Media Essay
Sobibor (Abridged Article) - ID Cards/Oral Histories
The Sobibor killing center in German-occupied Poland was one of four camps linked to Operation Reinhard. At least 167,000 people were murdered at Sobibor. On October 14, 1943, Jewish prisoners launched an uprising. After the revolt, Sobibor was dismantled.
Chaim Engel recalls the Sobibor uprising and his escape
In 1939, as Chaim's tour in the Polish army was nearing its scheduled end, Germany invaded Poland. The Germans captured Chaim and sent him to Germany for forced labor. As a Jewish prisoner of war, Chaim later was returned to Poland. Ultimately, he was deported to the Sobibor camp, where the rest of his family died. In the 1943 Sobibor uprising, Chaim killed a guard. He escaped with his girlfriend, Selma, whom he later married. A farmer hid them until liberation by Soviet forces in June 1944.
Item ViewChaim Engel describes his role in the Sobibor uprising
In 1939, as Chaim's tour in the Polish army was nearing its scheduled end, Germany invaded Poland. The Germans captured Chaim and sent him to Germany for forced labor. As a Jewish prisoner of war, Chaim later was returned to Poland. Ultimately, he was deported to the Sobibor camp, where the rest of his family died. In the 1943 Sobibor uprising, Chaim killed a guard. He escaped with his girlfriend, Selma, whom he later married. A farmer hid them until liberation by Soviet forces in June 1944.
Item ViewChaim Engel describes plans for the Sobibor uprising
The Germans captured Chaim, a soldier in the Polish army, as they invaded Poland in 1939. They first sent Chaim to Germany for forced labor, but as a Jewish prisoner of war, he was returned to Poland. Ultimately, Chaim was deported to the Sobibor camp, where the rest of his family died. In the 1943 Sobibor uprising, Chaim killed a guard. He escaped with his girlfriend, Selma, whom he later married. A farmer hid them until liberation in June 1944.
In this clip, Chaim refers to [Gustav] Wagner, Sobibor's deputy commandant.
Item ViewEsther Raab describes planning for the uprising in Sobibor
Esther was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Chelm, Poland. In December 1942, she was deported from a work camp to the Sobibor killing center in occupied Poland. Upon arrival at Sobibor, Esther was selected to work in a sorting shed. She sorted clothing and the possessions of the people killed at the camp. During the summer and fall of 1943, Esther was among a group of prisoners in the Sobibor camp who planned an uprising and escape. Leon Feldhendler and Aleksandr (Sasha) Pechersky were the leaders of the group. The revolt took place on October 14, 1943. German and Ukrainian guards opened fire on the prisoners, who were unable to reach the main gate and thus had to try and escape through the minefield around the camp; about 300 escaped. Over 100 of them were recaptured and shot. Esther was among those who escaped and survived.
Item ViewEsther Raab describes the uprising in Sobibor
Esther was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Chelm, Poland. In December 1942, she was deported from a work camp to the Sobibor killing center in occupied Poland. Upon arrival at Sobibor, Esther was selected to work in a sorting shed. She sorted clothing and the possessions of the people killed at the camp. During the summer and fall of 1943, Esther was among a group of prisoners in the Sobibor camp who planned an uprising and escape. Leon Feldhendler and Aleksandr (Sasha) Pechersky were the leaders of the group. The revolt took place on October 14, 1943. German and Ukrainian guards opened fire on the prisoners, who were unable to reach the main gate and thus had to try and escape through the minefield around the camp; about 300 escaped. Over 100 of them were recaptured and shot. Esther was among those who escaped and survived.
Item ViewTomasz (Toivi) Blatt describes gassing operations in the Sobibor killing center
Tomasz was born to a Jewish family in Izbica. After the war began in September 1939, the Germans established a ghetto in Izbica. Tomasz's work in a garage initially protected him from roundups in the ghetto. In 1942 he tried to escape to Hungary, using false papers. He was caught but managed to return to Izbica. In April 1943 he and his family were deported to Sobibor. Tomasz escaped during the Sobibor uprising. He went into hiding and worked as a courier in the Polish underground.
Item ViewSelma (Wijnberg) Engel describes deportation to Sobibor
Selma was the youngest of four children born to Jewish parents. When she was 7, Selma and her family moved to the town of Zwolle where her parents ran a small hotel. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, they confiscated the hotel. The family had to live in a poor Jewish section of the town. Selma went into hiding but was betrayed and then sent to the Westerbork camp. In April 1943 she was deported to Sobibor, where she worked in the clothes sorting area. There, the prisoners tried to pocket food and valuables and ruin the clothes so the Germans could not use them. Selma met her future husband, Chaim, who was helping to plan a prisoner uprising. When the revolt began, they escaped and used some money taken from the clothing to buy shelter in a barn. They left Poland after the war because of violent antisemitism, moving first to the Netherlands in 1945, then to Israel in 1951, and finally to the United States in 1957.
Browse Selma Engel's diary and other papers
Item ViewEsther Raab recalls the arrival of transports in Sobibor
Esther was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Chelm, Poland. In December 1942, she was deported from a work camp to the Sobibor killing center in occupied Poland. Upon arrival at Sobibor, Esther was selected to work in a sorting shed. She sorted clothing and the possessions of the people killed at the camp. During the summer and fall of 1943, Esther was among a group of prisoners in the Sobibor camp who planned an uprising and escape. Leon Feldhendler and Aleksandr (Sasha) Pechersky were the leaders of the group. The revolt took place on October 14, 1943. German and Ukrainian guards opened fire on the prisoners, who were unable to reach the main gate and thus had to try and escape through the minefield around the camp; about 300 escaped. Over 100 of them were recaptured and shot. Esther was among those who escaped and survived.
Item ViewJacob Unger
Jacob was living in Essen, Germany, when he met and married Erna Schumer, who, like him, came from a religious Jewish background. The couple had two children, Max, born in 1923 and Dora, born in 1925. Jacob worked as a salesman, and in the evenings he tutored students in Hebrew.
1933-39: In 1933 when Hitler came to power, Jacob went to Amsterdam to explore the possibility of the family moving there. However, Erna did not want to leave her three sisters who were living in Essen, and she also believed that the family would be safe if they remained in Germany. After nationwide pogroms in November 1938, the Ungers finally fled to the Netherlands. There, as penniless refugees, the Unger family was split up: Max and Dora were placed in the care of Jewish organizations.
1940-44: The Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. For three years Erna and Jacob survived in hiding. On April 17, 1943, they were sent to the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands and deported seven days later to the Sobibor killing center in Poland.
Jacob was gassed at Sobibor in 1943. He was 72 years old.
Item ViewTomas Kulka
Tomas' parents were Jewish. His father, Robert Kulka, was a businessman from the Moravian town of Olomouc. His mother, Elsa Skutezka, was a milliner from Brno, the capital of Moravia. The couple was well-educated and spoke both Czech and German. They married in 1933 and settled in Robert's hometown of Olomouc.
1933-39: Tomas was born a year and a day after his parents were married. When Tomas was 3, his grandfather passed away and the Kulkas moved to Brno, which was his mother's hometown. On March 15, 1939, a few weeks before Tomas' fifth birthday, the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia, including Brno.
1940-42: On January 2, 1940, Tomas and his parents and grandmother were evicted from their house by the Germans. Hoping to save the family business, Tomas' father decided to remain in Brno. Because Tomas was Jewish, he was not allowed to begin school. A year later, Tomas's parents were forced to sell the business to a German for a mere 200 Czechoslovak crowns, or less than $10. On March 31, 1942, the Kulkas were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in western Czechoslovakia.
On May 9, 1942, Tomas was deported to the Sobibor killing center where he was gassed. He was 7 years old.
Item ViewEma Schwarzova Skutezka
One of two children born to religious Jewish parents, Ema was raised in the small Moravian town of Lomnice, where her mother ran a general store. In 1901 Ema married Eduard Skutecky, a regular customer at her mother's store. The couple settled in the city of Brno, where they raised three children. Eduard ran a shipping company.
1933-39: By 1933 Ema's three children were grown and had moved out. Four years later her husband passed away, and Ema moved in with her eldest daughter, Elsa. Elsa and her husband were running the Skutezka family's shipping company. In March 1939 the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia and Brno fell under German rule. The Germans immediately imposed restrictions on the Jewish population.
1940-42: On January 2, 1940, Ema, her daughter Elsa, her son-in-law and her grandson were evicted from their house because they were Jewish. That same winter Ema's two younger children managed to immigrate to Palestine [the Yishuv]. A year later, Elsa was forced to sell the family business to a German for a mere 200 Czech crowns or less than $10. On March 31, 1942, Ema and her daughter's family were deported to the Theresienstadt ghetto in western Czechoslovakia.
On May 9, 1942, Ema was deported to the Sobibor killing center and gassed. She was 65 years old.
Item ViewEva Brigitte Marum
Eva Brigitte was the youngest of three children born to German-Jewish parents in the capital of Baden, a state along the Rhine River in southwestern Germany. Known as Brigitte by her friends and classmates, and as "Brix" by her family, she grew up in a secular household and attended public schools. Her father was a local Social Democratic party leader.
1933-39: In 1933 the Nazis came to the Marum's house and arrested Eva's father because he was an active anti-Nazi. Two months later she suddenly saw him "paraded" through the streets in an open truck, being publicly humiliated on his way to a concentration camp. After that Eva refused to remain in school. After her father was killed, she and her mother immigrated to France in April 1934.
1940-43: The French released Eva from an internment camp for enemy aliens, but the situation worsened when the Germans defeated France in 1940. In 1941 Eva's sister obtained steamship tickets and exit visas to America for herself, Eva, and their mother, but as Eva was nine months pregnant the ship officials would not let her board. Alone, and abandoned by the baby's father, Eva gave birth in Marseille. Unable to provide for her son, she placed him in a home for refugee Jewish children in Limoges when he was a year old.
Caught in a roundup in southern France in January 1943, Brigitte was deported to Sobibor, where she perished. Her son survived and was taken to Palestine in 1945.
Item ViewErna Schumer Unger
Erna was the second of four daughters. Her religious Jewish parents moved the family to Essen, Germany, in 1905 when Erna was 21. Erna married when she was in her twenties, but the couple had no children and her husband passed away. After living as a widow for some years, Erna remarried to Jacob Unger, a salesman, and together they had two children, Max and Dora.
1933-39: When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Jacob went to Amsterdam to explore the possibility of the family settling there. Erna, however, could not part from her sisters, with whom she was very close, and so Jacob returned to Essen. In November 1938, after nationwide pogroms, the Ungers finally fled to Amsterdam. Like some uprooted Jewish refugees in the city, their children were placed in the care of Jewish organizations.
1940-44: The Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. After the occupation, Erna and Jacob went into hiding. After three years they were discovered and arrested, although details of how are unknown. On April 17, 1943, Erna and Jacob were sent to the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands. Seven days later they were deported to the Sobibor killing center in Poland.
Erna perished at Sobibor in 1943. She was 59 years old. The only family member to survive was Dora, who in 1940 had been smuggled to England with other Jewish refugee children.
Item ViewGrietje Polak
Grietje was born to a large religious Jewish family in Amsterdam. When she was in her mid-20's, she married Frederik Polak, an accountant. The Polaks had a son, Jacob, and three daughters, Julia, Betty and Liesje. They lived in simple quarters on the second floor of a house.
1933-39: Creating an atmosphere of Jewish observance in the home was important to Grietje and her husband. They loved to celebrate the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays with their four children. Grietje taught shorthand and needlepoint at a Jewish elementary school, and enjoyed working with children.
1940-43: After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Grietje's husband's accounting firm worked overtime to "register" Amsterdam's Jews--the Germans had ordered all Jews to be listed. The deportation of Dutch Jews began in 1942, but Grietje and her husband were not deported until June 1943 because his business was used for various purposes by the Germans. After one month at the Westerbork camp in the Netherlands, they were informed that they were to be sent to Poland to work. In preparation, they packed their nicest clothes.
On July 23, 1943, Grietje and her husband, Frederick, were deported from Westerbork to the Sobibor extermination camp where two days later, they were killed.
Item ViewFrederik Polak
Frederik was raised in a religious Jewish home. His father was a scribe of Jewish holy texts. Frederik studied accounting and became a certified public accountant. After his father died, he helped support his three sisters, his blind brother and his mother. When he was in his mid-20's, Frederik married and started his own family.
1933-39: Creating an atmosphere of Jewish observance in the home was important to Frederik and his wife. They loved to celebrate the Sabbath and the Jewish holidays with their four children. In 1937, after Frederik's son, Jacob, passed the exam to be a certified tax consultant, he joined his father's accounting firm. Frederik often worked for charitable organizations, and would charge them a minimum, so his income was irregular and low.
1940-43: After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Frederik's business worked overtime to "register" Amsterdam's Jews--the Germans had ordered all Jews to be listed. Though the deportation of Dutch Jewry began in 1942, Frederik and his wife were not deported until June 1943 because his business was used for various official purposes by the Germans. After four weeks at the Westerbork camp in the Netherlands, the Polaks were informed that they were to be sent to Poland to work. In preparation, they packed their nicest clothes.
On July 23, 1943, Frederik and his wife, Grietje, were deported from Westerbork to the Sobibor killing center, where two days later they were killed.
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