Alexander Pechersky & The Uprising in Sobibor, Poland by thy Vo

The Construction of the Sobibor Camp

3835761 — 2024-05-01 19:16:40 UTC

When the Nazis began to begin their operations, it set up several extermination camps, one of which was Sobibor. In the spring of 1942, the German SS and police authorities built Sobibor. Constructed as the second killing center, it was part of Operation Reinhard, the SS and Police Leader in Lublin's scheme to mass murder the Jewish population.

How did Alexander Pechersky end up in the Sobibor death camp?

3835761 — 2024-05-01 19:19:28 UTC

In October of 1941, the captain of the Red Army, Alexander Perchersky was captured and imprisoned by the opposing force during the Battle of Moscow. During that time, he contracted typhoid but managed to conceal it from his captor to avoid certain death. After attempting to escape, he was caught and sent to Borishov where they discovered that he was a Jew due to his circumcision. Following his recapture, he was sent to a camp in Minsk. However, due to the destruction of the camp, he was moved to Sobibor along with 79 other Soviet POWs. After coming to Sobibor, he would collaborate with Leon Feldhandler among many others to create an elaborate uprising that helped over 300 people escape from death.

When?

3835761 — 2024-05-01 19:27:08 UTC

October 14, 1943

The impact of the resistance and the aftermath

3835761 — 2024-05-02 20:01:18 UTC

About half of the 600 inmates escaped, however many of them died due to minefields or a mass manhunt organized by Germans and Polish fascists. Only 50 inmates who escaped survived WW2. The remainder of the people who failed to escape or didn’t escape at all were shot to death. After the uprising, policemen and other armed troops began to search the area for inmates who had escaped. There were 100 regular soldiers, 100 mounted police, and 150 Ukrainians and SS soldiers. On October 16 and 17, the second and Third Squadron of Mounted SS and Police added five hundred more men to the manhunt.

Who & How

3835761 — 2024-05-02 20:04:10 UTC

When they heard about the rumor, a group of Polish Jews led by Leon Feldhandler formed a plan for a mass escape. However, its lack of members with military experience led to little progress. When a group of Jewish Red Army POWs arrived in a transport from Minsk in September, the committee turned to them for advice. Within three weeks, Lieutenant Alexander Pechersky worked out a detailed plan.

The Plan

The Soviet POWS would secretly kill some of the SS officials, and take their weapons and uniforms. Then, when everyone is gathered for the evening roll call, the POWs who disguised themselves as camp personnel would kill the guards at the gate and on the towers and urge the prisoners to flee. The revolt was set for a day when Sobibor's commandant and several of its leading officials would be away.

An interview with Alexander Pechersky (Sasha), after WW2 had ended

3835761 — 2024-05-02 20:10:08 UTC

“No, I did not take revenge. I fought for my Motherland as a solder, not as a murderer.”

Alexander Perchersky (Sasha)

3835761 — 2024-05-02 20:15:57 UTC

Story of a Holocaust survivor

3835761 — 2024-05-02 20:18:54 UTC

The dramatized version of the Sobibor Uprising

3835761 — 2024-05-03 00:27:58 UTC

Back in 2018, a film by the name of Sobibor was created based on the Sobibor revolt which occurred in 1943 when the Germans had occupied Poland. The main character of the movie is the soldier Alexander Pechersky, a Jewish-Soviet lieutenant in the Red Army. In October 1943, he was deported to the Sobibor death camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. In just three weeks, Pechersky planned an uprising with prisoners from Poland and other locations around Western Europe.

How large was the camp?

3835761 — 2024-05-07 04:45:36 UTC

At its largest, the camp covered an area of 1,312 by 1,969 feet

This is around the same area as 33 soccer fields

Inside the camp

3835761 — 2024-05-07 23:04:40 UTC

The Sobibor Camp is divided into three areas (camps):

The administration camp (camp 1)
The reception camp (camp 2)
The killing camp (camp 3)

The administration camp included the living quarters for the SS and Trawniki guards, the entrance of the camp, and a railway ramp.

The killing area included gas chambers, burial pits, homes of Jewish laborers, and a group of guards.

The reception camp included storehouses containing the victims' belongings, and undressing barracks.

What was the catalyst?

3835761 — 2024-05-07 23:46:29 UTC

When the Sobibor killing center saw a decline in the number of victims sent to be murdered in its gas chambers, a rumor sparked among the victims in Sobibor that the killing center would soon be destroyed and all the prisoners would be murdered. After hearing the rumors a group of Jews came together to create an elaborate escape plan.

Survivors of the Holocaust singing a song together after liberation

3835761 — 2024-05-07 23:54:12 UTC

Story of a Holocaust Survivor

3835761 — 2024-05-08 03:06:46 UTC

How many people were killed in total during the camp's operations?

3835761 — 2024-05-09 00:47:55 UTC

For over 18 months, from April 1942 to mid-October 1943 around 250,000 people were murdered by various methods of mass murder.

The camp's location

3835761 — 2024-05-09 00:57:03 UTC

Shortly after the German occupation of Poland in WW2, the Sobibor killing center was built near the small town of Sobibor to exclusively mass murder thousands of Jews during the Third Reich. The camp was strategically placed there due to its swampy geography and thinly spread-out population. The camp was about 50 miles east of Lublin, 24 miles north of Chelm, and 5 miles south of Wlodawa.

What happened once people got to the camp?

3835761 — 2024-05-09 01:41:58 UTC

While handfuls of skilled or fit victims were forced into labor, many upon arrival were tricked into going into gas chambers where they would ultimately die due to the release of carbon monoxide gas, a type of gas that interferes with the body's ability to carry oxygen to other body parts.

What type of labor were the victims forced to provide?

Pulling out and burying the dead bodies into mass graves.
Burning the dead bodies once there was no more space to bury people.
Facilitating the detraining, disrobing, and relinquishment of personal items and valuables.
The movement of the Jewish victims into the gas chambers among other things.

The cultural diversity in the victims who were deported to the camp

3835761 — 2024-05-11 02:00:05 UTC

Between May 1942 and the fall of 1943, the German SS and police officials deported Jews from all over Europe.

While most Jews who were sent to Sobibor came from the ghettos of the northern and eastern regions of the Lublin districts, many also came from France, Austria, Slovakia, Bohemia, Morava, the Netherlands and Germany itself.

When and where was he born?

3835761 — 2024-05-12 04:28:51 UTC

February 22, 1909 in Kremenchuk, Ukraine

When and where did he die?

3835761 — 2024-05-12 04:30:35 UTC

January 19, 1990 in

Rostov-on- Don (80 years old)

The rememberance of Alexander Pechersky

3835761 — 2024-05-12 23:57:50 UTC

Before death

In 1951, he received a medal for Battle Merit

He was also awarded a medal for "the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

After death

26 years after his death, Alexander Pechersky was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland and the Russian Order of Courage by decree of Vladamir Putin in January 2016.

In the British TV film, Escape from Sobibor, Rutger Hauer received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of Alexander Pechersky.

In 2010 a memorial plaque was placed on his former house in Rostov.

In 2014, a star was unveiled on a Rostov boulevard in his honor.

On February 22, 2018, the Alexander Pechersky Foundation together with the Russian Railways and the Russian Military Historical Society inaugurated a train in his honor at the Kazan Railway Station in Moscow.

On 24 April 2018, a new monument in honor of Pechersky was inaugurated.

The bloody aftermath

3835761 — 2024-05-13 16:06:07 UTC

About half of the 600 inmates escaped, however many of them died due to minefields or a mass manhunt organized by Germans and Polish fascists. Only 50 inmates who escaped survived WW2. The remainder of the people who failed to escape or didn’t escape at all were shot to death. After the uprising, policemen and other armed troops began to search the area for inmates who had escaped. There were 100 regular soldiers, 100 mounted policemen, and 150 Ukrainian SS soldiers. On October 16 and 17, the second and third squadrons of mounted SS and Police added five hundred more men to the manhunt.

Life before the army

3835761 — 2024-05-15 04:34:02 UTC

Before Alexander stepped onto the battlefield, he studied theater and music.

Interesting Facts

3835761 — 2024-05-15 04:42:32 UTC

He moved to Rostov-on-Don, a place in southern Russia at the age of six.
Later in the future, two movies will be made about Sobibor. Escape from Sobibor (1987) and Sobibor (2018)
After escaping, he joined the Red Army again in the summer of 1944