On this day in 1943, the prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp in German-occupied Poland revolted against the Nazis. During the summer of 1943, the prisoners in Sobibor noticed that there was a decrease in the number of people who were murdered in the gas chambers. This caused the rumor to spread that Sobibor was going to be liquidated, the prisoners would all be killed, and the death camp would close. In response, a group of Polish Jews, led by Leo Feldhandler, formed a committee to plan a revolt and escape, but no one in the group had any military experience. This was solved when a group of Jewish Soviet Army prisoners-of-war (POWs) arrived at Sobibor in September. The committee asked for help and the Soviets were happy to assist. It took only three weeks for Lieutenant Alexander Pechersky to come up with a plan for the POWs to secretly kill SS officials by luring them into rooms to try on coats or be fitted for suits. The POWs would then steal the officials’ uniforms and weapons and assume their identities. During the evening roll call, when about 600 prisoners were lined up, the POWs who were dressed as SS officers would kill the guards at the gate to the camp and let the prisoners flee. The plan was so well organized that they chose a day when deputy commandant Johann Niemann and many of the leading officials of Sobibor were away. At around 4 pm, the uprising began. The POWs were able to kill the deputy commandant, SS Noncommissioned Officer (NCO) Josef Wulf, as well as six SS personnel and a Trawniki guard. The remaining camp personnel were alarmed during roll call, however, and opened fire on the prisoners. The POWs that had guns returned fire and over 300 prisoners escaped. Many prisoners were shot while trying to escape, or they died in the minefield that surrounded the camp. 100 of the 300 escapees were caught during a manhunt conducted by the SS. Of the 200 escapees, 50 were able to survive the war. The prisoners who remained in Sobibor continued fighting throughout the night with any gun or ax they could find, but by the end of October 15, they were all murdered. The SS then brought prisoners from Treblinka to take apart Sobibor and erase any trace of the death camp. When prisoners completed their task in late November they were all murdered by the Nazis.