Interview with Thomas Blatt (Izbica 15 April 1927). Blatt arrived in Sobibor by truck on 23 April 1943. He escaped the gas chamber because a guard spotted him among the women and children and said: "Du Kleiner, komm mal 'raus". In the camp he had to help strengthen the fencing, later he had to sort and burn documents. After his escape he was shot by a Polish farmer and he wandered through the surrounding ...

Interview with Hella Weiss (née Felenbaum; Lublin 25 November 1924). Weiss arrived in Sobibor just before Christmas in a horse-drawn cart. She worked in the laundry, had to knit socks and gloves and she tended to the flower garden. About her time in the camp she remembers: "They tormented us terribly". After her escape she fought with the partisans and in the Soviet army. She received six decorations, ...

Interview with Stephan Stelmaszuk (Nidzia 1928) and Tadeus Syczuk (Dorohucza 1923). Stelmaszuk and his family lived about four kilometres away from Sobibor. Sometimes he could smell the stench of burned bodies. His mother gave food to two survivors of the uprising. He knew little about the camp, because 'all you saw was a fence around it'. Syczuk, a railway employee, witnessed abuse and mass destruction. ...

Interview with Arkady Wajspapir (1921). Wajspapir served as a sergeant in the Red Army and was injured in September 1941. As a Jewish prisoner of war he and the other Soviet soldiers had to build barracks in Lager IV in Sobibor. It quickly dawned on him that 'the only way out of there was to escape'. Before he was drafted into the Red Army Arkady Wajspapir worked as an engineer. After his recovery ...

Interview with Schlomo Alster (Chelm 1 December 1908). Alster was a carpenter and in Sobibor he had to help build barracks. He explained to new arrivals: 'That is the fire, those are the people who just arrived.' After the uprising he joined the partisans. In 1936 Schlomo Alster married Hanna Grindberg. Not long after that their first child was born, followed by the second two years later. When they ...

Interview with Kurt Thomas (Brno 11 April 1914). Thomas was taken to Sobibor via the ghetto of Theresienstadt. In the sorting barracks he had to sort clothes and belongings of victims who had been gassed. As an orderly he later managed to save the lives of several prisoners by letting them rest longer than allowed. When he had climbed across the fence during the uprising he refused to hurry: "I don't ...

Interview with Chaskiel Menche (Kolo 7 January 1910). Menche arrived in Sobibor in the summer of 1942 and he was briefly put to work in the sorting barracks. He was then appointed to shine shoes and make caps. Together with others he prepared a plan to murder Himmler during a visit to the camp. His desire for revenge was fulfilled when he stabbed a guard during the uprising: "My heart is lighter now ...

Interview with Meier Ziss (Lublin 15 November 1927). Ziss arrived in Sobibor in June 1942. At first he worked as a barber, later he became 'Brandmeister' and had to burn the documents left behind by the people who had just arrived on a transport. In the camp he heard that his parents had been killed and he 'wanted to be dead together with them'. When he joined the partisans after the uprising he felt ...

Interview with Esther Raab (Chelm 11 June 1922). Raab, together with Regina Zielinski and Hella Weiss, was taken to Sobibor just before Christmas 1942 in a horse-drawn cart. They saw such atrocities that she sometimes thought that "going to the gas chambers was easier than being exposed to all the horror". After her escape she went into hiding on a farm where she was reunited with her long lost brother. ...

Interview with Regina Zielinski (Siedliczcze 2 September 1924). Zielinski was taken to Sobibor in a horse-drawn cart together with her fellow-villagers just before Christmas 1942. She was selected to knit socks and later had to sort ammunition. On arrival in the camp she heard her little brother say: Let's say farewell to the night, because we won't see the sun rise again.? She was born Riwka Feldman. ...

Interview with Stanislaw Szmajzner (Pulawy 13 March 1927). Szmajzner arrived in Sobibor at age fifteen. He was a goldsmith and had to make signet rings and other jewellery for the guards. During the uprising he managed to get hold of three rifles wrapped in blankets. He shot one of the Ukrainian guards in the watchtower: 'That was the first time in my life I fired a gun'. Apart from making gold jewellery ...

Interview with Samuel Lerer (Zolkiewka 1 October 1922). Lerer was one of the first prisoners to arrive in Sobibor. He was ordered to look after the horses and this gave him access to much of the camp. During the uprising both his brothers were killed. Etched in his mind is 'how my father went to the gas chamber naked'. In the camp he also had to fatten up ducks for SS officer Frenzel. After the war ...

Interview with Alexander 'Sasja' Pechersky (Kremenchuk, 22 February 1909). Pechersky was a lieutenant in the Red Army, was taken prisoner in the autumn of 1941. When a medical examination revealed he was Jewish, he was transported to Sobibor on 22 September 1943. Over a period of three weeks he drew up a detailed plan to escape from the camp with all the prisoners. About his captivity and his part ...

Groep vrouwen in Ravensbrück voor vertrek naar een vernietigingskamp. Zij waren radeloos van angst en hielden elkaar vast:. Als er één ontsnapte, werden de anderen zwaar gestraft.