Biography of alexander sasha pechersky

Born in Kremenchung, he moved as a child to Rostovon-Don. Pechersky was trained as a biography of alexander sasha pechersky before he was drafted into the Soviet army when German forces invaded Soviet Russia in the summer of In October he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned. He contracted typhoid but managed to conceal it from his captors, to avoid certain death.

In Mayhe managed to escape. He was caught again and sent to Borishov. An examination revealed that he was circumcised — Jewish. He arrived along with 79 other Soviet Pows. He alone was selected to work on construction. The remainder were gassed on arrival. There, together with six other Jews, he immediately started to prepare a detailed plan for a revolt, which was executed on October 14, Pechersky's men attacked the German officers, killing ten of them.

A month later, in the area of Wiazma, in October, he was taken prisoner by the Germans. In May, as a result of an unsuccessful escape from the POW camp in Smolensk, he was sent to a punitive camp Borysow. September 18, very early in the still dark morning the SS commandant Waks had a short speech assuring that the people are only being transferred to Germany to work.

Three hundred grams of bread was distributed to each person and they were led to the train station. On September, 23, the train arrived at Sobibor. In the evening, the same day, I asked a another prisoner about the smog coming out from behind the fence in the opposite site of the camp. He looked at me and told me a matter of fact, the people you came with?

From him I learned the truth about the death factory, but working in the forest I was removed from direct witnessing of the murder, until I realized that I was working near the gas chambers. I was thinking about my Elotchka, my daughter I left in a village in the Ukraine. I don't know. Maybe because I was still wearing my officers' cap or they noticed my close association with other former soldiers.

Most probably, because one of my closest friends from Minsk was a Polish Jew, Leitman Szlomo, a cabinet maker from Warsaw and he someway established contact with the conspiracy, recommending me to Boruch Leon Feldhendler-T. At this time a few former POW led by Grisha made plans to escape. We had no choice. Fighting back give us a chance, a very distant chance but still some hope.

Here we were sentenced do die. As a military man, I was aware that a surprise attack is worth a division of solders. The biggest danger was deconspiration. Because of it so few prisoners were involved. Nevertheless, I was astonished that so many people initially were able to escape. The smudginess of the operation surprised myself.

Now thinking about this I came to a conclusion that the Nazis simple despised us Jews, believed their own indoctrination about the subhumans and treat us like robots not being able for this kind of operation. They were to confident in these believes and this, too, proved their downfall. Yes, Luka was only 18 years old, very intelligent and smart.

Although our meeting was initially arranged by Shloma and I knew her only about two weeks, I will newer forget her. We were not involved like other young people in camp. She was an inspiration for me. In the beginning the communication was difficult, because the language problem. Soon we were able to understand each other without help.

I informed her minutes before the escape of the plan. She has given me a shirt. She said, "it's a good luck shirt, put it on right now", and I did. It's now in the museum. I lost her in the turmoil of the revolt and never saw her again. In your memoirs, you summarized your departure from the rest of the escapees with a few sentences. After your speech just before the escape I lost you for a while, to meet you by the barbed wires, then lost you again, only to find you in the forest.

I was with you until your departure, as was Szlomo, and we remember it differently. Sasha, don't take this in the wrong way, please, because of you I'm here, alive; because of you, of us have families children and grandchildren instead of finding their end in Sobibor. If you lived in the West, you would be admired by untold thousands. If all this is a lie, then know that death awaits you too.

Biography of alexander sasha pechersky

Don't trust the Germans. Avenge our blood! The leadership of the Polish Jews was aware that Belzec and Treblinka had been closed, dismantled and all remaining prisoners had been sent to the gas-chambers and they suspected that Sobibor would be next. There was a great urgency in coming up with a good escape plan, and Pechersky, with his army experience, was their best hope.

The escape had to also coincide with the time when the Sobibor's deputy commandant Gustav Wagner went on vacation, since the prisoners felt that he was sharp enough to uncover the escape plan. Pechersky clandestinely met with Feldhendler under the guise of meeting Luka, a woman he was supposedly involved with. Luka is often described as an 18 year old woman from Holland, but records indicate she was 28 and from Germany, her real name was Gertrude Poppert—Schonborn.

After the war, Pechersky insisted that the relationship was platonic. Her fate after the escape was never factually established and she was never seen alive again. During an interview with Thomas Blatt, Pechersky said the following regarding Luka: " Although I knew her only about two weeks, I will never forget her. I informed her minutes before the escape of the plan.

She has given me a shirt. She said, 'it's a good luck shirt, put it on right now', and I did. It's now in the museum. I lost her in the turmoil of the revolt and never saw her again. According to Pechersky's plan, the prisoners would assassinate the German SS staff, thereby rendering the auxiliary biographies of alexander sasha pechersky leaderless, obtain weapons, and eliminate the remaining guards.

Individual Polish Jewish inmates were assigned specific German SS guards that they were supposed to lure inside the workshops under some pretext and silently kill. On 14 OctoberPechersky's escape plan began. During the day, several German SS men were lured to workshops on a variety of pretexts, such as being fitted for new boots or expensive clothes.

The SS men were then stabbed to death with carpenters' axes, awls, and chisels discreetly recovered from property left by gassed Jews; with other tradesmen's sharp tools; or with crude knives and axes made in the camp's machine shop. The blood was covered up with sawdust on the floor. The escapees were armed with a number of hand grenades, a rifle, a submachine gun and several pistols that the prisoners stole from the German biography of alexander sasha pechersky quarters, as well as the sidearms captured from the dead SS.

The uprising was almost postponed since Bauer's death was felt necessary for the success of the escape. The sound of the gunfire prompted Alexander Pechersky to begin the revolt earlier than planned. Pechersky screamed the preplanned code-words: "Hurrah, the revolt has begun! Disorganized groups of prisoners ran in every direction. Ada Lichtman, a survivor of the escape recalls: " Suddenly we heard shots Mines started to explode.

Should I leave the rest of the prisoners to be tortured and murdered? I rejected this thought. During his third day at Sobibor, Alexander Pechersky earned the respect of fellow prisoners by standing up to Karl Frenzela SS senior officer, as the incident was recalled by Leon Feldhendler. Pechersky, still wearing his Soviet Army uniform, was assigned to dig up tree stumps in the North Camp.

Frenzel was in charge because an underling was elsewhere and was in a bad mood. Frenzel was waiting for an excuse to pick on someone since he considered himself an officer and a gentleman and waited for some reason to begin his sadistic games. One Dutch Jew was too weak to chop a stump so Frenzel began beating him with his whip. Pechersky stopped chopping and watched the whipping while resting on his axe.

Kapo Porzyczki translated when Frenzel asked Pechersky if he didn't like what he saw. Frenzel told Pechersky that he had 5 minutes to split a large tree stump in two. If Pechersky beat the time he would receive a pack of cigarettes, if he lost, he would be whipped 25 times. Frenzel looked at his watch, and said: Begin. Pechersky split the stump in four and a half minutes and Frenzel held out a pack of cigarettes and announced that he always does as he promises.

Pechersky replied that he doesn't smoke, turned around and got back to chopping down new tree stumps. Frenzel came back twenty minutes later with fresh bread and butter and offered it to Pechersky. Pechersky replied that the rations at the concentration camp were more than adequate and that he wasn't hungry. Frenzel turned around and left, leaving Kapo Porzyczki in charge.

That evening, this episode of defiance spread throughout Sobibor. This episode influenced the leadership of the Polish Jews to approach Pechersky about ideas for an escape plan. Pechersky's plan merged the idea of a mass escape with vengeance: to help as many prisoners as possible to escape while executing SS officers and guards. His final goal was to join up with the partisans and continue fighting the Nazis.

Pechersky was invited to talk with a group of Jewish prisoner leaders from Poland, to whom he spoke about the Red Army victory in the Battle of Stalingrad and partisan victories. When one of the prisoners asked him why the partisans would not rescue them from Sobibor, Pechersky reportedly replied: "What for? To free us all? The partisans have their hands full already.

Nobody will do our job for us. The note said: "We worked for a year in Belzec. I don't know where they're taking us now. They say to Germany. In the freight cars there are dining tables. We received bread for three days, and tins and liquor. If all this is a lie, then know that death awaits you too. Do not trust the Germans. Avenge our blood!

There was a great urgency in coming up with a good escape plan and Pechersky, with his army experience, was their best hope. Pechersky clandestinely met with Feldhendler under the guise of meeting Luka, a woman he was supposedly involved with. However, records indicate she was in fact a 28 year old married woman from Germany who was accompanied by her husband, which raised doubt about her being the same Luka.

After the war, Pechersky insisted that the relationship was platonic. Her fate after the escape was never established and she was never seen alive again. I informed her minutes before the escape of the plan. She has given me a shirt. She said, 'it's a good luck shirt, put it on right now', and I did. It's now in the museum. I lost her in the turmoil of the revolt and never saw her again.

According to Pechersky's plan, the prisoners would assassinate the German SS staff, leaving the auxiliary guards leaderless, obtain weapons and kill the remaining guards.