"Belzec" redirects here. For the nearby village, see Bełżec (village).
Belzec
Nazi extermination camp
Jews from Lublin District during deportation to Belzec
Location of Bełżec (lower centre) on the map of German extermination camps marked with black and white skulls. Borders of the Second Polish Republic before World War II
Near Bełżec, General Government (German-occupied Poland)
Built by
Richard Thomalla (layout)
Lorenz Hackenholt (gas chambers)
Operated by
SS-Totenkopfverbände
Commandant
Christian Wirth (Dec. 1941 – Aug. 1942)
Gottlieb Hering (Aug. 1942 – June 1943)
First built
1 November 1941 – March 1942
Operational
17 March 1942 – end of June 1943
Number of gas chambers
3 (later 6)[1]
Inmates
Polish, German, Czech, Ukrainian and Austrian Jews
Killed
434,508–600,000
Notable inmates
Rudolf Reder
Belzec (English: /ˈbɛl.zɛk/ or /ˈbɛl.ʒɛts/, Polish: [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s]) was a Nazi German extermination camp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution", the overall Nazi effort to complete the genocide of all European Jews. Before Germany's defeat put an end to this project more than six million Jews had been murdered in the Holocaust.[2] The camp operated from 17 March 1942 to the end of June 1943.[3] It was situated about 500 m (1,600 ft) south of the local railroad station of Bełżec, in the new Lublin District of the General Government territory of German-occupied Poland.[4] The burning of exhumed corpses on five open-air grids and bone crushing continued until March 1943.[5]
Between 430,000 and 500,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by the SS at Bełżec.[3][6] It was the third-deadliest extermination camp, exceeded only by Treblinka and Auschwitz.[7] Only seven Jews performing slave labour with the camp's Sonderkommando survived World War II;[5] and only Rudolf Reder became known,[8] thanks to his official postwar testimony.[9] The lack of viable witnesses able to testify about the camp's operation is the primary reason why Bełżec is little known, despite the victim number count.[9] Israeli historian David Silberklang writes that Belzec "was perhaps the place most representative of the totality and finality of the Nazi plans for Jews".[10]
^ abThe Holocaust Encyclopedia. "Belzec". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original (Internet Archive) on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
^MMPwB, Decyzja o podjęciu akcji 'Reinhardt', Muzeum-Miejsce Pamięci w Bełżcu, Oddział Państwowego Muzeum na Majdanku, archived from the original on 20 August 2009
^ abARC (26 August 2006). "Belzec Camp History". Aktion Reinhard. Archived from the original on 25 December 2005. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
^"Belzec Death Camp Memorial, Poland". Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies : University of Minnesota. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
^Snyder, Timothy (16 July 2009). "Holocaust: The Ignored Reality". The New York Review. Retrieved 8 April 2022.
^Bergen, Doris (2009). War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. Critical Issues in World and International History (2nd ed.). Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 185. ISBN 9780742557161.
^ ab"Belzec Death Camp: Remember Me". Alphabetical Listing. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. 2007. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
^Silberklang, David (2013). Gates of Tears: The Holocaust in the Lublin District. Yad Vashem. p. 16. ISBN 978-9653084643.
and 24 Related for: Belzec extermination camp information
Belzec (English: /ˈbɛl.zɛk/ or /ˈbɛl.ʒɛts/, Polish: [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s]) was a Nazi German exterminationcamp in occupied Poland. It was built by the SS for the...
of gas vans. The six exterminationcamps were Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Extermination through labour was also...
by Odilo Globocnik. The first out of three Aktion Reinhard exterminationcamps was Bełżec. Since Wirth had previous experience in murdering with gas in...
World War II Hackenholt built and operated the gas chamber at the Bełżecexterminationcamp in occupied Poland during Operation Reinhard. In so doing, he...
and that he had not been convicted in Magdeburg of his role at Belzecexterminationcamp, but for his involvement in the Action T4 euthanasia programme...
served in Action T4 and later as the second and last commandant of Bełżecexterminationcamp during Operation Reinhard. Hering directly perpetrated the genocide...
the Belzecexterminationcamp. He was charged with 450,000 counts of accessory to murder and sentenced to 4.5 years imprisonment during the Belzec Trial...
witnessed, together with Kurt Gerstein, the gassing of Jews in Bełżecexterminationcamp. He may also share responsibility with other SS officials in criminal...
served at Bełżecexterminationcamp, where he commanded Camp II, the extermination area. He then was transferred to Sobibor exterminationcamp. Niemann...
during the Holocaust in the Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibór and Bełżecexterminationcamps. Historian Michael Allen described him as "the vilest individual...
1881 – October 6, 1977) was one of only two survivors of the Bełżecexterminationcamp. His testimony after the war became very well known. He submitted...
of Nazi camps Wannsee Conference Belzec was also the name of a system of forced labor camps along the Bug river in 1940. The exterminationcamp was built...
of Bełżecexterminationcamp, he applied lessons learned there to Sobibor. Thomalla allotted a much larger area for Sobibor than he had for Bełżec, allowing...
Nazi Germany, and after the invasion of Poland worked at Bełżec and Sobibór exterminationcamps during Operation Reinhard. Zierke helped to perpetrate the...
000 Jews were delivered to their deaths in cattle trucks at the Bełżecexterminationcamp and additional 4,000 at Majdanek. Already in 1939–40, before the...
the fall of Moscow – to begin the construction of the first exterminationcamp at Bełżec in the General Government territory of occupied Poland. The order...
crematorium. In 1942 Barbl was posted to Bełżecexterminationcamp, the first of the Nazi German exterminationcamps created for the purpose of implementing...
February and November 1942, when most Jews were deported to the Belzecexterminationcamp. During the interwar period, Drohobych was a provincial town in...
for mass murder. Treblinka was the third exterminationcamp of Operation Reinhard to be built, following Bełżec and Sobibór, and incorporated lessons learned...
Pfannenstiel, Gerstein witnessed the gassing of some 3,000 Jews in the exterminationcamp of Belzec in occupied Poland. The report features his eyewitness testimony...
sent to the Janowska camp; the rest were deported to the German Nazi death campBelzec for extermination. The concentration camp was guarded by a Sonderdienst...
Sobibor exterminationcampBelzec Trial before the 1st Munich District Court in the mid-1960s, eight SS-men of the Belzecexterminationcamp Belsen Trial...
of the Cornides Report, which contains his account of the extermination of Jews at Belzec during the Holocaust. In December 1946 Cornides became the...
Global Information
