Images of Warsaw and Treblinka in Poland, taken in June 2014.
“Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.71 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.66 million residents, making Warsaw the ninth most populous city proper in the European Union.
“Warsaw’s name in the Polish language is Warszawa – pronounced Varshava – (also formerly spelled Warszewa and Warszowa), means ‘belonging to Warsz’, Warsz being a shortened form of the masculine name of Slavic origin Warcisław. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman Wars and his wife Sawa. According to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. Actually, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of today’s Mariensztat neighbourhood.
“Treblinka was an extermination camp built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was located near the village of Treblinka in the modern-day Masovian Voivodeship north-east of Warsaw. The camp operated officially between 23 July 1942 and 19 October 1943 as part of Operation Reinhard, the most deadly phase of the Final Solution. During this time, it is estimated that somewhere between 800,000 and 1.2 million people died in its gas chambers, almost all of whom were Jews, though about 2,000 were Romani.
“Managed by the German SS and the Eastern European Trawnikis (also known as Hiwi guards), the camp consisted of two separate units: Treblinka I and the Treblinka II extermination camp (Vernichtungslager). The first was a forced-labour camp (Arbeitslager) whose prisoners worked in the gravel pit or irrigation area and in the forest, where they cut wood to fuel the crematoria. Between 1941 and 1944, more than half of its 20,000 inmates died from summary executions, hunger, disease and mistreatment.”
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