Sobibor was an extermination camp located in Poland that took part in the systematic annihilation of Jews during the Holocaust. Some 250,000 Jews were murdered at Sobibor in the period between its construction in 1941 and its liquidation in 1943. But there were a few brave occupiers who decided that they would not go down without a fight. They composed a revolt that would inspire people around the world to never give up hope even in the darkest moments of history. Led by Jewish occupier Leon Fendhendler and Soviet prisoner of war Alexander (Sascha) Perchersky, the uprising “proved that the Nazi death machine was an imperfect and beatable force.” (Ryan Picarrillo) Considering that only 50 Sobibor escapees survived to the end of the war, the significance of the uprising could be questioned, but it was effective. He lit a flame in the Jewish population that would motivate them to fight back. With Leon's knowledge of the camp and Sascha's knowledge and military tactics, a plan quickly formed to liberate not only a select group of occupiers, but all 600 Jews living in the camp. Sobibor. The strategy was to keep the escape a secret until the last second. In fact, less than 10% of the camp knew about the riot until it actually took place. According to Thomas Blatt, a Sobibor survivor, the escape occurred in three phases: "the preparations, the secret execution of the SS officers, then the open revolt." Leon recruited some trusted blacksmiths to create improvised axes and knives for use during the execution of the SS. The few selected individuals would kill as many SS and Ukrainians as possible in the short span of an hour. The strategy was for their deaths to remain secret and for the group to lure individual SS members into the laboratory by offering them a new coa... middle of paper... go back, the courage to take a stand against those who had mercilessly killed their brothers and sisters. (insert revised thesis statement) The escape from Sobibor cannot be measured by the number of survivors who escaped the horror of the barbed wire, but by the number of lives that were changed by the brave Jews who refused to die without a fight. The escape from Sobibor can be considered one of the most inspiring examples of human resistance. Works Cited Piccirillo, Ryan. “The Sobibor Uprising: “Death to the Fascists.”” pulse of the students. Np, 9 November 2010. Web. 21 November 2013. Sobibor extermination camp: history and overview. Jewish virtual library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 12 August 2012. Web. 14 November 2013. .