Sobibór Museum and Memorial

The Sobibór Museum and Memorial is a branch of the State Museum at Majdanek, set on the grounds of a Nazi German extermination camp that operated in occupied Poland in 1942 and 1943. Visitors walk a memorial avenue through pine forest, see a field of memorial stones and visit an exhibition on the camp and its victims. If you are asking whether Sobibór is worth visiting, the answer is a serious yes for anyone interested in the Holocaust, but this is a place of mourning, not a sightseeing stop.

Where it is (and how to say it)

Sobibór (SOH-bee-boor) is in eastern Poland, in the Lublin Voivodeship, close to the borders with Belarus and Ukraine. It is a little over 100 km from Lublin, the nearest large city with an airport, and well over a four-hour drive from Warsaw. Public transport is sparse, so most visitors drive.

History in brief

The camp was built in 1942 as part of Aktion Reinhardt, the German program to murder Jews in the occupied General Government. Mass killing began in early May 1942. Research by Robert Kuwałek in 2014 put the number of victims at roughly 170,000 to 180,000, mostly Jews deported from Poland and other European countries; wider estimates exist in the literature.

On 14 October 1943, prisoners staged an uprising, led among others by Leon Feldhendler and the Soviet-Jewish officer Aleksandr Pechersky. About 300 people escaped and several dozen survived the war. The Germans dismantled the camp by the turn of November and December 1943.

A museum opened here on 14 October 1993, the 50th anniversary of the revolt. In 2012 it became a branch of the Majdanek museum, and a new permanent exhibition opened on 29 October 2020. Remains in the mass graves have been secured under a layer of white marble aggregate.

How to visit

Entry is free, including the exhibitions. You can explore on your own with the museum's free app, and no reservation is needed. Guided tours are offered in Polish, English and German, but must be booked through the museum's website; we could not find the price. Allow 1.5 to 3 hours.

The museum itself notes that it is a place of remembrance. Dress and behave accordingly. We could not confirm rules on children's age or dogs, so read the museum's visiting rules (published in Polish and English) first. Accessibility details are on the museum's website.

Practical information (as of October 2026)

• Address: Żłobek 101, 22-200 Włodawa (the site lies in the municipality of Włodawa).
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 9:00 to 18:00 from April to October; 9:00 to 16:00 from November to March. Last entry is earlier than closing time, so check the website.
• Closed: Mondays, 1 and 6 January, Easter, Corpus Christi, 1 and 11 November, and 24 to 31 December.
• Contact: +48 82 572 60 31, centrum@sobibor-memorial.eu.
• Parking: not confirmed in the sources we checked; ask the museum.
• Language: the museum offers its app and tours in English, so you do not need Polish.

Nearby

About 15 km away, Włodawa has a museum in its historic synagogue complex, which adds context on the region's Jewish community. Poleski National Park is also close.