By: Reid Rivers May 8 th, rd Period

How did the Holocaust effect Sobibor? Sobibor was a camp where prisoners went to die. An estimated 260,000 Jews were executed at this camp. It was part of the Aktion Rheinhard program which was the “Final Solution” to the Jewish “Problem”. No selections were made. They kept 700 prisoners just to clean up the dead bodies and basic maintenance (Bulow).

Basic Stuff about Sobibor It was the smallest of the extermination camps. It was highly secret. There were trees surrounding the camp in a way to where you could not see it without knowing it was there. It was near a railroad track so that the Nazis would not have to work to get the Jews into the gas chambers (Bulow).

Who operated Sobibor? It was created by the Anti-Semistic Germans to solve the “Jewish Problem”. The first commander of Sobibor was Franz Stangl. He commanded it throughout most of the operation. The only time he didn’t was when he went on vacation (Bulow).

What is Sobibor? It was an extermination camp that was part of the Aktion Rheinhard program to solve the problem of the Jews. It was ended by a Jewish Revolt on October 14, 1943 lead by Leon Feldhendler. This was the largest prisoner revolt during the Holocaust. Only 60 people survived this revolt (Bulow).

When did Sobibor come into operation? Sobibor was operated from May 1942 – October 1943 (Bulow).

Where was Sobibor? It was located in Poland. It was located near a railroad so that the Germans would not have to work to get the Jews to get lead to there death (Bulow).

Why did this happen? Because the Germans were brainwashed with unfair propaganda against the Jewish people. I guess you could say this happened because Hitler was an anti-semistic person.

Extra Stuff From May July 1942 approximately 100,000 Jews were killed (Ramati). The killing process in Sobibor only took minutes (Ramati). 15 meters of mine fields surrounded the camp (Roleff). This church was used as a infirmary and a place to shoot people. It’s a church. Seriously? (Roleff ).

The Russians The Russians liberated Majdanek and this was the first camp liberated. When they first liberated this concentration camp no one believed them. They thought it was just war propaganda. When the Americans and British started finding the camps is when it was accepted that this had actually happened (Roleff).

The Letter This letter was found on a Belzec Holocaust victim and formed the ideas of rebellion in Sobibor. “We worked for a year in Belzec. I don’t know where they are taking us now. They say to Germany. In the freight cars there are dining tables. We received bread for three days and tins and liquor. If all this is a lie then know death awaits you too! Don’t trust the Germans. Avenge our blood!” (Bulow 6).

Sad.. The officers at Sobibor developed new ways of killing Jewish people. They pushed them off buildings with umbrellas to see if it would resemble a parachute. Some put rats in the prisoners pants and sewed their pants to their bodies and the rats would eat them alive (Bulow).

Works Cited Bulow, Louis K. Hell of Sobibor. 20 Apr Bulow, Louis K. Nazi Deathcamp Sobibor. 20 Apr Bulow, Louis K. Sobibor. 20 Apr Ramati, Alexander L. Sobibor (Poland). 20 Apr Roleff, Tamara L., ed. The Holocaust: Death Camps. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press Inc., 2002