Sobibor extermination camp
| Sobibór | |
|---|---|
| Extermination camp | |
Sobibór extermination camp memorial, pyramid of sand mixed with human ashes
  Location of Sobibór (right of centre) on the map of Nazi extermination camps marked with black and white skulls. Poland's borders before the Second World War |
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| Coordinates | 51°26′50″N 23°35′37″E / 51.44722°N 23.59361°ECoordinates: 51°26′50″N 23°35′37″E / 51.44722°N 23.59361°E |
| Other names | SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor |
| Known for | Genocide during the Holocaust |
| Location | Near Sobibór, General Government (occupied Poland) |
| Built by |
|
| Operated by |
 SS-Totenkopfverbände
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| Commandant |
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| Original use | Extermination camp |
| First built | March 1942 – May 1942 |
| Operational | 16 May 1942 – 17 October 1943 |
| Number of gas chambers | 3 (expanded to 6) |
| Inmates | Jews mainly from Poland, but also from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union (including POWs) |
| Number of inmates | Est. 600–650 slave labour at any given time |
| Killed | Est. min. 200,000–250,000 |
| Notable inmates | Joseph Serchuk, Dov Freiberg, Alexander Pechersky |
Sobibór (or Sobibor /ˈsɔbibɔːr/, or /soʊˈbibɔːr/,Polish pronunciation: [sɔˈbʲibur]) was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the village of Sobibór, in occupied Poland, within the semi-colonial territory of General Government, during World War II. The camp was part of the secretive Operation Reinhard, which marked the deadliest phase of the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland. The camp was situated near the rural county's major town of Włodawa (called Wolzek by the Germans), 85 km south of the provincial capital, Brest-on-the-Bug (Brześć nad Bugiem in Polish). Its official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibór.Jews from Poland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union (including Jewish-Soviet POWs), were transported to Sobibór by rail. Most were suffocated in gas chambers fed by the exhaust of a large petrol engine. Up to 200,000 people were murdered at Sobibór and possibly more. At the postwar trial against the former SS personnel of Sobibór, held in Hagen two decades into the Cold War, Professor Wolfgang Scheffler estimated the number of murdered Jews totalled a minimum of 250,000.
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