Sobibor was an extermination camp located in Poland that participated in the systematic extermination of Jews during the Holocaust. Around 250,000 Jews were murdered at Sobibor between its construction in 1941 and its liquidation in 1943. But a few brave occupiers decided not to go down without a fight. They composed a revolt that would inspire people around the world to never lose hope, even in the darkest moments of history. Led by Jewish occupier Leon Fendhendler and Soviet prisoner of war Alexander (Sascha) Perchersky, the revolt “proved that the Nazi death machine was an imperfect and defeatable force.” (Ryan Picarrilo) Given that only 50 Sobibor escapees survived to the end of the war, the significance of the uprising could be questioned, but it was effective. This ignited a flame in the Jewish population that would motivate them to fight back. Through Leon's knowledge of the camp and Sascha's military knowledge and tactics, a plan quickly formed to liberate not only a select group of occupiers, but also the 600 Jews living in the camp. Sobibor. The strategy was to keep the escape a secret until the very last second. In fact, less than 10 percent of the camp knew about the revolt before it took place. According to Thomas Blatt, a survivor of Sobibor, the escape would take place in three phases: “the preparations, the secret execution of the SS officers, then the open revolt”. Leon recruited a few trusted blacksmiths to create makeshift axes and knives to use in the execution of the SS. The selected few individuals would kill as many SS and Ukrainians as possible in the space of an hour. The strategy was for their deaths to be secret and for the group to lure individual members of the SS into a workshop by offering them new ways... middle of paper ...... back, the courage to take a shot stance towards those who had mercilessly murdered their brothers and sisters. (enter revised thesis statement) The escape from Sobibor cannot be measured by the number of survivors who escaped the horror of barbed wire, but by the number of lives that were changed by the courageous Jews who refused to die without a fight. The Sobibor escape can be considered one of the most inspiring examples of human resistance. Works Cited Piccirillo, Ryan. “The Sobibor revolt: “Death to the fascists”. pulse of students. Np, November 9, 2010. Web. November 21, 2013. .Sobibor extermination camp: history and overview. " Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, August 12, 2012. Web. November 14 2013. .