Sobibor Interviews 1983-1984, interview 10, Esther Raab

Interview with Esther Raab (Chelm 11 June 1922). Raab, together with Regina Zielinski and Hella Weiss, was taken to Sobibor just before Christmas 1942 in a horse-drawn cart. They saw such atrocities that she sometimes thought that "going to the gas chambers was easier than being exposed to all the horror". After her escape she went into hiding on a farm where she was reunited with her long lost brother. She was born Ester Terner. Shortly after the German occupation started her father was shot and killed while on his way to Belzec extermination camp. Esther Raab was forced to help reclaim a river in Siedliczcze. When she arrived in Sobibor on 22 December 1942 she and seven other girls from her transport were put to work in the knitting room.