What is important about Sobibor?

Answer 1

The camp was organized in two camps: Treblinka I and Treblinka II. Treblinka I was split in two parts. The first part was the administrative section. There were barracks for the SS troops, the Ukrainian guards, the camp commander's barrack, a bakery, a storage and barracks for the 1000 prisoners who were used to operate the camp. A road left this part of the camp and rejoined the highway. The other part of Treblinka I was the receiving area. The railroad extended from the Treblinka station into the camp. There were two barracks near the tracks that where used to store the belongings of prisoners. One was disguised to look like a railroad station. There were two other buildings about 100 yards from the track. They too contained the clothing and belongings of the prisoners. One was used as an undressing room for the women, who received haircuts there as well. There was a cashier's office which collected money and jewelry for "safekeeping". There was also an infirmary, where the sick, old, wounded and already dead were taken. It was a small barrack painted white with a red cross on it. There, the prisoners were led to the edge of a ditch where bodies were continuously burning. They had to strip naked then sit in the edge of the pit before they were shot in the back of the head. Then they fell in the ditch and burned

Treblinka II was on a small hill. From camp one there was an uphill path lined with barbed wire fences--the funnel--which led directly into the gas chambers building. Behind this building there was a large pit, one meter wide by twenty meters long, inside of which burned furnaces. Rails were laid across the pit and the bodies of gassed victims were placed on the rails to burn. There was also a barrack for the 500 prisoners who operated camp II.

At the very beginning, people were buried in mass graves or piled up in camp two because the workers did not have time to bury them. The stench from the decomposing bodies could be smelled up to ten kilometers away. The Jews waiting in the train wagons knew what would happen and thousand committed suicide in the trains. In September 1942, new gas chambers were built. They could handle three thousand people in two hours.

The work was performed by special squads (sonderkommandos) of Jewish prisoners.

Answer 2

• It was the biggest revolt in a Nazi death camp.
• 250,000 prisoners perished at Sobibor.
• 300 of 600 prisoners escaped on October 14, 1943.
• Only around 50 prisoners survived the war.