Reconstruction of Treblinka: 5.0 - Summary Overview
Figure 15.1 contains an overview of the camp. The gray, filled in annotations represent all the structures found as a result of analyzing
the aerial imagery or through positioning buildings and fence lines visible on ground photos. Many features shown were included only
after a complex study of numerous sources, including written accounts. Not all the annotations have the weight of equal confidence.
Some identified features are considered certain, others represent a considered estimate in positioning and orientation. However, the worst
error for any building shown is less than 25 meters. The locations of the Ukrainian barracks, for example, are educated guesses. Only fragmentary
views were visible in the background of a few snapshots. Most of the positions are deemed accurate to within a couple of meters when either the
structure could be roughly triangulated, or the aerial photography retained traces where they had stood. How all results were arrived at is described
in detail in the following sections. But the most cogent reason for confidence in the map is all the major structures: the gas chambers, the Undressing,
Sorting, and Jewish worker barracks were identified through the objective evidence gleaned from ground and aerial photography, or by following a
convergence of evidence from the facts having the greatest assurance of accuracy, and then seeing what alternatives remained. This procedure was
particularly needed in the case of the gas chambers, where the pinpointing of their location depended on first, finding traces of the tube, then relating
these to the access road which had to be east of the tube’s mouth, and finally seeing how
verbal accounts supported the clues extracted from the photographs.
The following sections describe the discovery process in detail. In the order they appear in the Index, the Living Camp, the Recieving Camp, and then the Death Camp are
treated. The appendices contain more technical information or yet more detailed descriptions of procedures used.
