page_title: Alexander Pechersky
section_title: After the war
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Pechersky / After the war
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Мемориальная доска на доме, где жил Александр Печерский (Ростов-на-Дону, ул. Социалистическая, д. 121)
context_page_description: Alexander 'Sasha' Pechersky was one of the organizers, and the leader, of the most successful uprising and mass-escape of Jews from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II; which occurred at the Sobibor extermination camp on 14 October 1943.
  In 1948, Pechersky was arrested by the Soviet authorities along with his brother during the countrywide Rootless cosmopolitan campaign against Jews suspected of pro-Western leanings but released later due in part to mounting international pressure. Pechersky was prevented by the Soviet government from leaving the country to testify in international trials related to Sobibor, including the Eichmann Trial in Israel; foreign investigators were only allowed to collect his testimony under KGB supervision. The last time he was refused permission to exit the country and testify was in 1987, for a trial in Poland.
context_section_description: After the war, Pechersky returned to Rostov-on-Don, where he lived before the war and started work as administrator in an operetta theater. The mass murder of Jews at the Sobibor death camp became part of the charges against leading Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. The International Tribunal at Nuremberg wanted to call Pechersky as a witness but the Soviet government would not allow him to travel to Germany to testify. In 1948, during Stalin's persecution of Jews, known as the 'Rootless cosmopolitan' campaign targeting those who allegedly lacked true loyalty and commitment to Stalinism and the Soviet Union, Pechersky lost his job and was briefly arrested. He was quickly released because of international pressure.
  Despite having lost his job because of repressions, he was awarded a medal "For Battle Merit" in 1949. He had to sell handcrafted clothes on the local market for five years because he could not find a job. Only after Stalin's death in 1953 could he find a job, in Rostselmash factory. His brother, however, succumbed to a diabetic coma while incarcerated. Alexander Pechersky worked for a short time at a small cinema as a director.
  The Soviet government prevented Pechersky from testifying at the Eichmann Trial in Israel, only allowing a short deposition in Moscow which was controlled by the KGB. In 1963, he appeared as a witness during the Soviet trial of eleven former Ukrainian guards at Sobibor, all of whom were convicted and ten of whom were executed. According to his daughter in an interview, Pechersky was prevented by the Soviet government from testifying in international trials related to Sobibor. The final time Pechersky was refused permission to leave the country and testify was in 1987 for a trial in Poland and according to his daughter, this refusal "just crippled my father. He almost stopped getting out of bed and instantly aged".
  Alexander Pechersky died on January 19, 1990 and was buried at the Northern cemetery in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. In 2009, Pechersky's daughter, granddaughter and two great-grandsons were living in Rostov-on-Don.
caption: The memorial plaque on the building where Pechersky lived
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