Sobibor was established in March 1942

Sobibor was established in March 1942. It was located in eastern Poland in an area called Lublin. It got its name from a nearby village called Sobibor. The Nazis chose its location because of the general isolation and its proximity to a railway. Sobibor was built as part of the Reinhard Operation. It was second of three camps built.	This is were Sobibor could be located
The camp was designed as a 400 by 600 meter rectangle. The camp had barbed wire fence with tree branches in it to disguise the camp. The fence was three meters high and the camp was nearly surrounded by a minefield. The camp was originally built with three sections. In summer 1943 a fourth was built. Sobibor was in operation for eighteen months and killed about 250,000 men, women, and children. About 1000 Jews worked there but only about 48 prisoners survived the war.
SS officer Richard Thomalla started construction on Sobibor but was replaced by SS officer Stangl after 1 month. Stangl finished construction and became the first camp commandant. In August 1942 SS officer Franz Reichsleitner replaced Stangl as camp commandant.
The sections were the Vorlager, Lager I, Lager II, Lager III, and Lager IV. The Vorlager contained a ramp from the railroad tracks, SS housing, Ukrainian guard housing, an armory, SS kitchen, and the bakery. Lager I was used for barracks for the prisoners and workshops like a tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, and mechanic. Lager II was where the new arrivals were stripped of their possessions and clothing. It also processed the objects taken from the new arrivals. Lager III had the gas chambers and pyres for burning the dead bodies. It also contained housing for prisoners working in Lager III. Lager IV was built in summer 1943 and contained warehouses to store captured ammunition.	This is what the Sobibor train station looked like
The SS officers were very dangerous and even more dangerous when they got bored. Sometimes they shot prisoners for no reason. When they got bored they would create games to torture the prisoners. One was when they would sew up a prisoner's pant legs and put rats in their pants. Another was when they forced thin prisoners to quickly drink vodka and then eat several pounds of sausage. After that the SS officers forced their mouths open and urinated in the prisoners mouths and laugh as they threw up.
The first wave of Jews came in July 1942. They came from Lublin, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Austria. 90,000 to 100000 Jews died in that wave. The second wave of prisoners came June 1943. 70000 to 80000 Jews came from Lublin and the Eastern Galica districts. 145000 to 150000 Jews came from the General Gouvernement. 4000 Jews came from France and 35000 from the Netherlands.
The Jews were treated differently depending on whether they came from the East or the West. If they were from the east they came on cattle cars and were beaten and yelled at. If they were from the west they came in their best clothes and thought that they were being resettled in the east. After they got off the cars, they were separated into two lines. One line was for the men and one for the women and children. After that the SS officers chose people at random to work. The ones that weren't picked were sent to the gas chambers.
The gas chambers were found in a brick building containing chambers. Each chamber was about 16 meters in size and capable of holding 200 people. A 200 horsepower engine in a nearby shed produced the gas. The engine produced carbon monoxide gas. In 1942 three more chambers were added. Burial trenches were nearby the gas chambers. Each trench was 50 to 60 meters long, 10 – 15 meters wide, and 5 – 7 meters deep.
The first test occurred about mid-April where about 250 Jewish women from Krychow were killed. The entire SS contingment attended this test.
On July 5, 1943 Himmler ordered the camp to be closed as an extermination camp and opened as a concentration camp. Lager IV was also built in this time to store captured ammunition.
In the summer and fall of 1943 less transports started to come. Rumors started to spread that the Nazis wiped Jewish from Europe. After that Leon Feldhendler decided that the camp should try to escape. They needed a leader with military and leadership experience. On September 23, 1943 Leon's person arrived. It was First Lieutenant Alexander "Sasha" Pechersky with a few of his men. Sasha was captured October 1941 near Viazma and after being transferred from camp to camp he found out that he had some Jew in him.
On September 29th Sasha and Feldhender met. Feldhendler had to convince Sasha that the whole camp should escape and not just a few. So the two started to plan using Shlomo Leitman to deliver messages to not draw attention to them. The first plan was to dig a tunnel under the fences and the minefield in the carpentry shop. But that plan was ruined on October 8th and 9th due to heavy rain. So the second plan was to make knives and hatchets in the workshops. Sasha's men started to kill SS men but on the day of the revolt October 13th more SS men arrived. The revolt was then postponed till the next day October 14.
After the war eleven SS men from Sobibor were captured and trialed in Hagen, West Germany. The trial lasted from September 6, 1965 to December 20, 1966. One committed suicide, one sentenced life in prison, five given sentences for three to eight years, and four found innocent.
Sobibor was one of the Nazis best kept secrets. Very few people knew of Sobibor so that Sobibor survivors were told that they had a big imagination. Some people think that the secret of Sobibor was too successful.