Arkady Waispapir was captured by the Germans while serving in the Soviet Army and was sent to the camp because he was Jewish. He was one of the few spared immediate death in the gas chambers by being sent to do camp maintenance work.
More than , Jews are believed to have been killed at Sobibor, in Nazi-occupied eastern Poland from In October , Waispapir and seven other inmates led a rebellion using knives, hatchets and captured firearms against the Ukrainian and German guards. Nearly half of the camp's prisoners managed to escape but of them were caught almost immediately. Out of those who escaped, only 47 survived World War Two.
Arkady Waispapir, the last known survivor of the Sobibor death camp, has died. He was A Jewish soldier in the Soviet Army, Waispapir helped lead the storied uprising at Sobibor; he was one of only 47 escapees to survive the war. In early , the Jewish prisoners became concerned as they sensed that killing operations in Sobibor were winding down.
They also learned that Belzec had been dismantled and all surviving prisoners liquidated. In response, the prisoners organized a resistance group in the late spring of The prisoners planned an uprising following the murder of key German camp officials.
On October 14, , with approximately prisoners left in the camp, those who knew the plan initiated the revolt. The prisoners killed 11 German personnel and a few Trawniki-trained guards. Around prisoners succeeded in breaking out of the killing center that day. Approximately were caught in the dragnet that followed the uprising. Some 50 prisoners escaped Sobibor and survived the war. After the revolt, German camp officials and the Trawniki-trained guards dismantled the killing center.
They also shot the Jewish prisoners who had not escaped during the uprising. Pursuant to discussions in the SS hierarchy in the summer of , the Germans had intended to transform the facility to be used for other purposes. Initially, it was to be a holding pen for women and children deported west from occupied Belarus after their fathers and husbands had been murdered in what the Germans called anti-partisan operations. Later, they considered converting the site into an ammunition supply depot.
There is no information that new prisoners ever arrived in Sobibor after the killing center was dismantled. However, a small Trawniki-trained guard detachment remained there through at least the end of March Sobibor was the last of the Operation Reinhard camps to be liquidated. As at Belzec and Treblinka, the area was plowed over.
The site of the Sobibor killing center was planted with a pine forest. For many decades there were only two known photographs depicting the Sobibor killing center in operation. In , the Holocaust Museum acquired more than 50 previously unknown images from Sobibor that had been the property of camp deputy commandant Johann Niemann.
These photos are part of a larger collection donated by Niemann's descendants. They provide never-before-seen views of the killing center. Among them are images of barracks buildings, workshops, and SS and Ukrainian guards. Some of these photographs depict Sobibor personnel laughing and posing for vanity shots even as they helped implement the mass murder of at least , innocent Jews.
Niemann was killed during the Sobibor prisoner revolt on October 14, , after which the camp was closed. Arad, Yitzhak. Blatt, Thomas. Schelvis, Julius. Translated by Karin Dixon. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors.
Trending keywords:. Featured Content. Tags Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics. Browse A-Z Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically. For Teachers Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. Wise — International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. About This Site. Glossary : Full Glossary. Sobibor To carry out the mass murder of Europe's Jews, the SS established killing centers devoted exclusively or primarily to the destruction of human beings in gas chambers.
Key Facts. The gas chambers operated until autumn Approximately , people were murdered in Sobibor. Seeing that the killing operation was being wound up and knowing of the dismantling and liquidation of the extermination camp at Belzec, the prisoners at Sobibor organised a resistance group. On 14 October , prisoners who were in the resistance group killed several guards and escaped. Most were captured and killed.
After the revolt the guards murdered all remaining prisoners and dismantled the killing centre. Explore our other dates to remember.
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