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| Luftwaffe aerial photo. Trains, usually with 60 wagons, from the Warsaw Ghetto went first east to the Malkinia Górna railway station (A). Thereafter, they changed direction and went south, directly to the Trablinka railway station (B) (enlarged at the bottom of the photo), where they were divided into three portions with 20 wagons each. A special locomotive took 20 wagons at a time into the death camp ramp. |
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| The technical specifications of the Type G wagon, visible in the German markings, when compared with survivor testimonies, reveal the inhuman mechanism of transport. |
The Mathematics of Torture – 21.3 m² and the Sediment of Death
The technical specifications of the Type G wagon, visible in the German markings, when compared with survivor testimonies, reveal the inhuman mechanism of transport:
- Bodenfl 21.3 m²: Within this microscopic space, 100 to 150 people were crowded. In practice, this meant only 0.15 m² per person – the area of a single sheet of A4 paper.
- The Mire of Excrement: As Halina Birenbaum recalls, the overcrowding was so extreme that parents held their children in their arms until they fainted. This was not only due to a lack of space. The wagon floor, covered in caustic lime, quickly turned into a corrosive mire of urine and excrement. In the sweltering heat and lack of ventilation, the waste mixed with chlorine to create toxic fumes.
- Time Without Exit: While the transport from Warsaw took a few hours, trains from Częstochowa or Piotrków traveled much longer, often standing for hours on sidings in the blazing sun. The wagon doors remained bolted from the moment of departure until they were opened on the ramp at Treblinka. Throughout this time, victims were forced to stand in this caustic sediment, and holding children was the only desperate attempt to protect them from contact with the sludge.
