- October 14, 2024
- 7:48 pm
- World News
This was the only successful uprising in the concentration camps of the Third Reich.
On October 14, 1943, prisoners of the Nazi death camp Sobibor rebelled under the leadership of a Soviet prisoner of war, a native of Ukraine, Alexander Pechersky. This was the only successful uprising in the concentration camps of the Third Reich.
Thanks to a bold plan, the rebels managed to destroy some of the SS men, disarm the guards and try to escape free. Pechersky, like several dozen other prisoners, survived the war and continued to live in the Soviet Union, where he faced numerous difficulties due to his status as a former prisoner of war.
Another rebel, a native of Ukraine, was Arkady Weispapirborn in 1921 in the village of Bobrovy Kut, Kherson region of Ukraine. He was among the organizers of the uprising and, together with his comrades, escaped certain death.
Weispapier recalled those events:
“We were sent to work in the camp workshop. I was repairing German equipment… There I first heard the plan for the uprising. It was hard to believe that we could do it, but we had no choice. Either we die on the spot or we fight for life.”
The history and testimonies of A. Weispapir and many other participants are collected in the book “Breakthrough into Immortality: The Uprising in the Sobibor Camp” (orig. Immortality's breakout. Rebellion at the Sobibor camp), published in Ukraine in 2016 (compiled by Larisa Moskalenko). This book presented for the first time in Ukrainian the memoirs of Alexander Pechersky, a poem by Mark Geylikman and an interview with Weispapir, preserving the memory of the indestructible spirit of people who chose freedom even in the darkest times.
Today we remember the heroes of Sobibor, whose feat reminds us of the strength of the human spirit and the desire for freedom.
Pechersky and his associates, among whom was Arkady Vaispapir from the Kherson region, began to develop a plan for the uprising long before it began. Weispapier recalled:
“We understood that if we didn’t do anything, certain death awaited us. But how can we start a rebellion?
The plan was to eliminate the guards one by one and seize the weapons. On October 14, 1943, the uprising began. The prisoners were able to kill 12 SS men and 38 guards. However, it was not possible to take possession of the full arsenal of weapons, and the guards began shooting at the rebels, forcing them to flee through minefields.
Of the approximately 550 prisoners, about 400 escaped, but half of them died in minefields and 170 were caught by the Nazis during searches. Only 53 participants in the uprising lived to see the end of the war. Of these, Pechersky, along with several others, was able to join the partisan detachment.
Biography of Alexander Pechersky
Alexander Aronovich Pechersky was born on February 22, 1909 in Kremenchug (Poltava province, Ukraine). His Jewish family, after moving to Rostov-on-Don, was engaged in advocacy. After graduating from school, Pechersky worked as an electrician at a locomotive plant and studied at Rostov University. With the beginning of Hitler's invasion of the USSR, he was drafted into the Soviet army, but was captured in 1941.
In September 1943, Pechersky was sent to Sobibor along with a group of other prisoners of war. In the camp, prisoners, mostly Jews, were subjected to brutal conditions and extermination. It was here that Pechersky became the initiator and organizer of the uprising.
Further fate and recognition of Pechersky
After a successful but tragic uprising, Pechersky was able to join a partisan detachment in the Brest region. He fought for over a year, performing demolition duties. However, after joining the Red Army, he was suspected of treason, and he was sent to a penal battalion.
The commander of the penal battalion, Major Andreev, was so impressed by Pechersky's story about the uprising that he allowed him to travel to Moscow to present his evidence of Nazi crimes.
In Moscow, his story was recorded by the writers Pavel Antokolsky and Veniamin Kaverin, on the basis of which the essay “The Uprising in Sobibor” was published. After the war the essay was included in the collection “Black Book” and was banned by censorship in 1947; not released in modern Russia either.
After the war, Pechersky continued to serve in the Soviet army, reaching the rank of captain, but was soon discharged due to disability. He met his future wife, Olga Kotova, in the hospital where he was treated after being wounded.
Pechersky passed away on January 19, 1990 in Rostov-on-Don, leaving behind a significant legacy related to the memory of the Holocaust and resistance.
Many books have been written about Sobibor and the uprising there, including:
- “Long Shadows” — Misha Lev, in Russian, translated from Yiddish.
- “Sobibor” is a novel by Misha Lev, published in 2002 in Yiddish in Tel Aviv.
- “From the ashes of Sobibor” – book by Thomas Bluth in English.
- “Escape from Sobibor” is a work by Richard Raschke, translated into eight languages.
- “Bełżec, Sobibor, Treblinka” — Yitzhak Arad in Hebrew.
- “Return is unwanted” — V. Tomin and O. Sinelnikov, 1964.
- “Uprising in Sobibor” – memoirs of Alexander Pechersky, published in the Moscow magazine “Sovetish Heimland” in Yiddish in 1973.
Screen adaptation
In 1987, director Jack Gold made the film “Escape from Sobibor” based on the book by Richard Raschke. The main role, Alexander Pechersky, was played by Rutger Hauer, who received a Golden Globe Award for this. It is noteworthy that Alexander Pechersky himself was not at the premiere; his widow later reported that the authorities did not want to process the documents for their departure to the United States.
Perpetuation of memory
In 2007, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where Pechersky lived. In Israel, in the city of Safed, a street is named after him. A glass stele with the name of Pechersky was installed in Boston, and a monument in his honor was unveiled in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2012.
These books and monuments serve as important reminders of the heroism of the people who fought for their freedom under the most difficult conditions.
The story of the destruction of the Sobibor camp became part of the charges in the Nuremberg trials. The International Tribunal wanted to hear Pechersky's testimony as a witness, but the Soviet authorities did not release him to Germany.
The Sobibor uprising was an important event that shows how even in the most hopeless conditions one can resist and fight for freedom. The memory of heroes such as Alexander Pechersky and his comrades continues to live, reminding us of the resilience of the human spirit and the desire for freedom.
