Escape from Sobibor

The film opens with a trainload of Polish Jews arriving at Sobibor for processing. SS officers separate a small number with trade skills from the rest, who are sent to the camp's death area. A distant pillar of smoke marks the cremation of those not chosen, signaling the brutal reality of Sobibor's function.

The newly arrived prisoners quickly realize Sobibor is a death camp, where the murdered Jews are cremated and their belongings are sorted and recycled. A small group of prisoners is kept busy sorting belongings, repairing shoes, and melting down silver for the SS officers. This daily routine underscores the system of extermination beneath the camp's labor façade.

After two prisoners escape from a work detail, Wagner forces the remaining thirteen to select one fellow prisoner to die with them; if they refuse, he threatens to pick fifty instead. He then executes all twenty-six men, demonstrating the brutal control that governs life inside Sobibor. The incident reveals the cruelty that anchors the camp's power structure.

Leon Feldhendler, the camp's prisoner leader, realizes Sobibor's fate relies on a drastic plan to end the German presence. He devises an escape strategy that lures SS officers and NCOs into the barracks and huts, with the aim of killing them quietly. Once the Germans are gone, the prisoners would mass in columns and march out, betting on the Ukrainian guards' confusion.

A new group of inmates arrives: Red Army prisoners who are Russian Jews. Their leader, Sasha Pechersky, and his men willingly join the revolt, bringing military skills and organization to the plan. Their involvement strengthens the uprising and provides crucial tactical expertise.

The camp commandant leaves for several days, taking Wagner with him, creating a rare window of opportunity for the prisoners to organize and implement the plan. With the German leadership temporarily absent, the conspiracy gains momentum and the plan begins to take shape. This absence becomes a critical factor in the uprising's timing.

On 14 October 1943, the plan goes into action as prisoners lure officers into traps and strike with knives and clubs. Eleven German officers are killed before Karl Frenzel inadvertently uncovers a corpse and raises the alarm. The ruse collapses as guards rally and the escape plan is exposed.

The revolt intensifies as prisoners assemble on the parade ground and press the attack. Some attackers manage to seize rifles and assault the guards, while others attempt to break through the perimeter via the forest or the minefield. The Ukrainian guards and lookout towers fire back, inflicting heavy casualties and derailing the initial breakout.

Across the camp, chaos ensues as hundreds try to flee; about 300 escape, while many are cut down by machine guns or fall on the minefield. Those who reach the forest face a perilous chase and brutal deaths at the hands of pursuing guards. The escapees' numbers shrink rapidly as the day wears on.

Howard K. Smith's narration later recaps the fates of survivors, grounding the story in real accounts. Of the roughly 600 inmates, about 300 escape, but only around 50 survive to the war's end in 1945. The mass escape is depicted as the largest of its kind in Europe during World War II.

Pechorsky makes it back to Soviet lines and survives the war, continuing to fight with the Red Army. Feldhendler also lives to see the end of the war but is killed shortly afterwards in a clash with anti-Semitic Poles. These outcomes highlight the heavy personal costs and the volatile post-war climate.

Gustav Wagner escapes to Brazil, where he continues to live until his death by stabbing in 1980. His career of sadism at Sobibor remains a focal point of the camp's brutal history. The epilogue links his legacy to the uprising and its propaganda of resistance.

After the uprising, Sobibor is bulldozed to the ground and trees are planted on the site to erase any sign of its existence. The physical memory of the camp is buried, but the memory of its victims and the uprising endures in survivors' accounts. The film ends by cementing Sobibor's place in history as both a site of horror and a symbol of resistance.