During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow (actually threaten) that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were its captives, the Jewish laborers that had been spared from the ovens, knew that they were on borrowed time and that their only hope was to escape... the only question was how to do it. However, because the Germans would kill an equal number of others whenever a group attempted to escape, the captives knew that if ever an escape was tried, all 600 prisoners in the camp would have to be included... logistically precluding any ideas about tunnels or sneak breakouts. Indeed, to have such a mass escape could only mean that the Ukrainian guards and Germain officers would have to be killed, which many of the Jews felt simply reduced themselves to no better than their captors... thus making it a struggle of conscience. And therein lies the story, with the film being based on a factual account of what then happened at that Sobibor prison.
by BOB STEBBINS <stebinsbob@aol.com>Following the Wannsee C...
During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow (actually threaten) that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were its captives, the Jewish laborers that had been spared from the ovens, knew that they were on borrowed time and that their only hope was to escape... the only question was how to do it. However, because the Germans would kill an equal number of others whenever a group attempted to escape, the captives knew that if ever an escape was tried, all 600 prisoners in the camp would have to be included... logistically precluding any ideas about tunnels or sneak breakouts. Indeed, to have such a mass escape could only mean that the Ukrainian guards and Germain officers would have to be killed, which many of the Jews felt simply reduced themselves to no better than their captors... thus making it a struggle of conscience. And therein lies the story, with the film being based on a factual account of what then happened at that Sobibor prison.
by BOB STEBBINS <stebinsbob@aol.com>Following the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, the Nazi regime created six "Death Camps"(extermination centers)in Eastern Poland. Three of these were set up under "Operation Reinhard," named for Reinhard Heydrich, who had chaired the Wannsee Conference, where the "Final Solution" was decreed. One of the "Reinhard" camps was Sobibor (the other Reinhard camps were Belzec and Treblinka; Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, and Majdanek were also extermination centers). Other concentration camps were mainly labor or punishment camps, but the extermination centers had only one purpose - to kill as many Jews as possible as quickly as possible. A small group of prisoners were kept back from the gas chambers to work the camp under control of the Nazi guards. This is the story of what life was like for those people who had to watch their countrymen and families die. Pushed to the limit of human endurance, they finally found a way to fight back. The spirit of humanity at its most desperate and most magnificent.
by Steve Crook <steve@brainstorm.co.uk>The historical recreation of the escape from the Nazi Death Camp Sobibor, where approximately one-quarter million Jews were executed. Of approximately 600 prisoners who attempted escaped in October 1943, around 300 succeeded. However, nearly all were ultimately recaptured; only about 60 people survived Sobibor.
by Anthony Hughes <husnock31@hotmail.com>
