Sobibor

By: Joanna, Amy and Anastassia

Map of the camps in Poland as part of Operation Reinhard

The Camp

Operation Reinhard:

• Belzec , Sobibor, and Treblinka .

Location:

• Near the Sobibor village

• Deeply forested and swampy area

• High fence and wires

• Hidden completely from view

Camp Areas:

• Administration (offices and barracks)

• Reception (belongings)

• Killing (gas chamber)

“After 66 years I cannot even remember the face of my father,” says Mr. Blatt —whose parent was clubbed to death in Sobibor.

Percentage of Jews deported to Sobibor

Railroad leading to Sobibor, watch tower in distance

Train officers awaiting the arrival of Jews

The famous ID card showing (Demjanjuk)

Sobibor office at the train station

Diagram of the Sobibor camp in color

The Guards

• They were Ukrainian.

• Came from a SS training camp in Twaniki.

• In the 18 months Sobibor was open there was about 100 Germans and 300 Ukrainian guards.

• An average of 30 guards, who rotated with half going on vacation.

The Uprising

• Occurred on October 14, 1943

• Led by Leon Feldhendler and Alexander Pechersky (Sasha)

• Succeeded in killing 11 German SS Officers.

• 300 managed to escape into the forest

• 50-70 survived

Leon Feldhendler

Alexander Pechersky(Sasha)

Group photo of participants of the uprising

List of SS Officers Killed

• Johann Niemann• Josef Wolf• Rudolf Beckmann• Siegfried GraetschusJosefVallaster• Thomas Steffl• Walter Ryba• FreidrichGaulstich• Fritz Konrad• Walter Nowak• Ivan Klatt• Klaus Schreiber

Funeral held for the dead SS Officers

The Plan

• To Lure SS Officers to the workshops to pick up finished boots or coats and kill them off individually.

• After all SS officers had been killed, roll call would be announced and they all would walk out of the front gate.

• Phone lines would be cut off early.

• They couldn’t find Karl Frenzel, he didn’t show up for his appointment.

Aftermath

• Days after the uprising, camp was ordered closed, dismantled and planted with trees by SS chief Heinrich Himmler

• Estimated that 250,000 Jews were murdered

• Archaeological Excavations have been conducted ever since

Archaeological Excavations at Sobibór Extermination Site

Picture on left shows what was found of old house and suitcase keys.

Picture on right shows a pathway leading to gas chambers.

SS chief Heinrich Himmler

Was convicted of war crimes in 1966 but was released on health grounds

Karl Frenzel-Commander

Franz Stangl

Chief commander of Sobibor

Gustav Wagner

Deputy Sobibor commander

Memorials - Ways to Remember

Site Memorial

• established in 1961

• Marek Bem is the head of the memorial

• Small museum containing artifacts

• Statues and monuments

• Funding from government

“Escape from Sobibor”

• British film that was aired to millions

Living memorial

• Remembering the holocaust victims on Remembrance day

• Meeting of the Sobibor survivors

Plaques on one of the monument statues

“Surely these stones cannot embody the endless mental and physical distress each individual human had to suffer.But every stone should tell us -not 250000 human beings were murdered here, no, one human being was murdered here - and this has happened just at this place 250000 times."

(Ernst Klein at the opening of the memorial avenue on the 14th October 2003 in Sobibor)

“Road to Heaven”

(Thomas) Blatt – survivor of Sobibor

Inside the Sobibor Museum

Mound of ashes and human remains

“Escape from Sobibor” movie

Bibliography• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp

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• http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/survivor/images/Leon%20Feldhendler.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Frenzel

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