Sobibor is located approximately 80 kilometres north of Lublin on the border with Ukraine. In March 1942, a camp was built there with only one purpose: exterminating the Jews from all of Europe. The first transports arrived from east Poland, Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union in May 1942. The camp only existed for 18 months. From May 1942 until September 1943 more than 250,000 Jews were murdered. Approximately 34,000 of them came from the Netherlands. They were transported in trains from Westerbork camp between 2 March and 20 July 1943.
On 14 October 1943 there was a revolt in Sobibor, led by Alexander Petsjerski, a lieutenant from the Red Army. Approximately 300 men and women managed to escape. Only 47 of them survived the war. Right after the revolt the camp was destroyed and all
evidence was carefully eliminated. Only the ash of a quarter million people remained. One Dutch women (Selma Engel-Wijnberg) survived Sobibor. Fifteen women and three men returned to the Netherlands because immediately upon their arrival in Sobibor they
were selected for labour camps in the areas. Two years later they were liberated in various concentration camps after having gone through horrific death marches.
For more information about Sobibor see: www.stichtingsobibor.nl.