The Sobibor Foundation is proud to announce the release of our new English-language podcast series: The Silence of Sobibor. For too long, the history of the Sobibor extermination camp was buried—both by the perpetrators who tried to erase their crimes and by the passage of time
About the Series
The Silence of Sobibor takes listeners on a journey through the history of one of the most secretive sites of the Holocaust. Through archival research, expert testimony, and the stories of those who lived through the unimaginable, we explore:
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The Origins: How Sobibor became a site of industrialized murder.
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The Resistance: The incredible story of the 1943 prisoner revolt.
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The Legacy: Why the “silence” of Sobibor remains a challenge for memory and education today.
Why We Are Telling This Story Now
As the generation of survivors passes the torch of memory to us, it is our responsibility to ensure these stories are accessible to a global audience. By launching this English version, we hope to reach listeners worldwide, fostering a deeper understanding of the Holocaust and the dangers of hatred and indifference.
The Silence of Sobibor is a production by Audiodroom Podcast Productions in collaboration with the Sobibor Foundation. Creators Patty-Lou Middel-Leenheer and Richard Grootbod spent a year and a half developing the series, which tells stories about the little-known Sobibor camp.
Sobibor was a secret death camp in Nazi-occupied eastern Poland, part of Aktion Reinhard, where over 170,000 people were murdered. Unlike Auschwitz, Sobibor remains largely unknown to the public.
Between March 2 and July 1943, 34,313 Jews were deported from the Netherlands to Sobibor in 19 transports. Almost all were murdered upon arrival. A small number were selected to work as Sonderkommando. On October 14, 1943, these “work Jews” organized an armed uprising. Hundreds managed to escape.
Only eighteen Dutch survivors returned from Sobibor: three men and fifteen women. Two of them, Selma Wijnberg and Ursula Stern, were held in Sobibor; the others were transferred shortly after arrival. Among them was Jules Schelvis, who later authored several seminal works on Sobibor and founded the Sobibor Foundation.
Listen Now
You can stream all episodes of The Silence of Sobibor directly on our website or on Apple Podcasts.
app.springcast.fm/podcast/the-silence-of-sobibor
During the production of this series, previously unknown photographs of the Sobibor extermination camp surfaced. These images originate from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
