Escape from Sobibor

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Movie
German title Escape from Sobibor
Original title Escape from Sobibor
Country of production Great Britain , Yugoslavia
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 143 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jack Gold
script Richard Rashke ,
Reginald Rose ,
Stanisław Szmajzner ,
Thomas Blatt
production Dennis E. Doty
music Georges Delerue
camera Ernest Vincze
cut Keith Palmer
occupation

The film Escape from Sobibor (original title: Escape from Sobibor ) was directed by Jack Gold based on the book Escape von Sobibor by Richard Rashke and a script by Thomas Blatt , Reginald Rose and Stanisław Szmajzner in 1987 in Great Britain as an English-language television film. Thomas Blatt and Stanisław Szmajzner were inmates in the Sobibór extermination camp who were able to flee.

The film deals with life in the concentration camp and there especially the historical uprising of Sobibór , in which u. a. of a Jewish prisoner extermination camp of the SS were able to successfully flee.

The film first aired on television in the United States on CBS on a Sunday night in April 1987 . 31.6 million saw the three-hour first broadcast and later millions more in other countries, except in Germany, where it was only available as a video in stores from 1989. On June 4, 2012, an unabridged new edition of the film was released on DVD in Germany.

action

The English-language film begins with the escape of three prisoners from the Sobibór extermination camp under the fence and over a minefield. The question that remains unanswered is whether they can overcome the minefield alive, as they disappear behind the dust raised by exploding mines. Then trains roll into the extermination camp and the deported Jews are greeted by the SS on the transport ramp with music and loudspeaker systems that appear to be friendly. There so-called “working Jews” are selected . The others are sent to the gas chambers , with the victims being played until the very end that they are in a labor camp and can expect good treatment. Luka (Joanna Pacula) is selected on the ramp in front of the passage into the gas chambers because she claims to be a seamstress, as is Stanisław Szmajzner (Simon Gregor) because he shows Karl Frenzel (Kurt Raab) his suitcase with tools and thus proves it that he is a goldsmith. He unwittingly also saves his brother, whom he needs as an assistant, because it is only a few days later that the brothers realize that the rest of their family, like most of the other people from the trains, murdered in the gas chamber on the very first day and then in the crematorium was burned. As a tailor, a woman manages to save herself from gassing with her baby and hide it for a while in the tailor's barracks. However, this is then discovered by SS man Gustav Wagner . He shoots her first and then the child.

The men around Leon Feldhendler (Alan Arkin) have been planning an escape for a long time, but are faced with an almost impossible task. When 13 men flee from the camp at a favorable opportunity while doing woodwork outside the camp, but are then caught, they have to select 13 other uninvolved camp inmates who are shot with them as a deterrent. From this, Feldhendler draws the conclusion that only the entire camp with 600 people can flee, otherwise cruel retribution would be exercised on those who remained behind. Initially, nobody has any idea how this could be carried out. This changes when the Soviet lieutenant Alexander Petscherski (Rutger Hauer) comes to the camp with another 80 Soviet prisoners of war. The soldiers still have good morals and are physically and mentally able to resist because of their war experiences. In addition, Petscherski is a good organizer who realizes that he can and must trust field traders. The SS lets couples dance one evening and people who have lost everything come closer to each other. During this dance, Luka falls in love with Pechersky. The escape is planned for the following days. Pecherski's idea is simple: there are over 150 armed Ukrainian guards in the camp, but their leadership would only be the responsibility of the few SS guards. Accordingly, these would have to be eliminated in a coordinated manner. Two things should be exploited for this purpose: Their punctuality and greed. Alexander reveals to Luka that he has a wife and child and loves them. Nevertheless, as a token of her love, Luka gives him a shirt that she sewed and that is supposed to protect him. The day of their escape comes, the Jewish prisoners put their plans into action, liquidate some SS men under Pecherski's leadership and also loot some firearms. For a long time, with a bit of luck, everything goes according to plan, but then a dead SS man is discovered just as the inmates have to line up on the roll call square. Feldhendler and Pechersky take the initiative and proclaim that most of the SS men are dead. It is now up to everyone to flee the camp themselves. Feldhendler adds that those who would survive should tell the world what happened in the camp. Then a wild flight sets in. The Ukrainian guards and the surviving SS men Erich Bauer (Klaus Grünberg) and Frenzel are surprised, even shocked, by the resistance, but they mercilessly open fire on the refugees, who are usually armed with nothing more than axes or knives. The machine gun fire of the Trawniki men from the watchtowers kills numerous camp inmates until they themselves are shot. With all determination and in spite of the fire, the people tear up with some tools, ladders and z. Some with their bare hands down the fences and run out of the camp. Many fall victim to the minefield, but this does not prevent the survivors from continuing. Approx. 150 prisoners reach the protective edge of the forest, including field traders, Petscherski, Szmajzner and Luka. On the run, Luka's track is lost. In retrospect, the film addresses the places where the rescued scattered around the world, lived their lives and occasionally gave testimony in war crimes trials.

background

The subject of the film is the Sobibór uprising on October 14, 1943 in Germany- occupied Poland in the Sobibór extermination camp. Before that there had been a single uprising - in Treblinka, another SS extermination camp.

Before fleeing the Sobibór camp, Polish and Soviet concentration camp prisoners killed twelve men from the SS guard and two so-called Trawniki men from the guard in an almost hopeless situation . The escape of the Jewish prisoners was planned under the leadership of the Soviet lieutenant Alexander Pechersky and the Jew Leon Feldhendler. Around 600 prisoners fled the camp, of which around 200 were able to flee to the nearby forest edge. Those who reached the forest were later followed by 400 to 500 SS men and Ukrainian guards who killed around 100 refugees in the process. The extermination camp was no longer used and was dismantled; An unsuspecting looking farm and a reforested young forest on the former site of the extermination camp remained to cover up the crimes.

Of the refugee prisoners, 47 were still alive at the end of the war, including 8 women.

Film reception

The film is based on Richard Rashke's book Escape from Sobibor , who conducted 18 interviews and recorded them in writing. The film is supported by scientifically proven material that Jules Schelvis published in his book “Sobibór extermination camp”. The plot of the film is partly dramaturgized. Estera Raab, for example, testifies that Karl Frenzel killed a baby with the head on a freight wagon. In the film, the baby and the mother are shot. It is a film about a mass exodus of Jews from an extermination camp, proof that Jews were ready to take part in armed resistance.

The film is also known as the best movie ever made about escaping a camp. Carl Schulkin considers the book and film to be important works that anyone teaching about the history of the Holocaust should have seen and read.

Awards

Rutger Hauer received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Television) for his performance . In addition, a longer version received the TV Prize of the Writers Guild of America , USA, 1988.

literature

  • Thomas Blatt: From the Ashes of Sobibór - A Story of Survival . Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Illinois 1997. ISBN 0-8101-1302-3
    • Only the shadows remain - The uprising in the Sobibór extermination camp , From the American. by Monika Schmalz, Structure of the Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2000. ISBN 3-7466-8068-9
    • Sobibór - the forgotten uprising - report of a survivor . Translation Heike Kleffner , Miriam Rürup . Unrast Verlag, Hamburg, 2004. ISBN 3-89771-813-8
  • Richard Rashke: Escape from Sobibor . Translation Anna Kaiser. Bleicher Verlag, Gerlingen, 1998. ISBN 3-88350-740-7 Revised and corrected edition with pencil drawings by Joseph Richter, Bahoe Books , Vienna 2017. ISBN 978-3-903022-39-3
  • Jules Schelvis : Sobibór extermination camp . Unrast Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 2003, ISBN 3-89771-814-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rashke: Escape from Sobibor. P. 367 (see literature) Available online , accessed on December 2, 2009
  2. ↑ Escape from Sobibor, 1 DVD Great Britain / Yugoslavia  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Jack Gold , Rutger Hauer , Joanna Pacuła , Alan Arkin , EAN: 9120027349058@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.buch.de  
  3. ↑ Schelvis: Sobibór extermination camp. P. 282 (see literature)
  4. ↑ Mike Cummings: All Movie Guide, cit. n. www.answers.com , accessed December 1, 2009 (English)
  5. ↑ Carl Schulkin from the Pembroke Hill School at academic.kellogg.edu , accessed on December 1, 2009 (English)