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Sobibor Death Camp Research Paper

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Throughout the course of the Holocaust there were major rebellions at 3 of the 6 death camps (death camps were concentration camps that carried out mass killings under the SS). Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz-Birkenau all had major uprising by inmates. Although the methods used by inmates in each case vary, they all share a common theme: they were caused by desperation from the imminent presence of death.
The uprising at the Treblinka camp was triggered by a series of German military defeats bringing the camp closer to liberation by allied forces. The Jewish prisoners knew that if the allies came close to the camp the SS would liquidate all of the inmates and destroy the camp to hide any evidence of the atrocities committed within. After careful planning and the discovery and suicide of the original resistance leader, an escape was made. 300 inmates broke free of the barbed wire fences as resistance fighters attacked the guards. During the SS lead manhunt that followed, 200 of the 300 escapees …show more content…

A group of Sonderkommando prisoners began formulating a plan for escape. The Sonderkommando (German for “Special Unit”) were Jews in a camp that were forced under threat of death to dispose of the bodies killed in the gas chambers. The Sonderkommandos were treated better than most prisoners and had many special privileges because they needed to be in good shape for the work they did. The SS also considered them to know too much about the horrors going on and routinely gassed the entire unit every few months. Eventually a plan was made and the Sonderkommandos attacked and killed 11 SS officers and seized the camp armory. The uprising was soon discovered and the inmates had to run. About half of the original prisoners made it out of the camp but most were killed by the surrounding minefield or recaptured by SS patrols. Of 600 prisoners, 58 are known to have survived the

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