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The Holocaust History Project.
The Holocaust History Project.

Shoah (The Film)

Question:

"So Stadie, the sarge, showed us the camp from end to end. Just as we went by, they were opening the gas-chamber doors, and people fell out like potatoes. Naturally, that horrified and appalled us."

--SS Unterscharführer Franz Suchomel, 1985

Source: SS Unterscharführer Franz Suchomel, interviewed for the film *Shoah*, transcript from book of the same name, Claude Lanzmann, 1985, p. 54.

Why does this say 1985? Does it mean 1945?

Andrew Mathis answers:

Hello. I am one of the volunteers that answers questions for I am one of the volunteers who answers questions for the Holocaust History Project.

Franz Suchomel was describing Treblinka in an interview he gave to filmmaker Claude Lanzmann for his 1985 film on the Holocaust, Shoah. So the date of the interview in 1985, but Suchomel is talking about events in the range of 1941-43.

Andrew E. Mathis, Ph.D.

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