Six million Jewish lives were lost during the Holocaust. The Nazis used an intricate plan for the annihilation of the Jewish race. Ghettoes, concentration camps, and the total support of the German race were the keys to this intricate plan. The ghettoes would be used to confine the Jews into a single location so as when the time came, it would be easy to round them up and ship them to either death camps or work camps. Other holocausts have occurred in history, but none were as efficient as the Nazis plan. Death factories were created by the Nazis that were capable of killing thousands of Jews at a time. It all began with the death camps.The deportation of the Jewish people to camps demonstrated the way the Nazis felt about the Jews. They crammed the Jews into train cars as if they were cattle going to the market. For many, this was the end for them. The cars were packed so tightly that people had to stand in order to fit. On their long journeys to the camps, they were given no food or water. Furthermore, the only ventilation came from little barred-up windows. The Jews resorted to grabbing icicles to eat and begged Gentiles for food whenever they had the chance. A person who saw a train passing that was filled with Jews would normally hear pleas for help and would see arms coming out of the small windows and cracks in the wood. It would sometimes take several days on a train to arrive at the final destination.
People have asked the question of why did the Jews not try and escape from these Nazi death camps? Many escape attempts had been made, but it became harder to escape the longer a camp was running. Large-scale attempts were even made. One occurred at Treblinka that was unsuccessful. Another occurred at a little camp by the name of Sobibor. There is little available history about Sobibor due to the lack of documents obtained after the escape. In all about 250,000 people were exterminated here, one of the smallest number of victims in a Nazi death camp.
The escape at Sobibor had the most survivors. Out of the 300-450 prisoners who tried to escape, 60 survived. Sobibor was different than any other camp when it came down to escaping because of the circumstances that were present at the time of the escape. Everything that they needed to escape was there. At Sobibor the escape just came together. The right things happened at the right times with little set backs. If other camps would have had these conditions, there would have been more successful escapes out of the concentration camps.
Sobibor was the name of a small village that was located in a wooded area. The Parczew forest, a few miles west of Sobibor, was one of the largest hiding places for Polish Jews in the east. It also was on the Chelm-Wlodawa railway line, which made it easy for Jewish transports of people to come in and out of Sobibor. Sobibor received transports from Ghettoes throughout eastern Poland such as Rejowiec, Zamosc, Komarow, Turdoin, Gorzkow, Krasnystaw, Izbica, Siedlee, Chelm, Wlodswa, Hrubieszow, Dubienka, Grabowiec, Uchame, Biala-Podlaska, and Krasnizyn. (See Chart) The construction of the camp itself began in March of 1942. SS Obersturmfuhrer Richard Thomalla was put in charge of the construction. The design of the camp was very similar to that of the Belzec death camp. The camp was split up into three parts: the administration area, the reception area, and the extermination area (See Map). The Ukrainian guards were placed into three platoons. They all came from the training camp of Trawniki. The Ukrainians arrived at Sobibor accompanied by their commanders from camp who had served in the German police force and held police ranks. Towards the end of April 1942, Sobibor was ready for operation.
Sobibor was divided up into three camps. In Camp I the Jews worked and slept. Camp II consisted of wooden barracks in which stores of clothes, linens, shoes, and household goods stolen from the Jews were sorted for shipment back to Germany. A sign reading “Road to Heaven” was placed at the beginning of a long fenced in path. This path led to Camp III, which was where the Jew were exterminated. The gas chambers were in a wooden house containing three stone rooms approximately ten square feet in size. Each of these chambers could hold 80-100 persons. Later, the Nazis doubled the number of gas chambers to six. In a single gassing, between 500-600 Jews could be exterminated. There was a 100 person Jewish clean-up crew to remove the bodies from the gas chambers. Camp III had the aid of a high powered generator which enabled the Nazis to exterminate the Jews throughout the night. In the camps beginning, mass graves were dug to conceal Sobibor’s victims. By 1942, the Nazis worried that some of the bodies might resurface. In the death camps, there could be no witnesses to what was occurring. All of the victims had to disappear so as Sobibor would remain a secret to the world. The Nazis had all the bodies dug up and burned. This began the use of a crematorium.
Captain Stangl was the head officer of Sobibor. Stangl was then promoted to Kommandant of Treblinka. Captain Franz Reichleitner replaced him as Kommandant of Sobibor. The Jews gave Reichleitner the nickname of “Idiot.” Reichleitner’s assistant was Johann Niemann. The Jews rarely saw either of these men. Gustav Wagner became a roving supervisor. He was responsible for the overall performance of the worker Jews. SS Sergeant Karl Frenzel was placed in charge of Camp I and took over Wagner’s duties when he was on leave. SS Sergeant Hubert Gomerski supervised the forest brigade, which cut the firewood that heated SS quarters. This wood was also used to fuel the fire that cremated the Jews. SS Sergeant Erich Bauer was in charge of the gas chamber. Bauer was given the nickname “Badmeister,” which means the bath master. These were the SS men who were in charge of the massive murders at Sobibor. The Jews would come to know each of these men’s personalities and brutalities.
The Nazis would put give certain Jews the privilege of being in charge of other Jews. Kapos, as they were called, carried whips and even beat the Jews with them. Some Kapos even tried to impersonate the SS men who roamed the camps. Over time, a few Kapos denounced their Jewish heritage so they would think themselves that much closer to being a member of the SS. There were even some Kapos who treated the Jews more cruelly than the Nazis did. Jews were used by the Nazis to try and keep the prisoners in line. The Nazis figured that it would be easier to keep the Jews in line if there were some Jews with power.
Prisoners who were picked to work at these death camps had various jobs. There were sorting sheds were they would sort all the clothes of the victims. These clothes would them be shipped back to Germany for it people. Others had the job of going through luggage looking for anything of value. The death camps were self-sufficient so there had to be Jews to do the farming. Rabbits were raised for the SS to eat. Prisoners at Sobibor had the main task of doing everything for the camp while they were supervised by the Nazis.
From the first arrivals to Sobibor, the Nazis forced prisoners to take part in some kind of entertainment. The prisoners organized an orchestra and a choir, which performed for the SS. Roll call was sometimes used by the Nazis as entertainment. The guards would make the prisoners do calisthenics until they literally dropped dead on the spot. It has been said about Sobibor that the prisoners here received more time for relaxation than in Treblinka or Belzec. The reasoning behind this was that if the prisoner’s lives were somewhat bearable, then their work would be that much better. The prisoners would often play chess to relax or talk about politics. Some even talked about the possibility of escape. This free time may have helped in the escape since the prisoners would have more time to plan.
There were many escape attempts at Sobibor. More successful escapes occurred when the camp first opened, when there was not as much security or barbed wire. After the first few escapes, the Nazis mined the entire area around the camp with anti-tank mines. These mines deterred partisan groups in the surrounding areas from trying to liberate the camp. The Nazis also began to retaliate harshly to escapes and escape attempts. For instance, the Jews in Camp III tried to dig a tunnel leading out of the camp. This tunnel was discovered and every other Jew was selected and shot. In total about fifty Jews were murdered. It was common that if two prisoners tried to escape, whether successful or not, ten would be shot. Retaliation by the Nazis put fear into a lot of people. The prisoners in Sobibor realized that the only chance they had at escaping would be to escape with the entire camp. Until the escape that would occur later, many Jews did what ever was necessary to survive.
Shlomo, age fifteen, arrived at Sobibor in the spring of 1942 with his family. Shlomo soon found out that he could use his goldsmithing trade to survive in this horrid place. When the SS found out that he was a goldsmith, they began to have him make them various items. Kurt Bolander told Shlomo to make a gold plated whip for himself. Shlomo sent his nephew, Jankus, to go and get the coin that was to be used on this whip. For this, Jankus had to go to camp III. Upon arrival there, Jankus saw 300-400 women and children go into the gas chamber. He heard them scream their last breath. He ran back with the coin and when returning to the shack, he broke down and cried. Shlomo asked what had happened and when Jankus told him, he did not believe him. Shlomo realized that if this was true, the Nazis had murdered his family. For the Jews, the murders of their families motivated some to survive while others just gave up hope of life. As in the case of Shlomo, he wanted to avenge his family’s death.
To confirm this report, Shlomo wrote a letter to a friend who worked in camp III. His friend Avi had arrived on the same train as Shlomo and his family. Avi’s job in Camp III was to empty the gas chambers of the littered bodies. Avi wrote back telling how the killing had been done. Here is his letter to Shlomo:
Dear Brother, I asked you to say Kaddish not only for your parents, but for everyone. Of all the crowds of people who come here, almost no one lives. Of all the transports so far, only a small group is kept to work. Miraculously, I am part of that group.When the Jews enter the gate, they walk down a long corridor. At the end, they strip and leave all their things and enter a large barracks under the pretext that they will take a shower. Hundreds are stuffed into the barracks at a time. When the place is full, the door is sealed. A large engine is started, and the exhaust goes into a hole in the wall. Everyone inside chokes to death. While this is happening, huge trenches are dug, and we, chosen from the same transport as you came on, pull out the bodies and drag them into the trenches. Sometimes the dirt moves over the mass of bodies underneath. Then the Nazis come and shoot. I tell you this because if someday you escape, you will tell the world what is happening here, as I don’t expect you to see me again. Whoever comes to this part of the camp never leaves. I cannot begin to describe the scene, because you’d never believe what happens in this horrible place. It is unconceivable for the human mind to grasp. I wish you’d see how the Nazi sadists act. They are delirious with pleasure, as if they were watching an opera.
I cannot hold back any longer; my end is near and I know it. I will be dead like the others. I already have one foot in the grave, close to my brother Jews who have gone forever. I write this letter to you without any trace of fear, because I don’t care whether they catch me or not. I am in the hands of criminals, and I expect nothing but death. But you run a grave risk if you are caught with this note. I decided to put you to that risk, in the hope that you may escape from Sobibor someday. Unfortunately, I am not so lucky…If you can, escape! Your friend, Avraham.Shlomo wrote a letter back to Avi saying that he knew that he would survive and that he would take revenge upon the Nazis at all cost. Shlomo told Avi to stay alive until this day comes. This advice would do Avi no good. He would not be fortunate enough to make it until the escape took place. When the tunnel was discovered in Camp III, Avi was one of those selected who were shot. Shlomo knew that he would just have to wait for the right moment to make his move. He needed to stay alive until that day came when he and every other Jew would have their revenge on the Nazis.
This letter is an example of how many Jews felt in the death camps. Many gave up all hope of survival and just awaited their call from the Grim Reaper. In most camps, there were two types of outlooks on life. There were the prisoners that knew deep down inside that they would make it out alive. While at the same time the other half of the prisoners knew what had happened to their families and friends and gave up all hope of survival. When a person does not have the will to live, they will die whether the Nazis help them or not. Avi was thinking morbidly while Shlomo was thinking revenge. For revenge to take place, Shlomo would have to survive.
Shlomo, along with his cousin, nephew, and brother, were all treated fairly well by the SS guards. The reasoning behind this was that Shlomo would make jewelry for the guards by using the gold that came in on the transports. Shlomo’s cousin and nephew were given easy jobs. Jankus, his nephew, was assigned as Wagner’s servant while Nojeth, his cousin, was given the job of hunting for gold. Furthermore, Shlomo was allowed to assign himself to different jobs. He assigned himself the job of cleaning and inspecting the wood stoves and pipes throughout the camp. He also gave himself the job of cleaning the Ukrainians’ rifles. Shlomo wanted to learn everything he could about these weapons in case he had to use one.
Shlomo became acquainted with a man by the name of Leon Feldhendler. He had been planning an escape from Sobibor for a long time. Originally, he planned to escape in a small group. This idea was thrown out of the window when he witnessed ten prisoners shot because two prisoners escaped. Leon was the type of man who could and would not bear the thought of leaving Jews behind to the mercy of the Nazis. Freedom would not mean anything to him if he had Jewish deaths on his conscience. Furthermore, he came to the conclusion that the more people involved in the escape the better the overall chances of a successful escape. Leon was just waiting for the right plan to be formulated.
The winters brought more to Sobibor than just cold weather. During the winter months there were less transports. The guards, probably due to boredom, would begin to play games with the Jews. These games were meant to break down the Jews mentally and physically. The Nazis would do what ever they thought would make the Jews break. When they eventually broke, they would be shot. Many Jews took this chance out of the Nazis hands. During the winter of 1942-43, at least ten of the one hundred prisoners committed suicide.
The transport began to pick up again in the spring of 1943. These transports brought Jews from the Netherlands. These new transports brought a lot of middle and upper class Jews. Each transport brought between one thousand and three thousand Jews to the hellish camp. By the summer of 1943, nineteen trains filled with Jews had arrived.
Lieutenant Alexander Pechesky arrived at Sobibor on September 23, 1943. Sasha, as he liked to be called, was a Jewish officer in the Russian army. He had been in and out of P.O.W camps and concentration camps for two years. When Sasha was first captured the Germans did not know that he was a Jew. It was later when he was in a P.O.W camp that a guard made him take off his pants. The guard noticed that Sasha was circumcised, thus condemning him to the concentration camps. At this time, only Jewish men were circumcised.
The arrival of Sasha to Sobibor excited a lot of people. The prisoners were anxious to ask him how the war was going and when they would be liberated. The person who was most excited was Leon. Leon saw a leadership quality in Sasha that was not found in Sobibor. Leon thought that Sasha and the other P.O.W’s would be essential in an escape. The Russians were used to fighting and they could lead the escape. Leon planned to meet with Sasha to try to create a trust between the two.
During Sasha’s first days at Sobibor, Leon assessed that he would fight the Germans to the death. Sasha stood up for himself at every opportunity to show his defiance towards the Nazis. After Sasha heard the blood curdling screams of a trainload of Jews being exterminated, he knew that he would have to escape. Sasha did not want to escape for himself, rather he wanted to destroy the camp and the Germans behind this killing factory.
Leon set up a meeting with Sasha soon after his arrival. Leon asked Sasha to take control of the escape. He told him that they needed someone from a military background with experience. Sasha and Leon decided to work together on the escape. Sasha had the fighting experience while Leon had the connection in the camp. These men knew that they could not escape unless they helped one another. They both agreed that the escape would have to include everyone in the camp. They also agreed that there was no way that they could save those who were condemned to work in Camp III. Camp III was too far away. This would throw the timing completely off. Furthermore, the fact that they could not get messages back and forth to Camp III made it impossible to save those in Camp III.
The plans for escape began to go into motion with the killing of Kapo Berliner. However, it is also said that Frenzel had Berliner poisoned. It may have well been both because the Jews just hit him in the stomach so not to leave marks. Although the Jews may have not killed Kapo Berliner, it was a great motivator for them. To be able to kill a Kapo with out getting caught made the goal of escaping look that much more feasible. The Jews needed to get rid of him because he was an informer for the SS and could not be trusted. The killing of Kapo Berliner gave the Jews an ounce of hope that the escape would indeed be successful.
Even though the first stage had taken place, Sasha was not sure that all of the prisoners would want to escape. Sasha told Shlomo that he would need to make about seventy knives and some sharp axes. They also decided that it would be helpful to have the aid of the remaining Kapos. The view was brought about since the Kapos had the run of the camp. The Ukrainians had murdered their Nazi officers a few days earlier. This meant that there would be some confusion among the guards for a period of time. Leon found out that both Kommandant Reichleitner and Sergeant Gomerski were on leave. To make this news even better was that Wagner was not back yet from leave. With the three top officers of Sobibor not present, Leon and Sasha did not have to worry about how they were going to kill them.. There were rumors that the Jews in Camp III had all been killed by the SS. Now Sasha and Leon did not have to worry about leaving them behind. Another advantage for this escape was that the land mines were anti-tank mines. This meant that they blew up straight up and not out meaning that it would only kill the person whom stepped on it and not everyone in the immediate area. Sasha and Leon had luck on their side. Things could not have been more perfect for an escape.
On October 11, 1943, Sasha revealed that he would invite two Polish Kapos, Bunio and Porzyczki, to join in the escape. The plan for escaping would involve the simultaneous killing of the SS guards of the camps. These killings had to be done quietly, as not to raise suspicions, and they had to be done quick. The killings had to be accomplished in an hour. Sasha planned to have the telephone wires cut just before 4:00 p.m. and the electricity to be cut just before roll call. The whistle for roll call would be the signal for the escape to commence, which occurs at 5:30 p.m. everyday. With this, all of the prisoners would march out the front gate where no land mines were. The Russian P.O.W’s would lead this march and take care of the guards in the towers. If the plan went wrong, it was every person for themselves. The carpenters in the camp hid planks and ladders in the weeds behind their shops. This was in case that they could not get out through the main gate. A party of Russian P.O.W’s would go and break into the arsenal and arm everyone in the camp. Sasha was skeptical about the plan in that he worried that something was bound to go wrong. The escape was planned for October 13, 1943. It was delayed a day due to the arrival of a trainload of SS men.
October 14 was the day that the escape was going to take place, no matter what happened. The reason being that there were rumors that the camp was to be liquidated on October 15. This motivated the escape in many prisoners. This motivation came from the fact that the prisoners knew if the camp would be liquidated, they would all be killed anyway. Many felt that if they die, they were going to die fighting the Nazis for their freedom. The murders went on as planned without any major problems. The only obstacle was that they could not lure SS Sergeant Frenzel, who was the head officer in the camp, into a hut to be murdered. This meant that when the escape occurred Frenzel was still alive to lead the Ukranians. The plan to march out through the front gate was terminated when Frenzel grabbed a machine gun and opened fire on the prisoners. SS Sergeant Frenzel also stopped the Russians from breaking into the arsenal. Jews were running in every direction. Some Jews were armed with pistols they had stolen from the dead SS and some rifles that Shlomo had stole from the Ukrainian barracks. The land mines were going off, the guards in the towers were firing their weapons. Jews were falling left and right due to the mines and the machine gun fire. Nearly 300 prisoners made it to the safety of the forest. This was not the end of their troubles.
Of the 600 prisoners, between 300-450 prisoners took part in the revolt. Those who were caught or stayed behind, at least 150, were killed in retaliation. During the escape, eleven SS men, two or three Ukrainian and Volksdeutsche guards were killed, while several others were wounded. The Nazis immediately put together large search parties to find and kill these escaped prisoners. Many were turned in by the Polish community that surrounded Sobibor. Two days after the revolt, Himmler ordered Sobibor to be dismantled. Within four days, 100 of the escaped prisoners were caught and shot. Of those who escaped, only about 60 survived. Many of these went to join the Soviet partisans. This was largest escape of a Nazi death camp during the war. There had been a rebellion at Treblinka in which 150-200 prisoners escaped, but only 12 survived.
Sobibor is the story of the most secretive of the extermination camps turning into the most infamous. No other camp, beside Treblinka, attempted a full-scale revolt. This was all made possible due to certain favorable conditions. The conditions for an escape could not have been any more perfect. The three highest SS men were not present at the time of the escape. There were newly arrived, still strong, Russian P.O.W’s at Sobibor who led the revolt. The prisoners believed that the camp was to be liquidated a few days after the escape date. They motivated many prisoners to escape because if they did not, they would defiantly be killed. Many thought that at least if they tried to escape the worst that could happen would be that they would be killed and that would happen anyway if they stayed in Sobibor. They could possible escape and return home to tell the world of what happened at Sobibor. If this revolt did not happen, and the liquidation was carried out, Sobibor might never have known to exist.
The prisoners at Sobibor showed that they were in the half of the prisoners who had the will to live. Although the conditions could not have been more favorable, if the Jews did not have the will to live, they would have never tried to escape. Sobibor Jews let their instincts on survival take over even though they were tired and wanted to give up. Together with the right conditions and the right mind set, the Jews of the Sobibor death camp were able to escape.
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