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Bełżec (pronounced [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s], inGerman:Belzec), was aNaziextermination camp (a death camp) during theHolocaust. It operated duringWorld War II, from17 March 1942 to the end ofDecember 1942.[1]
In those eight months, around 450,000 Jews were murdered at the camp by theSchutzstaffel (SS), the Nazis'paramilitary organization.[1][2] The SS also killed an unknown number ofChristianPoles andRoma people at Bełżec.[1][3]
Bełżec was the first Nazi camp that used permanentgas chambers to kill prisoners.[4]
As part ofAdolf Hitler's "Final Solution", the Nazis made plans to kill every one ofEurope's 11millionJews.[5] In 1941 they created the first death camp atChelmno in Poland. It was a killing center designed tomass-murder Jews.[4]
Then, in 1942, the Nazis launchedOperation Reinhard. This was a plan to kill every Jew in theGeneral Government (a part ofGerman-occupiedPoland) - around 2 million people.[2] The plan called for three more killing centers to be built. Bełżec was the first new death camp the Nazis built.[6]
The camp was located in the village ofBełżec in German-occupied Poland. It was about 0.5 km (0.31 mi) south of the localrailroad station, which made it easy totransport large numbers ofdeported Jews there.
Only seven Jews who worked asslave laborers in Bełżec'sSonderkommando survived World War II. Just one of them submitted postwartestimony officially.[7]
Because there are so few witnesses who can testify about the camp's operation, very little is known about Bełżec.[7]
