Richard Rashke

Richard L. Rashke (born 1936) is an American journalist, teacher and author, who has written non-fiction books, as well as plays and screenplays. He is especially known for his history, Escape from Sobibor, first published in 1982, an account of the mass escape in October 1943 of hundreds of Jewish prisoners from the extermination camp at Sobibor in German-occupied Poland. The book was adapted as a 1987 TV movie by the same name.

Early life and education Richard Rashke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Guy and Angeline (Luksich) Rashke. He had an older brother Donald.

Becoming interested in the story of resistance showed by hundreds of Jews who escaped from Sobibor, a German Nazi extermination camp in Poland, Rashke did research and interviewed survivors for his 1982 book, Escape from Sobibor. It was adapted as a 1987 TV movie by the same name, starring actors Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer.

One of the survivors of Sobibor whom Rashke interviewed was Esther Terner Raab. As a result of her talks about her experience, she received many letters, which she shared with Rashke, as she said they helped her heal. His play about her and the influence of the letters, Dear Esther, premiered in 1998 in Washington, DC, at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Drawn to compelling personal stories, Rashke has studied subjects including Bill Lear, an aviation engineer and inventor who did not get beyond seventh grade.

Marriage and family Rashke is married to Paula Kaufmann. They live in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.