Ep 2 Stories from the soil

You can form an idea of what Auschwitz looked like just by walking around it, as the iconic gatehouse with its fencing is still there. In Sobibor, almost the entire camp was razed to the ground. Sobibor was a secret camp where no photos were allowed. It was a visual black hole in history until a camp guard's grandson found some photo albums in his grandmother's attic. Suddenly, Sobibor gained a face. In this episode, we follow Jules Schelvis, Philip Bialowitz, and Selma Wijnberg. They arrived on trains from the Netherlands packed with Jews. After four days in cattle cars, they stumbled out completely exhausted. "We fell out," says Selma. Within an hour, almost everyone from that train was crammed into the gas chambers. The door closed, a diesel engine started, and everyone was slowly gassed. But a small group survived the camp; they had to help search victims' luggage for valuables or drag the bodies of their relatives from the gas chambers. In this episode, we also follow the archaeologists who sometimes found very personal belongings in Sobibor's soil. We'd love to hear what you think of this episode: [email protected]. For more information, visit the website of Stichting Sobibor (https://www.sobibor.org). Music written and performed by Mark Lobenstein (https://marklobenstein.com/?js_artist=mark_lobenstein). Spoken word created and performed by Ben Oranje (https://benoranje.nl).[5]springcast+1 #Sobibor #WWII #history #Audiodroom #Holocaust #Jews #war #Westerbork #Amsterdam #ghetto #1943 #DeddieZak