Sobibór Museum

The Sobibór Museum or the Museum of the Former Sobibór Nazi Death Camp (Polish: Muzeum Byłego Hitlerowskiego Obozu Zagłady w Sobiborze), is a Polish state-owned museum devoted to memorializing the victims and atrocities committed at the former Sobibor extermination camp, located on the outskirts of Sobibór near Lublin. The Nazi German death camp was set up in occupied Poland during World War II, as part of the Jewish extermination program known as the Operation Reinhard, which marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust in Poland. The camp was run by the SS Sonderkommando Sobibor, initially commanded by Franz Stangl.[2] The number of Jews from Poland and elsewhere who were gassed and cremated there between April 1942 and October 14, 1943 is estimated at 250,000;[3] possibly more, including those who were transported from other Reich-occupied countries.[4]

Sobibór Museum
Muzeum Byłego Hitlerowskiego Obozu Zagłady w Sobiborze
Sobibór Museum monument,
Woman and child martyrology, iron
Established1993
LocationSobibór, Poland
Coordinates51.2650°N 23.3537°E / 51.2650; 23.3537
DirectorDr Krzysztof Skwirowski [1]
Websitewww.sobibor-memorial.eu

Since May 1, 2012 the Sobibór Museum has been managed as a branch of the Majdanek State Museum,[2] dedicated to the history and commemoration of the Holocaust camps and subcamps of KL Lublin.[5] Originally, the museum served as a branch of the district museum in nearby Włodawa, founded in 1981.[6] The museum was temporarily closed to the public from April 2011 to May 2013[7] due to lack of funds.[8] The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage reopened the Museum with additional funding after its administrative reorganisation.[7]

Archaeological and conservation work was conducted at the site between 2007 to 2017, revealing formerly buried features of the camp and thousands of items belonging to the victims. The mass grave site was covered with geotextile and crushed marble in 2017. In 2020, a new Museum and Memorial in Sobibór was inaugurated, with 323-square meters of exhibition space, displaying a permanent exhibition artifacts, photographs and documents.

Museum history
Present-day museum, to be replaced with Visitor Centre. The design was selected in an international competition in 2013. There were 63 submissions.[9]
Sobibór trail of memory

Because the Nazis had closed and destroyed the camp in late 1943, replanting the site to hide the evidence of what had taken place, little was known about the camp for years. The Sobibor trial in Hagen, Germany, and the parallel Hiwi, or Trawniki trials in Krasnodar in the former USSR brought publicity to the Nazi-directed activities at this death camp.[2] These trials were inspired by the investigative work of Simon Wiesenthal, and the highly publicized capture of Adolf Eichmann in 1960 from Argentina by the Israeli Mossad, to stand trial in Jerusalem.[10]

Most Holocaust survivors had left Poland long before these events, and few from the camp are known to have survived the war. The camp was largely forgotten.[11][12]

The first monument to Sobibór victims was erected in 1965 on the historic site.[13] The Włodawa Museum, which commissioned the monument, established a separate Sobibór branch on October 14, 1993, on the 50th anniversary of the armed uprising of Jewish prisoners there.[14] After some 300 prisoners escaped in 1943, the Nazis closed and destroyed the camp to try to hide the evidence of the mass killings. Only 58 of those former prisoners are known to have survived the war.[15]

The small museum was scheduled to be replaced with a modern visitor centre, with a design chosen from an international design competition in 2013, sponsored by the Polish-German Foundation Pojednanie.[16] On 24 June 2014 the State Secretary from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage presented the winning design at a ceremony in Warsaw. Attending were the King of the Netherlands Willem Alexander and his wife Queen Máxima, partners in the project along with Israel, Poland, and Slovakia.[17] After parts of the former camp grounds were excavated by archeologists and the field of mass graves covered with geotextile and crushed marble, construction work on the new museum complex began in 2017.[18]

The permanent exhibition of the new Museum and Memorial in Sobibór was inaugurated on 29 October 2020, with 323-square meters of exhibition space. Over 700 personal items belonging to the victims of the camp, from among 11,000 artifacts held by the museum, as well as documents and photographs, form the centerpiece of the exhibition. Sixteen thematic areas explain the history of the extermination camp and the Holocaust in occupied Poland.[19][18]

Research and conservation programs
Aerial photograph of the Sobibór death camp site in 1942 before most permanent structures were built. Camp II barracks (lower centre), as well as Camp III, and Camp IV. The railway unloading platform (with visible prewar train station) is marked with a red arrow; the site of the gas chambers is marked with a cross. The undressing area is marked with a red square, adjacent to the "Road to Heaven" through the forest

The Museum complex comprises a building, archives, and monuments. The museum building is located near the former railway station; these are connected by a paved Trail of Memory. Memorial monuments include a cast-iron statue of a woman with child, sculpted by Mieczysław Welter. It is installed on the former "Road to Heaven" (Himmelfahrtstrasse). In addition, a large circular enclosure has a mound of ashes and crushed bones of the victims, collected at the site and formed into a broad pyramid next to the original open-air cremation pits. A local archive of the facsimiles of testimonies and pertinent documents is available at the museum.[20]

The camp is scheduled to undergo more advanced geophysical studies and further archaeological excavations to explore the site. Practically no fixed objects of any kind are found within the site, since the SS meticulously removed as much evidence as possible.[15] Any research work around and near the graves is conducted under the strict supervision of the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich.[21]

The first excavation project was completed in October 2007. More than one thousand items belonging to the victims were unearthed. In October 2009, the second excavation phase was conducted, which determined the exact placement of double-row barbed-wire fencing posts around the camp. The work revealed numerous new artifacts as well, including false teeth, keepsakes from Marienbad, and many suitcase keys.[22] In the autumn of 2012, the north-western section around mass graves 1 and 2 was analyzed. Geophysical evidence was found of the barbed-wire enclosure that separated mass graves and cremation pits from the living area of Camp III, and that marked the perimeter of the killing zone.[21]

In May 2013 the Israeli and Polish archaeologists conducting excavations near Camp III, unearthed an escape tunnel 10 metres (33 ft) long and 1.6–2 m deep in some places, beginning under the barracks of the Jewish Sonderkommando and leading toward a double-row, barbed-wire fence.[23] The tunnel may have collapsed with people inside; the camp perimeter is known to have been mined. Notably, the camp records do not mention any incident related to a tunnel escape.

Other new findings included children's identification tags from the Netherlands, and seven human skeletal remains. These may be remains of the Jewish work-detail who were shot after completing removal of the genocide evidence.[14][24]

References
  1. Contact information (2013). "Head of the Museum". Museum of the Former Death Camp in Sobibór. Retrieved 2013-06-09.
  2. MBOZS (2013). "Sobibór extermination camp. Commemoration". The State Museum at Majdanek. Archived from the original on January 13, 2015. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  3. M.Z.C (2011). ""Z popiołów Sobiboru" (From the Ashes of Sobibor)". Oficjalna strona internetowa (official webpage) (in Polish). Muzeum Ziemi Chełmskiej im. Wiktora Ambroziewicza w Chełmie. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  4. MBOZS (2013). "Sobibór extermination camp. History". The State Museum at Majdanek. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  5. "Aktualności". Muzeum we Włodawie informuje o zmianach (in Polish). Muzeum Pojezierza Łęczyńsko-Włodawskiego. 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  6. MPŁW (2013). "Historia muzeum". History of Włodawa State Museum (in Polish). Muzeum Pojezierza in Włodawa. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  7. TRW (May 2013). "Muzeum Byłego Hitlerowskiego Obozu Zagłady w Sobiborze jest oddziałem zamiejscowym Muzeum Państwowego na Majdanku". Archiwum (in Polish). Twoje radio Włodawa. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  8. K.P. (July 5, 2011). "Sobibor Museum can't pay the bills". Krakow Post. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  9. Wystawa pokonkursowa projektów nowego muzeum w Sobiborze. Sobibor Museum webpage.
  10. Victor Smart (2009). "Adolf Eichmann Capture in Argentina". Operation Eichmann. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  11. Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky 1989, page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986
  12. Michael C. Steinlauf. "Poland". In: David S. Wyman, Charles H. Rosenzveig. The World Reacts to the Holocaust. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
  13. E.S.R. (2013). "Museum of the Former Sobibór Death Camp". Information Portal to European Sites of Remembrance. Gedenkstattenportal zu Orten der Erinnerung in Europa. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  14. Virtual Shtetl (2013). "A discovery in the former Sobibór death camp". The extermination camp in Sobibór. Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
  15. Lest we forget (14 March 2004), "Extermination camp Sobibor", The Holocaust. Retrieved on May 17, 2013.
  16. Press release (2013). "Press release concerning the redesign of Sobibor". Sobibor Foundation. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  17. "Prezentacja projektu Muzeum-Miejsca Pamięci na terenie byłego niemieckiego obozu zagłady w Sobiborze". Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego. 25 June 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2014.
  18. Lebovic, Matt (1 Dec 2020). "In Poland, new Sobibor museum memorializes victims through unearthed belongings". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 5 Jan 2021.
  19. "Opening of the permanent exhibition at the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór". The State Museum at Majdanek. 29 Oct 2020. Retrieved 5 Jan 2021.
  20. "Sobibor". Muzeum Byłego Hitlerowskiego Obozu Zagłady w Sobiborze (in Polish). Museo.pl, Chełm. 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  21. Mgr Wojciech Mazurek (2012-12-27). "Wstepne wyniki badan archeologicznych Muzeum Bylego Hitlerowskiego Obozu Zaglady" (PDF file, direct download 3.76 MB). Badania Archeologiczne (in Polish). "Sub Terra". Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  22. Yad Vashem (2013). "Archaeological Excavations at Sobibór Extermination Site". Research Projects. International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
  23. Press release (June 5, 2013). "Próba ucieczki z obozu zagłady. Odkryli nieznany tunel w Sobiborze (Amazing discovery of a secret escape tunnel in Sobibor)". Wiadomości lokalne (in Polish). Gazeta Wyborcza. Archived from the original on June 8, 2013. Article features photograph of geophysical studies area.
  24. Nir Hasson (Jun 7, 2013). "Archaeologists find escape tunnel at Sobibor death camp". Haaretz Daily Newspaper. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
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