At the Treblinka extermination and forced labor camp only a few SS soldiers and around a hundred watchmen kept guard over thousands of prisoners. Despite their lower rank in the Nazi hierarchy than SS soldiers, watchmen were vital to implementing “Operation Reinhard” in the field. Prisoners in Nazi camps were terrified by their brutality and ruthlessness.

The guards were intermediaries between the camp’s inmates and the commanding crew, so in cases of a prisoners’ riot, they were the first target. The historical records mention several incidents where the watchmen died at the hands of the captives. However, little is known regarding how the dead bodies of the guards were treated nor what the funeral customs looked like in the camps.

In 2019, a row of individual burials was discovered at the former Treblinka extermination and forced labor camp. Seven of those graves were explored to identify the people buried in such an unusual manner and to find out what had caused their deaths. A thorough multidisciplinary study, combining the forensic disciplines of archaeology, anthropology, medicine, and genetics provided the answer.

Considering archaeological findings, it can be deduced that the graves belong to the Treblinka guards. The analysis conducted by an anthropologist indicates that the assessed biological profile aligns with the antemortem data of the Treblinka watchmen. Moreover, a study examining perimortem trauma has unveiled that out of the seven men studied, at least two met a violent demise. These findings are crucial in narrowing down the identification process.

The results of our study contribute to a general understanding of the funerary customs prevalent in concentration camps worldwide. Prior to this work, there had never been any analysis or publication of the characteristics of watchmen graves at Nazi camps, making our results unique.

在特雷布林卡灭绝和强迫劳动营，只有几名党卫军士兵和大约一百名看守看守着数千名囚犯。尽管守望者在纳粹等级制度中的级别低于党卫军士兵，但他们对于在战场上实施“莱因哈德行动”至关重要。纳粹集中营的囚犯对他们的残暴和无情感到恐惧。

警卫是集中营囚犯和指挥人员之间的中间人，因此一旦发生囚犯骚乱，他们就是第一个目标。史书记载有好几起看守人死于俘虏之手的事件。然而，人们对这些警卫的尸体如何处理以及营地里的丧葬习俗知之甚少。

2019年，在前特雷布林卡灭绝和强迫劳动营发现了一排个人墓葬。对其中七个坟墓进行了探索，以识别以这种不寻常方式埋葬的人，并找出导致他们死亡的原因。结合考古学、人类学、医学和遗传学等法医学学科的彻底的多学科研究提供了答案。

考虑到考古发现，可以推断这些坟墓属于特雷布林卡卫兵。人类学家进行的分析表明，评估的生物学特征与特雷布林卡看守人的生前数据一致。此外，一项检查临死创伤的研究表明，在所研究的七名男子中，至少有两人遭遇暴力死亡。这些发现对于缩小识别过程至关重要。

我们的研究结果有助于对世界各地集中营中普遍存在的丧葬习俗有一个总体的了解。在这项工作之前，从未对纳粹集中营守望者坟墓的特征进行过任何分析或发表，这使得我们的结果独一无二。