Hela Felenbaum-Weiss (2 January 1924 – December 1988) was one of the few survivors of the Sobibor extermination camp and a decorated partisan fighter in the Soviet Red Army. Early and family life Felenbaum-Weiss was born on 2 January 1924, in Lublin to a Jewish family of five. Before the outbreak of World War II, her family was middle-class. Her parents worked and her and her siblings were educated in schools in Lublin. Her father, Mojsze Felenbaum, b. 1882 in Lublin, her mother, Henryka "Henia" Felenbaum née Flantzman, b. 1894 in Lublin, died together in November 1942 in the gas chambers of the Sobibor extermination camp. Her brother Syzmon "Shimek" Felenbaum, b. 1921 in Lublin, attempted to escape in a prisoner transfer to Sobibor and was shot by Nazi SS officers. Her other brother Henryk "Heniek" Felenbaum, b. 1928 in Lublin, died in the gas chambers of Sobibor in December 1942. World War II Siedliszcze and Staw Labor Camps World War II broke out when Felenbaum-Weiss was 15 years old. Initially, she attended school, but soon her family, like other Jewish residents of Lublin, fell victim to persecution. Her parents could not continue working, and her family fell into financial hardships. In 1940, the family was forcibly resettled to Rejowiec, from where they were directed on foot (about 15 kilometers) to the town, and labor camp, of Siedliszcze. In the labor camp in Siedliszcze, Felenbaum-Weiss fell ill with typhus, but recovered thanks to a camp doctor. The whole family worked physically digging ditches and building a drainage system. After a year of forced labor in Siedliszcze, in 1942 her parents (Mojsze and Henryka) did not pass "selection" and were declared unfit for work due to illnesses. In November 1942, both were sent to the labor camp in Krychów then were killed in the gas chamber in Sobibor. Felenbaum-Weiss and her brothers were sent to the town and labor camp in Staw, Poland, where they worked in a mill. Here she met Zelda Kelberman Metz, Ester Raab Terner, and Regina Zielinski Feldman who all survived and escaped from the death camp in Sobibor. After the liquidation of the Staw camp in December 1942, Felenbaum-Weiss and her brothers were sent to Włodawa, and then to Sobibor. Her older brother Szymon tried to escape during the prisoner transport, during which he was shot by the SS men. Stay and escape from Sobibor Felenbaum-Weiss