Bełżec was the first killing centre of Operation Reinhard. In some graves the layer of corpses reached the thickness of ca 2,00m. Lwowska - teren byłego niemieckiego obozu zagłady (1942-43 r.) Vernichtungslager Belzec Nationalsozialistisches Vernichtungslager in Polen. My stopwatch showed it all, 50 minutes, 70 minutes, and the diesel did not start. New official monuments commemorating the camp's victims were unveiled. [13] Seit November 1942 wurden Leichen massenhaft exhumiert und auf großen Rosten aus Eisenbahnschienen verbrannt. Following a decision in 1997 to establish a memorial project in which the entire area of the camp will be the memorial, archaeological research was conducted in order to examine the topography of the former camp, so as to exclude areas with human remains. [54], The crucial piece of evidence came from the declassified Höfle Telegram sent to Berlin on 11 January 1943 by Operation Reinhard's Chief of Staff Hermann Höfle. [63] Anita Ekstein has led many groups of students on educational trips to Poland where she shares her Holocaust story. They return swept clean most often the same evening. Any equipment that could be reused was taken by the German and Ukrainian personnel to the concentration camp Majdanek. [59] Investigations of grave digging continued through the late 1950s. He managed to escape in November 1942, and after the war wrote an account of his life in the camp Altogether, 600 000 people were murdered in the Bełżec camp during a period of seven months. Das Vernichtungslager Bełżec wurde unabhängig davon wesentlich später abseits auf einer Lichtung errichtet.[6]. [2] The camp operated from 17 March 1942 to the end of June 1943. Thus, Y. Arad writes, that he had to rely, in part, on Yizkor books of Jewish ghettos, which were not guaranteed to give the exact estimates of the numbers of deportees. [10] The ease of transportation was secured by the railroad junction at nearby Rawa-Ruska and the highway between Lublin-Stadt and Lemberg. Bełżec (pronounced [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s], in German: Belzec), was the first of the World War II Nazi German extermination camps created under Operation Reinhard. [22] For very small transports of Jews and Gypsies over a short distance, a minimised version of the gas van technology was also used in Bełżec. Of these, just one, Josef Oberhauser (leader of the SS guard platoon), was brought to trial in 1964, and sentenced to four years and six months in prison, of which he served half before being released a free man. It was the result of direct orders from the Nazi leadership (possibly from Himmler), soon after the Soviet Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish soldiers was discovered in Russia. You can't imagine what we find every day—dollars, diamonds, gold. Decision to build the death camp in Bełżec was made during the meeting between Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, SS-Gruppenführer Friedrich Krüger - Higher SS and Police Leader in the General Government, and Odilo Globocnik - SS and Police Leader in the Lublin District. In 2004, Bełżec became a new branch of the Majdanek State Museum. Buildings constructed after the war on the camp grounds were removed. Treblinka, 50.37166666666723.4575Koordinaten: 50° 22′ 18″ N, 23° 27′ 27″ O, Ermordung von Behinderten im deutschen Reichsgebiet (auch Aktion T4), Artikelabschnitt Belzec im Artikel Gaskammer (Massenmord), Artikelabschnitt Aktion Reinhardt im Artikel Lorenz Hackenholt, Liste der Konzentrationslager des Deutschen Reichs, Erhalt und Instandsetzung „Kommandantur Bełżec“, Gedenkstätte Belzec - Aufnahmen vom Oktober 2010, Belzec – eine Gedenkstätte für die Opfer der Shoah. Some commercial development took place in areas formerly belonging to it. They also found 33 mass graves, the largest of which had an area of 480 m2 (5,200 sq ft) and was 4.8 m (16 ft) deep. Dezember 1942 traf der letzte Transport mit Opfern ein. It was his proposal to use the exhaust gas emitted by the internal-combustion engine of a motorcar as the killing agent instead of the bottled carbon monoxide, because no delivery from outside the camp would be required as in the case of the T-4 method. [a] The people wait inside the gas chambers. [22], Only seven former members of the SS-Sonderkommando Bełżec were indicted 20 years later in Munich. [1] Das Lager Belzec entstand während des Zweiten Weltkrieges neben Sobibór und Treblinka als erstes der drei Vernichtungslager im Rahmen der „Aktion Reinhardt“. They were told that they were being evacuated to Germany instead. Ernst Zierke im Vernichtungslager Bełżec", in: Wojciech Lenarczyk (Ed.). They are also a source of information about prisoners. Gedreht hat er vom Stativ und das erinnert an Claude Lanzmanns „Shoah“, das ihn beeinflusst hat. [47] All corpses buried at Bełżec were secretly exhumed and then gradually cremated on long open-air pyres, part of the country-wide plan known as the Sonderaktion 1005. He was a member of the crew of the Sachsenhausenconcentration camp and the Bełżecextermination camp, in which he was responsible for the operation of the gas chambers. "[29] The last transport of Jews arrived at Bełżec on 11 December 1942. Weitere T4-Mitarbeiter kamen ab Januar 1942 hinzu. Unloading ramp and cremation rails (historical artefacts). "[55], The Holocaust train records were notoriously incomplete as revealed by postwar analysis by the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes against the Polish Nation. [51] British historian Robin O'Neil once gave an estimate of about 800,000 based on his investigations at the site. [4] Kurze Zeit später wurden die Sinti von Juden aus Lublin, Radom und Warschau abgelöst. The first death camps were Treblinka, Bełżec, and Sobibór. [18] Später wurden Motorabgase eingeleitet; die Angaben über die Art des Motors sind widersprüchlich[19] und nicht abschließend zu klären.[20]. The original three gas chambers were insufficient for completing the task at hand. [33], Bełżec camp guards included German Volksdeutsche and up to 120 former Soviet prisoners of war (mostly Ukrainian) organised into four platoons. You'll see for yourself!" The last period of camp's operation continued until June 1943 when the area was ploughed over, and disguised as a farm. und der Forschungsstelle Ludwigsburg der Universität Stuttgart, Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-86331-506-1. [8] Israeli historian David Silberklang writes that Belzec "was perhaps the place most representative of the totality and finality of the Nazi plans for Jews". März 1942 der erste Zugtransport mit Juden aus dem Ghetto Lublin in Bełżec ein und brachte wie die nächstfolgenden „arbeitsunfähige“ Menschen, Alte, Frauen und Kinder ins Tötungslager. Der eine Teil enthielt Verwaltungsgebäude und Baracken zur Entkleidung und Lagerung des Gepäcks. See Beginning of the resistance movement in the camp. Le camp d'extermination de Belzec (Bełżec ; prononcé en polonais : [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s]) est le premier des trois centres destinés à l'extermination des Juifs d'Europe dans le cadre de l’Aktion Reinhard, avant la mise en service de Sobibor et Treblinka, dont il constitue le prototype.Il est aussi le premier à être doté de chambres à gaz fixes construites à cet effet. [3][13] On 13 October 1941, Heinrich Himmler gave the SS-and-Police Leader of Lublin, SS Brigadeführer Odilo Globočnik an order to start Germanizing the area around Zamość,[10] which entailed the removal of Jews from the areas of future settlement. [32] After the war ended, Hering served for a short time as the chief of Criminal Police of Heilbronn in the American zone, and died in autumn 1945 in a hospital. "[27], It is believed that some 50 Jews might have escaped from Bełżec successfully, although most of them perished before the commencement of the "Final Solution". [26] The workshops for the Jewish prisoners and the barracks for the Ukrainian guards were separated from the "processing" zone behind an embankment of the old Otto Line with the barb-wire on top. 1942-03-17 mass deportations from the ghettos in Lublin and Lviv to the death camp in Bełżec began. Die letzten dort eingesetzten Häftlinge wurden in einem Eisenbahnwagon nach Sobibór gebracht und dort sofort umgebracht. On March 17, 1942, started mass deportations to the death camp in Bełżec from ghettos in Lublin and Lwow. Von den Entkleidungsbaracken führte der „Schlauch“, ein schmaler, von Stacheldraht begrenzter 70 Meter langer Weg, zu den Gaskammern. [4] The burning of exhumed corpses on five open-air grids and bone crushing continued until March 1943. The design was soon imitated by the other two Operation Reinhard extermination camps: Sobibor and Treblinka. [37] In his postwar report written at the Rottweil hotel while in the French custody, Gerstein described his visit to Bełżec on 19 or 18 August 1942. After the German takeover of Italy in 1943, he was transferred by Globocnik to serve along with him in his hometown of Trieste. [10] One Wehrmacht sergeant at the train station in Rzeszow, Wilhelm Cornides, recorded in his diary a conversation with a German policeman on 30 August 1942. [60], Following the collapse of the Communist dictatorship in 1989, the situation began to change. [3], The camp's first commandant, Christian Wirth, lived very close to the camp in a house which also served as a kitchen for the SS as well as an armoury. Das Vernichtungslager Belzec in Bełżec (in der heutigen Woiwodschaft Lublin) war ein deutsches Vernichtungslager, in dem in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus zwischen März 1942 und Dezember 1942 nach Zählung der SS 434.508 Menschen ermordet wurden. [22], Bełżec "processing" zone consisted of two sections surrounded by a high barbed wire fence camouflaged with cut fir branches: Camp 1, which included the victims' unloading area with two undressing barracks further up; as well as Camp 2, which contained the gas chambers and the mass graves dug by the crawler excavator. 2004 wurde eine neue Gedenkstätte nach Entwürfen der polnischen Bildhauer Andrzej Sołyga, Zdzisław Pidek und Marcin Roszczyk eröffnet, die die Topografie des Lagers und der Vernichtungsmaschinerie dort aufzeigt, wo bis dahin nur planierte Erde zu sehen war. [52] German historians Dieter Pohl and Peter Witte,[53] gave an estimate of 480,000 to 540,000. [3] There were many technical difficulties with the early attempts at mass extermination. [32] After locals started digging for valuables in Bełżec, the Germans installed a permanent guard so that their mass killings would not come to light. Taken as a whole, Globočnik's camps at Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka had almost identical design, including staff members transferring between locations. Rubel. [5], Between 430,000 and 500,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by the SS at Bełżec. In the first three months 80,000 people were killed and buried in pits covered with a shallow layer of earth. [12] The Burggraben project was abandoned with the onset of Operation Barbarossa. Bełżec (udtales Beu-tsjets) ... Bronislaw Czachor, blev interviewet i BBC-artiklen Poland's unknown death camp. [46] The Germans attempted to use the commission's results to drive a wedge between the Allies. She first visited Bełżec in 2005, a year after the new memorial opened, and discovered her mother's name inscribed on the memorial wall on Mother's Day. Obóz zagłady w Bełżcu (oficjalnie SS-Sonderkommando Belzec lub Dienststelle Belzec der Waffen SS) – niemiecki nazistowski obóz zagłady funkcjonujący w czasie II wojny światowej, od marca 1942 roku do czerwca 1943 roku, w pobliżu wsi i stacji kolejowej Bełżec.. Obóz został utworzony w ramach akcji „Reinhardt”; prowadzono w nim eksterminację ludności żydowskiej. [c] Another 25 minutes elapsed. This was a key part of Hitler's "Final Solution". [32], The historian Eugeniusz Szrojt in his 1947 study published by the Bulletin of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, 1947) following an investigation by GKBZNwP which began in 1945, estimated the number of people murdered in Bełżec at 600,000. Of those who escaped, only seven were still alive at the war's end. The first one, from 17 March to the end of June 1942 was marked by the existence of smaller gas chambers housed in barracks made of planks and insulated with sand and rubber. [15] Stephan Lehnstaedt referierte 2017 neuere Forschungsergebnisse von Robert Kuwalek und Sara Berger, die von mindestens 440.823 bis maximal 596.200 Opfern ausgehen; er selbst hält einen Schätzwert von 470.000 für realistisch. Zyklon B was produced by a private firm for both Birkenau, and Majdanek nearby, but their infrastructure differed. [8] Nachdem Wirth am 1. It was located in the sparsely-populated north east of the Generalgouvernement area, on the Warsaw-Białystock line, close to an existing penal camp founded in 1941. [25] To ready themselves for the communal shower, women and children were separated from men. [16] The site near Bełżec was chosen for several reasons: it was situated on the border between the Lublin District and the German District of Galicia formed after Operation Barbarossa. The victims were Jews deported from the Lublin Ghetto and its vicinity. Polski: Bełżec, ul. [9], In the Second Polish Republic, the village of Bełżec was situated between the two major cities in the southeastern part of the country including Lublin 76 kilometres (47 mi) northwest of Bełżec, and Lwów to the southeast (German: Lemberg, now Lviv, Ukraine) with the largest Jewish populations in the region. Michael Tregenza stated that it would have been possible to have buried up to one million victims on the site although the true death toll is probably around half that number. Author/Creator: Reder, Rudolf, 1881–", "A New Nazi War Crimes Trial – And This Time It's Personal", Museum-Memorial Site in Bełżec (official website). 1942-06-18 in the Bełżec camp, the Germans built new concrete gas chambers. Witte, Peter; and Tyas, Stephen (2001), "A New Document on the Deportation and Murder of Jews during ‘Einsatz Reinhardt 1942'". [48] In 1945, the Lublin District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes conducted an investigation into the crimes in Bełżec. After the camp's closure, his successor there SS-Hauptsturmführer Gottlieb Hering was transferred to Poniatowa concentration camp temporarily until the massacres of the Aktion Erntefest, and later followed Wirth and Globocnik to Trieste. [35][36], The more detailed description of how the gas chambers at Bełżec were managed came in 1945 from Kurt Gerstein, Head of the Technical Disinfection Services who used to deliver Zyklon B to Auschwitz from the company called Degesch during the Holocaust. [34] Józef Marszałek calculated 500,000. A Polish Tune, 11 minute video that portrays accurately what happened. [22][23], Anhand von Berichten der wenigen Überlebenden und Interviews mit Bewohnern der Gegend gelingt es G. Moscovitz, einen Teil der Geschichte des Lagers zu rekonstruieren. [10] The first steps were taken between mid-September and mid-October 1941,[15] and the construction began around 1 November. Several people tried to escape from Bełżec, but only one of them, Rudolf Reder, survived. Work on the camp's construction started in the end of May 1942, and by the 22nd of July of the same year th… The wooden gas chambers were dismantled. [5][25] Following Operation Barbarossa, all of them underwent special training at the Trawniki SS camp division before they were posted as "Hiwis" (German letterword for Hilfswilligen, lit. [14], The decision to begin work on the first stationary gas chambers in the General Government preceded the actual Wannsee Conference by three months. 4. [58] In 1945 provincial authorities and the Tomaszów Lubelski Jewish Committee discussed the continuing plunder of the site. [8] The lack of viable witnesses who could testify about the camp's operation is the primary reason why Bełżec is so little-known despite the enormous number of victims. They were met by SS-Scharführer Fritz Jirmann (Irmann) standing at the podium with a loudspeaker,[24] and were told by the Sonderkommando men that they had arrived at a transit camp. The bones were collected and crushed. ", "Chapter 4. [61], One of the prime benefactors behind the new memorial at Bełżec was Miles Lerman, an American Holocaust survivor whose own parents were murdered in Bełżec, raising approximately 5 million dollars with the help of the Polish government and the American Jewish Committee. Belzec, Polish Bełżec, Nazi German complex of concentration camps and an extermination camp in and near the village of Bełżec along the Lublin-Lviv railway line in the Lublin province of German-occupied Poland. The labor camp and, later the killing center, were located between the cities of Zamosc and Lvov (today Lviv), about 70 miles southeast of Lublin. 1942-06-18 in the Bełżec camp, the Germans built new concrete gas chambers. [10], There was a hand-painted sign on the new building that read Stiftung Hackenholt or Hackenholt Foundation named after the SS man who designed it. Senere blev jøder hentet fra omliggende ghettoer. [3], The Bełżec history can be divided into two (or three) periods of operation. Zaglada Zydów. Bełżec fell within the German zone of occupation in accordance with the German-Soviet Pact against Poland. Holocaust Denial and Operation Reinhard, International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim/Auschwitz, Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belzec_extermination_camp&oldid=995396544, Articles with German-language sources (de), Wikipedia extended-confirmed-protected pages, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Polish, German, Ukrainian and Austrian Jews. Yitzhak Aradaccepted 600,000 as minimum, and the sum in his table of Bełżec … Gerade weil es insgesamt nur vier Überlebende dieser Todesfabrik gibt, war es Moscovitz so wichtig, das Andenken der Toten zu ehren. Furious, Captain Wirth lashes the Ukrainian assisting Hackenholt twelve, thirteen times, in the face. In early 1940 the Germans set up a number of labour camps in and around Belzec, housing workers building the so-called “Otto Line,” a series of fortifications on the border with the Soviet Union. [5] Im Dorf Bełżec selbst waren zeitweilig rund 3000 Juden auf einem Gutshof, bei einem Mühlenbetrieb und in einem Lokomotivschuppen untergebracht. Am 1. The site was planted with small firs and wild lupines and all camp structures were dismantled. [58] Beginning in the second half of the 1950s the pursuit by Germany itself of the German perpetrators revived interest in the site. Although Holocaust witnesses' testimonies differ as to the type of fuel, Erich Fuchs' postwar affidavit indicates that most probably it was a petrol engine with a system of pipes delivering exhaust fumes into the gas chambers. … Die Bilder zeigen zudem erstmals den 2011 in München verurteilten Trawniki-Mann Iwan Demjanjuk auf dem Lagergelände in Sobibor. For economic and practical reasons, Wirth had almost the same carbon monoxide gas used in T-4, generated with the torque of a large engine. Sie sind aber unvollständig, da sich die Bebauung sowie die Lage der Massengräber in einer zweiten Ausbauphase änderte.[17]. Admission to the Museum is free of charge. All about Belzec: victims, staff, maps, photos, history, etc After full zooming use arrows keys to change image and ESC key to close zoom. Von Bełżec aus wurden diese etwa 10.000 polnischen Juden in zahlreiche verschiedene Zweiglager verteilt und ab August 1940 überwiegend zu Erdarbeiten eingesetzt, um an der sowjetischen Grenze zwischen Bug und San Befestigungsanlagen zu bauen. Stellvertretender Lagerkommandant und Leiter des Vernichtungsbereiches war ab Ende 1941 der SS-Untersturmführer Schwarz. 3. Treblinka (pronounced [trɛˈblʲinka]) was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. 5. [10], The second phase of extermination began in July 1942, when the new gas chambers were built of brick and mortar on a lightweight foundation,[27] thus enabling the facility to "process" Jews of the two largest agglomerations nearby including the Kraków and the Lwów Ghettos. Vom Bahnhof führte ein Eisenbahngleis zum Lagertor. The ditch, excavated originally for military purposes was likely to serve as the first mass grave. [45] This number became widely accepted in the literature. Maly Trostinez | Chris Webb, Victor Smart & Carmelo Lisciotto (2009), The Bełżec Death Camp. 23.09.1943 Alexander Pechersky deported to Sobibór. Januar 1965 zu vier Jahren und sechs Monaten Zuchthaus wegen Beihilfe zum gemeinschaftlichen Mord in 300.000 Fällen verurteilt wurde. [65], All graves discovered by archaeologists contained large amounts of human cremation remains, and 10 graves also contained unburned human remains, which Prof. Kola described as follows: "Deposition of corpses in the water-bearing layers or in very damp structure of the ground just above that layer, with the difficulty of air penetration, because of the depth, caused the changes of the deposited bodies into adipocere. Die drei Lager wurden in abgelegenen Gebieten errichtet und verfügten über Gleisanschlüsse, so dass eine große Anzahl Menschen ohne größeres Aufsehen dorthin gebracht und getötet werden konnte. The German guards and the administration were housed in two cottages outside the camp across the road. Symbolic "death road" (portion of the memorial in Bełżec). Rudolf Reder a.k.a. [62] Her mother, Ethel Helfgott, was among the victims in Bełżec. —Kurt Gerstein, Gerstein Report[44], In the last phase of the camp operations, all prior mass graves were unearthed by a mechanical digger. Alderney, Channel Islands: ill-treatment of Russian forced labourers. In the 1990s the camp appeared badly neglected, even though it was cleaned by students from Bełżec school. Studies and Materials) 3 (2007): 188", Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, "The Construction of the Belzec Extermination Camp", "Aktion Reinhard and the Emergence of 'The Final Solution, "The 'Disappearance' of SS-Hauptscharfuhrer Lorenz Hackenholt. The process was conducted as quickly as possible amid constant screaming by the Germans. [9] Im Rahmen der „Aktion Reinhardt“ traf am 17. The historian Eugeniusz Szrojt in his 1947 study published by the Bulletin of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce, 1947) following an investigation by GKBZNwP which began in 1945, estimated the number of people murdered in Bełżec at 600,000. Im anderen Lagerkomplex befanden sich mehrere Leichengruben, Unterkünfte für die Juden des Sonderkommandos und die Gaskammern. The installation, resembling a railway transit point for the purpose of forced labour, was finished before Christmas. Arad’s book is excellent and informative history.