Summary of Richard Rashke's Escape from Sobibor

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Book Preview: #1 The Sobibor camp was a success, as it killed almost two million Jews in just over two decades, without any mistakes or leaks. The Nazis left the camp as they found it, without destroying any evidence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669350613

IRB Media

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Insights on Richard Rashke's Escape from Sobibor

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Sobibor camp was a success, as it killed almost two million Jews in just over two decades, without any mistakes or leaks. The Nazis left the camp as they found it, without destroying any evidence.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The boy, whose name was Shmuel, was separated from his family when the Ukrainian guards drove them out of the boxcar. He stood next to the men in the open field, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. He tried to convince himself that Sobibor was just another work camp for Jews.

#2

The boy was eventually separated from his family and sent to work with a group of goldsmiths. He was terrified of being alone with the other Jews, but he had no choice.

#3

The boy and his friends were scared to sleep, so they kept talking. They had no idea what was behind the showers gate, or what it meant. They just knew that if they got caught going through it, the Nazi officer would march them through the gate in the morning.

#4

The boy, Shlomo Szmajzner, watched as a group of Jews were sent to clean the camp. He saw his friend, Avi, get sent to the camp as well.

#5

Shlomo showed the Nazi officer how he made the jewelry, explaining that it was a very simple process, but one that worked. He was proud of himself.

#6

When Shlomo finished working on the Kommandant’s monogram, he was sent to work in the fields with the other prisoners. He was numb from the pressure and the emotion of the work, but he kept working to make himself indispensable.

#7

When the Nazis saw Shlomo’s work, they were blown away. He was now working for Sobibor’s top brass, and he was making rings and bracelets for the camp’s guards. He was a master goldsmith, and he knew it.

#8

Shlomo’s family was not unique. His shtetl, Pulawy, was isolated from the Polish Catholic community that surrounded it. The Jews spoke Yiddish better than they did Polish, and they married other Jews. Shlomo, however, tried to pass as an Aryan because the Germans had forbidden Jews to travel without a special permit in 1939. He was caught and sent to the Gestapo.

#9

After the winter of 1940-1941, food became scarce in Wolwonice, and Shlomo had to go out and beg for food to feed his family. His father eventually agreed to make a break, but Shlomo couldn’t convince his father to leave without him.

#10

When the food ran out, Shlomo’s father cut off his Star of David, and walked from village to village, begging food from Catholics in the name of Jesus.

#11

In 1942, the Nazis resettled the remaining Wolwonice Jews in Opole, a city thirty miles away. Half the Jews were rounded up and taken to the square during the first week of May, where they were forced to trade badges for food.

#12

On May 10, the Nazis marched the