Last survivor Sobibor died

berlin - Arkadi Waispapir, known as the last survivor of the prison revolt in the Nazi death camp Sobibor, has died in Ukraine. The Holocaust Memorial Foundation in Berlin said Monday that Waispapir died in Kiev on 11 January. He was 96 years old.

The Waispapir, born in southern Ukraine, was captured by the Germans when he served as a soldier in the Soviet army and deported to Sobibor because he was Jewish. He was one of the few prisoners who saved a direct death. Instead, he was put to work.

Among the prisoners formed a resistance group, which planned an escape from the camp. According to the foundation, Waispapir belonged to eight prisoners who had planned and prepared the 1943 uprising under the leadership of the Alexander Petsjerski (1909-1990). In the aftermath of the uprising more than two hundred prisoners managed to flee the camp.

Waispapir was one of 47 survivors who survived the war. Waispapir lived and worked in Eastern Ukraine until he retired in 1994 and moved to Kiev.

The mass murder of more than 250,000 Jews in Sobibor began in May 1942.