Franciszek Ząbecki
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Lieutenant Franciszek Ząbecki (; 8 October 1907 – 11 April 1987) was a
station master The station master (or stationmaster) is the person in charge of a Train station, railway station, particularly in the United Kingdom and many other countries outside North America. In the United Kingdom, where the term originated, it is now lar ...
at the village of
Treblinka Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...
. During the German
occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...
in World War II, Ząbecki worked as a
dispatcher A dispatcher is a Communication, communications worker who receives and transmits information to coordinate operations of other personnel and vehicles carrying out a service. Emergency organizations including police, police departments, fire de ...
for the ''
Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the Weimar Republic, German national Rail transport, railway system created after th ...
''; he also became a secret soldier in the underground
Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
(AK), collecting classified data and reporting to the Polish resistance on
the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
transports that went to
Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...
. Over 800,000 Jews were murdered there in the course of
Operation Reinhard Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...
, the deadliest phase of
the Holocaust in Poland The Holocaust saw the ghettoization, robbery, deportation and mass murder of Jews, alongside other groups under Nazi racial theories, similar racial pretexts in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland by the Nazi Germany. Over th ...
. Ząbecki himself estimated that number to be 1,200,000 people. After the war, Ząbecki testified at the trials of German war criminals, including '' SS'' officer
Kurt Franz Kurt Hubert Franz (17 January 1914 – 4 July 1998) was an SS officer and one of the commanders of the Treblinka extermination camp. Because of this, Franz was one of the major perpetrators of genocide during the Holocaust. Sentenced to life impri ...
, and the commandant of Treblinka
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...
,
Franz Stangl Franz Paul Stangl (; 26 March 1908 – 28 June 1971) was an Austrian police officer and commandant of the Nazi extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka in World War II. Stangl, an employee of the T-4 Euthanasia Program and an SS commander ...
. His incriminating evidence against them included original German waybills produced by the ''Reichsbahn'', which proved that the "Güterwagen" boxcars crammed with prisoners on the way to Treblinka were returning empty. Ząbecki secretly stole a batch of waybills in 1944 from the control house to serve as physical proof of the massacre. From July 1942 until the end of war, Ząbecki regularly delivered his reports about the Holocaust trains to the
Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...
.


Life

Franciszek Ząbecki was born in Łyszkowice to Rozalia and Franciszek Ząbecki, as one of their four children. After graduation, he worked for the railway between 29 September 1925 and 15 October 1929 in Bednary near
Łowicz Łowicz is a town in central Poland with 27,436 inhabitants (2021). It is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship. Together with a nearby station of Bednary, Łowicz is a major rail junction of central Poland, where the line from Warsaw splits into ...
, first as an
apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...
and then as the
radiotelegraph Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is the transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using electrical cable, cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimenta ...
operator. Ząbecki was drafted to serve at Zegrze Fortress from 15 October 1929 until 1 September 1931. Soon later, he relocated to
Sokołów Podlaski Sokołów Podlaski is a town in Poland, in Masovian Voivodeship, about east of Warsaw. The town lies on the Cetynia river, in the historical region of Podlachia and is the capital of Sokołów County. The first settlement was in the 6th century a ...
, where his older brother Grzegorz worked at a sugar refinery. Franciszek found employment as a tax collector and got to know the locals. On 4 September 1939, during the German
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
he reported to the Communication Battalion of the
Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
in Zegrze as the reserve (''
plutonowy Plutonowy (literally ''Platoon-man'') is an Non-commissioned officer, NCO rank in the Polish Armed Forces rank insignia system, located between the ranks of Corporal, Senior Corporal and Sergeant. As one of two OR-4 ranks in the Polish Army (the o ...
''). Two weeks later, on the first day of the parallel
Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...
from the east, he was arrested in the village of Kołodno near Zbaraż and shipped to a Soviet POW camp. After two months, on 13 November 1939 Ząbecki was transferred to German jurisdiction in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet pact. He was sent to
Parchim Parchim (; Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialect, Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch: ''Parchen'') is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district. It was the birthplace of Helmuth von Moltke the Elde ...
in Germany where he worked as a
slave labor Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
er on a farm in Klinken. Retrieved 15 September 2013. He was released on 29 March 1941 for medical reasons and returned to Sokołów. Being a railwayman from before the invasion, he was put to work at the nearby Treblinka station on . There he secretly joined the resistance under the nom-de-guerre "Dawny" (the ''old-timer'' in Polish) and was asked by the
Armia Krajowa The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...
(AK) to keep a watch on the German rail transports passing through the station. This intelligence became crucial following the German attack on Russian positions in occupied eastern Poland. Soon afterwards, Ząbecki was given the task of spying on the secretive Treblinka extermination camp for the AK. He kept cryptic notes with daily records of the extermination transports and also took the clandestine photograph of the burning Treblinka-II perimeter during the prisoner uprising. Ząbecki was present at Treblinka for the first Holocaust train arrival from the German-occupied capital of Poland during the ''
Grossaktion Warsaw The ''Grossaktion'' Warsaw ("Great Action") was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the ''Grossaktion'', Jews were terrorized in daily ro ...
'', commencing the final destruction of at least 254,000 Jews from the
Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...
.Barbara Engelking-Boni
Warsaw Ghetto Internet Database
hosted b
Polish Center for Holocaust Research
Fund for Support of Jewish Institutions or Projects, 2006. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
He was one of only a few non-German witnesses of all Jewish transports thereafter, until the liquidation of the Treblinka death camp, with the last Jewish forced laborers sent to be murdered at the
Sobibor extermination camp Sobibor ( ; ) was an extermination camp built and operated by Nazi Germany as part of Operation Reinhard. It was located in the forest near the village of Żłobek Duży in the General Government region of Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), ...
in five covered wagons on 20 October 1943.


Memoir published in 1977

As a former member of the
Polish resistance movement in World War II In Poland, the Resistance during World War II, resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army. The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front ...
, Ząbecki published a groundbreaking book in 1977 about his wartime experiences, containing original documents, his own Treblinka findings, as well as his postwar testimonies delivered at the Treblinka war-crime trials in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
in 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1970, which he attended at the request of the German prosecutors. In his book of facts about the camp history titled ''Wspomnienia dawne i nowe'' (Old and New Memories), Ząbecki estimated that no fewer than 1,200,000 people were murdered at Treblinka. Donat, Alexander, ed. ''The Death Camp Treblinka: A Documentary.'' New York: Holocaust Library, 1979. LOC 79-53471 Even though these estimates have been revised by others in the following decades, his book is still one of the leading sources of information for professional historians about the mass deportations to Treblinka from the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland, their frequency, and volume.


Documentary film

Ząbecki was the subject of a documentary film made by WWFD ''Czołówka'' from
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, the People's Army film division. It was popularized in schools and community centres around Poland during the German trial of Holocaust perpetrator Franz Stangl. Notably, when Ząbecki went to Düsseldorf to testify against him, he was offered a good life in the West by the defense attorneys in case he chose to defect. He declined the offer, and instead fully incriminated Stangl. He knew him personally from his visits at the extermination camp layover yard. During the war, Ząbecki secretly watched the railway line from
Siedlce Siedlce () ( ) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants (). The city is situated between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, and lies along the European route E30, around east of Warsaw. It is ...
to
Małkinia Górna Małkinia Górna is a large village in Ostrów Mazowiecka County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Małkinia Górna. Małkinia is a railway junction. There, the main line between Warsaw an ...
junction, which was shown in the film together with his clandestine work for the underground, and his daily recording of data. It was thanks to Ząbecki, that the scale of mass murder became known long before more advanced historical research was conducted in the following decades.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zabecki, Franciszek Treblinka trials Home Army members Polish military personnel of World War II Polish World War II forced labourers Recipients of the Armia Krajowa Cross Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Polish people in rail transport