During the military operations on the frontlines during the Great Patriotic War, the counterintelligence agencies “SMERSH” of the various fronts, armies, corps and divisions, along with carrying out the tasks assigned to them to combat enemy intelligence agents, simultaneously conducted investigations of Hitler’s atrocities, and carried out an active search for Nazi war criminals and their accomplices.
In mid-August 1944, units of the 65th Army of the 1st Belorussian Front liberated the Nazi “death camp” located at Treblinka station, 80 kilometers northeast of Warsaw. The Treblinka “death camp” consisted of “camp No. 1”, the so-called “work camp”, and “camp No. 2”, the actual “death camp”.
The “conveyor belt of death” in Treblinka operated from the end of 1941 to the end of July 1944. According to those involved in the atrocities, up to 2,500 people were killed daily in Treblinka by shooting and gassing.
The camp was guarded by SS men and guards (SS-Wachmann) from among former Soviet prisoners of war who voluntarily surrendered to the enemy and underwent special training at the guard school in the SS Trawniki Training Camp.
On November 22, 1944, the head of the SMERSH OKR (counterintelligence department) of the 65th Army, Guards Colonel S. L. Los, sent a special message to the head of the SMERSH UKR (counterintelligence directorate) of the 2nd Belorussian Front, General-Lieutenant Ya. A. Yedunov, about the arrest of one of the executioners, the SS guard of the Treblinka camp, Pavel Leleko.
During the investigation, Leleko testified about the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their accomplices in the Treblinka camps. The following translation details his Top Secret testimony, initial reporting of which were recently declassified by the Russian FSB.
The Internet Archive holds, as part of the John Demjanjuk case, a translation of the complete original SMERSH interrogation of Leleko – follow this link and search for the surname. It is a lengthy and chilling read.
TOP SECRET
TO THE CHIEF OF THE “SMERSH” COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DIRECTORATE OF THE SECOND BELORUSSIAN FRONT – GENERAL LIEUTENANT
Comrade YEDUNOV
SPECIAL REPORT
on the arrest of Treblinka death camp guard Pavel Vladimirovich LELEKO
On 17 November 1944, the “SMERSH” Counterintelligence Department of the Army arrested Treblinka “death camp” (Poland) guard and former Red Army soldier Pavel Vladimirovich LELEKO, year of birth 1922, native of the settlement of Chaplynka, Chaplynka region, Mykolaiv Oblast. He is a Ukrainian, a citizen of the USSR, non-party, 7th grade education, unmarried, verbal assurance of no previous convictions. Fearing culpability for crimes committed, he was hiding out in Poland under the name “Kazimir VOZNYAK”.
Once properly identified, LELEKO was convicted of criminal activity and arrested.
From the accused, it was established that the Treblinka death camp was built by the German Nazi occupiers in the fall of 1941 for the purpose of exterminating the Jewish populations of occupied European countries and was in operation up to July 1944.
The death camp occupied an area of up to 6 hectares and was surrounded by a system of security barriers. At 100 to 150 meters from a barbed wire entanglement, anti-tank obstacles were installed, also entangled in barbed wire. A deep ditch and earthen walls ran around the camp at a short distance. All of this ruled out the possibility for escape.
A railway spur was laid down from Malkina station to the camp, and every day on this spur, waves of Jewish children, women, and elderly people arrived from various European countries. Those who were sent off to Treblinka were issued documents that stated they would be going off to work in Ukraine or resettled to live in Palestine.
The throngs of people would be unloaded on camp premises near two barracks-type buildings. At the “depot” building there were clocks painted, and train schedules to Ternopil and other stations were hung there. After the train was unloaded, the people were sorted, divided into two or three groups – elderly, sick, and exhausted, and the “work crew” – made up of the executioners – led them off to a so-called “infirmary,” where they were stripped, and the Germans and guards shot them.
Men and women who were capable of working were led in groups to the “changing room,” from which they were sent to, supposedly, the bathhouse, and along the way, they handed over their things, their clothing and valuables.
After “disinfection,” the women had their hair cut off, which was subsequently packed into sacks, then sent off to Germany.
The people were driven in groups, naked, to the bathhouse along a path surrounded by barbed wire, and were beaten all the while by the Germans and guards using whips and rifle butts.
The “bathhouse” was a brick building which housed eight gas chambers. When the chambers were filled, a motor was switched on and, after 15-20 minutes, the people were poisoned by the exhaust.
The corpses were hauled out by the “work crew,” thrown into pits, and burned. Those who did not manage to die from the gas were shot by the Germans and guards. To burn the bodies, special ovens were built consisting of stacks of rails reinforced on a cement foundation. For a single load, over the course of 4-5 hours, thousands of bodies were burned.
So using this process, using a number of methods, as many as five million Jews were killed in the Treblinka death camp, brought here by the Germans from France, Belgium, Holland, and other European countries they’re occupying.
The investigation has established that LELEKO, whom we arrested, while at the front lines of the Patriotic War, in May 1942 during a battle in the Kerch region, surrendered to the enemy, after which he was held in the Rovenskiy [Rivne] prisoner of war camp where, in August 1942, he volunteered to attend Wachtmann school in the town of Trawniki (Poland). Upon completion of his training in September 1942, he was sent to the Treblinka death camp as a guard and worked there until August 1942 [sic].
During his interrogation, regarding the mass extermination of the prisoner population at the camp, LELEKO testified:
“During the 11 months of my service, more than two million Jews were exterminated at the death camp. Women and men who were able to work were killed in the gas chambers, and those who were sick or weakened were passed through the so-called “infirmary,” led to the pits, and shot and burned.”
Regarding his participation in the atrocities committed by the Germans in the Treblinka death camp, LELEKO testified:
“During my period of service in the Treblinka death camp, together with the Germans and guards, I took part in the extermination of the population. I personally participated in the direct shooting of prisoners in the camp ten times. Twice in the fall of 1942, at night, I had cordoned off a “work crew,” which the Germans and other guards shot. Six times, in the winter of 1942-43, I participated in the shooting of the sick and elderly passing through the so-called “infirmary”. During these six events, I personally shot 25 to 30 people.”
We are continuing the investigation of this case.
CHIEF OF THE “SMERSH” COUNTERINTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT OF THE 65 ARMY – GUARDS COLONEL S. LOS
22 November 1944
Translating History 