More than 200 Gestapo agents and Ukrainian guards in the “Jewish extermination camp” of Sobibor, in occupied Poland, were killed during a revolt of the Jewish internees organized with the aid of the underground movement, the Polish Government-in-Exile reported today.
The revolt, which is the second largest Jewish uprising against the Nazis, surpassed only by the “Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto,” started in the so-called “penal huts” of the camp where Jews are tortured for various alleged offences. Jewish prisoners attacked the huts and released the tortured Jews who joined them in disarming the guards, and in resisting the Gestapo units which rushed to the scene to crush the revolt. Aided by armed members of the underground movement who came to their assistance, the Jewish prisoners succeeded in killing many of their tormentors. Many of the Jews were also killed in the battle.
The Polish Government’s report states that the Gestapo “liquidation” of the remnants of the Jewish population in various Polish towns continues. Five hundred Jews were recently executed in Przemysl and a large number were killed in Rseszow, the report declares, adding that the “Jewish” labor camps in Trawniki and Poniatowka have been completely “liquidated” by the Germans.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.