German Extermination Camp in Bełżec (SS-Sonderkommando Belzec / Dienststelle Belzec der Waffen SS), Poland
Part 1 of 2: Establishment and Operation of the Camp
The extermination camp in Bełżec, located near the Bełżec railway station in the Lublin region of Poland, was established in early November 1941 as the first of three German camps of Operation “Reinhardt,” aimed at the extermination of the Jewish population of the General Government.
The official operation of the camp began on March 17, 1942, when the first transport of Jews from the Lublin ghetto arrived. Between 430,000 and 450,000 people were murdered in Bełżec, mainly Jews from Poland but also from Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.
The camp used stationary gas chambers with exhaust gas, making it the first such facility in the occupied territories. The commanders were Christian Wirth and Gottlieb Hering, and the staff consisted of about 30 SS members, supported by German guards and prisoners assigned to the so-called “sonderkommando.” The camp was a site of mass, systematic extermination, where victims were immediately sent to the gas chambers upon arrival, and their bodies buried in mass graves.
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