SOBIBOR

Sobibor extermination camp was located in the Lublin district of Poland, close to the village and railway station of Sobibor. The Germans established the camp in March 1942. Between April 1942 and October 1943, approximately half a million Jews were murdered there. The camp was closed down at the end of 1943 after a prisoners' uprising in October of that same year.
Sobibor was a relatively small, purpose-built, rectangle shaped camp, 400 metres by 600 metres. A barbed-wire fence, which had been woven with tree branches to hide what was inside, surrounded the site.
The camp was divided into three sections: the administration area, reception area and extermination area. The extermination area housed the gas chambers, burial trenches and accommodation for the Jewish prisoners who worked in the camp. The gas chambers were designed to look like shower rooms, so that the victims would not know their fate.
The first camp commandant of Sobibor was SS-Obersturmfuehrer Franz Stangl, who had a staff of between 20 and 30 SS soldiers. Many of these had previously worked on the T4 Euthanasia Programme in Germany. A further 90 to120 Ukrainians were used as camp guards. In addition, approximately a thousand Jewish prisoners were selected from the strongest of those who arrived at the camp. They worked on the processing of new arrivals and their belongings. These Sonderkommando would be subjected to selections every few days, and the weakest sent to their deaths.