Sobibor Concentration Camp

There was a special “concentration” camp established in March of 1942, located in the Lublin district of Poland (Telegraph). The prisoners in this special camp were very sly and devious. Even though they were separated from their families they were very tenacious people. Through all the treacherous and grueling pain they went through they never gave up hope. The prisoners at Sobibor were treated terribly in these ghastly conditions of the camp, able to fabricate classified plans, and elude this extermination camp.

Sobibor was an extermination camp protected by woods, and built close to a railroad, which meant prisoners were imported frequently. The camp was fully enclosed by 3 rows of barbed wire to keep the Jewish prisoners from escaping the smallest camp in Poland, that only measured 1,300x2,000 feet. When prisoners arrived at Sobibor most of them were sent directly to the gas chamber. Sobibor was executing so many Jews, that within the first two months of establishment they had already killed over 10,000 Jews (History Learning). When a Jew arrived at Sobibor, there life expectancy was only 3 more hours. Sobibor is not where you wanted to be if you were a Jew.

During March of 1942 Sobibor was established as an extermination camp and the Jews knew about this gruesome camp. There was a very brutal man in charge of this camp, named Franz Stangl, who had some very devoted SS officers, and some very devious plans of execution of Jews. One thing about these officers is that they weren’t prepared for what was about to happen. The prisoners in the camp came together to make plans on how to escape. They kept this a very secret operation and only told a few prisoners about the plan, so word wouldn’t get out and it be a bust. The main question the Jewish prisoners were asking was...would the plan work or would this be their death sentence?
On October 14, 1943 these undisclosed plans were set into action. Two SS officers were shot in a surprise attack by a few Jewish prisoners, while carelessly cleaning their boots. The Jews involved in the raid took and striped the two men of their weapons. 600-700 Jews attempted the escape that day, but only about 50 succeeded (Escape from Sobibor, 47) . 300 Jewish prisoners were killed directly in the attempted escape, and many were hunted down and executed later in the wooded area that surrounded the camp. This specific escape went down in history as one of the largest escapes during the Holocaust.
Although the prisoners at Sobibor were treated terribly, they were able to make secret plans and escape the awful conditions of this extermination camp.

Considering Sobibor was only in existence for a mere 18 months they managed to kill over 250,000 Jews (File Escape) in that ephemeral amount of time. Sobibor was 1 of a group of 4 extermination camps in this area, where there only goal was to annihilate Jews. These prisoners will killed in brutal and disgusting ways, whether it be gas chamber, firing squad, or just plan out starvation they were very vigorous minded people. They managed to work together to make these secret and devious plans. Most of all they were able to succeed, break through the barbed wire, and beat the odds of escape. Sobibor wasn’t only a concentration camp...it was a DEATH

camp.