''Escape from Sobibor'' is a 1987 British

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

which aired on ITV and CBS. It is the story of the mass escape from the Nazi

extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

at Sobibor, the most successful uprising by

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

prisoners of German extermination camps (uprisings also took place at

Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed int ...

and

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...

). The film was directed by

Jack Gold Jacob M. "Jack" Gold (28 June 1930 – 9 August 2015) was a British film and television director. He was part of the British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement. Career Jacob M. Gold was born in London, the son of Ch ...

and shot in Avala,

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

(now

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

). The full 176-minute version shown in the UKRunning to 169 minutes with PAL speed-up. on 10 May 1987 was pre-empted by a 143-minute version shown in the United States on 12 April 1987. The script, by

Reginald Rose Reginald Rose (December 10, 1920 – April 19, 2002) was an American screenwriter. He wrote about controversial social and political issues. His realistic approach was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the 1950s. Rose w ...

, was based on Richard Rashke's 1983 book of the same name, along with a manuscript by

Thomas Blatt Thomas "Toivi" Blatt (born Tomasz Blatt; April 15, 1927 – October 31, 2015) was a Holocaust survivor, writer of mémoires, and public speaker, who at the age of 16 escaped from the Sobibór extermination camp during the uprising staged by the ...

, "From the Ashes of Sobibor", and a book by Stanisław Szmajzner, ''Inferno in Sobibor''. Alan Arkin,

Joanna Pacuła Joanna Pacuła (; born 30 December 1957) is a Polish-American actress and model. Born in Tomaszów Lubelski and emigrating to the United States in the early 1980s, she first gained prominence through her modeling work for Vogue. Her breakthrou ...

, and Rutger Hauer were the primary stars of the film. The film received a

Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of ...

for Best Miniseries or Television Film and Hauer received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role—Television Film or Miniseries. Esther Raab was a camp survivor who had assisted Rashke with his book and served as a technical consultant.

Background

On 14 October 1943, members of the Sobibor camp's underground resistance succeeded in covertly killing 11 German ''

SS-Totenkopfverbände ''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV; ) was the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. While the ''Totenkopf'' was the univer ...

'' officers and a number of ''

Sonderdienst ''Sonderdienst'' (german: Special Services) were the Nazi German paramilitary formations created in semicolonial General Government during the occupation of Poland in World War II. They were based on similar '' SS'' formations called ''Volksdeutsc ...

'' Ukrainian and ''

Volksdeutsche In Nazi German terminology, ''Volksdeutsche'' () were "people whose language and culture had German origins but who did not hold German citizenship". The term is the nominalised plural of ''volksdeutsch'', with ''Volksdeutsche'' denoting a sing ...

'' guards. Of the 600 inmates in the camp, roughly 300 escaped, although all but 50–70 were later re-captured and killed. After the escape, SS Chief

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

ordered the death camp closed. It was dismantled, bulldozed under the earth, and planted over with trees to cover it up.

Plot

The film begins with a new trainload of Polish Jews arriving for processing at Sobibor. The German Commandant gives them a welcome speech, assuring the new arrivals that the place is a

work camp In the United States, Workamping (a portmanteau word) is a combination of work and camping. A Workamper combines part-time or full-time paid or volunteer work with RV or tent camping. Workampers generally receive compensation in the form of a fr ...

. Other SS officers move along the assembled lines of prisoners, selecting a small number who have trade skills (such as goldsmiths, seamstresses, shoemakers, and tailors). The remaining prisoners are sent away to a different part of the camp from which a pillar of smoke rises day and night. It is some time before the new prisoners realise that Sobibor is a

death camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...

; all of the other Jews are exterminated in

gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or other animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. Poisonous agents used include hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide. History ...

s, and their corpses are cremated in large ovens. The small number of prisoners kept alive in the other part of the camp are charged with sorting the belongings taken from those who are murdered and then repairing the shoes, recycling the clothing, and melting down any silver or gold to make jewellery for the SS officers. Despite their usefulness, these surviving prisoners' existence is precarious; beatings and murders can occur at any time. Gustav Wagner is the most clever and sadistic of the German officers. When two prisoners escape from a work detail in the nearby forest, Wagner forces the remaining thirteen prisoners of the work gang to each select one other prisoner to die with them (under the threat that if they refuse, he will select fifty) and then executes all twenty six. The leader of the prisoners,

Leon Feldhendler Leon Felhendler (Lejb Felhendler) (1 June 1910 – 6 April 1945) was a Polish resistance fighter known for his role in organizing the 1943 prisoner uprising at Sobibor extermination camp together with Alexander Pechersky. Prewar life Felhendler ...

, realises that when the trains eventually stop coming, the camp will have outlived its usefulness, and all the remaining Jews will be murdered. He devises a plan for every prisoner to escape, by luring the SS officers and NCOs into the prisoners' barracks and work huts one by one and killing them as quietly as possible. Once all the Germans are dead, the prisoners will assemble into columns and simply march out of the camp as if they have been ordered to, and it is hoped that the Ukrainian Guards, not knowing what is going on, and with no Germans left alive to give orders or raise the alarm, will not interfere. A new group of prisoners arrives: Russian Jews who were soldiers with the Soviet army. Their leader, Sasha Pechersky, and his men, willingly join the revolt, their military skills proving invaluable. The Camp Kommandant leaves for several days, taking Wagner with him, which proves an advantage as the most sadistic of the SS officers will be absent. On 14 October 1943, the plan goes into action. One by one, SS officers and NCOs are lured into traps set by groups of prisoners armed with knives and clubs. Eleven Germans are killed, but one officer, Karl Frenzel, unwittingly evades his killers, discovers the corpse of one of his colleagues, and raises the alarm. By now, the prisoners have assembled on the parade ground and, realising the plan has been discovered, Pechersky and Feldhendler urge the prisoners to revolt and flee the camp. Most of the 600 prisoners stampede for the perimeter fences, some of the Jews using captured rifles to shoot their way through the Ukrainian guards. Other guards open fire with machine guns from observation towers, cutting many of the fleeing prisoners down, and other would-be escapees are killed on the minefield surrounding the camp. But over 300 Jews reach the forest and escape. As the survivors flee deeper into the forest, famed newscaster Howard K. Smith narrates the fates that befell some of the survivors on whose accounts the film was based. Of the 300 prisoners who escaped, only approximately 50 survived to see the end of the war in 1945. Pechersky makes it back to Soviet lines and rejoins the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

, surviving the war, and Feldhendler lives to see the end of the war but is killed shortly afterwards in a clash with anti-semitic Poles. After the uprising, which was the largest escape from a prison camp of any kind in Europe during World War II, Sobibor was bulldozed to the ground, and trees were planted on the site to remove any sign of its existence.

Cast

In credits order: * Alan Arkin as

as Luka ( Gertrude Poppert) * Rutger Hauer as Lieutenant Aleksandr 'Sasha' Pechersky * Hartmut Becker as SS-Hauptscharführer Gustav WagnerAlthough the character wears the rank insignia of a

sturmscharführer __NOTOC__ (, ) was a Nazi rank of the Waffen-SS that existed between 1934 and 1945. The rank was the most senior enlisted rank in the Waffen-SS, the equivalent of a regimental sergeant major, in other military organizations. Rank usage ''Stur ...

, he is addressed as " hauptscharführer" throughout. Wagner held the lower rank of oberscharführer. * Jack Shepherd as Itzhak Lichtman * Emil Wolk as Samuel Freiberg *

Simon Gregor Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

as Stanisław 'Shlomo' Szmajzner *

Linal Haft Linal Haft (born 23 March 1945 in Leeds) is an English actor, best known for playing controlling or manipulative characters in both film and television, most notably his role as businessman Harry Gold in the popular BBC soap opera ''EastEnder ...

as Kapo Porchek * Jason Norman as Thomas 'Toivi' Blatt * Robert Gwilym as Chaim Engel * Eli Nathenson as Moses Szmajzner * Kurt Raab as SS-Oberscharführer Karl FrenzelThe character wears the collar patches of a

scharführer ''Scharführer'' (, ) was a title or rank used in early 20th Century German military terminology. In German, ''Schar'' was one term for the smallest sub-unit, equivalent to (for example) a "troop" , "squad", or "section". The word ''führer'' ...

and the epaulettes of a hauptscharführer, but is addressed by the actual Frenzel's correct rank of oberscharführer throughout. * Eric Caspar as SS-Hauptsturmführer Franz Reichleitner * Hugo Bower as SS-Oberscharführer Rudolf Beckmann *

Klaus Grünberg Klaus Grünberg (born 20 November 1941 in Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of ...

as SS-Oberscharführer Erich Bauer * Wolfgang Bathke as SS-Unterscharführer Hurst * Henning Gissel as SS-Scharführer Fallaster * Henry Stolow as SS-Untersturmführer Johann Niemann * Ullrich Haupt as SS-Scharführer Josef Wolf * Patti Love as Eda Fiszer Lichtman * Judith Sharp as Bajle Sobol * as Selma Wijnberg * David Miller as Tailor Mundek * Jack Chissick as Hershel Zuckerman * Ned Vukovic as Morris * Sara Sugarman as Naomi * Peter Jonfield as Kapo Sturm * Dijana Kržanić as Esther Terner *

Irfan Mensur Irfan Mensur ( sr-cyr, Ирфан Менсур; born Irfan Kurić, sr-cyr, Ирфан Курић; 19 January 1952) is a Serbian theatre, television, and film actor of Bosnian descent. Early life Born to father Mensur Kurić from Niš whose fami ...

as Kalimali *

Zoran Stojiljković Zoran ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран) is a common South Slavic name, the masculine form of Zora, which means ''dawn, daybreak''. The name is especially common in Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia and a little in Slovenia. Notable people with this give ...

as Boris * Svetolik Nikačević as Old Man * Miša Janketić as Oberkapo Berliner * Dejan Čavić as Kapo Spitz * Zlatan Fazlagić as Weiss *

Predrag Milinković Predrag Milinković ( sr-cyr, Предраг Милинковић; 20 August 1933 – 4 April 1998) was a Serbian actor. He was the most famous side-kick actror in ex- Yugoslav movies. He appeared in 222 films from 1958 to 1998. Selected filmogra ...

as Kapo Jacob * Svetislav Goncić as Gardener * Gojko Baletić as Guard (uncredited) * Milan Erak as SS Corporal (uncredited) * Rastislav Jović as Shlomo's Father (uncredited) * Erol Kadić as Gardener *

Miroljub Lešo Miroljub Lešo (27 July 1946 – 5 March 2019) was a Yugoslav and Serbian actor. He appeared in more than ninety films since 1968. Lešo played the role of ''Slavko'' in the television series ''Otpisani''. He was born and died in Belgrade B ...

as Prisoner (uncredited) * Bozidar Pavićević-Longa as

SS-Sturmmann ''Sturmmann'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1921. The rank of ''Sturmmann'' was used by the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The word originated during World War I when ''Sturm ...

Ivan Klatt (uncredited) * Howard K. Smith as Narrator (American version) (uncredited) * Dragomir Stanojević as Guard (uncredited) * Predrag Todorović as Guard (uncredited) *

Jelena Žigon Jelena Žigon ( sr-cyr, Јелена Жигон; 3 November 1933 – 10 April 2018), was a Serbian and Yugoslav actress. Biography Žigon ( maiden name Jovanović) was born in Belgrade to a family hailing from Bajina Bašta, while her mother was ...

as Shlomo's Mother (uncredited)

Footnotes

References

External links