Escape from Sobibor

TV Movie
1987
15
2h 23m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

10K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,211

1,820

Alan Arkin, Rutger Hauer, and Joanna Pacula in Escape from Sobibor (1987)

Drama History War

German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.German death camp in Sobibor, Poland, killed two hundred fifty thousand Jews. It had the most successful prisoner escape in World War II on October 14, 1943.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

10K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,211

1,820

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 5 Primetime Emmys
- 3 wins & 6 nominations total

User reviews97

Featured review

not entirely historically accurate

This movie did a good job of showing what happened and how prisioners coped with life in a nazi death camp. The acting was good and you really get a good depiction of death camp life. However, I would not say that this was better than the masterpiece that SCHINDLERS LIST was.

Oh by the way, this movie didnt show what happened after the prisioners escaped. Everyone left behind at the death camp was executed the next day, some being buried alive because the nazis were in a rush to shut the camp down. The area was then simply planted over with trees so today when people walk on the grounds where Sobibor was, many feet underneath them is the remains of thousands of people.....

Trivia
Out of about 300 prisoners who escaped to the woods from Sobibor, only about 60 survived until the end of the war.

Goofs
Shlomo Szmajzner actually had three "brothers" that he requested be kept with him (his real brother, his cousin, and his nephew).

Quotes
Lt. "Sasha" Pechersky: Listen to me! Our day has come! Most of the SS are dead! It's everyone for himself now!
Leon Feldhendler: Those of you who survive, bear witness! Let the world know what has happened here! God is with you! Now let nothing stop you!
[escape begins]

Alternate versions
Some television broadcasts of the movie, in particular the version which was shown on the History Channel, cut a lengthy scene after the escape attempt at the beginning of the film (attempted by a work detail cutting through the camp fence with garden tools) where the detail is shot dead with their bodies then displayed to the rest of the camp as a warning. In the cut version, there is no mention of what happened to these escapees after their escape attempt.