Chaim Engel & the Sobibor Revolt: Escape from Nazi Death Camp
World War II Camp Escapes
•
20m
On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing a war that will devastate Europe. Within weeks, Poland is crushed between German and Soviet forces, and a brutal occupation begins—marked by terror, mass executions, forced labour, and the systematic destruction of an entire society.
Among those caught in this machinery of persecution is Chaim Engel, a young Polish Jew whose life is shaped by war, loss, and survival. Deported to the Sobibor extermination camp, he witnesses one of the darkest chapters of the Holocaust—where hundreds of thousands are murdered in secrecy.
But Sobibor is also the site of one of the most extraordinary acts of resistance. In October 1943, prisoners launch a daring revolt against their captors. Armed with courage and desperation, they strike back.
This is the story of Chaim Engel—his survival, the Sobibor uprising, and the fight to escape one of history’s deadliest killing centres.
Up Next in World War II Camp Escapes
-
The Spy Who Infiltrated Auschwitz to ...
Witold Pilecki volunteered to enter Auschwitz to expose Nazi crimes and organize resistance from within. After escaping, he fought in the Warsaw Uprising, only to be executed by the postwar communist regime. This is the story of one of WWII’s bravest men, a hero who defied both Hitler and Stalin.
-
Sobibor Revolt Survivor Who Escaped E...
After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Jewish teenager Yehuda Lerner was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto before being deported through a series of Nazi camps during the Holocaust. Separated from his family, who were murdered in Treblinka, Lerner endured starvation, forced labor, disease, and ...
-
One of the Last Heroes of Sobibor upr...
Arkady Wajspapir was one of the last surviving participants of the Sobibor uprising, one of the most remarkable acts of resistance during the Second World War.
Captured after Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet soldier was sent through German captivity before arriving at Sobibor extermination camp ...
