ABSTRACT
The first Western judicial inquest into the "unknown" camp of Sobibor was held in Germany in 1959. In October 1960, an official investigation was launched, followed by the indictment of a dozen soldiers in 1964. The trial started in 1965 in Hagen. Aleksandr Pechersky was probably testifying at that moment in Rostov-on-Don. There were several trials in the Soviet Union in which Pechersky participated where the punishment was not mild at all. In 1984 Pechersky was interviewed again for the second German Sobibor trial a decade later. Pechersky felt alone in these years, isolated from his most important friends and far from where he could pursue his mission. The trial in Hagen in 1984 was also attended by Jules Schelvis, himself a survivor of Sobibor. One outcome of the trials, however, was unexpected. It enabled the survivors to testify and to meet, to be confronted with what had happened, which they had never been able to comprehend.
