Upfall

Bolander pounded forward a second later to find Shapira still standing and shaking off the blow. Stangl's bullet had been stopped by the Israeli's thick ballistic vest, but Shapira felt like he'd taken a hammer blow. Bolander swept around the desk, rifle at the ready to find Stangl sprawled on the floor, clutching his shattered shoulder and whimpering. Bolander considered shooting the German but thought better of it. He pounced on the wounded Commandant, flipped him on his stomach and quickly bound him with flex cuffs. Bolander pulled the sobbing German to his feet. Blood soaked Stangl's previously immaculate uniform blouse. Shapira stepped forward as the German looked uncomprehendingly at the man held just shot a moment earlier.

Shapira suppressed his own urge to finish Stangl off. The German might die of blood loss soon enough anyway, and looked about to faint.

"Bind the wound with any old cloth" Shapira told Bolander.

"Don't waste a good bandage on him."

The Israelis led Stangl outside, and put him in the hands of De Jong and his platoon. The Jews stared at the wounded SS Commandant but otherwise let him be. Stangl swung his head back and forth like an animal, as if the movement might reorder his world or make the pain go away.

Shapira and team Gimmel bounded over to the SS barracks across the square, while several of De Young's men, recovered and again anxious for action, trailed behind. But there was no fighting there. As Shapira suspected, any remaining men in the SS barracks had run, since the Israelis had not drawn any fire from the building during the fight for the compound. The few SS that had been there must have fled up Camp 3, to make a last stand by the gas chambers. Shapira's men secured the rest ofthe buildings in the Forward Camp and then broke open the armory. Inside were dozens of rifles, a pair of tripod-mounted MG 34s, a few MP-40s and cases of grenades and landmines. De J ong posted guards by the building and at the entrance to the sub-camp, and then he and half his men followed Shapira's team as they moved into the main camp to rejoin Yatom and the main force.

Shapira found Yatom near the sorting shed in Camp 2, where Jewish prisoners had collected and organized the belongings of Sobibor's victims for the SS. He presented Stangl, who promptly collapsed. Yatom ignored the German, while Shapira reported on the seizure of Camp 2 and the armory. Yatom noted the hole in Shapira's vest and poked a finger at it. Shapira winced.

"What happened here" Yatom said seriously.

"I was a careless."

"Well" said Yatom, leaving it at that "Sobibor is in our hands except for Camp 3."

"We‘ve freed the Jewish prisoners in Camp 2 and killed or captured all the SS and Ukranians" added Feldhandler unnecessarily.

Shapira also noticed Perchensky nearby. The captured German Sergeant Mueller lay trussed on the ground with several captured SS men and Ukranian guards. A half dozen freed Jewish prisoners guarded the group, still dressed in blue overalls but now armed with Mausers.

Mofaz arrived and reported that he‘d posted teams Alefand Bet under the command of Itzak to watch Camp 3. He‘d put Ilan in the forester's tower, from where he dominated the camp, and could look into the gassing complex. Yatom told Bolander to join Ilan in the tower. Chaim and Ro'i left to join the other Israelis, while De Jong and his men stayed with the Israeli command group.

"Everybody drink" said Mofaz, pulling out his canteen. Staying hydrated in combat was an article of Israeli faith. The Israelis drank and passed their canteens to those Jewish fighters lacking water bottles.

"Let's have an orders group and decide what to do now" said Yatom. The three officers plus Feldhander and Perchensky walked away from De J ong and his men, and squatted in the dirt where they had a view of Camp 3, or at least thick camouflaged fencing that surrounded the gassing complex.

Camp 3 was cut off from the rest of Sobibor by its own thickly built enclosure. The only entrance to the sub-camp was by a long fenced corridor that the Germans jokingly referred to as the HimmeIgang—or path to heaven. It was down this avenue that Sobibor's naked and terrified victims were marched to their deaths. All the fencing around Camp 3 was carefully reinforced and obscured with tree branches. It was impossible to see into the camp from ground level, but presumably llan had a better view. Yatom raised the sniper on the radio.

"Yatom here—Ilan can you see into the camoflagued camp?"

"Yes commander. There are several small buildings and a huge trench that looks like it is filled with corpses. And the watchtower is reoccupied." Ilan had shot a pair of men in the Camp 3 watchtower early in the fight—whatever Germans were up there now were either brave or foolish.

"Any other enemy?"

"Yes. A few more on the ground. They are scurrying around."

"Take out the watchtower again, and any other targets that present themselves—Bolander is on his way to you."

"Acknowleged" said the sniper.