Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps

It's difficult to review a book like this. I can only imagine what it was like for Yitzhak Arad to write it. I feel I must somewhat dissociate myself from the subject matter in order to step back and review the book as a book - not to make unnecessary commentary on the horrors of the Holocaust. Amazingly this is exactly what the author himself did somehow. This is a factual, dispassionate history of Operation Reinhard in which Arad keeps his personal feelings at bay and allows the reader to make whatever judgments he or she wishes to make.Arad relies heavily on the recorded testimony of several participants in the operation, both those who ran the camps and prisoners who miraculously escaped. I thought this added greatly to the impact and veracity of the history being told. When necessary, the author would correct or annotate these comments based upon his obviously exhaustive research. It can be numbing when you read about the immensity of the Nazi extermination efforts, so putting an individual's name and recollection to the experience worked well.The book is structured well and organized in a very logical manner. Arad is telling the story of three different facilities within the much larger Nazi camp system, so he had to make some important decisions about what to include, and what to omit. Sometimes I did get a bit lost with all the Polish, German and Ukrainian names - and who was doing what at which camp - but most of this was not critical to the greater operation being described.For the researcher or student there is an exhaustive bibliography, index and other data included at the end of the book. Arad also included numerous footnotes in each chapter with a reference to these at the end as well. Thankfully he did not put them at the bottom of each page, or this book would have taken me even longer than it did to read. I can bypass footnote numbers - but find it almost impossible not to drop my eyes down to read them when they are on the same page.There are a few photographs included, and I wish there had been more. Unfortunately, even though we are in the modern, digital age, the quality of these reproductions is quite poor. Sometimes one can blame this on the poor resolution of the originals, but photography in the 1940s was quite well developed and even the contemporary photos and illustrations looked washed out. This truly is my only complaint about this excellent book.For anyone fascinated (or horrified) by the Holocaust, this is a must-read.

Yitzhak Arad’s book Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, is an historical survey of the three death camps listed in the title, as well as some sub-camps in different locations.Operation Reinhard was the final solution for the Jewish problem in what Germany called “The General Government,” or Poland.Unlike Auschwitz, which was a death camp and concentration camp, a vast area the size of lower Manhattan, where slave labor and extermination existed side by side, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka simply to murdered Jews. Any Jews kept alive in the camps were dedicated expediting this process.Arad’s book is excellent and informative history. He shows how the Nazis exterminated two million Jews with simple methods at hand, using a relatively small staff, and keeping it largely a secret.Even the camps themselves were unimpressive. Again, unlike Auschwitz, with its iconic ramp and gate, a place like Belzec had improvised barracks and wooden buildings all on a small plot of land no more than 18 acres. There, 500,000 Jews were murdered and buried in mass graves on the site in less than a year.All Operation Reinhard camps were destroyed by 1943, and places like Belzec, in a very remote part of Poland, were largely forgotten. At Belzec, what is essentially a mass grave was used as a public park by local Poles; it was not until the 2003 that steps were taken to create a memorial and museum at the site.This book shows how banal mass killing can become; it can be performed on a shoe string budget and with a small staff. And its results are staggering.

It seemed that for years the only widely available book about any of these camps was Jean Francoise Steiners reprehensible "Treblinka" which, though marketed as a history, is clearly a work of fiction. This book by Yitzhak Arad was one of the first well researched, documented and presented books on the subject for me, when I happened upon it at the public library.I am glad to finally own a copy, as it is not only fascinating (though disturbing) reading cover to cover, it is also a good reference. Arad presents the material in such a way so that both the dry details and the ground zero experience of mass murder are experienced. His book drives home the astonishing fact that nearly one third of the Jews murdered during the Holocaust were killed at these three camps during a roughly nineteen month period. These killings were accomplished, at the camps themselves, by approximately 400 officers and auxiliary workers, with the unwilling assistance of doomed slave labor. Arad also provides an accurate reconstruction of the uprisings at Treblinka and Sobibor, and relates the lesser known history of the camps after the escapes.Anyone who only thinks of the Holocaust in terms of German concentration camps or Auschwitz should have a look at this book, as it is an eye opener. For any serious student of the Shoah, it is indespensible.

This book is one of the more detailed examinations that exposes the darkest chapter in the history of humanity, namely Operation Reinhard and the establishment of extermination centres at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. Well researched, this book details the wholesale genoocide of the Jews in the General Government area of Poland. Often in thinking about the Holocaust, Auschwitz springs to mind as the mother of all extermination camps, yet the horrors and atrocities inflicted upon the Jews in Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka must surely equal if not surpass those that occurred in Auschwitz.

This is a truly remarkable book. The history itself is incomprehensible, horrible and tragic. I think the book is remarkable for the absolute dispassion with which the author retells it. There is no hyperbole or amplification in this book (in fact I can only remember one instance of the author even using judgmental words), it is just a plain retelling of the information. And I think for that it is all the more powerful. This in itself is remarkable as the author lost his family in the Holocaust. (Look up his biography for another remarkable story.) It is so dispassionate it even explains the German's 'logistic', 'practical' problems from their standpoint. The events and horror contained in this book are hard to grasp and sometimes one can only hang on to small events to make it human and real. For me it was the fact that the camp Jews who were forced to work for the SS used to help young children undress on their way to gas chambers to speed things along. Knowing, of course, what was coming for the children and in due course themselves. Do read it.

Well researched. An outstanding and comprehensive book about the camps at the heart of the final solution. Their construction, operation, demolition and all the people involved in such. Highly recommended.

Recently visited Sachenhausen in Berlin and it made me think about the stark reality of what happened in these death camps. I had to get this book to gain more knowledge of the situation. This book although at sometimes a little over factual on the figures is a gripping page turner revealing the stark reality of the persecuted Jews, it made me step into their shoes which was terrifying. I was also unaware of the extent of the involvement of the governments, local communities and local authorities in Poland, Hungary and other surrounding countries, who quite willingly agreed with the Germans that the Jewish people living in their communities should be rounded up like a herd of cattle and transported to their deaths, it beggars belief that there were no questions raised or interventions taken to stop this atrocity. A must read.

These three camps did not just witness mass-murder but, as Arad so expertly explains, they were the scene of heroism, tragedy, sadism and debauchery on a scale never before seen.This book is a must read for anyone who thinks they know about the Holocaust: in reality, like me, they know virtually nothing and we will sadly only ever glimpse a shadow of what transpired in the name of National Socialism. Am YIsrael Chai!

5 stars for the history it imparts. Its not an easy read as its a dreadful reminder of the dark days of the holocaust. I have read many books on the subject and still find it hard to believe. Its a page turner of a book. If you want to know of the start of the death camps, and thats what these camps were, then buy it. No labour in the camps just arrive and " Depart" in less than an hour!!

A fundamental read. Outstanding edition.

Received only one day after ordering this book.... had a quick glimpse through but hooked straight away. ..already half way through. .. amazing but emotionally very sad....

This is one of the best books I've found written about these death camps. I recommend it to anyone interested in these death camps.

A shocking book loaded with horror storys. Definatly worth reading if your studying this subject.

This was bought for a friend

Well researched and well worth reading.

Detailed and factual book

bought for a cousin.

A well written and researched history of an unimaginable crime that was Intentionally never documented.Now the survivors and perpetrators have died, this history will probably be the definitive account.

Very good read