At least several Russian news platforms have referred to the Nazi German extermination camp at Treblinka as a "Polish death conveyor.” Among these platforms is a website targeting Russian expatriates residing in London.
On April 11, 2025, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) declassified interrogation records of six guards, all former Soviet prisoners of war, who served at the Treblinka camp. In reporting on this release, several Russian news outlets, including News.ru, Lenta.ru, and Dzen.ru, used headlines featuring the inflammatory phrase “Polish death conveyor” (польском конвейере смерти). This wording was also echoed by a Russian-language portal based in London, which linked directly to an article on Lenta.ru.
Interestingly, the FSB’s official publication titled the documents “Треблинский лагерь смерти” (“Treblinka Death Camp”), avoiding any reference to Poland in the title. Similarly, while the Russian state news agency TASS used the inaccurate phrase “the Treblinka camp in Poland” in a headline, the article itself correctly described the site as “the Treblinka concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.”
Treblinka, located approximately 100 kilometres northeast of Warsaw, was the site of two German Nazi camps during the Second World War.
The first, a penal labour camp, was established in 1941. It primarily held Poles, as well as Jews who were sent there for forced labour. Around 10,000 people died in the camp. In mid-1942, a separate extermination camp for Jews was constructed nearby. Jews from occupied Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, the USSR, Germany, and Austria were murdered there. Roma and Sinti from Poland and Germany were also among the victims.
Victims were murdered immediately upon arrival using exhaust fumes in specially constructed gas chambers. It is estimated that over 800,000 people were murdered there. In an effort to destroy evidence of the crimes, the bodies were burned on specially constructed grates.
On 2 August 1943, a violent uprising was staged by prisoners in the camp. Of the 840 people involved, only around 200 managed to escape. Ultimately, only about 100 prisoners survived until the end of the war. Following the uprising, the camp was gradually dismantled. By November 1943, all camp structures and installations had been demolished. (For more information about the camp visit: https://muzeumtreblinka.eu)
FSB-declassified documents: http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/history/archival_material/Treblinka.html
News.ru article: https://news.ru/russia/v-rossii-rassekretili-dokumenty-o-polskom-konvejere-smerti/
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