Trial Testimonies from Nazis

Second Commandant Stangl:

“Michel [the sergeant- major of the camp] told me later that Wirth suddenly appeared, looked around on the gas chambers on which they were still working, and said: ‘right, we’ll try it out right now with those twenty-fve working Jews. Get them up here.’ They marched our twenty-five Jews up there and just pushed them in and gassed them.

 [(quoted in Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987, p. 184.) Jewish Virtual Library].

SS Oberscharfuehrer Heinrich Matthes:

“All together, six gas chambers were active. According to my estimate, about 300 people could enter each gas chamber. The people went into the gas chambers without resistance. Those who were at the end, the Ukrainian guards had to push inside. . . The gas chambers were closed for about thirty minutes. Then Schmidt stopped the gassing, and the two Ukrainians who were in the engine room opened the gas chambers from the other side.” 

[(Quoted in Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987, p. 121) Jewish Virtual Library].