Nobody at Treblinka

Sie waren nicht ein kleiner Mann.

Film director Claude Lanzmann

to a former Nazi official

But keep the scale in mind. What single man

Could undertake that kind of enterprise

When each day trains from half of Europe ran

Into the camp? The prisoners swarmed like flies

Onto the platforms. Hundreds did their jobs

Of keeping books, processing and selecting,

Or guarding work brigades, or moving mobs

Into the chambers . . . cleaning . . . disinfecting.

You see, with those large numbers, no one said,

"X is responsible." We were a team

Handling the hordes-the living, and the dead.

Mine was a minor function. Do I seem

Like someone who would cause such sufferings?

I was a nobody. Nobody does those things.