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YMMV / Escape from Sobibór

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  • Complete Monster: Sergeant Gustav Wagner is the cold-hearted Nazi deputy commander of the Sobibor extermination camp. Exerting complete control over the prisoners through violence, he personally executes a new prisoner who offends and slaps another officer. He takes away a baby that was sneaked past the extermination selection to be killed, right in front of the baby's mother Naomi, and shoots both Naomi and her baby on the spot when Naomi resists. When an escape attempt occurs, he had the 13 captured prisoners each select another prisoner to be executed with them, or else he would select another 50 to be executed. All remaining prisoners were then Forced to Watch the execution of the 26 men by machine gun, since Wagner said that anyone that isn't watching would be executed as well. A symbol of the Nazis' wanton cruelty, Wagner's actions became a motivation for the prisoners to rise up and escape from the hellish camp.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Both the British and Russian films end squarely at the breakout. What happened after the breakout in real life would makes a great extended ending or sequel: Pechersky was forced to abandon his companions, most of whom were Polish Jews, and escape to the USSR, where as an escaped POW, he was conscripted into a penal battalion, until the commander was shocked by his story and encouraged him to testify.


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