Robin L. Bernstein, Treblinka, 2020, string and wax on wood, 46” x 34"
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Treblinka
During the 15 months between July 1942 and October 1943 up to 950,000 Jewish people were murdered at Treblinka, a major Nazi extermination camp in Poland. Men, women, children, infants, and the elderly arrived in box cars to what appeared to be a real train station. They were required to drop all their possessions and were very quickly divided by gender. Forced to strip, the women had their heads shaved and all were beaten as they ran along a narrow path into “bathhouses”. Packed so tightly that no one could move, they died by suffocation from carbon monoxide exhaust in 12 minutes. 3000 people were murdered every 3 hours by this process, and the corpses burned to ash in huge cremation pits where the pyres burned 24 hours a day. Theft of cash and personal valuables was conducted by the SS for the Third Reich and for personal gain. Treblinka was run by 25-30 SS guards and 150 Trawniki guards (volunteer collaborators). Franz Stangl became the commandant in September 1942. He escaped to Brazil with his wife and children using his real name. Stangl was eventually tracked down by Simon Wiesenthal and brought to trial. He was convicted of the deaths of 900,000 people and sentenced to life in prison. He died at the age of 63 in 1971, 6 months into his sentence. Only 67 of the 950,000 survived Treblinka. |
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TRANSMISSION GALLERY
OAKLAND 770 West Grand Ave., Suite A, Oakland, CA 94612 Open Thurs-Sat, 12 to 5 pm till 8 pm on the first Friday of the month and by appointment Accessibility: This a 2nd floor art gallery, accessible by stairs. |
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