The main entrance of the Sobibor killing center, spring 1943. —United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collection, gift of Bildungswerk Stanislaw-Hantz
Niemann meticulously documented his time at Sobibor. His photos provide a new perspective of the organization of the Sobibor killing center. However, they do not show the full truth. The photographs present Sobibor in the way that Niemann wanted it seen, while masking the brutality of the place. For example, we can see several parts of the killing center deliberately designed by the Nazis to deceive victims upon arrival in order to maintain relative order and calm.
The Sobibor killing center was situated next to a railway line and adjacent to the local train station. It occupied a plot of land just larger than 33 soccer fields. The Polish village of Sobibór was located about three miles away. The comings and goings of deportation trains and other supplies were clearly visible to local inhabitants.
After the start of killing operations in May 1942, the Sobibor killing center underwent several expansions. By the time Niemann arrived in late summer 1942, it had three distinct areas:
An administration area, which included the German living quarters and Camp I
Camp II, with the so-called reception area and the barracks in which victims’ confiscated belongings were sorted
Camp III, the killing area
Many of Niemann’s photographs show the physical layout of Sobibor. Although none of the photographs depict the killing area, a few corroborate crucial details of mass killing, a horrifically violent and systematic process previously only described by Holocaust survivors in postwar testimonies.