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Sobibor was one of three death camps (the other two were Treblinka and Belzec) created by the Nazis as part of the so-called Operation Reinhardt – a program for the destruction of Polish Jewry. It was located in the very East of Poland, not far from the Western Bug river and the Polish-Soviet border. The camp began its “work” in the spring of 1942. According to various estimates, from 170 thousand to 300 thousand citizens of various European countries: Poland, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, the USSR died in it during the year and a half of its existence.
Most of those who arrived in Sobibor went straight from the station to gas chambers. However, some were selected by the Nazis to serve the camp: work in the carpentry, shoe, tailor workshops, sorting things left after the dead, washing, ironing, shoe shining, etc. In the working area there were constantly several hundred people.
On October 14, 1943, the prisoners of Sobibor revolted. The uprising was led by a Red Army prisoner of war lieutenant Alexander Pechersky. The plan of the uprising was worked out by the underground committee, which was headed by Leon Felhendler, before the war – an entrepreneur from the village of Zholkevka near Lublin. The decisive role in the success of the uprising was played by Soviet prisoners of war deported to Sobibor from Minsk together with Alexander Pechersky on September 18, 1943. The prisoners destroyed most of the SS men who were at that moment in the camp and fled into the forest. 300-400 people took part in the escape, about 50 of them survived to the end of the war. After the uprising and escape, the camp actually stopped its work.
Our project, dedicated to the memory of all the victims and heroes of the Sobibor death camp, consists of three sections. The first one presents biographical and photographic materials about Alexander Pechersky and Leon Felhendler. The second one contains biographical information and photographs of all the prisoners we know who were in Sobibor on October 14, 1943, both survivors of the war and those who died during the uprising and escape. It also contains information about those who managed to escape from the camp earlier. Finally, in the third section, we give a list and, if possible, brief biographies of those who died in Sobibor in 1942-1943. This list includes several tens of thousands of names and is constantly updated.
