Alexander Pechersky

Alexander Aronovich Pechersky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Аро́нович Пече́рский; 22 February 1909 – 19 January 1990) was the chief organizer and leader of the most successful uprising and mass-escape of Jews from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II; this occurred at the Sobibor extermination camp on 14 October 1943. Pechersky, a son of a Jewish lawyer, was born on February 22, 1909 in Kremenchuk, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). In 1915, his family moved to Rostov-on-Don where he eventually worked as an electrician at a locomotive repair factory. After graduating a university with a diploma in music and literature, he became an accountant and manager of a small school for amateur musicians. On 22 June 1941, the day...