Editing Warsaw Ghetto (section)

== Treblinka deportations ==
[[File:Grossaktion Warsaw 1942.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Grossaktion Warschau]]'' 1942]]
[[File:Umschlagplatz Warsaw Ghetto 01.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Umschlagplatz]]'' holding pen for deportations to Treblinka [[death camp]] ]]
[[File:Umschlagplatz loading.jpg|thumb|right|The ''[[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Grossaktion Warschau]]'' 1942 boarding onto the [[Holocaust train]]s]]
Approximately 100,000 ghetto inmates had already died of hunger-related diseases and starvation before the mass deportations started in the summer of 1942. Earlier that year, during the [[Wannsee Conference]] near Berlin, the [[Final Solution]] was set in motion. It was a secretive plan to mass-murder Jewish inhabitants of the General Government. The techniques used to deceive victims were based upon experience gained at the [[Chełmno extermination camp]] (''Kulmhof'').{{sfnp|Browning|1998|loc="The August Deportations to Treblinka". pp. 88–96 (115–123 in PDF)}} The [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|ghettoised Jews]] were rounded up, street by street, under the guise of "[[World War II evacuation and expulsion|resettlement]]", and marched to the ''[[Umschlagplatz]]'' holding area.<ref name="Memorial"/> From there, they were sent aboard [[Holocaust train]]s to the [[Treblinka death camp]], built in a forest {{convert|50|mi|order=flip}} northeast of Warsaw.<ref name="Kopówka"/> The operation was headed by the German Resettlement Commissioner, ''[[SS]]-[[Sturmbannführer]]'' [[Hermann Höfle]], on behalf of SS-''[[Oberführer]]'' [[Ferdinand von Sammern-Frankenegg]], the acting [[SS and police leader]] of the [[Warsaw District]]. Upon learning of this plan, Adam Czerniaków, leader of the Judenrat Council, killed himself. He was replaced by [[Marek Lichtenbaum]],<ref name="Gutman1"/> tasked with managing roundups with the aid of Jewish Ghetto Police. No-one was informed about the real state of affairs.<ref name="Edelman" />

The extermination of Jews by means of poisonous gases was carried out at [[Treblinka II]] under the auspices of [[Operation Reinhard]], which also included [[Bełżec extermination camp|Bełżec]], [[Majdanek concentration camp|Majdanek]], and [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]] death camps.{{sfnp|Browning|1998|loc="The August Deportations to Treblinka". pp. 88–96 (115–123 in PDF)}} About 254,000 Warsaw Ghetto inmates (or at least 300,000 by different accounts) were sent to Treblinka during the ''[[Grossaktion Warsaw (1942)|Grossaktion Warschau]]'', and murdered there between ''[[Tisha B'Av]]'' (July 23) and ''[[Yom Kippur]]'' (September 21) of 1942.<ref name="YadVashem1"/> The ratio between Jews killed on the spot by [[Orpo battalions|Orpo]] and [[Sicherheitspolizei|Sipo]] during roundups, and those deported was approximately 2 percent.{{sfnp|Browning|1998|loc="The August Deportations to Treblinka". pp. 88–96 (115–123 in PDF)}}

For eight weeks, the deportations of Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka continued on a daily basis via two shuttle trains: each transport carrying about 4,000 to 7,000 people crying for water; 100 people to a cattle truck. The first daily trains rolled into the camp early in the morning often after an overnight wait at a layover yard; and the second, in mid-afternoon.{{sfnp|Kopówka|Rytel-Andrianik|2011|p = 94}} Dr [[Janusz Korczak]], a famed educator, went to Treblinka with his orphanage children in August 1942. He was offered a chance to escape by Polish friends and admirers, but he chose instead to share the fate of his life's work.<ref name="Lifton"/> All new arrivals were sent immediately to the undressing area by the ''[[Sonderkommando]]'' squad that managed the arrival platform, and from there to the gas chambers. The stripped victims were suffocated to death in batches of 200 with the use of monoxide gas. In September 1942, new gas chambers were built, which could kill as many as 3,000 people in just 2 hours. Civilians were forbidden to approach the camp area.<ref name="Edelman"/> In the last two weeks of the ''Aktion'' ending on September 21, 1942, some 48,000 Warsaw Jews were deported to their deaths. The last transport with 2,200 victims from the Polish capital included the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] involved with deportations, and their families.<ref name="Arad"/> In October 1942 the [[Jewish Combat Organization]] (ŻOB) was formed and tasked with opposing further deportations. It was led by 24 year–old [[Mordechai Anielewicz]].<ref name="USHMM2"/> Meanwhile, between October 1942 and March 1943, Treblinka received transports of almost 20,000 foreign Jews from the German [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] via [[Theresienstadt]], and from Bulgarian-occupied [[Thrace]], Macedonia, and [[Pirot]] following an agreement with the Nazi-allied Bulgarian government.<ref name="USHMM4"/>

By the end of 1942, it was clear that the deportations were to their deaths.<ref name="USHMM2"/> The underground activity of ghetto resistors in the group ''[[Ringelblum Archive|Oyneg Shabbos]]'' increased after learning that the transports for "resettlement" led to the mass killings.<ref name="USHMM5"/> Also in 1942, [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance]] officer [[Jan Karski]] reported to the Western governments on the situation in the ghetto and on the extermination camps. Many of the remaining Jews decided to resist further deportations, and began to smuggle in weapons, ammunition and supplies.<ref name="USHMM2"/>