Back in 1987, this excellent British-made film aired on American television. Fortunately, if you want to see it, you can now download it absolutely free from archive.org--and I strongly recommend you do.This film is the true story of a death camp called Sobibor and the inmates who eventually mounted the largest escape during WWII. Of the 600 prisoners, over 300 escaped and many of these folks managed to survive the war. This is awfully astounding and a nice contrast to all the depressing holocaust films, as in this case they fight back--killing many of their SS tormentors in the process of escaping.The film deserves very high marks in just about every way. The acting is superb, the script tense and rousing and the story sticks close to the facts--something not all historical films do. Well worth seeing and, not surprisingly, sad and tragic at times, so have some Kleenex handy and don't let young kids watch this alone.

For some reason, I seem to shy away from these public domain pictures because their ubiquitous presence in film compilations and dollar store racks seem to suggest that they aren't very good. Then you come across one like "Escape From Sobibor" and you have to re-evaluate your prejudices. This was an amazing film, telling the true story of a Polish Nazi death camp and the men and women who led their people to freedom in the face of insurmountable evil."The Great Escape" comes to mind as a film along the same lines. However the difference with that story was in the fact that the Great Escape prisoners were primarily U.S. and Royal Air Force fliers, an 'elite' group so to speak, who even if the Nazis hated, at least had earned a measure of respect for their aviation abilities. In 'Sobibor', the prisoners were virtually leaderless, with only Leon Feldhendler (Alan Alda) showing an ability to plan and organize at the outset. It's almost an hour into the picture before Sergeant Sascha Pechersky (Rutger Hauer) makes his appearance, a captured Russian soldier who's also a Jew. Their collaboration initially must overcome a certain level of distrust, but once that trust is earned, the movie moves into it's all or nothing finality.There are just too many heartbreaking scenes in this film, but to truly understand the nature of evil and how freedom's enemies mean to do us harm, films like this are a must see. I say this within the context of present day reality, and the ever growing threat of would-be nuclear powers like Iran and North Korea. Ideological enemies turned extremist leave no room for rational behavior; how else do you explain the fanatical inhumanity that leads to the point blank murder of a woman and her baby? Or the concept of 'thirteen or fifty', that scene where the failed escape prisoners must select a colleague to die along with them.This is not an easy picture to watch, even when the prisoners begin their bid for freedom with the murder of the first German officer. You know you want to cheer for them, but the mission is so grim and the horror of their quest is so suffocating, that you can only watch in astonishment. One's focus is dictated by Sascha's only possible response to Leo's uncertainty about his people's willingness to kill for their freedom - "They will manage because they have to".

I agree with what the first commenter added. I saw this movie when it first came out and till this day I remember the movie. It really disturbs me what humans have done things as such to other humans all because of different beliefs and customs. I also found the scene where the people were taking their bowls of soup and what was discovered as being in it. That is just horrible. I really can't figure how the officers could have followed the commands of their superiors to enforce the acts that were and go to sleep at night knowing the crimes they committed. I would have rather been executed myself rather than execute others. I couldn't have lived with the knowing of what I did in other words. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone that needs to understand the depth and meaning of holocaust.

Saw this in its original airing 20 years ago--a total stunner and tells a side of the Holocaust that has not gotten much attention. I still think it's a crime that there was no special Emmy given to the cast for best ensemble performance of that year. At least the Motion Picture Academy has wised up and given Alan Arkin an award that is in some part for his entire career. By the way, does anybody know what has happened to Joanna Pakula? She was highly impressive in this film, but I haven't seen much of her work since. Rutger Hauer seems to have had a fairly impressive resume as "action man" although he showed a genuine range of emotion here--maybe American producers/audiences were not quite ready for that combination.