Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps [Hardcover]

Yitzhak Arad (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1987

Between the years 1942 and 1943, under the code name Operation Reinhard, more than one and a half million Jews were gassed in the concentration camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka, located in Nazi-occupied Poland. Jewish survivors of the operation numbered fewer than 200. Yitzhak Arad reveals, here, the complete story of Operation Reinhard for the first time. Using sources previously overlooked, such as German and Polish official records and testimonies from Nazi war criminal trials, Arad records the history of the Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka death camps from their construction in 1941 to their destruction in 1943. He describes the camps' physical layouts, the process of extermination used, and the actions of the SS men and Ukrainian guards who operated the camps. Arad tells the tale of the death camps' inmates - though many of their lives lasted but a few hours following their arrival - his underground organizations, the revolts and escapes, and the details concerning the day-to-day survival of those spared instant death in the gas chambers. Arad's work retrieves the experience of Operation Reinhard's victims and survivors from obscurity and bears eloquent witness to the tragedy, which was theirs. Yitzhak Arad, Chairman of Yad Vashem, Holocaust Remembrance Authority, is a lecturer in Jewish History at the University of Tel Aviv and author of "Ghetto in Flames: Story of the Vilna Ghetto."

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

With meticulous scholarship and precise exposition Tel Aviv historian and Yad Vashem director Arad recounts all facets of Operation Reinhard, the destruction of 1.5 million Jews in occupied Poland from 1941 to 1943. Arad describes the founding, organization, personnel, prisoners, and victims of the three death camps and provides detailed chapters on the uprisings and escapes from Treblinka and Sobibor. He effectively employs extensive excerpts from Jewish, Polish, and German contemporary documents and later testimony by witnesses and participants. Arad is scrupulously careful to point out the limits of the available evidence. This comprehensive, judicious, and moving history is a remarkable contribution to Holocaust studies and is strongly recommended for academic and public libraries. James B. Street, Santa Cruz P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Drawing on a wealth of evidence ... [Arad] lets the terrible record speak for itself... Mr. Arad reports as a controlled and effective witness for the prosecution... Mr. Arad's book, with its abundance of horrifying detail, reminds us of how far we have to go." New York Times Book Review " ... some of the most gripping chapters I have ever read... the authentic, exhaustive, definitive account of the least known death camps of the Nazi era." Raul Hilberg

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253342937
• ISBN-13: 978-0253342935
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A concise summary, July 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Paperback)

These three camps were put into full operation shortly after the assassination of Heydrich, the "brains" behind the Final Solution. Unlike concentration camps, these were extermination centers. Most were killed shortly after arrival. The man in charge seemed to be Christian Wirth, who can only be described as a beast in human form. Initially devoted to mass executions of Soviet POWs, the camps soon focused on liquidation of Jews once the Final Solution was put into full swing. Very little is known about the camps simply because there were so few survivors. These were truly some of the most dreadful camps, even though they operated for only a brief period.

45 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reporting the horrific, February 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Paperback)

Yitzhak Arad has achieved an extraordinary feat with the publication of this book, detailing in full the features and practices of places the Nazis did their best to erase. He juxtaposes horrifying descriptions of life and death in the camps with the clinical statistics (themselves horrible for their sheer magnitude) surrounding this aspect of Hitler's war against the Jews. This book is made all the more poignant by the fact that Arad's parents died in Treblinka. It is books like this that illustrate the dire necessity for tolerance and compassion in our world.

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars feeling, August 1, 2003

By 

Michael N. Ryan (Bel AIr, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps (Paperback)

Among the first books I purchased to study the Holocost.

The scholorship of this book is superb. Gives the reader a feeling for these awful places. You get to meet the human monsters who put these horrible places together and operated them. Just as you get to meet the innocent human beings who were slaughtered there.

It is a cold expression of human evil in its coldest unemotional form.

The cold facts are depressing. And an appetite killer for the unnitiated. Like all material on the Holocost, there is only depression from what is here.

I only wish the death camp of Chlemno had been included in this work, for scholarly reasons. I know that Chelmno, the first of the death camps, used gas vans, and there are a fed other differences. But it would save the reader one less visit to hell to study.