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Leon Feldhendler: Did you know that tomorrow is the beginning of Sukkot?
Lt. "Sasha" Pechersky: Yes. 'Tis a Holy Day.
Leon Feldhendler: I forgot. And my father was a rabbi.
Lt. "Sasha" Pechersky: They kill on Holy Days. Why not the other way around? God will forgive.
Leon Feldhendler: There are those here who are wondering if we can forgive God.
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Stanislaw "Shlomo" Szmajzner: I will do anything for revenge, even if I have to die for it.
Leon Feldhendler: How old are you?
Stanislaw "Shlomo" Szmajzner: How old do you have to be?
Leon Feldhendler: You are old enough.
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Sgt. Gustav Wagner: This morning, two prisoners escaped from North Camp. Thirteen other prisoners, no doubt inspired by their idiotic example, also tried to escape. If any of you would like to cheer, go right ahead. There will be no more escape attempts in this camp. I'll repeat that. THERE WILL BE NO MORE ESCAPE ATTEMPTS IN THIS CAMP!!
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Lt. "Sasha" Pechersky: Everyone calls me Sasha. It saves time and energy.
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Luka: Look at the moon, Sasha.
Leon Feldhendler: Look at the board, Sasha.
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Hershel: I just can't believe it. We're actually killing SS men. I mean, that's a hard thing to believe. Killing them. It's beautiful. I just can't believe it!
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Lt. "Sasha" Pechersky: Listen to me! Our day has come! Most of the SS are dead! It's everyone for himself now!
Leon Feldhendler: Those of you who survive, bear witness! Let the world know what has happened here! God is with you! Now let nothing stop you!
[escape begins]
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Capt. Franz Reichleitner: Attention railroad brigade Jews. As always I expect you to be smiling when the train arrives. Remember we are welcoming these people. This will run smoothly. If there is a problem like yesterday's, if people panic or try to run, I do not have to remind you: You will be killed!
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Naomi: Please, what are you going to do?
Sgt. Gustav Wagner: What do you think? There are no babies in Sobibor.
Naomi: No! You're going to kill her.
Sgt. Gustav Wagner: Because I'm in a good mood today, I'm going to let you live.
Naomi: Give me my baby!
Sgt. Gustav Wagner: I don't understand, I'm offering you a chance to live. It's quite unusual.
Naomi: [spits in Wagners face] I spit on your offer, you Nazi bastard!
[Wagner draws his pistol and shoots both Naomi and her baby]
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Stanislaw "Shlomo" Szmajzner: [on hearing that Sobibor is a death camp and his parents and sister are dead] You knew this, you knew and you didn't tell us.
Toivi Blatt: My parents are dead too. The sergeants, they said I wasn't to tell anyone, they'd kill me.
Stanislaw "Shlomo" Szmajzner: Our mother and our father and our sister, are murdered. Now I want to kill. I *will* kill!
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Samuel: We talk about escape all the time and we do nothing. Maybe it's true. Maybe there is no chance.
Leon Feldhendler: No. I still think there is a way. Just not like this. There has to be organization. There has to be patience and some new people who's spirits have not yet been broken.
Samuel: Yes. I want a chance to escape. To be free or at least a chance to die trying.
Leon Feldhendler: Better to escape and live. That would be real revenge.
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Leon Feldhendler: When you saw your wife and child at the train station last, who were they with?
Itzhak Lichtman: They were with all the other women and children, going to the shower.
Leon Feldhendler: Are you sure?
Itzhak Lichtman: Yes.
[Leon remains silent for a long moment]
Itzhak Lichtman: What is it?
Leon Feldhendler: Itzhak, listen to me. This is a death camp. Every day a train comes. All the people, everyone who goes to the showers, is dead. Men, women, children, everyone.
Itzhak Lichtman: Oh, god!
[breaks down]
Itzhak Lichtman: Oh, no!
Leon Feldhendler: Itzhak, the fire...
[indicates a fire in the distance]
Leon Feldhendler: The fire is their funeral.
Itzhak Lichtman: Oh, god!
[weeping]
Itzhak Lichtman: They were my life!
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Sgt. Hurst: What's your Christian name? I'm only trying to be friendly. What's your Christian name?
Hershel: I have no Christian name.
[stabs Hurst in the stomach]
Hershel: Only a Jewish name. My name is Herschel Zuckerman. And don't you forget it.
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Old Man: Observe:
[scattering sand on the ground]
Old Man: Do you see? How I am scattering this? Grain by grain. That will be what will happen with your filthy Reich. It will vanish like flying dust and passing smoke.
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[first lines]
Narrator: In 1942, SS chief Heinrich Himmler initiated "Operation Reinhard," NAZI-Germany's "Final Solution" to the "Jewish question". Three death camps were built and staffed, under top-secret orders. These camps, all in eastern Poland, were Belzec, Treblinka, and the most secret, Sobibor. It was here, on October 14th, 1943, that the biggest, most successful prisoner revolt in WW2 took place. This is that story.
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[last lines]
Narrator: October the 14th, 1943, Sobibor. A Nazi death camp where over one quarter million Jews were killed. But on the revolt that day, over 300 of the 600 prisoners made it to freedom, something which had never happened before, and would never happen again in WW2. Within days, SS chief Himmler ordered the camp closed, dismantled, and planted with pine trees. In that forest now stands this monument to the dead. It is also a reminder of the valiant fighters of Sobibor, who are among those who began to make the idea and the vow "never again" a reality.
Escape from Sobibor Quotes
Extended Reading
