Escape Tunnel Unearthed at Nazi Death Camp in Poland

News June 10, 2013

(Wikimedia Commons)
SHARE:
Wikipedia-sobibor-101
(Wikimedia Commons)

WARSAW, POLAND—A 32-foot-long tunnel thought to be an escape route dug by prisoners at the Sobibor Nazi death camp has been discovered by Polish and Israeli archaeologists. It extends from the Sonderkommando barracks, under a barbwire fence, to the edge of the camp. “We found a snake-shaped tunnel in what was once the center of the shed, leading eastwards—out of the camp,” said Yoram Haimi, a leader of the excavation team. The researchers think that the tunnel was never used, but was discovered during an armed uprising at the camp in 1943 when many prisoners were killed. The tunnel was probably filled in at that time.

  • Features May/June 2013

    Haunt of the Resurrection Men

    A forgotten graveyard, the dawn of modern medicine, and the hard life in 19th-century London

    Read Article
    (Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library)
  • Features May/June 2013

    The Kings of Kent

    The surprising discovery of an Anglo-Saxon feasting hall in the village of Lyminge is offering a new view of the lives of these pagan kings

    Read Article
    (Photo by William Laing, © University of Reading)
  • Letter from Turkey May/June 2013

    Anzac's Next Chapter

    Archaeologists conduct the first-ever survey of the legendary WWI battlefield at Gallipoli

    Read Article
    (Samir S. Patel)
  • Artifacts May/June 2013

    Ancient Near Eastern Figurines

    Ceramic figurines were part of a cache of objects found at an Iron Age temple uncovered at the site of Tel Motza outside Jerusalem

    Read Article
    (Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)