Sobibor was one of three extermination camps built under Operation Reinhard — the Nazi plan to murder all Jews in occupied Poland. Between April 1942 and October 1943, approximately 250,000 people were murdered there in gas chambers within hours of arriving.

But a small group of prisoners — those selected for labor rather than immediate execution — began planning a revolt.

The Plan

The resistance was organized by Alexander Pechersky, a Soviet Jewish prisoner of war who arrived at Sobibor in September 1943. Within weeks, he devised a simple but audacious plan: lure SS officers one at a time into workshops on the pretext of picking up new boots, leather goods, or tailored uniforms. In each workshop, prisoners would kill the officer silently with axes.

With the SS leadership eliminated, the prisoners would walk calmly to the camp armory, seize weapons, and make a mass breakout through the minefields surrounding the camp.

October 14, 1943

The plan went into action on October 14. Between 4:00 and 5:00 PM, prisoners killed eleven SS officers and several Ukrainian guards in the workshops. The killings were almost silent — a testament to the desperate courage and precision of the prisoners.

When roll call was called at 5:00, the prisoners knew the plan had been partially discovered. Pechersky shouted: "Forward, comrades!" About 300 prisoners charged the fences and minefields. Many were killed by mines and gunfire. But approximately 200 made it into the surrounding forests.

Of those who escaped, about half were recaptured and killed in the following weeks. Approximately 50-60 Sobibor prisoners survived the war.

The Aftermath

Himmler, enraged and humiliated by the uprising, ordered Sobibor razed to the ground. The buildings were demolished, the ground was plowed, and trees were planted. A farm was built on the site. The Nazis tried to erase Sobibor from existence.

They failed. The survivors testified. The trees grow over mass graves. And the story of October 14 endures as one of the most extraordinary acts of resistance in the history of the Holocaust.