title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Prisoners suffered from sleep deprivation, malnourishment, and the physical and emotional toll of grueling labour and constant beatings. Lice, skin infections, and respiratory infections were common, and typhoid swept the camp on occasion. When Sobibor first opened, prisoners were regarded as expendable and shot at the first sign of illness or injury. After a few months, the SS grew concerned that the enormous death rate was limiting the camp's efficiency. In order to increase the continuity of its labour force and alleviate the need to constantly train new workers, the SS instituted a new policy allowing incapacitated prisoners three days to recover. Those still unable to work after three days were shot.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Food in the camp was extremely limited. As at other Lublin district camps, prisoners were given about 200 grams of bread for breakfast along with Ersatz coffee. Lunch was typically a thin soup sometimes with some potatoes or horse meat. Dinner could be once again simply coffee. Prisoners forced to live on these rations found their personalities changing due to hunger. Others supplemented these rations surreptitiously, for instance by helping themselves to food from victims' luggage while working in the sorting barracks or in the railway brigade. A barter system developed in the camp, which included not only prisoners but also the watchmen, who would serve as intermediaries between the Jews and local peasants, exchanging jewels and cash from the sorting barracks for food and liquor in exchange for a large cut.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Most prisoners had little or no access to hygiene and sanitation. There were no showers in "Lager I" and clean water was scarce. Although clothing could be washed or replaced from the sorting barracks, the camp was so thoroughly infested that there was little point. However, some prisoners worked in areas of the camp such as the laundry which gave them occasional access to better hygiene.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The personnel at Sobibor included a small cadre of German and Austrian SS officers, and a much larger group of "watchmen", generally of Soviet origin.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Sobibor was staffed by a rotating group of eighteen to twenty-two German and Austrian SS officers. The SS officers were generally from lower-middle-class backgrounds, having previously worked as merchants, artisans, farmhands, nurses, and policemen. Almost all the Sobibor SS officers had previously served in Aktion T4, the Nazi forced euthanasia program. In particular, a large contingent had previously served together at Hartheim Euthanasia Centre. Many practices developed at Hartheim were continued at Sobibor, including methods for deceiving victims on the way to the gas chambers. Before beginning work at Sobibor, they had met with Odilo Globočnik in Lublin and signed a confidentiality agreement. Over the course of its operation, roughly 100 SS officers served at Sobibor.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: When Sobibor first opened, its commandant was "SS-Obersturmführer" Franz Stangl, a meticulous organizer who worked to increase the efficiency of the extermination process. Stangl had little interaction with the prisoners, with the exception of Shlomo Szmajzner who recalled Stangl as a vain man who stood out for "his obvious pleasure in his work and his situation. None of the others—although they were, in different ways, so much worse than he—showed this to such an extent. He had this perpetual smile on his face." Stangl was transferred to Treblinka in August 1942, and his job at Sobibor was filled by "SS-Obersturmführer" Franz Reichleitner. Reichleitner was an alcoholic and a determined anti-semite who took little interest in what went on in the camp aside from the extermination process. SS-"Untersturmführer" Johann Niemann served as the camp's deputy commandant.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Day-to-day operations were generally handled by "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Gustav Wagner, the most feared and hated man in Sobibor. Prisoners regarded him as brutal, demanding, unpredictable, observant, and sadistic. They referred to him as "The Beast" and "Wolf". Reporting to Wagner was "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Karl Frenzel, who oversaw "Lager I" and acted as the camp's "judicial authority". Kurt Bolender and oversaw "Lager III", the extermination area, while "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Erich Bauer and typically directed the gassing procedure itself.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The SS men considered their job appealing. At Sobibor, they could enjoy creature comforts not available to soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front. The officer's compound in the camp had a canteen, a bowling alley, and a barber shop. The "officers' country club" was a short distance away, on nearby Perepsza Lake. Each SS man was allowed three weeks of leave every three months, which they could spend at "Haus Schoberstein", an SS-owned resort in the Austrian town of Weissenbach on Lake Attersee. Moreover, the job could be lucrative: each officer received base pay of 58 ℛℳ per month, plus a daily allowance of 18 ℛℳ, and special bonuses including a "Judenmordzulage" (Jew murder supplement). In all, an officer at Sobibor could earn 600 ℛℳ per month in pay. In addition to the official compensation, a job at Sobibor offered endless opportunities for the SS officers to covertly enrich themselves by exploiting the labour and stealing the possessions of their victims. In one case, the SS officers enslaved a 15-year-old goldsmith prodigy named Shlomo Szmajzner, who made them rings and monograms from gold extracted from the teeth of gas chamber victims.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: During post-war trials, SS officers from all of the Operation Reinhard camps claimed that they would have been executed if they had not participated in the murders. However, the judges in the Treblinka trial could not find any evidence of SS officers being executed for desertion, and at least one Sobibor officer (Alfred Ittner) successfully got himself transferred.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Sobibor was guarded by approximately 400 watchmen. Survivors often refer to them as "blackies", "Askaris", or "Ukrainians" (even though many were not Ukrainian). They were captured Soviet prisoners of war who had volunteered for the SS in order to escape the abominable conditions in Nazi POW camps. Watchmen were nominally guards, but they were also expected to supervise work details and perform manual labour including punishments and executions. They also took an active part in the extermination process, unloading transports and escorting the victims into the gas chambers. Watchmen dressed in mixed-and-matched pieces of Nazi, Soviet, and Polish uniforms, often dyed black (giving rise to the term "blackies"). They received pay and rations similar to those of Waffen-SS, as well as a family allowance and holiday leave.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Although the watchmen inspired terror among the prisoners, their loyalty to the SS was not unwavering. They played an active role in Sobibor's underground barter economy, and drank copiously despite being prohibited from doing so. The SS officers were wary of the watchmen, and limited their access to ammunition. Watchmen were also transferred frequently between different camps in order to prevent them from building up local contacts or knowledge of the surrounding area. After the prisoner uprising, the SS feared that the watchmen would themselves revolt, and sent them all back to Trawniki under armed guard. Their fears proved correct, as the watchmen killed their SS escort and fled.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Prisoners lived in constant fear of their captors. They were punished for transgressions as inconsequential as smoking a cigarette, resting while working, and showing insufficient enthusiasm when forced to sing. Punishment was used not only to enforce the official camp rules, but also the guards' personal whims. The most common punishment was flogging. SS officers carried 80 centimeter whips which had been specially made by slave labour prisoners using leather taken from the luggage of gas chamber victims. Even when flogging was not in itself lethal, it would prove a death sentence if it left the recipient too injured to work. Many survivors remember an unusually large and aggressive St. Bernard named Barry that Kurt Bolender and Paul Groth would sic on prisoners. In the summer of 1943, "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Gustav Wagner and "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Hubert Gomerski formed a penal brigade, consisting of prisoners who were forced to work while running. Prisoners were assigned to the penal brigade for a period of three days, but most died before their time was up.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The SS exercised absolute authority over the prisoners and treated them as a source of entertainment. They forced prisoners to sing while working, while marching, and even during public executions. Some survivor testimonies recount prisoners performing mock cockfights for the SS, with their arms tied behind their backs. Others recount being forced to sing demeaning songs such as "I am a Jew with a big nose". Female prisoners were sexually abused on several occasions. For instance, at a postwar trial, Erich Bauer testified that two Austrian Jewish actresses, named Ruth and Gisela, were confined in an SS barracks and gang raped by "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Kurt Bolender and "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Gustav Wagner, among others.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Unique among the SS officers, "Unterscharführer" Johann Klier was known to be relatively humane, and several survivors testified on his behalf at his trial. In an interview with Richard Rashke, Esther Terner commented "I don't even know why he was in Sobibor ... even the other Nazis picked on him."


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Prisoners regarded the watchmen as the most dangerous among the Sobibor staff, their cruelty surpassing that of the SS officers. In the words of historian Marek Bem, "It can be said that the Ukrainian guards' cynicism was in no way inferior to the SS men's premeditation." However, some individual watchmen were sympathetic to the Jews, doing the minimum possible while on duty and even assisting with prisoners' escape attempts. In one documented instance, two watchmen named Victor Kisiljow and Wasyl Zischer escaped with six Jewish prisoners, but were betrayed and killed.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Prisoners developed complex relationships with their tormenters. In order to avoid the most extreme cruelties, many tried to ingratiate themselves with the SS officers, for instance by choosing maudlin German folk songs when ordered to sing. In other cases, prisoners found themselves unwillingly favored. "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Karl Frenzel took a liking to Saartje Wijnberg, constantly smiling at her and teasingly referring to her and Chaim Engel as "bride and groom". He was protective towards her, excusing her from torturous work inflicted on other Dutch prisoners and sparing her when he liquidated the sick barracks on 11 October 1943. She struggled with this attention and felt angry at herself when she noticed herself feeling grateful to him. At his trial, Frenzel declared "I actually do believe the Jews even liked me!" though both prisoners and other SS officers regarded him as exceptionally cruel and brutal. Similarly, camp commandant "SS-Obersturmführer" Franz Stangl "made a pet" of the 14 year old goldsmith Shlomo Szmajzner and regarded his post-war trial testimony as a personal betrayal. Stangl particularly objected to the implication that his habit of bringing Smajzner sausages on the sabbath had been a deliberate attempt to torment the starving teenager. Szmajzner himself was not sure of Stangl's intentions: "it's perfectly true that he seemed to like me... still, it was funny, wasn't it, that he always brought it on a Friday evening?"


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: On either 16 or 18 May 1942, Sobibor became fully operational and began mass gassings. Trains entered the railway siding with the unloading platform, and the Jews on board were told they were in a transit camp. They were forced to hand over their valuables, were separated by sex and told to undress. The nude women and girls, recoiling in shame, were met by the Jewish workers who cut off their hair in a mere half a minute. Among the "Friseur" (barbers) was Toivi Blatt (age 15). The condemned prisoners, formed into groups, were led along the long "Road to Heaven" ("Himmelstrasse") to the gas chambers, where they were murdered using carbon monoxide released from the exhaust pipes of a tank engine. During his trial, "SS-Oberscharführer" Kurt Bolender described the killing operations as follows:


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Local Jews were delivered in absolute terror, many amongst them screaming and pounding. Foreign Jews, on the other hand were treated with deceitful politeness. Passengers from Westerbork, Netherlands, had a comfortable journey. There were Jewish doctors and nurses attending them and no shortage of food or medical supplies on the train. To them, Sobibor did not seem like a genuine threat.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The non-Polish victims included 18-year-old Helga Deen from the Netherlands, whose diary was discovered in 2004; the writer Else Feldmann from Austria; Dutch Olympic gold medalist gymnasts Helena Nordheim, Ans Polak, and Jud Simons; gym coach Gerrit Kleerekoper; and magician Michel Velleman.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: After the killing in the gas chambers, the corpses were collected by "Sonderkommandos" and taken to mass graves or cremated in the open air. The burial pits were long, wide, and deep, with sloping sandy walls in order to facilitate the burying of corpses.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Between 170,000 and 250,000 Jews were murdered at Sobibor. The precise death toll is unknown, since no complete record survives. The most commonly cited figure of 250,000 was first proposed in 1947 by a Polish judge named Zbigniew Łukaszewicz, who interviewed survivors, railwaymen, and external witnesses to estimate of the frequency and capacity of the transports. Later research has reached the same figure drawing on more specific documentation, although other recent studies have given lower estimates such as Jules Schelvis's figure of 170,165. According to historian Marek Bem, "The range of scientific research into this question shows how rudimentary our current knowledge is of the number of victims of this extermination camp."


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: One major source which can be used to estimate the death toll is the Höfle Telegram, a collection of SS cables which give precise numbers of "recorded arrivals" at each of the Operation Reinhard camps prior to 31 December 1942. Identical numbers are found in the Korherr Report, another surviving Nazi document. These sources both report 101,370 arrivals at Sobibor during the year 1942, but the meaning of this figure is open to interpretation. Some scholars, such as Bem, suggest that it refers only to Jews arriving from within the General Government. However, others such as Jules Schelvis take it as a record of the total arrivals during that year and thus combine it with an estimate of the killings in 1943 to reach a total estimate.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Other key sources of information include records of particular transports sent to Sobibor. In some cases, this information is detailed and systematic. For instance, the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies archive contains precise records of each transport sent to Sobibor from the Netherlands, totaling 34,313 individuals. In other cases, transports are only known through incidental evidence, such as when one of its passengers was among the survivors.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Many of the difficulties in reaching a firm death toll arise from the incompleteness of surviving evidence. Records of deportations are more likely to exist when they took place by train, meaning that estimates likely undercount the number of prisoners brought on trucks, horse-drawn carts, or by foot. Moreover, even records of trains appear to contain gaps. For example, while a letter from Albert Ganzenmüller to Karl Wolff mentions past trains from Warsaw to Sobibor, no itineraries survive. On the other hand, estimates may count small numbers of individuals as Sobibor victims who in fact died elsewhere, or conceivably even survived. This is because small groups of new arrivals were occasionally selected to work in one of the nearby labour camps, rather than being gassed immediately as was the norm. For instance, when Jules Schelvis was deported to Sobibor on a transport carrying 3,005 Dutch Jews, he was one of 81 men selected to work in Dorohucza, and the only one to survive. Although these instances were rare and some are documented well enough to be accounted for, they could still have a small cumulative effect on estimates of the death toll.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Other figures have been given which differ from what is indicated by reliable historical evidence. Numbers as high as 3 million appear in reports requested immediately after the war by the Central Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland. During the Sobibor trials in the 1960s, the judges adopted a figure of 152,000 victims, though they stressed that this was not a complete estimate but rather a minimum limited by the procedural rules concerning evidence. Survivors have suggested numbers of victims significantly higher than what historians accept. Many recall a camp rumour that Heinrich Himmler's visit in February 1943 was intended to celebrate the millionth victim, and others suggest figures even higher. Bem suggests that survivors' estimates disagree with the record because they reflect "the state of their emotions back then, as well as the drama and the scale of tragedy which happened in Sobibor". Another high figure comes from one of the perpetrators, "SS-Oberscharfuhrer" Erich Bauer, who recalled his colleagues expressing regret that Sobibor "came last" in the competition among the Operation Reinhard camps, having claimed only 350,000 lives.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: On the afternoon of 14 October 1943, members of the Sobibor underground covertly killed eleven of the on-duty SS men and then led roughly 300 prisoners to freedom. This revolt was one of three uprisings by Jewish prisoners in extermination camps, the others being those at Treblinka extermination camp on 2 August 1943 and at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 7 October 1944.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In the summer of 1943, rumors began to circulate that Sobibor would soon cease operations. The prisoners understood that this would mean certain death for them all, since the final cohort of Bełżec prisoners had been murdered at Sobibor after dismantling their own camp. The Sobibor prisoners knew this since the Bełżec prisoners had sewn messages into their clothing:


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: We worked at Bełżec for one year and did not know where we would be sent next. They said it would be Germany... Now we are in Sobibór and know what to expect. Be aware that you will be killed also! Avenge us!


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: An escape committee formed in response to these rumors. Their leader was Leon Feldhendler, a former member of the judenrat in Żółkiewka. His job in the sorting barracks gave him access to additional food, sparing him from the hunger which robbed other workers of their mental acuity. However, the escape committee made minimal progress that summer. In light of previous betrayals and the ever-looming threat of collective punishment, they needed to keep their discussions limited to roughly seven Polish Jews, but this insularity severely limited their capacity to form a plan, since none of their members had the military or strategic experience necessary to carry out a mass escape. By late September, their discussions had stalled.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: On 22 September, the situation changed dramatically when roughly twenty Jewish Red Army POWs arrived at Sobibor on a transport from the Minsk Ghetto and were selected for labour. Among them was Alexander Pechersky, an actor, songwriter, and political commissar who would go on to lead the revolt. The members of the escape committee approached the newly-arrived Russians with excitement, but also caution. On one hand, the Russians were soldiers and thus had the expertise to pull off an escape. But on the other hand, it was not clear whether there was sufficient mutual trust.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Feldhendler introduced himself to Pechersky using the alias "Baruch" and kept an eye on him for his first several days in the camp. In those days, Pechersky distinguished himself by not only standing up to the SS officers, but by showing discretion in how he did so. Feldhendler invited Pechersky to share news from outside the camp at a meeting in the women's barracks. Feldhendler was initially shocked to discover Pechersky's limited ability to speak Yiddish, the common language of Eastern European Jews. However, the two were able to communicate in Russian, and Pechersky agreed to attend. At the meeting, Pechersky gave a speech and took questions while his friend Solomon Leitman translated into Yiddish. (Leitman was a Polish Jew who had befriended Pechersky in the Minsk Ghetto.) Feldhendler and the other members of the escape committee were concerned about Pechersky's blatant communist propaganda, but were nonetheless impressed by him. They were particularly struck by Pechersky's response to a question about whether Soviet partisans would liberate the camp: "No one can do our work for us."


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Over the next few weeks, Pechersky met regularly with the escape committee. These meetings were held in the women's barracks under the pretext of him having an affair with a woman known as "Luka". Pechersky and Feldhendler agreed that the revolt would allow all 600 prisoners at least some chance of escape, though they later concluded that they would not be able to include the over fifty "sonderkommando" workers who were kept under strict isolation in "Lager III". At first, Pechersky and Leitman discussed a plan to dig a tunnel from the carpenter's workshop in "Lager I", which was close to the south fence. This idea was abandoned as too difficult. If the tunnel was too deep, it would hit the high water table and flood. Too shallow, and it would detonate one of the mines surrounding the camp. Furthermore, the organizers doubted that they could get all 600 prisoners through the tunnel without getting caught.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The ultimate idea for the revolt came to Pechersky while he was assigned to the forest brigade, chopping wood near "Lager III". While working, he heard the sound of a child in the gas chamber screaming "Mama! Mama!". Overcome with his feeling of powerlessness and reminded of his own daughter Elsa, he decided that the plan could not be a mere escape. Rather, it would have to be a revolt. Over the next week, Pechersky and Leitman developed what became the ultimate plan.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The revolt began late in the afternoon on 14 October 1943. The plan consisted of two phases. In the first phase, the prisoners would lure the SS officers to secluded locations around the camp and kill them. These covert killings would take place in the hour before evening roll call. The second phase would begin at evening roll call, after all the prisoners had assembled in the "Lager I" roll call yard. The "kapos" would announce that the SS had ordered a special work detail in the forest outside the camp, and the entire group would calmly march to freedom out the front gate. If the watchmen found this unusual, they would not be able to confirm their suspicions or coordinate a response since the SS men would be dead.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: At 4:00 pm, Deputy Commandant SS-Untersturmführer Johann Niemann rode up to the "Lager I" tailor's barracks on his horse. Earlier in the day, the head tailor had scheduled an appointment with him to be fitted for a leather jacket taken from a murdered Jew. The conspirators had prioritized Niemann's execution, since he was acting commandant while Commandant Reichleitner was on leave. Even if the rest of the plan failed, they anticipated that Niemann's death alone would cause enough chaos to allow some chance of escape. While admiring the jacket, Niemann spotted one of the Russian prisoners standing by with an axe. Niemann asked what he was doing there, but was satisfied with the head tailor's explanation that he was simply there to repair a table. At the tailor's request, Niemann removed his pistol holster and put on the jacket. The tailor asked Niemann to turn around, ostensibly to check if any alterations were needed in the back. When Niemann complied, two prisoners crept up behind him with axes and split his head open. Niemann's body was shoved under a table and his blood was covered up with sawdust.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Over the next hour, one SS officer was killed roughly every six minutes. Other than Niemann, those killed in "Lager I" included SS-Unterscharführer Josef Vallaster, SS-Oberscharführer Siegfried Graetschus, Sturmführer Ivan Klatt, SS-Unterscharführer Friedrich Gaulstich, and SS-Unterscharführer Fritz Konrad. Those killed in "Lager II" included SS-Scharführer Josef Wolf and SS-Oberscharführer Rudolf Beckmann. Unterscharführer Walter Ryba was killed in the "Vorlager". Other officers killed include Max Bree, Anton Nowak, Thomas Steffl, Ernst Stengelin. The details of many of these killings are unknown.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The conspirators had originally planned to kill SS-Oberscharführer Rudolf Beckmann in a "Lager II" storage barracks, but on his way to the appointment, Beckmann had suddenly turned around and headed back to the administration building. Chaim Engel volunteered to kill Beckmann in his office, after overhearing Feldhendler discussing the situation with "Kapo" Hersh Pozyczki, the younger brother of "Oberkapo" Pozyczki. Engel and the younger Pozyczki went together to the administration building, and Engel stabbed Beckmann while Pozyczki restrained him. When Engel stabbed Beckmann, he shouted "For my father! For my brother! For all the Jews!" Beckmann struggled as Engel stabbed him, causing Engel's knife to slip and cut his own hand. Once Beckmann was dead, the two prisoners pushed his body under the desk, not having time to better hide him or clean up.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: While the killings proceeded, Szlomo Szmajzner went to the "Vorlager" to acquire additional guns from the watchmens' barracks. During the last organizational meeting, on 12 October, he had offered to do so himself. As the camp machinist, Smajzner was often called to the "Vorlager" to clean and repair the stoves there, so he was able to enter the barracks carrying a replacement stovepipe over his shoulder. He entered the watchmens' barracks and helped himself to six rifles and ammunition. However, he could only fit two of the rifles inside the stovepipe, so he wrapped the others in a blanket. Once he was ready to go, he decided that it might be safer to hunker down in the "Vorlager" and not return to "Lager I" until the bugle call. That way, it would seem like he had been acting alone if he was caught. Just before the bugle at 5:00 pm, he found two child prisoners and ordered them to carry the blanket with the rifles. They were scared, so he forced them to do it at knifepoint. After the bugle call, he delivered the rifles to the Russians, but demanded that they let him keep one for himself.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: As roll call drew closer, Pechersky became increasingly concerned that the revolt would soon be discovered. He was surprised that the plan had succeeded so far, but nonetheless several killings had not gone as intended. In particular, while his plan had required that the SS men be killed discreetly, an impulsive prisoner had killed Unterscharführer Walter Ryba in the outdoor "Vorlager" garage. Pechersky considered beginning the breakout early, but was reluctant to do so while SS-Oberscharführer Karl Frenzel was still alive. Frenzel, regarded as one of the most dangerous officers in the camp, had dallied in the shower and was late for his appointment in the carpenter's shop. Close to 5:00 pm, Pechersky and Leitman finally decided to give up on Frenzel and sent the bugler Judah to climb the forester's tower and blow the bugle announcing the end of the workday.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: At this point, many prisoners in "Lager I" had already left their jobs and were standing around in the roll call yard or hiding in the adjacent buildings. In "Lager II", the prisoners were confused by the early bugle call and gathered haphazardly for the march back to "Lager I". Feldhendler was concerned that their unusual and disorderly lineup would attract attention from the guards, so he decided to lead the march on his own. He lined them up and they marched, singing the German sentimental tune "Es war ein Edelweiss". As the prisoners gathered in the roll call yard, rumours about the revolt began to spread among them. When a watchman prodded them to line up faster, a group of prisoners shouted "don't you know the war is over" and killed him out in the open, to the shock of many others. Realizing that the yard had become a powder keg, Pechersky attempted to inform the group of what was going on. Blatt recalled Pechersky's speech as follows:


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: As the prisoners began to disperse, they heard shots from "Lager II". These shots were fired by SS-Oberscharführer Erich Bauer, who had returned from Chełm with a truck full of vodka. Just before the bugle sounded, Bauer had ordered two child prisoners to unload the vodka and carry it into the storeroom in the administration building where Beckmann had been killed. At approximately the moment when Pechersky was making his speech in "Lager I", a watchman ran over to Bauer shouting "Ein deutsch kaput!" Thinking that the children were responsible, Bauer fired his pistol, killing one of the children but missing the other. When the prisoners in "Lager I" heard these shots, they ran in every direction. A group of them dragged a watchman off his bicycle and killed him. Many prisoners had to make a split-second decision without knowing exactly what was going on. The plan had been kept on a need-to-know basis, so even those who were aware of the revolt knew few details. Pechersky and Feldhendler ran around the yard trying to shepherd prisoners out, but around 175 nonetheless stayed back.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: As the crowd surged forward, there was a moment of confusion in which the watchmen in the towers did not react. Itzhak Lichtman reported seeing some of the remaining SS men hiding, perhaps thinking that the camp was being attacked by partisans. After a moment, the watchmen began shooting into the crowd, and some of the prisoners shot with the rifles procured by Szmajzner and with pistols taken from dead SS officers. Szmajzner hit a watchman in a tower, later recalling "I did not do that; God did."


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: One group of prisoners ran behind the carpenters shop. The carpenters had left ladders, pliers, and axes lying in the weeds next to the south fence, as a backup plan in case the main gate in the "Vorlager" proved inaccessible. These prisoners scaled the fence, traversed the ditch, and began running through the minefield towards the forest. As they ran, the mines exploded, killing some of the escapees and attracting the attention of the watchmen in the towers who began shooting. Esther Raab felt a bullet graze her head above her right ear. She kept running, but felt herself losing strength. She reached out to hold onto a woman running next to her, but the woman pushed her off and shouted "leave me alone!"


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: A larger group of prisoners headed for the "Vorlager". These prisoners tried to escape through the main gate or over the south fence, while a group of Soviet prisoners attempted to raid the armoury. There, they were met with Frenzel, who at this point had gotten out of the shower and was getting himself a pre-roll call drink in the canteen. Attracted by the commotion, Frenzel had grabbed a machine gun and run outside. Seeing the crowd of prisoners heading to the main gate, he opened fire, spraying the crowd of prisoners. Pechersky fired at Frenzel using Vallaster's pistol but missed. A group of prisoners attempted to rush the main gate, but were met with another SS officer there shooting into the crowd. Some scattered, but others were pushed forward by the force of those behind them. They trampled the main gate and flooded out.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Others in the "Vorlager" tried to escape over the barbed wire behind the SS officers' barracks, correctly guessing that there would be fewer mines there. Many prisoners who attempted to get out this way got stuck on the barbed wire. Among these prisoners was Thomas Blatt, who survived because the fence collapsed on top of him. As he lay on the ground, he saw the prisoners in front of him blown up as they crossed the minefield. Blatt freed himself by slipping out of his coat which was stuck on the barbed wire and running across the exploded mines and into the forest.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Immediately after the escape, in the forest, a group of fifty prisoners followed Pechersky. After a few days, Pechersky and seven other Russian POWs left, claiming that they would return with food. However, they instead left to cross the Bug River and make contact with the partisans. After Pechersky did not return, the remaining prisoners split into smaller groups and sought separate ways.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Dutch historian and Sobibor survivor Jules Schelvis estimates that 158 inmates perished in the Sobibor revolt, killed by the guards or in the minefield surrounding the camp. A further 107 were killed either by the SS, "Wehrmacht", or "Orpo" police units pursuing them. Some 53 insurgents died of other causes between the day of the revolt and 8 May 1945. There were 58 known survivors, 48 male and 10 female, from among the "Arbeitshäftlinge" prisoners performing slave-labour for the daily operation of Sobibor. Their time in the camp ranged from several weeks to almost two years.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Once the shooting stopped, the surviving SS secured the camp. They held the remaining prisoners in "Lager I" at gunpoint and executed those found hiding in other areas of the camp. They searched for Niemann, who had been left in charge of the camp while Commandant Reichleitner was on holiday. After the sun set, the search continued in the dark, since the prisoners had cut the powerlines.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Around 8:00 pm, Niemann's corpse was found in the tailor's barracks and Frenzel assumed command. His first undertaking was to summon reinforcements, thinking that the remaining prisoners would resist and worried that the escapees might launch a second attack. After discovering that the prisoners had cut the phone lines, he went to use the phone at the Sobibór train station, located a few metres outside the camp. He called multiple SS outposts in Lublin and Chełm, as well as a nearby battalion of "Wehrmacht" soldiers. Reinforcements were delayed by bureaucratic confusion as well as the railway lines having been blown up by partisans. However, a group of SS officials arrived later that night, including Gottlieb Hering and Christian Wirth. Wirth ordered Erich Bauer to go to summon the "Sicherheitspolizei" from Chełm in person, since Frenzel had been unable to reach them by phone. Bauer balked, afraid that he would be attacked on the way.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: During the night, the SS combed the camp for hiding prisoners. Many were armed and fought back. Jakub Biskubicz, the "putzer" who Bauer had shot at during the revolt, witnessed this part of the search before escaping:


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Until midnight I lay on the earth. I could hear shouts and screams from all directions. At midnight, I heard shooting close to me and the voices of Germans say: "Nobody is here." They left... I reached ["Lager"] IV. I saw the open door of a watchtower. Nobody was around. I climbed the ladder of the tower and jumped outside over the fences and mines. I fell on the railway and escaped to the forest.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Early the next day, 15 October, the Sobibor SS were joined by numerous SS including Hermann Höfle, as well as eighty "Wehrmacht" soldiers. They marched the remaining 159 prisoners to "Lager III" and shot them. The Nazis launched a manhunt, worried that the advancing Red Army would find the Polish countryside scattered with witnesses to their crimes. SS officers, "Wehrmacht" soldiers, and "Luftwaffe" airplanes swept the surrounding area, while locals were offered bounties for assisting. Several SS officers involved in the manhunt were put up for medals for their "incisive action".


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Surviving German documents show that 59 escapees were caught in the nearby villages of Sobibór and Różanka on 17 and 18 October. The Germans recovered weapons from them, including a hand grenade. A few days later, on 21 October, another five Jews were killed by "Wehrmacht" soldiers near Adampol and an additional eight in Sawin. In all, records indicate that at least 107 escapees were killed specifically by the Germans, while another 23 are known to have been killed by non-Germans. Jules Schelvis estimates that roughly 30 died in other ways before the end of the war.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: On 19 October, SS chief Himmler ordered that the camp be closed. Jewish slave labourers were sent to Sobibor from Treblinka in order to dismantle the camp. They demolished the gas chambers and most of the camp buildings, but left behind several barracks for future use by "Baudienst". The work was finished by the end of the October, and all of the Jews brought from Treblinka were shot between 1 November and 10 November.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Several thousand deportees to Sobibor were spared the gas chambers because they were transferred to slave-labour camps in the Lublin reservation, upon arriving at Sobibor. These people spent several hours at Sobibor and were transferred almost immediately to slave-labour projects including Majdanek and the Lublin airfield camp, where materials looted from the gassed victims were prepared for shipment to Germany. Other forced labour camps included Krychów, Dorohucza, and Trawniki. Most of these prisoners were murdered in the November 1943 massacre Operation Harvest Festival, or perished in other ways before the end of the war. Of the 34,313 Jews deported to Sobibor from the Netherlands according to train schedules, 18 are known to have survived the war. In June 2019 the last known survivor of the revolt, Simjon Rosenfeld, who was born in Ukraine, died at a retirement home near Tel Aviv, Israel, aged 96.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Most perpetrators of Operation Reinhard were never brought to trial. However, there were several Sobibor trials after the war. "SS-Oberscharführer" Erich Bauer was the first SS officer from Sobibor to be tried. Bauer was arrested in 1946 when two former Jewish prisoners from Sobibor, Samuel Lerer and Esther Terner, recognized him at a fairground in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin. On 8 May 1950, Bauer was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, though his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment due to West Germany's abolition of capital punishment. Terner testified against Bauer, and later recalled thinking "This "nothing" had such power?" The second Sobibor trials occurred shortly after, against Hubert Gomerski and Johann Klier. Gomerski was given a life sentence while Johann Klier was acquitted, in part due to favorable testimony from Terner.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The third Sobibor trials were the Hagen Trials, which took place in West Germany. The twelve defendants included Karl Frenzel and Kurt Bolender. Frenzel was sentenced to life imprisonment for personally killing 6 Jews and participating in the mass murder of an additional 150,000. Bolender committed suicide before sentencing. Five other defendants were given sentences of less than eight years, and the rest were acquitted.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In the 1970s and 1980s, several SS men were retried. Gomerski was ultimately freed on procedural grounds since he was deemed too ill to participate in the proceedings. Subsequently, Frenzel's life sentence was upheld after a retrial in which Gomerski testified.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In the Soviet Union, there were several rounds of trials against Soviet citizens who had served at Sobibor as watchmen. In April 1963, a court in Kiev convicted eleven former watchmen, sentencing ten to death and one to 15 years in prison. In June 1965, more watchmen from Sobibor were convicted in Kiev. Another six were put to death in Krasnodar.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In May 2011, John Demjanjuk was convicted for being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews while serving as a watchman at Sobibor. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released pending appeal. He died in a German nursing home on 17 March 2012, aged 91, while awaiting the hearing.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The Germans were driven out of the area in July 1944. In August, Lieutenant Colonel Semion Volsky of the Red Army photographed the site and prepared a report which is on file in the Central Archives of the Russian Ministry of Defence. After the end of the German occupation, the camp's remaining barracks were briefly used to house Ukrainian civilians waiting to be resettled. These deportees dismantled several remaining buildings for use as firewood. Parts of the Vorlager were subsequently sold to private individuals, though most of the camp site was returned to the Polish forestry administration.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: A September 1945 report by Polish authorities noted that locals had dismantled most of the remaining camp buildings, reusing parts of them in their own houses. This report was corroborated in 2010 when a resident of nearby Żłobek Duży discovered unusual woodwork during a renovation project. Knowing that the previous owner of the house had worked near the camp, they alerted researchers from the Sobibor Museum who concluded that the woodwork was taken from the exterior of a camp barracks. The site was also a target for grave-diggers, who scoured the site for valuables left by the camp's victims. When the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation studied the site in 1945, they found trenches dug by treasure-seekers, who had left the surface strewn with ashes and human remains. Grave-digging continued in the area, despite several prosecutions in the 1960s.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In the first twenty years after the war, the site of the camp was practically deserted. A journalist visiting the site in the early 1950s reported "there is nothing left in Sobibor". When Gitta Sereny visited the site in March 1972, she initially drove past it without realizing. She later commented that she was struck by "the quiet, the loneliness, above all the vastness of the place, which left everything to the imagination"


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The first monuments to Sobibor victims were erected on the site in 1965. Installed by the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites, these consisted of a memorial wall, an obelisk symbolizing the gas chambers, a sculpture of a mother and her child, and a mausoleum called the "Memory Mound". The memorial wall originally listed Jews as just one of the groups persecuted at Sobibor, but the plaque was revised in 1993 to reflect the general historical consensus that all or nearly all victims of Sobibor were Jews.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In 1993, the Włodawa Museum took over the memorial from the forestry administration. They established the Sobibór Museum which opened on 14 October 1993, the 50th anniversary of the revolt. The museum was housed in a post-war building within the former site of Lager II, which had previously served as a kindergarten. In 2012, the memorial changed hands once again, this time falling under the control of the Majdanek State Museum, who held a design competition sponsored by the governments of Poland, Israel, the Netherlands and Slovakia.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In 2018, the mass graves in the former area of Lager III were covered with white stones, and construction began on a new museum building. However, most of the area of the site is still either privately owned or under the control of the forestry administration, and the camp's arrival ramp was used for loading lumber as recently as 2015. Since the forestry tower was demolished in 2004 (after decaying nearly to the point of collapse), the only remaining building from the camp is the green post office. This building is privately owned.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In the immediate aftermath of the war, several investigations were carried out. Starting in 1945, the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation and Central Committee of Polish Jews investigated Sobibor, interviewing witnesses and surveying the site. In 1946, Nachman Blumental published a study entitled "The Death Camp – Sobibór" in 1946, which drew on work by the other investigations, and information about Sobibor was gathered for "The Black Book of Polish Jewry".


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: Until the 1990s, little was known about the physical site of the camp beyond what survivors and perpetrators could recall. Archaeological investigations at Sobibor began in the 1990s. In 2001, a team led by Andrzej Kola from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń investigated the former area of "Lager III", finding seven pits with a total volume of roughly 19,000 cubic meters. While some of these pits appear to have been mass graves, others may have been used for open air cremation. The team also found pieces of barbed wire embedded in trees, which they identified as remnants of the camp's perimeter fence. Thus, they were able to partially map out the perimeter of the former camp site, which had not previously been known.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In 2007, two archaeologists named Wojciech Mazurek and Yoram Haimi began to conduct small-scale investigations. Since 2013, the camp has been excavated by a joint team of Polish, Israeli, Slovak, and Dutch archeologists led by Mazurek, Haimi, and Ivar Schute. In accordance with Jewish law, these excavations avoided mass graves and were supervised by Polish rabbis. Their discovery of the foundations of the gas chambers, in 2014, attracted worldwide media attention. Between 2011 and 2015, thousands of personal items belonging to victims were uncovered by the teams. At the ramp, large dumps of household items, including "glasses, combs, cutlery, plates, watches, coins, razors, thimbles, scissors, toothpaste" were found, but few valuables; Schute suggests that these items are indicative of victims' hopes to survive as forced labourers. In Lager III, the extermination area, household items were not found but "gold fillings, dentures, pendants, earrings, and a gold ring" were. Schute notes that such objects could have been concealed by naked individuals, and argues that it is evidence for the "processing" of bodies at this location.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: In 2020, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired a collection of photographs and documents from the descendants of Johann Niemann. These photos show daily life amongst the camp staff. Many show the perpetrators drinking, playing music, and playing chess with one another. These photos are significant because there had previously only been two known photographs of Sobibor during its operation. These materials have been published in a German language book and ebook by Metropol Verlag entitled "Fotos aus Sobibor". The photos received voluminous press coverage because two of them appear to show John Demjanjuk in the camp.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The mechanics of Sobibor death camp were the subject of interviews filmed on location for the 1985 documentary film "Shoah" by Claude Lanzmann. In 2001, Lanzmann combined unused interviews with survivor Yehuda Lerner shot during the making of "Shoah", along with new footage of Lerner, to tell the story of the revolt and escape in his followup documentary "Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m."


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: A highly fictionalized version of the Sobibor revolt was depicted in the 1978 American TV miniseries "Holocaust".


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: The revolt was dramatized in the 1987 British TV film "Escape from Sobibor", directed by Jack Gold and adapted from the book by Richard Rashke. The film's consultants included survivors Thomas Blatt, Shlomo Szmajzner, and Esther Raab.


title: Sobibor extermination camp

text: More recently, the revolt was depicted in the 2018 Russian movie "Sobibor", directed by Konstantin Khabensky. The movie presents Sasha Pechersky as a Russian patriotic figure, a depiction criticized by Garry Kasparov among others.


title: Ultramarathon

text: An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of . Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of to over . 50k and 100k are both World Athletics record distances, but some races are among the oldest and most prestigious events, especially in North America. Around 100 miles is typically the longest course distance raced in under 24 hours but there are also longer multi-day races of or more, sometimes raced in stages with breaks for sleep. While some ultras are road races, many take place on trails, leading to a large overlap with the sports of trail running and mountain running.


title: Ultramarathon

text: There are two main types of ultramarathon events: those that cover a specified distance or route, and those that last for a predetermined period of time (with the winner covering the most distance in that time). The most common distances are , , , and , although many races have other distances. The 100 kilometer race is recognized as an official world record event by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the world governing body of track and field.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Other ultramarathon races include double marathons, 24-hour races, and multiday races of or longer. The format of these events and the courses vary, ranging from single loops (some as short as a track), to point-to-point road or trail races, to cross-country rogaines. Many ultramarathons, especially trail events, have significant obstacles, such as inclement weather, elevation change, or rugged terrain. Many of these races are run on dirt roads or mountain paths, though some are run on paved roads as well. Usually, there are aid stations, perhaps every , where runners can replenish food and drink supplies or take a short break.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Timed events range from 6, 12, and 24 hours to 3, 6, and 10 days (known as "multi-day" events). Timed events are generally run on a track or a short road course, often one mile (1.6 km) or less.


title: Ultramarathon

text: There are some self-supported ultramarathon stage races in which each competitor has to carry all their supplies including food to survive the length of the race, typically a week long. An example of this is the Grand to Grand Ultra in the USA.


title: Ultramarathon

text: The International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) organises the World Championships for various ultramarathon distances, including , , 24 hours, and ultra trail running, which are also recognized by the IAAF. Many countries around the world have their own ultrarunning organizations, often the national athletics federation of the country, or are sanctioned by such national athletics organizations. World best performances for distances, times, and ages are tracked by the IAU.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Racewalking events are usually 50 km, although 100 km and 100-mile (160 km) "Centurion" races are also organized. Furthermore, the non-competitive International Marching League event Nijmegen Four Days March has a regulation distance of 4 × 50 km over four days for those aged 19 to 49.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In 2021, concerns were raised about planning and medical care available for ultramarathons in China, after dozens of racers died from hypothermia and at least one from a heart attack while competing in an ultramarathon in the Yellow River Stone Forest. The government later announced a ban on "extreme" competitions.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Until 2014, the IAU maintained lists of world best performances on different surfaces (road, track and indoor). Starting in 2015, the distinction between the surfaces was removed and the records were combined into a single category. Some governing bodies continue to keep separate ultramarathon track and road records for their own jurisdictions.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Starting in January 2022, the IAU began to recognize and ratify performances as IAU World Records. World Athletics also began to ratify the 50k distance as a World Record for both mixed and women, respectively, along with 100k.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Patrycja Bereznowska recorded a distance of 401 km in 48 hours in 2018 but this performance was not ratified by the IAU. In May 2022, Bereznowska improved the 48 hour mark to 403.32 km.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In February 2022, Camille Herron improved her 12-hour and 100 mile records to 152.1 km and 12:41:11, respectively, while winning the Jackpot 100 US Championship outright.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In March 2022, Stephen Mokoka ran 50 km in 2:40:13. In October 2022, CJ Albertson ran the same distance in 2:38:43.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In September 2022, Aleksandr Sorokin improved his 24-hour record to 319.614 km at the IAU 24 Hour European Championships in Verona, Italy.


title: Ultramarathon

text: There are four IAU World Championships: the IAU 100 km World Championships, IAU 50 km World Championships, IAU 24 Hour World Championship, and the IAU Trail World Championships.


title: Ultramarathon

text: The following is a selected list of world or national-record holding, or world-championship-winning, ultramarathon runners.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Ultrarunning has become popular in Asia, and countries such as Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea have hosted IAU World Championships.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Australia and New Zealand are hosts to some 100 organized ultramarathons each year. Additionally a handful of runners have run the entire length of New Zealand, a distance of around .


title: Ultramarathon

text: In Australia, the Westfield Ultra Marathon was an annual race between Sydney and Melbourne contested between 1983 and 1991. Greek runner Yiannis Kouros won the event five times during that period. Australia is also the home of one of the oldest six-day races in the world, the Cliff Young Australian 6-day race, held in Colac, Victoria. The race is held on a 400-meter circuit at the Memorial Square in the centre of Colac, and has seen many close races since its inception in 1984. The 20th Cliff Young Australian six-day race was held between 20 and 26 November 2005. During that event, Kouros beat his existing world record six-day track mark and set a new mark of . The Coast to Kosciuszko inaugurated in 2004, is a marathon from the coast to the top of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mountain.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Australia has seen a steep growth in ultrarunning events and participants in recent years. Many new races have come into inception, covering a range of ultramarathon distances from 50 km right through to multi-day events. The cornerstone of Australian Ultra events being such races as Ultra-Trail Australia 100, The Great North Walk Ultras, Surf Coast Century, Bogong to Hotham, Alpine Challenge, GC50 Run Festival, and the Cradle Mountain Run. The Australian Ultra Runners Association (AURA) has a comprehensive list and links of events and their respective results.


title: Ultramarathon

text: New Zealand's first ultramarathon, called the Kepler Challenge, was held on a trail through Fiordland National Park. It has been running since 1988 and is one of the country's most popular races. New Zealand's Northburn 100 ultra mountain run is the first 100-mile (160 km) race through the Northburn Station. The Te Houtaewa Challenge has a 62 km race on ninety mile beach, Northland. The runners have to contend with rising tides and soft beach sand and the March race dates often means the race is run in the cyclone season. In 2014 the ultramarathon was postponed because of Cyclone Lucy. The Tarawera Ultramarathon is currently one of the most competitive ultras in New Zealand and part of the Ultra-Trail World Tour.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In December 2013 in Auckland, Kim Allan ran 500 km in 86 hours, 11 minutes, and 9 seconds, breaking the women's record.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In April 2013, a Feilding man, Perry Newburn, set a new New Zealand record by running without sleep at Feilding's Manfield Park.


title: Ultramarathon

text: New Caledonia Trail Festival has several annual ultramarathon including the Ultra Trail New Caledonia 136 km / 6 000m D+ and the Endurance Shop Trail race 70 km / 3 000m D+ on Pentecost long Week end. The Trail des Cagous is another 60 km ultramarathon held in April.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Papua New Guinea has the Kokoda Challenge Race, an annual 96 km endurance race held in late August that runs the length of the historic Kokoda Track.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Papua New Guinea also has the Great Kokoda Race, a multi-stage 96 km (3-day) race held in early July where competitors run or walk the length of the Kokoda Track.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In Europe, ultrarunning can trace its origins with early documentation of ultrarunners from Icelandic sagas, or ancient Greece from where the idea of the Marathon, and the Spartathlon comes. The history of ultrarunners and walkers in the UK from the Victorian Era has also been documented. The IAU hosts annual European Championships for the 50 km, 100 km and 24 hours. The European Ultramarathon Cup is an annual cup event covering some of the biggest ultramarathon races in Europe. Also worth mentioning is the ultramarathon CajaMar Tenerife Bluetrail, the highest race in Spain and second in Europe, with the participation of several countries and great international repercussions. Besides trail ultramarathons, Europe features large road ultramarathons such as Spartathlon and the Millau 100K, which has gathered thousands of runners for the past 50 years.


title: Ultramarathon

text: This includes the Harz Run in the Harz Mountains, the Irish Connemarathon, the British Spine Race and Welsh Dragon's Back Race which covers 315 km with 15,500m of height gain.


title: Ultramarathon

text: The UTMB, through France, Italy and Switzerland, has been considered the world's most competitive trail ultra. The other races in the UTMB festival, including the CCC, TDS and OCC, are also significant events in the ultrarunning calendar.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In 2021 the Megarace will be held. The Megarace will be the world's longest nonstop A-B trail race. The race is 1001 km and goes on trails through Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. The runners have 13 days and 15 hours to cover the distance. Due to Covid, 2021 the course will be modified to only go through Germany. The original course will be in 2022.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Due to logistics and environmental concerns there are only a handful of ultramarathons held in Antarctica, and travel costs can mean entrance fees as high as $14,000.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Ultramarathons in Antarctica include: The Last Desert, part of the 4 Deserts Race Series, a multi-stage footrace, and the Antarctic Ice Marathon – a marathon and 100-kilometer race.


title: Ultramarathon

text: There are several hundred ultramarathons held annually in North America. One of the best known is the Western States Endurance Run, the world's oldest 100-mile trail run that is still held. The race began in 1977, founded by Wendell Robie, of Auburn California.


title: Ultramarathon

text: The first mountain trail ultramarathon held in the United States was the 1911 Mount Baker Race (50K), in Bellingham, Washington. Runners raced by car or train to the trailheads, ran up and down Mount Baker 10,000 feet, and then returned to the city.


title: Ultramarathon

text: An early ultramarathon was held in Mexico in 1926, and at the time was part of the Central American Games. Tomas Zafiro and Leoncio San Miguel, both Tarahumara Indians, ran 100 km from Pachuca to Mexico City in 9 hours and 37 minutes. At the time, the Mexican government petitioned to include a 100 km race in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam;.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In 1928, sports agent C. C. Pyle organized the first of two editions of the 3,455-mile-long Bunion Derby (the first went along U.S. Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago before heading toward New York; the 1929 Derby reversed the route). Neither the race nor the accompanying vaudeville show was a financial success.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In the 1980s, Gary "Lazarus Lake" Cantrell and Karl "Raw Dog" Henn conceived the Barkley Marathons, an annual trail race held in March or April in Frozen Head State Park, Tennessee. The course is approximately 20 miles long with approximately 11,000 feet of vertical climb, and runners have 60 hours to complete five laps. The run is notorious not only for its difficulty, but also for its secretive nature; entrants must undergo a selection process and entry dates and requirements are not announced, meaning entrants rely on word-of-mouth for details on how to enter. The first Barkley Marathons took place in 1986, and as of 2022, only fifteen runners have ever completed the 100 mile course.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Since 1997, runners have been competing in the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race, which is billed as the longest official footrace in the world. They run 100 laps a day for up to 50 days around a single block in Queens, NY, for a total distance of . The current recordholder is Ashprihanal Pekka Aalto, at 40 days 09:06:21 for a daily average of in 2015.


title: Ultramarathon

text: The latest Trans-American Footrace (2015) winner was Robert HP Young (Marathon Man UK), winning in a time of 482 hours and 10 minutes.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In April 2006, the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame was established by the American Ultrarunning Association (AUA). Candidates for the Hall of Fame are chosen from the 'modern era' of American ultras, beginning with the New York Road Runners Club 30 Mile race held in 1958. The Inaugural inductees were Ted Corbitt, a former US Olympian, winner of the aforementioned race in 3:04:13, and co-founder of the Road Runners Club of America, and Sandra Kiddy, who began her ultra career at age 42 with a world record at 50 kilometers, 3:36:56, and who went on to set a number of US and world ultra records.


title: Ultramarathon

text: There are a small number of ultramarathons in South America, but participation in the sport is increasing. The Brazil 135 Ultramarathon is a single-stage race of with a 60-hour cutoff, held in Brazil. This is a Badwater "sister race".


title: Ultramarathon

text: Several ultramarathons are held in Chile and with both local and international participation. Ultramarathons held in Chile include:


title: Ultramarathon

text: La Mision has been going on for almost 15 years. There are different editions, one in Villa La Angostura in Patagonia with 3 distances. 110 km with cumulative altitude gain of about 4500m, 160 km with cumulative altitude gain of about 8000m and 200 km with cumulative altitude gain of about 9000m. There is other edition of the race (Short & Half) in Villa San Javier, Cordoba with 2 distances, 35k and 70k.


title: Ultramarathon

text: In April 2019 for the 1st time UTMB took place in Ushuaia (Ushuaia by UTMB) A very tough race facing the wild Patagonia weather with 4 different distances, 35k, 50k, 70k and 130k. The race brings together in one competition all the landscapes and geographies of the southern Andes (forests, rocky terrains, mountains, hills, glaciers, lakes, rivers and wetlands, among others) The race has a technical, non-stop format and is ruled by the principle of semi-autonomy.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Cerro Champaqui in Cordoba is the landscape of different races. Champa Ultra Race with 5 different distances, 8k / 18k / 26k / 42k and 62k. Also the UTACCH – Ultra Amanecer Comechingón with 7 different distances, 16k, 26k, 42k, and 4 ultras of 55k, 70k, 110k and 100 miles.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Ushuaia, at "the end of the world" also host Ultra Maratón Glaciar Martial with 3 different distances, 10k, 25k and 50k.


title: Ultramarathon

text: Many ultramarathon organizers are members of the International Trail Running Association (ITRA), an organization that promotes values, diversity, health and safety during races, as well as working to further the development of trail running and helps to coordinate between the national and international bodies with an interest in the sport. ITRA also evaluates the difficulty of specific ultramarathon routes according to a number of criteria, such as the distance, the cumulative elevation gain, and the number of loops and stages. ITRA maintains a calendar of ultramarathon events.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's capital Islamabad, and the two are jointly known as the "twin cities" because of the social and economic links between them.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi is on the Pothohar Plateau, known for its ancient Hindu and Buddhist heritage, especially in the neighbouring town of Taxila, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1765, the ruling Gakhars were defeated and the city came under Sikh rule, becoming an important city within the Sikh Empire based at Lahore. The city's "Babu Mohallah" neighbourhood was once home to a community of Jewish traders that had fled Mashhad, Persia, in the 1830s. The city was conquered by the British Raj in 1849, and in the late 19th century became the largest garrison town of the British Indian Army's Northern command as its climate suited the British authorities. Britain's army elevated the city from a small town to the third largest city in Punjab by 1921. Following the partition of British India in 1947, the city became home to the headquarters of the Pakistan Army, retaining its status as a major military city.


title: Rawalpindi

text: In 1951, the Rawalpindi conspiracy took place in which leftist army officers conspired to depose the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan. Rawalpindi later became the site of the Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination. On 27 December 2007, Rawalpindi was the site of the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Construction of Pakistan's new purpose-built national capital city of Islamabad in 1961 led to greater investment in the city provided by IMF and local banks, as well as a brief stint as the country's capital before the completion of Islamabad. Modern Rawalpindi is socially and economically intertwined with Islamabad, and the greater metropolitan area. The city is also home to numerous suburban housing developments that serve as bedroom-communities for workers in Islamabad. As home to the GHQ of the Pakistan Army and the former Benazir Bhutto International Airport (now part of PAF Base Nur Khan), and with connections to the M-1 and M-2 motorways, Rawalpindi is a major logistics and transportation centre for northern Pakistan. The city is also home to historic havelis and temples, and serves as a hub for tourists visiting Rohtas Fort, Azad Kashmir, Taxila and Gilgit-Baltistan.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The region around Rawalpindi has been inhabited for thousands of years. It was founded as a village by Bappa Rawal, and remained a regional town of less importance up until late 18th century when it became an important city within Mughal empire. Rawalpindi falls within the ancient boundaries of Gandhara, and is thus in a region containing many Buddhist ruins. In the region north-west of Rawalpindi, traces have been found of at least 55 stupas, 28 Buddhist monasteries, 9 temples, and various artifacts in the Kharoshthi script.


title: Rawalpindi

text: To the southeast are the ruins of the Mankiala stupa – a second-century stupa where, according to the Jataka tales, a previous incarnation of the Buddha leapt off a cliff in order to offer his corpse to seven hungry tiger cubs. The nearby town of Taxila is thought to have been home to the world's first university. Sir Alexander Cunningham identified ruins on the site of the Rawalpindi Cantonment as the ancient city of Ganjipur (or Gajnipur), the capital of the Bhatti tribe in the ages preceding the Christian era.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The first mention of Rawalpindi's earliest settlement dates from when Mahmud of Ghazni destroyed Rawalpindi and the town was restored by "Gakhar" chief "Kai Gohar" in the early 11th century. The town fell into decay again after Mongol invasions in the 14th century. Situated along an invasion route, the settlement did not prosper and remained deserted until 1493, when "Jhanda Khan" re-established the ruined town, and named it "Rawal".


title: Rawalpindi

text: During the Mughal era, Rawalpindi remained under the rule of the Ghakhar clan, who in turn pledged allegiance to the Mughal Empire. The city was developed as an important outpost in order to guard the frontiers of the Mughal realm. Gakhars fortified a nearby caravanserai, in the 16th century, transforming it into the Rawat Fort in order to defend the Pothohar plateau from Sher Shah Suri's forces. Construction of the Attock Fort in 1581 after Akbar led a campaign against his brother Mirza Muhammad Hakim, further securing Rawalpindi's environs. In December 1585, the Emperor Akbar arrived in Rawalpindi, and remained in and around Rawalpindi for 13 years as he extended the frontiers of the empire, in an era described as a "glorious period" in his career as Emperor.


title: Rawalpindi

text: With the onset of chaos and rivalry between Gakhar chiefs after the death of Kamal Khan in 1559, Rawalpindi was awarded to Said Khan by the Mughal Emperor. The Emperor Jehangir visited the royal camp in Rawalpindi in 1622, where he first learned of Shah Abbas I of Persia's plan to invade Kandahar.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi declined in importance as Mughal power declined, until the town was captured in the mid-1760s from Muqarrab Khan by the Sikhs under Sardar Gujjar Singh and his son Sahib Singh. The city's administration was handed to Sardar Milkha Singh, who then invited traders from the neighbouring commercial centers of Jhelum and Shahpur to settle in the territory in 1766. The city then began to prosper, although the population in 1770 is estimated to have been only about 300 families. Rawalpindi became for a time the refuge of Shah Shuja, the exiled king of Afghanistan, and of his brother Shah Zaman in the early 19th century.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh allowed the son of Sardar Milkha Singh to continue as Governor of Rawalpindi, after Ranjit Singh seized the district in 1810. Sikh rule over Rawalpindi was consolidated by defeat of the Afghans at Haidaran in July 1813. The Sikh rulers allied themselves with some of the local Gakhar tribes, and jointly defeated Syed Ahmad Barelvi at Akora Khattak in 1827, and again in 1831 in Balakot. Jews first arrived in Rawalpindi's "Babu Mohallah" neighbourhood from Mashhad, Persia in 1839, in order to flee from anti-Jewish laws instituted by the Qajar dynasty. In 1841, Diwan Kishan Kaur was appointed "Sardar" of Rawalpindi.


title: Rawalpindi

text: On 14 March 1849, Sardar Chattar Singh and Raja Sher Singh of the Sikh Empire surrendered to General Gilbert near Rawalpindi, ceding the city to the British. The Sikh Empire then came to an end on 29 March 1849.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Following Rawalpindi's capture by the British East India company, 53rd Regiment of the company army took quarters in the newly captured city. The decision to man a permanent military cantonment in the city was made in 1851 by the Marquess of Dalhousie. The city saw its first telegraph office in the early 1850s. The city's Garrison Church was built shortly after in 1854, and is the site where Robert Milman, Bishop of Calcutta, was buried following his death in Rawalpindi in 1876. The city was home to 15,913 people in the 1855 census. During the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the area's Gakhars and Janjua tribes remained loyal to the British.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Numerous civil and military buildings were built during the British era, and the Municipality of Rawalpindi was constituted in 1867, while the city's population as per the 1868 census was 19,228, with another 9,358 people residing in the city's cantonment. The city was also connected to railways that offered connection to India and the northwest frontier in Peshawar in the 1880s. The Commissariat Steam Flour Mills were the first such mills in Punjab, and supplied most of the needs of British cantonments throughout Punjab. Rawalpindi's cantonment served as a feeder to other cantonments throughout the region.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi flourished as a commercial centre, though the city remained largely devoid of an industrial base during the British era. A large portion of Kashmir's external trade passing through the city; in 1885, 14% of Kashmir's exports, and 27% of its imports passed through the city. A large market was opened in central Rawalpindi in 1883 by Sardar Sujan Singh, while the British further developed a shopping district for the city's elite known as "Saddar" with an archway built to commemorate Brigadier General Massey.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi's cantonment became a major center of military power of the Raj after an arsenal was established in 1883. Britain's army elevated the city from a small town, to the third largest city in Punjab by 1921. In 1868, 9,358 people lived in the city's cantonment – by 1891, the number rose to 37,870. In 1891, the city's population excluding the Cantonment was 34,153. The city was considered to be a favourite first posting for newly arrived soldiers from England, owing to the city's agreeable climate, and nearby hill station at nearby Murree. In 1901, Rawalpindi was made the winter headquarters of the Northern Command and of the Rawalpindi military division. Riots broke out against British rule in 1905, following a famine in Punjab that peasants were led to believe was a deliberate act.


title: Rawalpindi

text: During World War I, Rawalpindi District "stood first" among districts in recruiting for the British war effort, with greater financial assistance from the British government channeled into the area in return. By 1921, Rawalpindi's cantonment had overshadowed the city - Rawalpindi was one of seven cities of Punjab in which over half the population lived in the cantonment district. Communal riots erupted between Rawalpindi's Sikh and Muslim communities in 1926 after Sikhs refused to silence music from a procession that was passing in front of a mosque.


title: Rawalpindi

text: On 5 March 1947, members of Rawalpindi's Hindu and Sikh communities took out a procession against the formation of a Muslim ministry within the Government of Punjab. Policemen fired upon protestors, while Hindus and Sikhs fought against weaker Muslim counter-protestors. The area's first Partition riots erupted the next day on 6 March 1947, when the city's Muslims, angered by the actions of Hindus and Sikhs and encouraged by the Pir of Golra Sharif, raided nearby villages after they were unable to do so in the city on account of Rawalpindi's heavily armed Sikhs.


title: Rawalpindi

text: At the dawn of Pakistan's independence in 1947 following the success of the Pakistan Movement, Rawalpindi was a 43.79% Muslim, while Rawalpindi District as a whole was 80% Muslim. The region, on account of its large Muslim majority, was thus awarded to Pakistan. Rawalpindi's Hindu and Sikh population, who had made up 33.72% and 17.32% of the city, migrated "en masse" to the newly independent Dominion of India after anti-Hindu and anti-Sikh pogroms in western Punjab, while Muslim refugees from India settled in the city following anti-Muslim pogroms in eastern Punjab and northern India.


title: Rawalpindi

text: In the years following independence, Rawalpindi saw an influx of Muhajir, Pashtun and Kashmiri settlers. Having been the largest British Cantonment in the region at the dawn of Pakistan's independence, Rawalpindi was chosen as headquarters for the Pakistani Army, despite the fact that Karachi had been selected as the first capital.


title: Rawalpindi

text: In 1951, the Rawalpindi conspiracy took place in which leftist army officers conspired to depose the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan. Rawalpindi later became the site of the Liaquat Ali Khan's assassination, in what is now known as Liaquat Bagh Park. In 1958, Field Marshal Ayub Khan launched his "coup d'etat" from Rawalpindi. In 1959, the city became the interim capital of the country under Ayub Khan, who had sought the creation of a new planned capital of Islamabad in the vicinity of Rawalpindi. As a result, Rawalpindi saw most major central government offices and institutions relocate to nearby territory, and its population rapidly expand.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Construction of Pakistan's new capital city of Islamabad in 1961 led to greater investment in Rawalpindi. Rawalpindi remained the headquarters of the Pakistani Army after the capital shifted to Islamabad in 1969, while the Pakistan Air Force continues to maintain an airbase in the Chaklala district of Rawalpindi. The military dictatorship of General Zia ul Haq hanged Pakistan's deposed Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in Rawalpindi in 1979.


title: Rawalpindi

text: In 1980, tens of thousands of Shia protestors led by Mufti Jaffar Hussain marched on Rawalpindi to protest a provision of Zia ul Haqs Islamization programme. A spate of bombings in September 1987 took place in the city killing 5 people, in attacks that are believed to have been orchestrated by agents of Afghanistan's communist government.


title: Rawalpindi

text: On 10 April 1988, Rawalpindi's Ojhri Camp, an ammunition depot for Afghan mujahideen fighting against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, exploded and killed many in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. At the time, the New York Times reported more than 93 were killed and another 1,100 wounded; many believe that the toll was much higher.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Riots erupted in Rawalpindi in 1992 as mobs attacked Hindu temples in retaliation for the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India . On 27 December 2007, Rawalpindi was the site of the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Modern Rawalpindi is socially and economically intertwined with Islamabad, and the greater metropolitan area. The city is also home to numerous suburban housing developments that serve as bedroom-communities for workers in Islamabad. In June 2015, the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus, a new bus rapid transit line with various points in Islamabad, opened for service.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi features a humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cwa) with hot and wet summers, a cooler and drier winter. Rawalpindi and its twin city Islamabad, during the year experiences an average of 91 thunderstorms, which is the highest frequency of any plain elevation city in the country. Strong windstorms are frequent in the summer during which wind gusts have been reported by Pakistan Meteorological Department to have reached . In such thunder/wind storms, which results in some damage of infrastructure. The weather is highly variable due to the proximity of the city to the foothills of Himalayas.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The average annual rainfall is , most of which falls in the summer monsoon season. However, westerly disturbances also bring quite significant rainfall in the winter. In summer, the record maximum temperature has soared to recorded in June 1954, while it has dropped to a minimum of several occasions, though the last of which was in January 1967.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Social structures in Rawalpindi's historic core centre around neighbourhoods, each known as a "Mohallah". Each neighbourhood is served by a nearby bazaar and mosque, which in turn serve as a place where people can gather for trade and manufacturing. Each "Mohallah" has narrow "gallies", and the grouping of houses around short lanes and cul-de-sacs lends a sense of privacy and security to residents of each neighbourhood. Major intersections in the neighbourhood are each referred to as a "chowk".


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi is relatively a new city contrasted with Pakistan's millennia-old cities such as Lahore, Multan, and Peshawar. South of Rawalpindi's historic core, and across the Lai Nullah, are the wide lanes of the Rawalpindi Cantonment. With tree-lined avenues and historic architecture, the cantonment was the main European area developed during British colonial rule. British colonialists also built the Saddar Bazaar south of the historic core, which served as a retail center geared towards Europeans in the city. Beyond the cantonment are the large suburban housing developments that serve as bedroom communities for Islamabad's commuter population.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The population of Rawalpindi is 2,098,231 in 2017. 84% of the population is Punjabi, 9% is Pashtun, and 7% is from other ethnic groups.


title: Rawalpindi

text: 96.8% of Rawalpindi's population is Muslim, 2.47% is Christian, 0.73% belong to other religious groups. The city's "Kohaati Bazaar" is site of large Shia mourning-processions for Ashura. The neighbourhoods of "Waris Shah Mohallah" and "Pir Harra Mohallah" form the core of Muslim settlement in Rawalpindi's old city.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi was a majority Hindu and Sikh city prior to the Partition of India in 1947, while Muslims made up 43.79% of the population. The Baba Dyal Singh Gurdwara in Rawalpindi was where the reformist Nirankari movement of Sikhism originated. The city still has a small Sikh population, but has been bolstered by the arrival of Sikhs fleeing political instability in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The city is still home to a few hundred Hindu families. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the city's Hindus fled "en masse" to India after Partition, most Hindu temples in the old city remain standing, although in disrepair and often abandoned. Many of the old city's neighbourhoods continue to bear Hindu and Sikh names, such as Krishanpura, Arya Mohallah, Akaal Garh, Mohanpura, Amarpura, Kartarpura, Bagh Sardaraan, Angatpura.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The Shri Krishna Mandir is the only functional Hindu temple in Rawalpindi. It was built in the Kabarri Bazaar in 1897. Other temples are abandoned or were repurposed. Rawalpindi's large Kalyan Das Temple from 1880 has been used as the "Gov't. Qandeel Secondary School for the Blind" since 1973. The Ram Leela Temple in "Kanak Mandi", and the Kaanji Mal Ujagar Mal Ram Richpal Temple in the Kabarri Bazaar, are both currently used to house Kashmiri refugees. Mohan Temple in the "Lunda Bazaar" remains standing, but is abandoned and the building no longer used for any purpose. The city's "Shamshan Ghat" serves as the city's cremation grounds, and was partly renovated in 2012.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The city's "Babu Mohallah" neighbourhood was once home to a community of Jewish traders that had fled Mashhad, Persia in the 1830s. The community had entirely emigrated to Israel by the 1960s.


title: Rawalpindi

text: In the British era many churches were built for the British soldiers to come to the churches for Sunday prayer because


title: Rawalpindi

text: The Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus is a bus rapid transit system operating in the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area. The Metrobus network's first phase was opened on 4 June 2015, and stretches 22.5 kilometres between Pak Secretariat, in Islamabad, and Saddar in Rawalpindi. The second stage stretches 25.6 kilometres between the Peshawar Morr Interchange and New Islamabad International Airport and was inaugurated on 18 April 2022. The system uses e-ticketing and an Intelligent Transportation System and is managed by the Punjab Mass Transit Authority.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi is situated along the historic Grand Trunk Road that connects Peshawar to Islamabad and Lahore. The road is roughly paralleled by the M-1 Motorway between Peshawar and Rawalpindi, while the M-2 Motorway provides an alternate route to Lahore via the Salt Range. The Grand Trunk Road also provides access to the Afghan border via the Khyber Pass, with onwards connections to Kabul and Central Asia via the Salang Pass. The Karakoram Highway provides access between Islamabad and western China, and an alternate route to Central Asia via Kashgar in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The Islamabad Expressway connects Rawalpindi's eastern portions with the Rawal Lake and heart of Islamabad. The IJP Road separates Rawalpindi's northern edge from Islamabad.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi is connected to Peshawar by the M-1 Motorway. The motorway also links Rawalpindi to major cities in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, such as Charsadda and Mardan. The M-2 motorway offers high speed access to Lahore via the Potohar Plateau and Salt Range. The M-3 Motorway branches off from the M-2 at the city of Pindi Bhattian, where the M-3 offers onward connections to Faisalabad, and connects to the M-4 Motorway which continues onward to Multan. A new motorway network is under construction to connect Multan and Karachi as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. The Hazara Motorway is also under construction as part of CPEC, and will provide control-access motorway travel all the way to Mansehra via the M-1 or Grand Trunk Road.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi railway station in the Saddar neighbourhood serves as a stop along Pakistan's -long Main Line-1 railway that connects the city to the port city of Karachi to Peshawar. The stations is served by the Awam Express, Hazara Express, Islamabad Express, Jaffar Express, Khyber Mail trains, and serves as the terminus for the Margalla Express, Mehr Express, Rawal Express, Pakistan Express, Subak Raftar Express, Green Line Express, Sir Syed Express, Subak Kharam Express and Tezgam trains.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The entire Main Line-1 railway track between Karachi and Peshawar is to be overhauled at a cost of $3.65 billion for the first phase of the project, with completion by 2021. Upgrading of the railway line will permit train travel at speeds of 160 kilometres per hour, versus the average 60 to 105 km per hour speed currently possible on existing track.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi is served by the Islamabad International Airport. The airport is located 21 km west of the city. It offers non-stop flights throughout Pakistan, as well as to the Middle East, Europe, North America, Central Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia.


title: Rawalpindi

text: The City-District of Rawalpindi is sub-divided into one Municipal Corporation Two Cantonment Board and Seven tehsils:


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi also holds many private colonies that have developed themselves rapidly, e.g. Gulraiz Housing Society, Korang Town, Agochs Town, Ghori Town, Pakistan Town, Judicial Town, Bahria Town which is the Asia's largest private colony, Kashmir Housing Society, Danial Town, Al-Haram City, Education City, Gul Afshan Colony, Allama Iqbal Colony.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Ayub National Park is located beyond the old Presidency on Jhelum Road. It covers an area of about and has a playland, lake with boating facility, an aquarium and a garden-restaurant. Rawalpindi Public Park is on Murree Road near Shamsabad. The Park was opened to the public in 1991. It has a playland for children, grassy lawns, fountains and flower beds.


title: Rawalpindi

text: In 2008 Jinnah Park was inaugurated at the heart of Rawalpindi and has since become a hotspot of activity for the city. It houses a state-of-the-art cinema, Cinepax, a Metro Cash and Carry supermart, an outlet of McDonald's, gaming lounges, Motion Rides and other recreational facilities. The vast lawns also provide an adequate picnic spot.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi is situated near the "Ayub National Park" formerly known as 'Topi Rakh' (keep the hat on) is by the old Presidency, between the Murree Brewery Co. and Grand Trunk Road. It covers an area of about and has a play area, lake with boating facility, an aquarium, a garden-restaurant and an open-air theater. This park hosts "The Jungle Kingdom" which is particularly popular among young residents.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi District is home to 2,463 government public schools, out of which 1706 are primary schools, 306 middle schools, 334 are high schools, while 117 are higher education colleges.


title: Rawalpindi

text: 97.4% of children ages 6–16 in urban areas of Rawalpindi District are enrolled in school – the third highest percentage in Pakistan after Islamabad and Karachi. 77.1% of Rawalpindi's students in Class 5 are able to read sentences in English. 27% of children in Rawalpindi attend paid private schools.


title: Rawalpindi

text: Rawalpindi, being so close to the capital, has an active media and newspaper climate. There are over a dozen of newspaper companies based in the city including "Daily Nawa-i-Waqt, Daily Jang, Daily Asas, The Daily Sada-e-Haq, Daily Express, Daily Din, Daily Aajkal Rawalpindi, Daily Islam," and "Daily Pakistan" in Urdu and "Dawn, Express Tribune, Daily Times, The News International" and "The Nation" in English.


title: Rawalpindi

text: There are a large number of Cable TV service providers in the city such as Nayatel, PTCL, SA Cable Network and DWN.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United States, and the Tri-College Consortium along with Haverford College and Swarthmore College. The college has an enrollment of about 1,350 undergraduate students and 450 graduate students. It was the first women's college to offer graduate education through a PhD.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: Bryn Mawr College is a private women's liberal arts college founded in 1885. The phrase literally means 'large hill' in Welsh. The Graduate School is co-educational. It is named after the town of Bryn Mawr, in which the campus is located, which had been renamed by a representative of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Bryn Mawr was the name of an area estate granted to Rowland Ellis by William Penn in the 1680s. Ellis's former home, also called Bryn Mawr, was a house near Dolgellau, Merioneth, Gwynedd, Wales. The college was largely founded through the bequest of Joseph W. Taylor, and its first president was James Rhoads. Bryn Mawr was one of the first institutions of higher education in the United States to offer graduate degrees, including doctorates, to women. The first class included 36 undergraduate women and eight graduate students. Bryn Mawr was originally affiliated with the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends), but by 1893 had become non-denominational.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: In 1912, Bryn Mawr became the first college in the United States to offer doctorates in social work, through the Department of Social Economy and Social Research. This department became the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research in 1970. In 1931, Bryn Mawr began accepting men as graduate students, while remaining women-only at the undergraduate level.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: From 1921 to 1938 the Bryn Mawr campus was home to the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, which was founded as part of the labor education movement and the women's labor movement. The school taught women workers political economy, science, and literature, as well as organizing many extracurricular activities.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: The college celebrated its 125th anniversary of "bold vision, for women, for the world" during the 2010–2011 academic year. In September 2010, Bryn Mawr hosted an international conference on issues of educational access, equity, and opportunity in secondary schools and universities in the United States and around the world. Other festivities held for the anniversary year included publication of a commemorative book on 125 years of student life, and, in partnership with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, creation of a mural in West Philadelphia highlighting advances in women's education.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: On February 9, 2015, the Board of Trustees announced approval of a working group recommendation to expand the undergraduate applicant pool. Transgender women and intersex individuals identifying as women may now apply for admission, while transgender men identifying as such at time of application may not. This official decision made Bryn Mawr the fourth women's college in the United States to accept trans women.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: On November 19, 2020, a 16-day student strike for social justice and against racism organized by the Bryn Mawr Strike Collective came to an end. President Kim Cassidy accepted the areas that need action as demanded by the Collective and committed herself and the institution to fight for anti-racism.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: The campus was designed in part by noted landscape designers Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, and has subsequently been designated an arboretum (the Bryn Mawr Campus Arboretum). Bryn Mawr has frequently been listed as one of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States .


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: The majority of Bryn Mawr students live on campus in residence halls. Many of the older residence halls were designed by Cope & Stewardson (same architects who designed a large part of Washington University in St. Louis and Princeton University) and are known for their Collegiate Gothic architecture, modeled after Cambridge University. Each is named after a county town in Wales: Brecon, Denbigh (1891), Merion (1885), and Radnor (1887), and Pembroke East and West (1892). Rhoads North and South was named after the college's first president, James E. Rhoads; Rockefeller is named after its donor, John D. Rockefeller. Erdman was opened in 1965, designed by architect Louis Kahn. In addition, students may choose to live in Batten House (an environmentally friendly co-op). Perry House, which was originally established as the Spanish language house in 1962, was redefined as the Black Cultural Center in the 1970s. In 2015, Perry House was relaunched by the college in the former French tower of Haffner, which had undergone renovations and reconstruction the previous year. Along with Perry, now known as the Enid Cook '31 Center, a new residence hall was built where the old Haffner Language and Culture House once stood.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: Glenmede (formerly graduate student housing) is an estate located about a half mile from the main campus which at one point was available housing for undergraduate students. In 2007, it was sold to a conservation buyer as the annual costs of upkeep were too great for the college.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: Bryn Mawr's library holdings are housed in the Mariam Coffin Canaday Library (opened 1970), the Rhys Carpenter Library (opened 1997), and the Lois and Reginald Collier Science Library (opened 1993). TRIPOD, the online library catalog, automatically accesses holdings at Haverford and Swarthmore.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: In 1908, John C. Olmsted designed a private garden for M. Carey Thomas adjoining the Deanery. The garden was later modified and renamed as the Blanca Noel Taft Memorial Garden. In its current form, the garden is a small, serene enclosure with two wall fountains, one with a small basin and the other with a sunken reflecting pool. The decorative wall tiles above the smaller wall fountain and basin were purchased from Syria.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: In 1960, architect Louis I. Kahn and Bryn Mawr College president, Katharine Elizabeth McBride, came together to create the Erdman Hall dormitory.


title: Bryn Mawr College

text: For over a year, Kahn and his assistants struggled to translate the college's design program of 130 student rooms and public spaces into a scheme (well documented by the letters written between McBride and Kahn). The building comprises three geometrical square structures, connected at their corners. The outer walls are formed by interlocking student rooms around three inner public spaces: the entry hall, dining hall and living hall. These spaces receive light from towering light monitors.