Linda Cook review: ‘Sobibor’ shows horrors of the Holocaust
Carter Sullivan
Published Mar 14, 2026
Not only is this a gripping adventure movie, but it’s also an education – at least, it will be for some viewers. I know it was for me.
I knew that “Sobibor” was a Nazi death camp in Poland. But I did not know about the uprising, during which hundreds of prisoners managed to escape in October 1943.
The entire environment of the film is the extermination camp where, at the beginning, we see well-dressed European Jews arrive by the carload. Over a loudspeaker, they are welcomed to their “new life.”
There is an unforgettable sequence with women prisoners who are stripped and taken to the “showers,” where they are gassed. If ever there is an image of horror that will etch itself on the viewer’s brain, it is this one.
Not everyone is killed … not right away. Some are kept alive to dig mass burial pits, sift through the belongings of the dead and clear the woods.
The sadistic Karl Frenzel (Christopher Lambert) manages the camp, along with his officers who think nothing playing bizarre, psychotic “games” with prisoners.
After a Soviet officer who has been captured arrives, he bears the guilt of an unsuccessful attempt at a revolt in the Minsk ghetto – an endeavor that led to many retaliatory murders.
He and others learn the camp will be liquidated, which means imminent death for the prisoners. He and a group of others decide to take on the SS officers in different buildings and dispatch them with whatever weapons are available.
The film is based on the book “Alexander Pechersky: Breakthrough to Immortality” by Ilya Vasiliev.
It is a film and a part of history you won’t soon forget.
The Lloyd M. Burstein Memorial Holocaust Film Series 2022 continues with “Sobibor” at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Figge Art Museum Auditorium, 225 W. 2nd St., Davenport. It is presented by the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities.
3 1/2 stars
Running time: One hour and 50 minutes.
Rated: Unrated, but contains mature themes and graphic violence.
In Dutch/Russian/German/Polish with English subtitles.
Admission: $7 adults, $6 seniors and military, free for students.
