Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Background [ ] Beginning in 1940, the Nazi had established the so-called near Sobibór. It comprised 16 forced, built as part of the new Nisko und Lublin Plan of Jewish resettlement. The district was intended to become an agricultural centre of the, inhabited by 'colonists' brought by into the Empire. About 95,000 Jews expelled from as far away as Warsaw and Vienna were brought into the area in order to build, in exchange for a small monthly pay. Most prisoners were housed in a network of sub-camps set up in pre-existing structures such as converted school buildings, factories, and farms. The camp was the main branch of the new complex. It was set up at a former Polish correctional centre and was the largest of the 16 forced labour camps of the Nisko Plan. During preparations for the in eastern Poland the Plan was discontinued. Soon after that, the heavy concentration of Jews in the area was discussed by the Nazi officials at the October 1941 meeting in occupied, attended by,, and among others, proposing the creation of a new order. Sobibór extermination camp was built in March and April 1942 as soon as the was set in motion. By this time the and extermination camps were already operating, and as of 17 March 1942 it was used for mass extermination of Jews deported from the. The new camp's location, near the railway station, was selected due to proximity of the – railway line connecting with. Camp construction [ ] Sobibór was located 145 kilometres (90 mi) from Bełżec, less than a three-hour drive away. Camp construction was supervised by SS-Hauptsturmführer, a civil engineer by profession who built in Bełżec and then applied the lessons learned there to the design of Sobibor. Construction of the camp began under SS direction on 1 March 1942. The first workers summoned to build the railroad spur were local people from neighbouring villages and towns, but the camp was primarily built by a of about 80 Jews from ghettos within the vicinity of the camp. A squad of Ukrainian, trained at the, guarded the prisoners. Upon completion of construction, the Jews involved were all killed. In mid-April 1942, when the camp was nearly completed, several experimental gassings took place there., the commander of and Inspector of, arrived in Sobibór to witness one of the gassings, with about 30–40 Jewish women from the Krychów camp brought in for this purpose. He reportedly complained about the fitting of the gas chambers doors. Some 250 Jews from Krychów were killed during these trials. The first commandant of Sobibór appointed by was -, the manager of the in Nazi Germany at both the and extermination hospitals. Stangl served as the Sobibór's commandant from 28 April to the end of August 1942. According to Stangl, initially stated that Sobibór was merely a supply camp for the army, and that the true nature of the camp became known to Stangl only when took him to see the hidden in the woods: 'The moment I saw it – I realised what Michel had had in mind – it looked exactly the same as the gas chamber in.' Feeling overwhelmed by a new job, Stangl first studied the camp operations and management, where the extermination operations had already started.
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