The uprising in Sobibór is different for all of us, the famous escape from Sobibór. The appearance and mass escape of prisoners took place on October 14, 1943, exactly 75 years ago.
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Condemned to death
The German camp in Sobibór was established as part of Operation Reinhardt and was one of three such places. Its main goal was the final annihilation of the Jewish question. Opened in 1942. The area selected for its construction was located near the Włodawa-Chełm railway line. The area surrounded by forests and swamps was favorable to the purpose of the camp. It is estimated that about 180 people were murdered in its area during its duration.
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Work in the camp
Although the camp was established with the aim of the complete extermination of Jewish civilization, the prisoners were still obliged to work, as in any other camp. Physical work was performed by Jewish prisoners who were spared death in the gas chamber. The groups that came to the camp were divided. Appropriate professionals who were useful in the camp were selected from each of them. In fact, there were an average of 650 prisoners in the camp at any one time, whose duties included: sorting clothes and other items brought by prisoners, cutting the hair of people going to their death, escorting victims from the carriages that brought them to the camp, and many others.
The beginnings of the conspiracy
As many historians claim, the first thought, the idea of organizing a revolt in the camp, appeared at the beginning of 1943. It was the Arbeitsjuden, that is the workers of the camp, who started to think about the conspiracy. At the very beginning, the number of people who planned any moves against the authorities in the camp did not exceed 10 prisoners. All of them were in a high position at the time, and together they believed that the only way to survive was to run away. If they failed, they would rather die in battle than wait idly for death. Then the main chairman of the whole confusion was Leon Feldhendler, the son of a rabbi.
The final decision
For a long time, the prisoners' plans for the uprising were just casual conversations. Unfortunately, several subsequent events contributed to the final decision. Information about the murder of prisoners from the death camp in Bełżec, who were the last prisoners. They were working on liquidating and covering up the traces of the camp's existence, so the inhabitants of Sobibór predicted the same fate for themselves. In addition, fewer and fewer transports were coming to the camp, which could have been a sign that the Germans were planning their liquidation. Individual escapes made no sense because most of them ended in failure, so in the end a decision was made to escape together as a group.
October 14 - uprising in Sobibór
The initial plan of the uprising and the great escape from the camp was dated on October 13.10.1943, 16, but it was finally the following day, at 00:550 p.m., that the SS deputy commander was killed in the tailor's shop. The next two hours brought the death of another seven SS men and one Ukrainian guard. At the time of the revolt, there were about 80 prisoners in the camp. 300 people died during the fight and in the minefields surrounding the entire area. 53 managed to escape, but many of them were captured by the Germans. Only XNUMX refugees survived the war.
