The Uprising

... The uprising began around 4:00 in the afternoon of October 14, 1943. In Camp One, prisoners invited the deputy commandant, Johann Niemann, into the tailor shop to be fitted for a suit. They then killed him with an axe. In Camp Two, prisoners lured SS NCO Josef Wulf to try on a coat in the warehouse of victims' belongings, and also killed him with an axe. In the course of the next hour or so, nine more SS personnel were killed in a similar manner.

As the prisoners gathered for roll call, however, the remaining camp personnel became alarmed and opened fire on the prisoners. While members of the camp resistance who had obtained arms returned fire, over 300 prisoners fled from the camp.

Many prisoners were shot during the escape or died in the minefields around the camp. At least 100 others were caught and killed during the massive manhunt conducted by SS, police, and German army units in the days following the uprising. Of the perhaps 200 escapees who were not immediately caught, only about 50 survived the war, often with the help of the local population or by joining partisan groups. On the other hand, many of the escapees who did not survive were betrayed to the Germans or killed by Polish civilians or partisans.

In the end, prisoners killed eleven members of Sobibor's SS staff as part of the planned escape. Two or more non-German SS auxiliary guards who were in the wrong place at the wrong time were also killed. All of the prisoners remaining in Sobibor—some of whom continued to fight with guns and axes throughout the night—were shot by the end of the following day on October 15 ...