This is a list of people who were murdered in the Sobibor extermination camp. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum states that at least 170,000 people were murdered there. The Dutch Sobibor Foundation lists a calculated total of 170,165 people and cites the Höfle Telegram among its sources, while noting that other estimates range up to 300,000. For practical reasons it is not possible to list all the people murdered at the camp. The operatives of the Nazi regime not only robbed Jews of their earthly possessions and their lives but attempted to eradicate all traces of their existence as they engaged in the genocidal policies of the Final Solution.[1][2]
Male | |
Female |
Name | Date of birth | Date of death | Age | Nationality | Faith | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mozes Jacobs[3] | November 26, 1905 | July 9, 1943 | 37 years, 225 days | Dutch | Jewish | Gymnast. Participated at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.[4] |
Walter M. Poppert[5] | March 26, 1914 | October 30, 1943 | 29 years, 218 days | German | Jewish | Husband of Gertrud Poppert née Schönborn. In 1943, he was foreman of the Waldkommando in the Sobibor Extermination camp.[6] |
Max van Dam[7][8] | March 19, 1910 | September 20, 1943 | 33 years, 185 days | Dutch | Jewish | Artist |
Abraham de Oliveira[4] | May 4, 1880 | March 26, 1943 | 62 years, 326 days | Dutch | Jewish | Gymnast |
Isidore Goudeket[4] | August 1, 1883 | July 9, 1943 | 59 years, 342 days | Dutch | Jewish | Gymnast |
Anna Dresden-Polak[4] | November 24, 1906 | July 23, 1943 | 36 years, 241 days | Dutch | Jewish | Gymnast. Her husband Barend Dresden was murdered at Auschwitz on November 30, 1944. |
Eva Dresden[9] | June 26, 1937[10] | July 23, 1943 | 6 years | Dutch | Jewish | Daughter of Anna Dresden-Polak and Barend Dresden (murdered at Auschwitz, November 30, 1944). |
Jud Simons[11] | August 20, 1904 | March 20, 1943 | 38 years, 212 days | Dutch | Jewish | Gymnast[4] |
Bernard Salomon Themans[12] | April 5, 1909 | March 20, 1943 | 33 years, 349 days | Dutch | Jewish | Husband of Judik Themans née Simons. |
Sonja Themans[13] | March 9, 1938 | March 20, 1943 | 5 years | Dutch | Jewish | Daughter of Judik Themans née Simons and Bernard Themans. |
Leon Themans[14] | February 28, 1940 | March 20, 1943 | 3 years | Dutch | Jewish | Son of Judik Themans née Simons and Bernard Themans |
Emanuel Querido | August 6, 1871 | July 23, 1943 | 71 years, 320 days | Dutch | Jewish | Publisher. His wife was also murdered at the camp at the same time. |
Leo Smit[15][16] | May 14, 1900 | April 30, 1943 | 42 years, 351 days | Dutch | Jewish | Composer |
Michel Velleman | January 5, 1895 | July 2, 1943 | 48 years, 178 days | Dutch | Jewish | Magician |
Helga Deen[17][18] | April 6, 1925 | July 16, 1943 | 18 years, 101 days | German | Jewish | Diarist. Her parents and brother were murdered at the same time. |
Else Feldmann[19] | February 25, 1884 | June 1942 | 57 or 58 years | Austrian | Jewish | Writer, playwright, poet, socialist journalist |
Jakob van Hoddis[20] | May 16, 1887 | c.April 30, 1942 | 54 years, 349 days | German | Jewish | Poet, generally regarded with writing the preliminary expressionist poem, inspiring countless poets[21] Mentally ill, transported to Sobibor along with the 500 patients and staff of his sanitorium on April 30, 1942, all of whom perished. |
Han Hollander[22] | October 5, 1886 | July 9, 1943 | 56 years, 277 days | Dutch | Jewish | First Dutch radio sports journalist |
Leentje Hollander-Smeer[23] | October 6, 1886 | July 9, 1943 | 56 years, 276 days | Dutch | Jewish | Wife of Han Hollander. Their daughter Froukje Esther Waterman-Hollander was murdered at Auschwitz on February 28, 1943. |
Elisabeth Kleerekoper[24] | October 14, 1928 | July 2, 1943 | 14 years, 261 days | Dutch | Jewish | Daughter of Gerrit Kleerekoper and Kaatje Kleerekoper- |
Gerrit Kleerekoper[25] | February 15, 1897 | July 2, 1943 | 46 years, 137 days | Dutch | Jewish | Coach of the women's gymnastic team which won the gold medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam[4] |
Kaatje Kleerekoper-Ossedrijver[26] | August 29, 1895 | July 2, 1943 | 47 years, 307 days | Dutch | Jewish | Spouse of Gerrit Kleerekoper |
Abraham Kloot[27] | July 28, 1902 | July 2, 1943 | 40 years, 339 days | Dutch | Jewish | Spouse of Helena Kloot née Nordheim |
Kurt Lilien[28] | August 6, 1882 | May 28, 1943 | 60 years, 295 days | German | Jewish | Film and stage actor |
Helena Nordheim[29] | August 1, 1903 | July 2, 1943 | 39 years, 335 days | Dutch | Jewish | Gymnast, member of the women's gymnastic team which won the gold medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam[4] |
Rebecca Kloot[30] | April 12, 1933 | July 2, 1943 | 10 years, 81 days | Dutch | Jewish | Daughter of Helena Kloot née Nordheim and Abraham Kloot |
There are fifty-eight known survivors; forty-nine male and ten female,[citation needed] among those who were in the camp as Arbeitshäftlinge, deportees selected from arriving transports to perform slave-labour for the daily operation of the camp. Their time in the camp ranged from several weeks to almost two years. A handful of Arbeitshäftlinge managed to escape while assigned to the Waldkommando, inmate details assigned the task of felling and preparing trees for the body disposal pyres. The majority of the survivors among Sobibor's Arbeitshäftlinge survived as a result of their camp-wide revolt on October 14, 1943. Dutch historian Jules Schelvis estimated that 158 inmates perished in the revolt, killed by the guards and the minefield surrounding the camp, and that a further 107 were re-captured and murdered by the SS, Wehrmacht and Police units tasked with pursuing the escapees. He estimates that another 53 escapees died of other causes between the day of the revolt and May 8, 1945. In the aftermath of the revolt, the remaining camp inmates were murdered and the camp dismantled. Schelvis estimated that at the time of the escape there had been approximately 650 inmates in the camp.[6]
Among the Sobibor survivors are also those who were spared the gas chambers in the camp as a result of transfer to slave-labour camps in the Lublin district, after selections upon arrival at Sobibor. These people spent several hours at Sobibor and were transferred almost immediately to slave-labour camps, including Majdanek and Alter Flugplatz camp in the city of Lublin, where materials looted from the gassed victims were prepared for shipment and distribution, and forced labour camps such as Krychów, Dorohucza and Trawniki. Estimates for the number of people selected in Sobibor range up to several thousand, of whom many perished in captivity before the end of the Nazi regime. The total number of survivors in this cohort includes 16 known survivors, 13 women and 3 men, from among the 34,313 people deported to Sobibor from the Netherlands.[6]