Treblinka Visit January 2024

During my first vagabonding trip of six months, I spent one month in Warsaw—January of 2024. I stayed at the Oki Doki Hostel as a volunteer. On one of my days off, I joined a tour led by a knowledgeable guide named Jesus, originally from Spain. We explored the Old Town, discussing the Uprising of '44, before he drove us eastward to the former Nazi extermination camp of Treblinka.

Unlike the more widely visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka remains lesser known but is just as significant for understanding Polish and Warsaw history. The site was almost entirely destroyed by retreating SS forces before the Soviet Red Army arrived, leaving behind only remnants and a large stone monument in memory of the victims. Walking the grounds is an eerie experience—without intact buildings, the absence itself speaks volumes.

Treblinka gained international attention in the 1980s due to Ivan Demjanjuk, a former Ukrainian SS guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." Once a respected immigrant in Cleveland, Ohio, he was later exposed as a brutal executioner at Treblinka and Sobibor. His case underscored a disturbing reality—many former Nazis lived normal lives for decades before being exposed.

Visiting Treblinka was deeply personal for me. I had studied the Eastern Front and the SS’s actions in Poland, but standing in the exact place where hundreds of thousands were murdered was overwhelming. The memorial site is eerily silent—no birds, no animals, just an unsettling stillness. It was a cold, gray day, the ground covered in fresh snow, and the silence made the weight of history even heavier.

Treblinka is a place that must be visited to be truly understood. While Auschwitz remains the primary destination for Holocaust education, Treblinka offers a different, more haunting perspective. It is a stark reminder of the scale of destruction and the depths of human cruelty. For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of WWII history, making the journey to Treblinka is essential. This goes back to one of my travel notions of; travel is the best form of education.