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Buried Gas Chambers Uncovered At Sobibor Death Camp By Archaeologists

Buried Gas Chambers Uncovered At Sobibor Death Camp By Archaeologists

Archaeologists have unearthed previously buried gas chambers at the Sobibor extermination camp in Poland built and later destroyed by Nazis

Mischa Pearlmen

Mischa Pearlmen

Adolf Hitler was, and will always remain, one of the most evil men to ever walk this planet. Even if you don't believe in the concept of pure good and pure evil - which, after all, is more of a religious construct than anything else - it's still hard to deny that Hitler still resides as close to pure evil as possible.

Now, new evidence has emerged to further back up what we already knew to be true. A team of archeologists recently excavated the site of a former extermination camp in Bobibor, Poland.

One of many death and concentration camps set up by the Nazis in Poland, Sobibor isn't as well-known as Auschwitz, but the evidence obtained by the archeologists shows it was just as hellish.

Sobibor

The camp was a central part of Operation Reinhard, which ultimately led to the murders of two million innocent people.

When Allied troops began advancing in the latter stages of WWII and it was clear to the Nazis they had lost the war, they began burning the camps and filling the mass graves with concrete in an attempt to cover their horrific crimes.

The camp was closed following an uprising there on October 14 1943, and after the gas chambers were demolished an asphalt road was built over the top. The revolt was organized by Jewish civilians at the camp and Jewish officers in the Soviet army who had been taken prisoner and sent to Sobibor.

Sobibor

As Reuters reports, the excavation of the death camp unearthed previously-hidden gas chambers where it's estimated some 250,000 people were killed.

"Finally, we have reached our goal - the discovery of the gas chambers," said Yoram Haimi, one of the archaeologists.

"We were amazed at the size of the building and the well-preserved condition of the chamber walls."

Beneath the road, archaeologists excavated beneath found lines of bricks, laid four deep, where they believe the walls of the gas chambers used to stand. This has allowed them to calculate how big the chambers were, and to estimate how many people were murdered at the camp.

Because the Nazis razed the camp to ground, and the fact there were so few survivors, there had been less information about Sobibor than other concentration camps and the scale of killing that took place there.

Sobibor

Polish archaeologist Wojciech Mazurek was involved in uncovering the site and said the excavations revealed there were eight gas chambers.

"The extermination of people took place there; murder by smoke from an engine that killed everyone within 15 minutes in these gas chambers, in torment, shouting," he said.

"It is said that ... the Nazis even bred geese in order to drown out these shouts so that prisoners could not have heard these shouts, these torments."

Personal items were also discovered buried in the ground at the site of the camp, including a wedding ring with an inscription in Hebrew that read: "Behold, you are consecrated unto me."

Featured Image Credit: Sobibor

Topics: News, WWII, Nazi, Poland