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<h2>Location</h2> <p>The small town of Belzec was located in southeastern Poland between the cities of Zamosc and Lvov (L’viv). During the German occupation of Poland in <a href="/narrative/2388/en">World War II</a>, this area was located in the Lublin District of the <em>Generalgouvernement</em> (that part of German-occupied Poland not directly annexed to Germany, attached to German East Prussia or incorporated into the German-occupied Soviet Union).</p> <h2>Labor Camp Established</h2> <p>In 1940, the Germans established a string of labor camps along the Bug (Buh) River, which, until the <a href="/narrative/2972/en">German invasion of the Soviet Union</a> in June 1941, formed the demarcation line between German- and Soviet-occupied Poland. The headquarters of this complex was a labor camp established on the outskirts of Belzec. SS officials forced Jews deported from Lublin District and other parts of the Generalgouvernement to the Belzec labor camp and its subsidiary camps to build fortifications and antitank ditches along the Bug River. The Belzec labor camp and its subsidiaries were dismantled at the end of 1940.</p> <h2>The Belzec Killing Center</h2> <p>In November 1941, SS and police authorities in Lublin District began construction of a <a href="/narrative/2746/en">killing center</a> on the site of the former Belzec labor camp. The choice of location was dictated by good rail connections and proximity to significant Jewish populations in the <a href="/narrative/3119/en">Lvov</a>, <a href="/narrative/3055/en">Krakow</a>, and Lublin districts of the Generalgouvernement. The facility was finished in the late winter of 1942 as part of what later would be called <a href="/narrative/3875/en">Operation Reinhard</a> (also called Aktion Reinhard), the plan implemented by the SS and Police Leader in Lublin to murder the Jews of the Generalgouvernement.</p> <p>Belzec began operations on March 17, 1942. The first Jewish communities deported to Belzec were those of Lublin and Lvov. Belzec was the second German killing center, and the first of the Operation Reinhard killing centers, to begin operation.</p> <p>Located along the Lublin-Lvov railway line, the killing center was only 1,620 feet from the Belzec railway station. A small rail siding connected the camp and the station. The SS staff and auxiliary police guards assigned to the camp were housed in a separate compound near the railroad station.</p> <p>The authorities at the Belzec killing center consisted of a small staff of German SS and police officials (between 20 and 30) and a police auxiliary guard unit of between 90 and 120 men, all of whom were either former Soviet prisoners of war of various nationalities or Ukrainian and Polish civilians selected or recruited for this purpose. All members of the guard unit were trained at a special facility of the SS and Police Leader in Lublin, the <a href="/narrative/10797/en">Trawniki</a> training camp.</p> <p>Commandants of the Belzec camp were SS Major Christian Wirth until June 1942 and then SS First Lieutenant Gottlieb Hering from June 1942 until June 1943.</p> <h2>Mass Murder</h2> <p>The Germans divided Belzec into a combined administration-reception area and a separate area, in which the SS and police could carry out the mass murder hidden from view of victims waiting in the reception area. A narrow enclosed path called the "tube" connected the two sections of the killing center. The reception area held the railway siding and a ramp. The area where the mass murder took place included the <a href="/narrative/4537/en">gas chambers</a> and mass graves. Rail tracks ran from the gas chambers to the burial pits. Each side of the camp measured 886 feet. Fine boughs woven into the barbed-wire fence and trees planted around the perimeter served as camouflage to prevent curious outsiders from seeing operations inside the camp.</p> <p>Gassing operations at Belzec began in mid-March 1942. Trains of 40 to 60 freight cars, with 80 to 100 people crowded into each car, arrived at the Belzec railway station. Twenty freight cars at a time were detached and brought from the station into the camp. The arriving Jews were then ordered to disembark at the platform of the reception area. German SS and police personnel announced that the Jewish deportees had arrived at a transit camp and were to hand over all valuables in their possession.</p> <p>Initially, men were separated from women and children, though in later months, as transport arrivals became more chaotic due to increased awareness of the victims of what would happen, the Germans and the Trawniki-trained auxiliaries could not always implement this segregation.</p> <p>The Jews were forced to undress and run through the "tube," which led directly into gas chambers deceptively labeled as showers. Once the chamber doors were sealed, auxiliary police guards started an engine located outside the building housing the gas chambers. Carbon monoxide was funneled into the gas chambers, killing all those inside. The process was then repeated with deportees in the next 20 freight cars.</p> <h2>Forced Labor at Belzec</h2> <p>Members of the Sonderkommandos (special detachments)—groups of prisoners selected to remain alive as forced laborers—worked in the killing area. They removed bodies from the gas chambers and buried the victims in mass graves. Other prisoners selected for temporary survival worked in the administration-reception area, facilitating detraining, disrobing, relinquishment of valuables, and movement into the “tube” of new arrivals. They also sorted the possessions of the murdered victims in preparation for transport to Germany, and were responsible for cleaning out freight cars for the next deportation. German SS and police personnel and the Trawniki-trained guards periodically murdered the members of these detachments of Jewish laborers, and replaced them with persons selected from newly arriving transports.</p> <p>In October 1942, on orders from Lublin, German SS and police personnel, using groups of Jewish forced laborers rounded up from various locations in Lublin District, began to exhume the mass graves at Belzec and burn the bodies on open-air “ovens” made from rail track. The Germans also utilized a machine to crush bone fragments into powder.</p> <h2>Deportations to Belzec</h2> <p>Between March and December 1942, the Germans deported approximately 434,500 Jews and an undetermined number of Poles and <a href="/narrative/4500/en">Roma</a> (Gypsies) to Belzec, where they were killed. Most of the victims were Jews from the ghettos of southern and southeastern Poland. The Germans also deported German, Austrian, and Czech Jews previously sent to transit camp-ghettos in Izbica, Piaski, and elsewhere to Belzec.</p> <h2>Dismantling Belzec</h2> <p>By late spring 1943, Jewish forced laborers, guarded by the SS and police and their auxiliaries, had completed the task of exhuming the bodies and burning them and had dismantled the camp. During June 1943, the job was completed and the Jewish forced laborers were either shot in Belzec or deported to the <a href="/narrative/3790/en">Sobibor</a> killing center to be gassed.</p> <p>After the Belzec camp was dismantled, the Germans ploughed over the site, built a manor house and planted trees and crops to disguise the area as a farm. A former auxiliary police guard at the camp ostensibly farmed the land.</p> <p>Soviet forces overran the region in July 1944.</p>

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<p>Jews are forced into boxcars for deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. Lublin, Poland, 1942.</p>
Article Belzec
Map Belzec camp plan, winter 1942
Map Belzec environs, winter 1942
<p>Jews are forced into boxcars for deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. Lublin, Poland, 1942.</p>
Article Belzec: Key Dates
<p>Blimcia's parents were religious Jews. Her father, Shaya David, and her mother, Malcia Saleschtz, had settled in Kolbuszowa, where Blimcia's mother had been raised. There, Malcia's father bought the newlyweds a home and started his new son-in-law in the wholesale flour business.</p> <p>1933-39: Blimcia was born in 1938, and was raised among many aunts, uncles and cousins. Around Blimcia's first birthday, Germany <a href="/narrative/2103/en">invaded Poland</a> and soon reached Kolbuszowa. Polish soldiers on horses tried to fight against the German army, but they were no match for tanks. After a short battle, there were many dead horses in the streets. Blimcia's town came under German rule.</p> <p>1940-42: The <a href="/narrative/2562/en">children</a> in town feared Hafenbier, the vicious German police commander who was posted in Kolbuszowa. Hafenbier terrorized and killed many of the town's Jews. Blimcia often played a game in which her 3-year-old cousin <a href="/narrative/2575/en">Henoch</a> would portray Hafenbier, asking her and their friends, "Are you a Jew?" "Yes," they would answer. "If you are a Jew," mimicked Henoch, "you are dead." With his rifle fashioned from wood, Henoch would "shoot" Blimcia and the others. They would fall over, pretending they had been killed.</p> <p>Blimcia and her family were deported to the Rzeszow ghetto on June 25, 1942, and then to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center on July 7 where they were gassed. Blimcia was 3 and a half years old.</p>
ID Card Blimcia Lische
<p>David was one of eight children born to observant Jewish parents living in the small town of Delyatin. During World War I, David served in the Austrian army. Following the war, he married Frieda Gaenger and moved to Stanislav [Stanislawow]. There, David worked in his father-in-law's lumber business.</p> <p>1933-39: David had a post as vice-director of the forestry ministry's regional office. His three daughters attended private schools. David was an ardent Zionist, and looked forward to moving his family to Palestine soon. In August 1939 his oldest daughter married a man from Palestine; just before Soviet forces occupied Stanislav on September 18, 1939, the couple left for Palestine.</p> <p>1940-45: The Germans occupied Stanislav in July 1941. Before year's end, they had killed David's wife and youngest daughter, leaving David and his middle daughter, <a href="/narrative/8569/en">Amalie</a>. In 1942 he was deported on a train headed to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. He pried boards from the car floor and escaped by lowering himself from the moving train onto the tracks. He ran to a farmhouse where a Ukrainian peasant agreed to keep him if he worked on her farm. Though safe, he felt he had to look for Amalie. He boarded a train for Stanislav.</p> <p>En route, David was betrayed, turned over to police, and executed. Unknown to him, Amalie had already escaped from Stanislav and was living near the farm where he worked.</p>
ID Card David Mendel Petranker
Map Europe 1943-1944, Belzec indicated
<p>Henoch's religious Jewish parents married in 1937. His father, Moishe Kornfeld, and his mother, Liba Saleschutz, had settled in Kolbuszowa, where Henoch's mother was raised. There, Liba's father bought the newlyweds a home and started his new son-in-law in the wholesale textile business.</p> <p>1938-39: Henoch was born in late 1938, and was raised among many aunts, uncles and cousins. Around Henoch's first birthday, Germany <a href="/narrative/2103/en">invaded Poland</a> and soon reached Kolbuszowa. Polish soldiers on horses tried to fight against the German army, but they were no match for tanks. After a short battle, there were many dead horses in the streets. Henoch's town came under German rule.</p> <p>1940-42: Everyone in town, including the children, knew of Hafenbier, the vicious German police commander with the face of a bulldog who was posted in Kolbuszowa. Hafenbier terrorized and killed many of the town's Jews. Henoch often played a game with the other children in town in which he would portray Hafenbier, saying to his friends, "If you are a Jew, you are dead." Then, with a rifle made from a piece of wood, Henoch would "shoot" his playmates. They, in turn, would fall over, pretending they had been killed.</p> <p>Henoch and his family were deported to the Rzeszow ghetto on June 25, 1942, and then to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center on July 7 where they were gassed. Henoch was 3 and a half years old.</p>
ID Card Henoch Kornfeld
<p>The son of Moses and Sarah Litwak, Josef was born in Dolina, a town in southeastern Poland. Josef came from a religious Jewish family. When he was in his early twenties, he married <a href="/narrative/3152/en">Mina Schaerf</a> from the nearby town of Vinnitsa just across the Polish border. The couple settled in the industrial city of Lvov, where Josef worked in the family-owned bank. Josef and Mina raised five children.</p> <p>1933-39: The Litwaks' two youngest children, <a href="/narrative/8923/en">Fryda</a> and <a href="/narrative/3090/en">Adela</a>, had finished secondary school and were planning to attend university, but were unable to because the Polish government was enforcing quotas that limited Jewish admissions to the universities. On September 1, 1939, the Germans <a href="/narrative/2103/en">invaded Poland</a> from the west, and the Soviets invaded from the east 16 days later, splitting the country in two. Lvov was in the Soviet sector.</p> <p>1940-42: On June 30, 1941, eight days after Germany <a href="/narrative/2972/en">invaded the Soviet Union</a>, German forces <a href="/narrative/3119/en">occupied Lvov</a>. Towards the end of the year, most of Lvov's Jews were concentrated in a ghetto. Food in the ghetto was scarce, but Josef refused to eat anything that was not prepared according to Jewish dietary laws, and he became increasingly weaker. In late August 1942, during the biggest deportation roundup in the ghetto, the Germans came for Josef's wife, Mina. Josef insisted on going with her.</p> <p>Josef and his wife were placed on a transport to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. Josef died in Belzec. He was 61 years old.</p>
ID Card Josef Litwak
<p>Kaethe was the fifth of nine children born to Jewish parents. After graduating from secondary school, Kaethe worked with her father in his bakery. In 1918 she married <a href="/narrative/8583/en">Samson Reichstein</a>, and the couple settled in Hanover, where Samson was based as a salesman. Their son Herbert was born in 1920. As his wife, Kaethe was officially required to take on her husband's citizenship.</p> <p>1933-39: In 1938 Kaethe and her husband succeeded in obtaining an exit visa for the United States for their 18-year-old son Herbert as part of the U.S. immigration quota for Poland. Herbert sailed to America in October. Later that same year, Kaethe and Samson were expelled "home" to Poland with 1,000 other Polish Jews from Hanover. The Reichsteins made their way to Samson's hometown of Tarnopol.</p> <p>1940-44: Three months after the Germans overran the Soviets in Tarnopol in June 1941, the Germans established a ghetto. At 4:30 a.m. on August 31, 1942, Kaethe and Samson were awakened by screaming outside. People in the ghetto were being rounded up and herded into a public square. Samson pleaded with Kaethe to run with him to hide in a bunker, but she refused, more terrified of what would happen if she hid and were discovered. She decided to remain alone in the house. Ten minutes later, she was rounded up.</p> <p>Kaethe Reichstein was deported to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center in Poland. She perished there in September 1942.</p>
ID Card Kathe Ert Reichstein
<p>Jews are forced into boxcars for deportation to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center. Lublin, Poland, 1942.</p>
Media Gallery Killing Centers
Map Killing centers, Belzec indicated
Map Major deportations to Belzec, 1942
<p>Mina was the daughter of Chaim and Scheindel Schaerf. They lived in the multi-ethnic town of Vinnitsa. Mina came from a religious Jewish family. At 19 she married <a href="/narrative/3788/en">Josef Litwak</a>, a banker from the nearby town of Dolina, Poland. The couple settled in the industrial city of Lvov, where they raised five children. Four languages were spoken in their household--Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish.</p> <p>1933-39: The Litwak's two youngest children, <a href="/narrative/8923/en">Fryda</a> and <a href="/narrative/3090/en">Adela</a>, had finished secondary school and were planning to attend university, but were unable to because the Polish government was enforcing quotas limiting Jewish admissions to universities. On September 1, 1939, the Germans <a href="/narrative/2103/en">invaded Poland</a> from the west, and the Soviets invaded from the east 16 days later, splitting the country in two. Lvov was in the Soviet sector.</p> <p>1940-42: On June 30, 1941, eight days after Germany <a href="/narrative/2972/en">invaded the Soviet Union</a>, German forces <a href="/narrative/3119/en">occupied Lvov</a>. Towards the end of the year, most of Lvov's Jews were concentrated in a Jewish ghetto. Food in the ghetto was scarce, and the population was subjected to repeated roundups and deportations. In late August 1942, during the biggest deportation roundup in the ghetto, the Germans came for Mina. Her husband insisted on going with her.</p> <p>Mina and her husband were put on a transport to the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center, where she perished in August 1942. She was 59 years old.</p>
ID Card Mina Schaerf Litwak
<p>View after the obliteration of the <a href="/narrative/3769/en">Belzec</a> killing center showing a railway shed where victims' belongings were stored. Belzec, Poland, 1944.</p>
Article Operation Reinhard (Einsatz Reinhard)
<p>A column of prisoners arrives at the Belzec killing center. Belzec, Poland, ca. 1942.</p> <p>In early 1940 the Germans set up a forced-labor camp for Jewish prisoners in Belzec. The inmates were forced to build fortifications and dig anti-tank ditches along the demarcation line between Germany and Soviet-occupied Poland. The camp was closed down at the end of 1940. The following year, in November 1941, construction began on the Belzec <a href="/narrative/2746/en">killing center</a>.</p>
Photo Prisoners arriving at the Belzec killing center