We'll I'll take the question you are hinting at:

These camps are far less well-known than Auschwitz but in many ways they are actually the ultimate expression of the world view and policies that led to the genocide we know as the Holocaust.

Why are these camps the ones more "expressive" of what the Holocaust was about?

What is/was the response of European Holocaust deniers to the OR camps? Usually when I see their ilk online or in print, they're talking about Auschwitz or Dachau, how there's no evidence that the purpose of these camps was extermination rather than forced labor, etc. Did Holocaust deniers come up with some argument to explain away the death camps, or did they just ignore them?

Are there any happy or heartwarming tales from your studies? I understand the desolation within these camps and I hope this question doesn't come off as stupid/insensitive, but I'm wondering if you've come across anything that could be considered 'happy' at all?

To what extent was the local population around the death camps aware of their purpose? Reading the wiki for Belzec, I notice they said something about how some local residents used to scour the grounds looking for valuables after the war.

Here's one that's always mystified me:

It's been explained (very thoroughly, particularly in this subreddit) how effective the Germans and their collaborators were in deceiving their victims upon arrival at the extermination camps (i.e. announcing they were at a transit stop on their way to be "resettled in the East"), thus avoiding mass panic and hysteria.

But how effective was it with Polish Jews, the main targets of Operation Reinhard? Surely years of living in the ghettos, where starvation and arbitrary executions became almost second-nature for its inhabitants, would've proven already to the Jews of Poland that their lives were deemed worthless by the occupying Germans.

In other words: how could a transport of Polish Jews, packed like sardines into cattle cars, on their way to Treblinka not anticipate that they were being sent to their deaths? How often of an occurrence was mass hysteria upon arrival at the Reinhard camps, and how did the perpetrators usually deal with it?

What was operation Reinhard named after?

Did the camp keep records on where the valuables of the victims went? How did they decide how to use them?

This is perhaps an odd question, but how do you keep going when studying such acts of inhumanity? I know I would get totally beaten down.

Were there any interesting work duties that the Sonderkommando were put to task at these camps? Were Sonderkommando treated differently?

Also can you shed some light into the dismantling of these camps, often people are surprised to hear about such things as Sonderaktion 1005

Did the locals ever try to help prisoners escape? Would they be successful? What stories are there about this?

Whom liberated these camps, and what were the immediate, on-site actions taken to the discovery of these death camps? Second question: How much can one believe about the Allied ignorance of these camps purposes; surely they knew they existed - the skies were in their hands. Was there any pre-knowledge of what they would find, or were they simply ID'd as 'some sort of camp?'

Hi Esterke! I'm glad you're doing this, your answers are always fantastic! A few questions:

• How many deaths are attributed to each camp and for how long was each one operational?

• What types of evidence beyond eye-witness testimony are used to conclude those total numbers?

• Have you been? What was that experience like say, compared to a place like Auschwitz that is still standing?

Given that the Nazis took extraordinary measures (as you described here) to dismantle and obscure the existence of these camps before the end of the war, is it possible that there were other extermination camps of which we are still not aware?

Did the Nazi government and/or SS keep as "master list" of all such camps in the Reich?

Thanks for doing this AMA.

When were these camps built?

Do any photos exist of the camp in operation? Are there are notable books by survivors?

Were there any elaborate escape plans ever made? Were the plans executed and were they successful?

How many kids were murdered in those 3 camps? [if any?]

Hello, Are you a collector? Do you have any items from these camps? I am a ww2 German researcher/ collector, and im interested if you have any special unpublished photos from the camps to share with us, whether they be in a museum or personal collection.

Also, have you been able to see the progress of the recent excavation of the Treblinka camps? Any neat info? What will happen to the items found in the unearthing? It is said through a couple media outlets that the excavation revealed evidence of gas chambers being used......do you know how they knew this?? I have a feeling this was a bold statement. I think they found a mass grave, but is there evidence of gas chambers being used at either Treblinka Camp I or II?

I recently read Shermer and Grobman's Denying History and it references something I'd never heard before: that in many concentration and extermination camps the gas chambers used carbon monoxide, not Zyklon B as was so infamously used at Auschwitz. Why did different camps use different gases?

Thank you for doing this. Education is so important, especially as these events will soon enough pass from living memory.

My question is about the perpetrators. Were many people involved prosecuted, punished, executed? It can be infuriating to read about how some perpetrators of the Holocaust managed to escape being held responsible, & lived out their lives in peace & comfort. I know there have been some "too little—too late" prosecutions of lower level participants. What about in the immediate postwar period?

If this question is outside what you wanted to talk about, I'm sorry, please ignore.