Casting of a cobblestone pathway at Treblinka killing center

Fiberglass casting of a portion of the Czarna Droga (Black Road) at Treblinka concentration camp, commissioned by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for installation in the museum’s permanent exhibition. The Czarna Droga was a cobblestone road, approximately two kilometers long, which connected Treblinka I (forced-labor camp) and Treblinka II (killing center) in German-occupied Poland. Some of the cobblestones contain Hebrew inscriptions that are most likely fragments of desecrated tombstones from a Jewish cemetery. Treblinka was established in November 1941, as a forced-labor camp for Jews under Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard). Operation Reinhard was a code name for the plan to kill the two million Jews who resided in specific areas of German-occupied Poland. Treblinka I had Jewish and non-Jewish inmates, most of whom worked in a nearby gravel pit. As part of Operation Reinhard, the SS constructed three new killing centers, one of which was Treblinka II, completed in July 1942. Upon arriving at the killing center, deportees had to surrender all valuables and possessions, and undress prior to entering what they believed to be showers, but were really gas chambers. A group of Jewish prisoners known as the Sonderkommando was forced to work in the killing center, sorting possessions, cleaning freight cars, and disposing of bodies. Initially, the bodies were buried in mass graves, but were later exhumed and burned. On August 2, 1943, Jewish inmates attempted to revolt and escape; though a small number did escape successfully, most were killed as a result. Between 870,000 and 925,000 Jews were killed at Treblinka II, which was dismantled in the fall of 1943. Treblinka I continued operations until July 1944, when Soviet troops moved into the area.