18 of October on the press-conference in international media group «Rossiya Segodnya» announced the winners of the elaborating architectural composition dedicated to heroes of resistance in concentration camps and ghetto. Architectural studio Chado took honorary second place. 

The expert pole worked from 10 of September to 10th of October. Summing up, 98 participants had applied from 20 of March to 15 August 2018.

The competition of the developing the architecture and sculpture of the composition coincided with the 75th anniversary of rebellion in Nazi concentration camp named "Sobibor": the prisoners of the camp had incredible courage and will, they confronted the oppressors, risked their lives, while they did not have the hope to get free. The foundation stone-laying ceremony was held with the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Premier Minister of Izrael — Berjamin Netanyahu. 

Our project which took the second place in the contest is looking like this:

The explanatory text:

History. SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor is the camp of death, which was organized by the Nazis in Poland. It existed from May 15 of 1942 to October 15 of 1943. About 250 thousand jews people were killed there. Exactly in Sobibor had occurred one of the few rebellions of the Nazi death camps in October 14 of 1943, it was led by a Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky. And these time the riot was successful. This important occasion was the main idea of the exhibition.

Project. The two long ramps, “paths”, lead to a dark domed underground space, narrowed by the edges. This technique allows you to express the feelings of fear, deprivation, and oppression. The path of the viewer has the emotional tension. Before you get to the center of the exposition, the visitor passes through metal sculptural elements, which were bent like broken people located under the weight of the concrete ceiling. The viewer sees the light through a ruptured hole in the ceiling as if this gap was made by stronger and more dynamic sculptures, which personifies those heroes, who managed to organize a riot and escape of stone captivity.

The restraint and conciseness of the entire composition are broken by the fracture of the surface of the pavage area. The sculptures of internal space break through the earth's surface, as a young plant makes its way through the thickness of asphalt.

The stone from the place of execution of Jews in the village of Lyubavichi serves as a part of a large composition in the whole territory; it fits into the environment as a kind of historical “artifact” of this terrible event. It is not the main element, but it also does not serve as a secondary one: the stone must be a self-sufficient component, which can be reached bypassing the entire exposition.

Metaphor. The entire inner space is filled with thin sculptural elements-trees in the dungeon. This impersonated the people, who were the prisoners of the camp. All of them are different by the temper, but equally broken and it seems that they are already defeated. But among those tortured and exhausted people, there were those individuals, who could defeat their fear and pain, those, who broke through and won their freedom. The fracture of the earth’s surface symbolizes the defeated system of Nazi Germany, disturbed and insulted by the rebellion of the Jewish people in Sobibor.