Sobibor was founded in 1942 in occupied Poland, alongside Treblinka and Belzec. The insurgency at the camp erupted on October 14, 1943. The rebels, led by Ukrainian Jew Alexander Pechersky, killed a number of SS officers with knives and axes and led a mass escape. They broke through the fencing and fled into the forest around the camp.

Many were caught and executed by the Germans; some were captured and turned over by local villagers. Ultimately about 300 of the 600 prisoners in the camp escaped but only 50 would survive the Holocaust. Rozenfeld was one.