Sobibor was the second of the three Action Reinhard groups of concentration camps. The first was Belzec and the third was Treblinka. What made these concentration camps different from the others was that these camps were set up purely for the purpose of mass murder. Sobibor camp started operation from mid-April 1942.
Sobibor was situated in what was then eastern Poland, on the border with the Ukraine. The camp itself was small. It needed little space because the Jewish people who were brought there were gassed right after arrival. The camp was surrounded by double barbed wire fence with watch towers on every corner of the perimeter.
Sobibor, summer 1943
Source: Wikipedia
The camp was divided into four sub-camps:
1. The SS administration area, called Forcamp,
2. Housing and workshops of the Jewish command, Camp 1,
3. Reception area, Camp 2,
4. Extermination site, Camp 3.
In the Forcamp lived the SS and the Ukrainian guards, and it was here where the goods trains arrived with the intended victims. The main gate was also here.
The intended victims, from ghettos or transit camps around Lublin, from Czech Republic and Slovakia, and from Germany and Austria, were ushered in to Camp 2 where the Camp Commandant, Oberscharführer Hermann Michel, made a speech. He used to wear a white coat to give the impression he was a doctor. Heannounced to the Jews that they would be sent to work. But before this, they would have to take baths and undergo disinfection, so as to prevent the spread of diseases. Then they separated the men from the women, their belongings were confiscated and the women’s hair was shaved off. Naked, they were herded through a pathway called the “Tube”, in to Camp 3 and into the gas chambers. Unlike in Auschwitz, here the gas used was not Ziklon B (a rat poison), but carbon monoxide, generated by a small diesel motor. There were three gas chambers, each about 42 metres, where about 160 people were pressed into. A flock of geese was kept in Camp 3, specifically for the purpose of drowning out the screams of the victims with their honking. From here, the corpses were moved on narrow gauge rail tippers to the burial site.
The Jewish prisoners, who carried out all the work in the camp, also lived in Camp 3 in crudely constructed barracks. There were Jewish jewellers, tailors and shoe makers and so on, to satisfy the SS’s every whim. These people were living under the constant threat of death and at the end were also gassed.
The camp could not cope with the volume of murders required, so a new 6 chamber facility was built in July 1942. Now 1,300 people could be finished off in one go.
Survivors of Sobibor, 1944
Source: National WWII Museum, New Orleans
After the arrival of a group of Soviet Jewish prisoners of war, the Jewish work force started to organise itself under the leadership of Lt. Aleksander (Sascha) Pechersky. On 14th November 1943, some of the SS top brass were on leave and this presented an opportunity to rebel against the Nazis. Some SS “clients” of the Jewish tradesmen were knifed to death and their guns taken. Some 700 Jewish prisoners managed to escape. The camp was surrounded by minefields and a good number of escapees were blown up. Most of the others were killed by the Nazis trying to recapture the escapees. Whilst some others were brought back and tortured to death, a small number succeeded in escaping.
In the wake of the uprising, the Germans decided to liquidate Sobibor. Camp 3, the extermination area, was immediately destroyed, but the railway ramp remained in use.
In the summer of 1944, the Red Army liberated the area.
Recommended film: Escape from Sobibor (1987)
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