Escaping Hell -76 Years since the Jewish Revolt at Sobibor
07 October 2018
On Tuesday, 9 October 2018, at 10:00, a memorial ceremony and event will be held at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, commemorating 75 years since the Jewish revolt at former German Nazi death camp Sobibór. The memorial event will take place at the Yad Vashem Synagogue and will include remarks from Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev and Devorah Fishman (Lichtman), daughter of the late Sobibór survivors Eda Fischer and Jitschak Lichtman. Historian Naama Galil from Yad Vashem's Commemoration and Community Relations Division will lecture on the history of the camp and the revolt at Sobibór and Tel Aviv University Archeology Faculty doctoral student Yoram Haimi will address the audience on recent archeological findings on the former site of the Sobibór death camp. Diplomatic representatives from Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Slovakia will attend the event.
In October 1943, two Jewish prisoners, Leon Feldhendler and Lieutenant Aleksander (Sasha) Pechersky, planned and led a mass revolt and escape of the some 300 Jews incarcerated and awaiting extermination at Sobibór. Nearly half of the inmates were killed while escaping, and many others were caught in the manhunt that followed the escape. Approximately 50 survived by hiding in the nearby forests.
One of three Operation Reinhard extermination camps, Sobibór began operations in April 1942. Historians have estimated that between 170,000 to 250,000 Jews were murdered at Sobibór by the time the camp closed in 1943 following the uprising. The Germans destroyed the camp in an attempt to erase all evidence of its existence.
Press interested in covering the event should contact the Communications Division at Yad Vashem.
