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Phillips Page 1 Kathryn Phillips Mr.

Neuburger Comp 101-101 16 April 2013 Research Paper The Resistance History is replete with ideas of pure race and genocides such as the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide. The perseverance of the people affected by these tragedies will never cease to amaze those left behind. As many are forced to watch their family members and friends die, there are those few who decide even with their last breath, they are going to do what they can to escape. The human perseverance moves forward and many form a resistance knowing if they are caught they will die a horrible, more painful death than the others. Treblinka and Sobibor are two camps with the largest resistances formed. Treblinka is located in German- occupied Poland during World War II near the village of Treblinka. Louis Bulow, an author who commonly contributes to essays and articles about the Holocaust, states in the article he wrote for the website Death Camp

The camp at Treblinka is built in the spring of 1942 and is surrounded by a high barbed wire fence camouflaged
Treblinka Road Sign http://bit.ly/YL1eQa

with trees to hide what is happening inside. Anti-tank obstacles

and rolls of barbed wire are placed outside the fence. Multiple watch towers are built as well. The first Jews arrive at the camp on June 22, 1942 on trains that were made up of 50-60 cars. Each train carries approximately 6,000-7,000 people. There are twenty cars that are brought to the camp at a time while the other cars are made to wait. It is through these incoming transports the prisoners at Treblinka learn of the Warsaw uprising. However, instead of this knowledge scaring them, it

Phillips Page 2 gives them strength in their resolve and boosts moral. Bulow states nearly 850,000 people were killed at Treblinka - Jews and Gypsies, men and women, adults and children (Bulow)

The website Yad Vashem states the camp is run by a commandant SS Obersturmfueher Franz Stangl, who has served at Sobibor as well. His deputy is Kurt Franz. There are 20-30 other SS officers and approximately 90-120 Ukrainian soldiers who work at Treblinka as camp guards.

Treblinka Gas Chamber http://bit.ly/11auOhH

Furthermore, Yad Vashem goes on to explain the extermination process as a train made up of 50-60 cars, holding some 6,000 7,000 people arrived at the nearby train station, 20 cars were brought into the camp, while the rest were made to wait at the station. The car doors were opened, and the SS officers order the Jews to disembark. Next, a camp officer announces to the new arrivals that they had reached a transit camp where they would take showers, have their clothes disinfected, and then travel on to various labor campsmen and women were separated with the children going with the women. The women were made to undress in the barrack, cut their hair, and enter the pipe- a narrow, fenced-in, camouflaged path

Phillips Page 3 leading to the gas chambers. The victims were then locked in the chamber; a diesel engine starts and within half an hour, all inside is dead.(Treblinka) The website states several attempts were made to overthrow the guards at the camp; however, none are successful and, they all end with the attempted escapees being hanged as well as the ones who stay back are left to more inhumane punishment than before. With this in mind, the decision is made that the only chance for survival is for everyone to revolt at the same time. In the middle of 1942, organizers of the revolt begin to bribe the Ukrainian soldiers for food with money taken from their dead friends. The soldiers will not help with getting weapons for fear of what will happen to them if they are found out. In late summer of 1943, a Jewish locksmith, who is forcibly employed by the Nazis, manages to make a key to the weapons room. There is a party being held for the Nazis to celebrate the end of their commission. This party sets an urgency to put revolt in motion. Now, the date and time for the revolt are set, August 2, 1943 at 4:30 p.m. According the article The Dark side, written by Michael Omer-Man At the time, there were only some 850 prisoners left in Treblinka. On the eve of the revolt, the plans are finally revealed to a large number of prisoners to prepare them for the planned escape, many more will learn of the plot on their ownthe day of the escape, many of the Nazi and Ukrainian soldiers had left the camp to go swimming at a nearby river, a coincidence that would ultimately aid the revolt. According to plan, at 2 p.m. on August 2, two young prisoners take the forged key to the weapons store and begin passing grenades and firearms through a window in sacks to prisoners waiting outside. The weapons are then taken in garbage carts and construction pails for distribution around the camp. The distribution of arms is going to plan until a Nazi guard arbitrarily stops a Jewish prisoner and find contraband money on him. Worried that the man will be tortured and give up the plot, organizers decide to launch the revolt ahead of schedule, and the deployment of weapons throughout the camp was never completed. (Omer-Man).

Phillips Page 4 The signal that the revolt is beginning is a single grenade explosion, and it is sounded approximately two hours earlier than expected. Omer-Man goes into great detail about the next events. He states A fuel tank was set on fire, barracks and warehouses were set ablaze, military vehicles disabled and grenades were thrown at the SS headquarters. Several Nazi and Ukrainian soldiers are killed with explosives and gunfire, but machine-gun fire rained down on the prisoners Due to the improvised early start of the fighting, the supply of guns, ammunition and grenades quickly waned and the chaos of fighting turned into panic. The panic causes prisoners to run to the gates of the camp throwing clothing over the barbed wire so they can climb out with less injury to their bodies Remembering this day, Omer-Man states that of the 850 prisoners left on the day of the revolt only 100 manage to escape and nearly half are killed by Nazi gun fire or quickly caught and shot where they stood. Even though Treblinka and Sobibor are not the biggest concentration camps in the history of the Holocaust, their uprisings are the most successful for all the prisoners. The location of Sobibor extermination camp is approximately 70 km east of Lubin Poland and is operational from May 1942 to October 1943. Sobibor has barracks for the Ukrainian guards as well as the small group of prisoners who are lucky enough to do manual labor. Along with the barracks are several other functioning buildings. Because Sobibor is a death camp, there is no selection process, and unlike the other camps, Jews are the only ones imprisoned here. There are approximately
Rare Pictures of Organizers of the revolt at Sobibor http://bit.ly/ZMIyv8

260,000 Jews killed at Sobibor. There are also ten Germans

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Alexander Pechorsky http://bit.ly/171lIGq

and eight Ukrainian solders that are killed. According to the website Auchwits.dk/sobibor/uprising(adk) Alexander Pechorsky and Leon Felhhendler are the two leaders of the organizing of the uprising. Pechorsky is a Soviet prisoner of war who, when captured, is made to undergo a strip search. It is then he is found to be circumcised and is immediately sent to Sobibor. Feldhendler is a chairman on the Jewish council who is the initial organizer for the underground group planning the escape. Adk goes on to state that up until the hour that was set for the outbreak, life in the camp continued as normal.(Adk) There are only a few who know about the uprising; a majority of the people will not know until it all begins. Adk states that between the hours 1600 and 1630, eleven SS men who had been called to workshops were killed and among them is the commander of the camp. The commanders name is Johann Niemann and he is killed at a tailors shop while trying on a new uniform by the Jewish tailor Yehunda Lerner. This action marks point of no return; now the revolt has begun. Both Pechorsky and Felhendle give the orders to cut the telephone and electric wires and to make sure that any vehicles are immobile. A group of blacksmiths remove rifles and hand them over to the appropriate members of the revolt. All of these actions are done without any guards or soldiers

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SS men and Ukrainian guards who severed at Sobibor http://bit.ly/ZykGLQ

knowledge and before the 1645 roll call. At this point, there are still prisoners who have no idea what is about to happen and how it will change their lives forever. According to Adk according to plan the prisoners of war and the members of the underground, some of which are armed, took up their position in the front row, This is where the problems begin. There is a truck that pulls up and sees a SS soldier lying dead and another man running away from the body. He immediately opens fire , and at the same time the commanders of the Ukrainian guard are attacked and killed during roll call. Because everything seems to be falling apart, Pechorsky decides to move forward without getting all the prisoners together. Prisoners begin to break through the gates and mass chaos ensues. One group of prisoners broke out the gates on the north side triggering the landmines. All are killed from that group. The next group is able to step over the dead bodies of their friends and family members and avoid the landmines. Of the 600 prisoners housed at Sobibor on the day of the uprising, 300 manage to escape. Of the 300 escaped prisoners, approximately 150 are killed by landmines or shot by Ukrainian guards. There are approximately 150 prisoners that are sick and/or left out of the preparation of the revolt and either fight to death or are killed the next day when the chief of staff of operations, Hermann Hofle, arrives at the camp from Lubin. Of the 300 who escape, only 100 are captured and killed. Of the 200 survivors, about 153

Phillips Page 7 are killed at different points before liberation. After the liberation, there are still some killed by rightwinged poles for their part in the escape.

In these two camps approximately 1,130 1,185,000 are killed and approximately 59 62were able to escape and tell their story. It was because of their resolve to survive the Nuremberg trials happen. According to the statistics of the The Accused at Nuremberg, 22 are made to stand trial. Twelve are hanged, seven are given 10 years to life and three are acquitted. The numbers are nothing in comparison to the numbers killed at the concentration camps, however, many felt justice was done. The charges brought against the 22 men ranged from conspiracy to wage aggressive war to crimes against humanity.

Holocaust Survivors http://bit.ly/15iX8mk

Phillips Page 8 Works Cited "The Accused of the Nuremberg Trial." The Accused of the Nuremberg Trial. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. "Death Camp at Treblinka." Deathcampinfo.org. Louis Blow, 2008-10. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. "Jewish Resistance in Concentration Camps During WWI." Owlspace-ccm.rice.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013. Omer-man, Michael. "Prisoners Revolt at Treblinka." Dark Side (n.d.): n. pag. Ocnun.net. 08 May 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2013. "Treblinka." Treblinka. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

Points Available

Score

20 10 20 15 10 10 15 Total = 100

Content paper demonstrates understanding and confidence about topic Sources uses only primary and secondary sources In-Text Citations integrates sources within text with effective use of signal words and phrases Formatting properly uses MLA formatting Works Cited works cited page has the required number of sources and is properly formatted Pictures uses pictures to enhance the text with effective captions and source information Writing Mechanics Paper is free from errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

15 10 20

12 0

13

Total Score
78

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