Ethnicities of Sobibor
Deportation of Jews to Sobibor
The guards of Sobibor were typically either Ukrainian and German. There were usually between twenty and thirty German and SS police officials at he camp, as well as a police guard unit numbering anywhere from ninety to one hundred and twenty men. This guard unit was assembled of either former Soviet prisoners of war or Ukrainian or Polish civilians. However, the ethnicities of the prisoners were much more varied. Jews imprisoned in Sobibor came from primarily from Poland, since Sobibor itself was located in Poland. During World War II, the Nazi Germans seized part of Poland and renamed it General Government for the Occupied Polish Territories. This area of southern Poland included the ghettos of Lublin, Krakow, and Warsaw. Sobibor was built primarily to kill the Jews that came from the General Government district of Lublin. Other countries that the Jewish prisoners came from included Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, France, Holland, and Slovenia. Jews also came from the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania, the cities of Lida and Minsk in Belarus, and Galicia, a city that is split between Poland and Ukraine.
Staff of Sobibor
Stangl and his children
Notable Staff Members
Richard Thomalla, an SS Obersturmführer (Senior Assault Leader), was one of two officers who were the first to arrive at Sobibor in March 1942 and measure the grounds for the construction of the camp. He acted as the head of construction of Sobibor and had previously run the Central Building Administration in Lublin.
Franz Stangl, an SS Obersturmführer, worked as camp commandant, supervising the running of the camp. However, he was first sent to Belzec to gain experience necessary for the position. He acted as SS First Lieutenant from April to September of 1942. Stangl, previously was a participant in Operation T4, an operation where the physically and mentally handicapped were euthanized prior to the beginning of the Holocaust. He commanded a group of twenty to thirty SS men. He left Sobibor after being transferred to Treblinka to act as their camp commandant. After the war, he fled to Italy before being captured in Brazil. Stangl was tried for the murder of 900,000 people. He admitted to murdering those Jews but stated, "My conscience is clear. I was simply doing my duty". He was proved guilty of those crimes and sentenced to life in prison but died of heart failure in Düsseldorf prison in 1971.
SS Captain Franz Reichleitner replaced Franz Stangl in September 1942 and served the position of camp commandant until November 1943. He had previously been a member of the Gestapo, and was rarely seen in camp. He was not present on the day of the uprising, and after the war fled to Italy, where he was killed in 1944.
Hermann Michel was a deputy of Stangl, and acted as the SS Obscharfuhrer, or Staff Sergeant. He had previously worked with Stangl and had experience in euthanasia. He worked in Sobibor until 1942, when he was then transferred to Treblinka. When the Jews came to Sobibor, he posed as a doctor checking the Jews before they were to be disinfected. After the war, Michel went to Italy and died in 1984.
Gustav Wagner later replaced Hermann Michel. Wagner worked at various euthanasia centers before beginning work at Sobibor. Wagner's job was to choose prisoners from transports to work for the camp. He was not at Sobibor when the revolt took place, but after the war helped to tear down the camp. He changed his identity and fled to Brazil after the war. However, he committed suicide in 1980.
Erich Lachmann was in charge of guards at Sobibor and was later replaced by Kurt Bolender. Lachmann commanded Ukrainian guards at Sobibor. He deserted the camp when Reichleitner took the camp over from Stangl. Kurt Bolender came to Sobibor in 1942. His background included working in euthanasia and supervising Jewish workers. After the revolt, he helped to remove any traces that Sobibor existed. He committed suicide in 1966 after being arrested in 1961.
The Jews themselves were also employed at the camp. Between two hundred and three hundred Jews worked at the gas chambers and burial pits. They cleaned out the killing rooms, removed gold teeth from corpses, and pushed trolleys with bodies to the pits. This Jewish workforce for the camp was called the Sonderkommando.
Richard Thomalla, an SS Obersturmführer (Senior Assault Leader), was one of two officers who were the first to arrive at Sobibor in March 1942 and measure the grounds for the construction of the camp. He acted as the head of construction of Sobibor and had previously run the Central Building Administration in Lublin.
Franz Stangl, an SS Obersturmführer, worked as camp commandant, supervising the running of the camp. However, he was first sent to Belzec to gain experience necessary for the position. He acted as SS First Lieutenant from April to September of 1942. Stangl, previously was a participant in Operation T4, an operation where the physically and mentally handicapped were euthanized prior to the beginning of the Holocaust. He commanded a group of twenty to thirty SS men. He left Sobibor after being transferred to Treblinka to act as their camp commandant. After the war, he fled to Italy before being captured in Brazil. Stangl was tried for the murder of 900,000 people. He admitted to murdering those Jews but stated, "My conscience is clear. I was simply doing my duty". He was proved guilty of those crimes and sentenced to life in prison but died of heart failure in Düsseldorf prison in 1971.
SS Captain Franz Reichleitner replaced Franz Stangl in September 1942 and served the position of camp commandant until November 1943. He had previously been a member of the Gestapo, and was rarely seen in camp. He was not present on the day of the uprising, and after the war fled to Italy, where he was killed in 1944.
Hermann Michel was a deputy of Stangl, and acted as the SS Obscharfuhrer, or Staff Sergeant. He had previously worked with Stangl and had experience in euthanasia. He worked in Sobibor until 1942, when he was then transferred to Treblinka. When the Jews came to Sobibor, he posed as a doctor checking the Jews before they were to be disinfected. After the war, Michel went to Italy and died in 1984.
Gustav Wagner later replaced Hermann Michel. Wagner worked at various euthanasia centers before beginning work at Sobibor. Wagner's job was to choose prisoners from transports to work for the camp. He was not at Sobibor when the revolt took place, but after the war helped to tear down the camp. He changed his identity and fled to Brazil after the war. However, he committed suicide in 1980.
Erich Lachmann was in charge of guards at Sobibor and was later replaced by Kurt Bolender. Lachmann commanded Ukrainian guards at Sobibor. He deserted the camp when Reichleitner took the camp over from Stangl. Kurt Bolender came to Sobibor in 1942. His background included working in euthanasia and supervising Jewish workers. After the revolt, he helped to remove any traces that Sobibor existed. He committed suicide in 1966 after being arrested in 1961.
The Jews themselves were also employed at the camp. Between two hundred and three hundred Jews worked at the gas chambers and burial pits. They cleaned out the killing rooms, removed gold teeth from corpses, and pushed trolleys with bodies to the pits. This Jewish workforce for the camp was called the Sonderkommando.
Survivors of Sobibor: Their Testimonies
A group portrait of the participants of the successful uprising in the Sobibor death camp.
Berl Frieberg, a fifteen year old Jewish boy, escaped from Sobibor with a large group of Jews. After his escape, Berl recalls that, "On the third day we were sitting, binding our wounds, when we saw an armed Gentile suddenly come out into the clearing... He came near us and began speaking. He questioned us and decided to take us to his group. Then he asked us if we were hungry and said he would bring back some food. He left and came back with a whole gang of armed villagers and gave us some bread. We were sitting around and eating and they asked us if we had guns, or gold. They told us to hand over our guns ... They started shooting at us point-blank. We were trapped! We had nothing to return fire with and it ended in tragedy. We came out of Sobibor only to be gunned down by the likes of these." Although chances for survival after escape were slim, Berl managed to get away.
Recreation of Sobibor
Kurt Bolender was the SS Oberscharfuhrer. He recalls the way in which the prisoners was dehumanized upon their arrival at Sobibor, being lied to before brought to their impending death, "Before the Jews undressed, Oberscharfuhrer Hermann Michel made a speech to them. On these occasions, he used to wear a white coat to give the impression he was a physician. Michel announced to the Jews that they would be sent to work. But before this they would have to take baths and undergo disinfection, so as to prevent the spread of diseases. After undressing, the Jews were taken through the ‘tube,’ by an SS man leading the way, with five or six Ukrainians at the back hastening the Jews along. After the Jews had entered the gas chambers, the Ukrainians closed the doors, the motor was switched on. After the gassing, the doors were opened and the corpses were removed by a group of Jewish slaves."
Human ashes and bones from Sobibor victims
Shlomo Szmajzner was a survivor who recounts the horrors as the Jews arrived at Sobibor and faced the sorting process, "As soon as the wagons were emptied, we were impelled towards a long corridor flanked by two fences made of barbed wire. There were guards all around us, urging us to walk as fast as possible, in spite of the state we were in...This corridor was the stage of an unforgettable scene for the sophisticated cruelty, which was practiced there...Meanwhile, the mass of Jews was coming by fits and starts and, when they came within reach of the morons they were violently separated – the men to the right and the women to the left, with the beast-like sectarians fiercely wielding their cudgels and hitting everyone pitilessly. The picture we saw was very painful, with whole families being separated: mothers were separated from their children and husbands in tears: young people were driven away from their parents and siblings: babies were deprived of their mothers love. As we were being separated according to our sex, we were thrown into a larger yard, located at the end of the corridor. This area could not hold us all and we had to be pushed and pressed to one another until it became totally saturated with people."