories had vehicle service stations that served mostly gasoline – given that the enemy’s vehicles used gasoline engines. But your vehicles are generally all diesel, let’s say. What would you do:
1. Continue to fill the service station tanks with gasoline and
1A: Switch out your vehicle’s diesel engines with gasoline engines
1B: Produce new vehicles with gasoline engines
1C: Steal existing gasoline engine vehicles and use them
2. Fill the service stations with diesel and use your vehicles as you normally would.
What option would you do in this instance?
Comment by blake121666 — July 1, 2017 @ 12:50 pm
As someone who participated in an invasion in 2003, I know that the invaders have to be prepared for as many contingencies as possible. In the case of the Germans and the railroads in Russian occupied Poland, they would have to assume, or since the Russians were German allies from September 1939 to June 1941, they probably knew that the Russians had converted the Polish Railroad track to 1520. Since the Russians left Poland so quickly in June 1941, the railroad system, including engines, cars and drivers, remained intact. The logical decision by the Germans would be to use the existing track and rolling stock, and defer conversion to 1485.
Comment by Peter Hardy — July 2, 2017 @ 1:26 pm
“The logical decision by the Germans would be to use the existing track and rolling stock, and defer conversion to 1485.”
You think the USSR allowed their trains and locomotives to fall into the hands of the Germans? Let’s see some evidence of this.
You are saying that the Germans planned to invade the USSR and use the USSR’s own rolling stock against the USSR. This is worthy of a mention somewhere, wouldn’t you think? Something like that would be a bit of common knowledge. I’ve never heard it.
So the Germans stole the rolling stock of the enemy and was able to transport millions of Jews into the “Russian East” as the Korherr Report claims. That’s an astounding thing to believe. A whole parallel set of rolling stock with which to wage war.
Boy, those Germans were pretty clever, huh?
Comment by blake121666 — July 3, 2017 @ 4:06 pm
Railroads are not just for military use. The millions of Polish civilians would still need the railroads for transporting all the commodities of daily life. Common sense would indicate that the rail infrastructure would have to remain in place, otherwise the cities would not be supplied and they would have emptied out on their own accord, since people don’t want to starve. This is everyday life, so it doesn’t get a mention. In Iraq, millions of civilians got on with their lives while we were invading that country. Just because we were a lot of guys with guns didn’t mean that life changed completely for them.
By the way, I don’t consider reading Wikipedia articles to constitute research. And if you don’t like the way the article reads, there is an edit button that will allow you to change it. If you are a subject matter expert I encourage you to do just that, and cite your sources.
Comment by Peter Hardy — July 4, 2017 @ 1:12 am
@Tom Hardy:
“Common sense would indicate that the rail infrastructure would have to remain in place,”
That’s not an argument, “common sense.” Try and do better, please. Please link to or cite instances where Germans used Soviet rolling stock.
BTW, transport was always a problem for the German forces in the Soviet Union. They often resorted to the use of horses to transport needed material.
“otherwise the cities would not be supplied and they would have emptied out on their own accord, since people don’t want to starve.”
The issue wasn’t Poland, it was the USSR. It was part of the operational plan to starve out the cities so that German soldiers and civilians could eat.
Comment by brycesdaddy1105 — July 4, 2017 @ 12:27 pm
I don’t believe that track gauge switched at the AR camps. There’s no reason to believe this. The AR camps were built by the Germans. Why would some other gauge track be laid at these camps to connect to the standard gauge track? There is no record of this. Nowhere is there any reference to these camps being a transit station from one gauge to another. These camps were built for the purposes of Aktion Reinhard – and none of those purposes entail a track gauge switch.
And why do you make a claim such as:
“Everyone had to change trains there”.
These camps were off spurs of the main rail line. No one would stop at these camps w/o them being the specific destination. Your “everyone had to change trains there” makes it sound like the main line would always go off on these spurs. Definitely not the case. For instance, most traffic on the main line passing the T-II spur would go to Malkinia Station – which was the main station with other rail lines.
These camps had nothing but standard gauge spurs going into them. If you wish to speculate that they had something to do with a gauge change, you need to speculate further WHERE that gauge change occurred. I wish you had this 1941 map you refer to – because you are the only one who knows of multiple gauge tracks going into these camps.
Comment by blake121666 — July 4, 2017 @ 6:17 pm
Look over this section of that wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_Poland#World_War_II
I wish it gave references for the information. It’s difficult to make out what it is saying anyway. Here’s the quote:
The beginning of German attacks on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 resulted in the possession of railway and rolling stock by Ostbahn and the possession of PKP rolling stock with broad gauge track and reconstruction to standard gauge.
God only knows how to interpret that!
Comment by blake121666 — July 3, 2017 @ 7:33 pm
FYI, Ostbahn probably means the Austrian railroad company and PKP the polish railroad company. But is this saying that the cars were reconstructed to standard gauge along with the tracks? That is how I am reading it; but it isn’t written very clearly.
Comment by blake121666 — July 3, 2017 @ 7:35 pm
@Peter Hardy:
“The Aktion Reinhardt camps are easily the most preposterous part of the tale.”
This should be entertaining.
“The three camps, which for the record are Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, were all located at points where the railroad gage changed from 1435 mm to the Russian standard 1520 mm. Everyone had to change trains there. What happened next? Nobody knows,”
So, it now goes into denier guesswork. That’s always fun.
“but one likely explanation is that they were resettled in the the vicinity of Vitebsk and Polotsk in Byelorus, where they would serve as conscripted labor for 3rd Panzer Army that controlled the area of operations from October 1941 to August 1944 under the command of Generaloberst Georg-Hans REINHARDT.”
Wow, that’s a new one.
So, what the Poles and Soviets found after the war, what eyewitness, perpetrator and victim testimony says what happened and the fact you can’t actually prove any of your ridiculous guesses, none of that matters, right? Just what deniers THINK happened, that’s the important bit.
“When the Russians overran the area in 1944, who knows what happened to anyone? There was a displaced person problem in Europe involving millions for 20 years after the war.”
But, there’s data available. Those DP’s were counted so they could be clothed, fed and housed.
See, we have another denier here who shows complete ignorance. I always find new deniers entertaining.
Comment by brycesdaddy1105 — July 4, 2017 @ 12:35 pm