The Sobibór extermination centre, located near the village of the same name in the Lublin district, operated from May 1942 to October 1943 as part of “Aktion Reinhard”, the systematic murder of the Jews of occupied Poland. According to historians’ estimates, between 170,000 and 250,000 people, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, were murdered there.
The link with France is established in the spring of 1943: several convoys that left the Drancy camp for the Lublin district (March 1943) brought Jews deported from France to Majdanek and Sobibór. On 14 October 1943, a revolt of the prisoners enabled several dozen of them to escape; the Nazis then liquidated the camp and attempted to erase its traces. The site today houses a museum and a memorial.