Bełżec extermination camp facts for kids

Bełżec ( in German: Belzec), was the first of the World War II Nazi German extermination camps created under Operation Reinhard. This was a key part of Hitler's "Final Solution". Hitler wanted to kill all of Europe's 11 million Jews. The camp operated from 17 March 1942 to the end of December 1942. Bełżec concentration camp was about 0.5 km (0.31 mi) south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in German-occupied Poland. Between 430,000 and 500,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by the German SS at Bełżec. There were also an unknown number of Christian Poles and Roma people killed there. Only seven Jews working as slave labor with the camp's Sonderkommando survived World War II. Only one of them became known from his own postwar testimony submitted officially. The lack of witnesses who could testify about the camp's operation is the primary reason why so little is known about Bełżec.

Images for kids

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  Deportation of Jews to Bełżec from Zamość, April 1942

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  Bełżec extermination camp SS staff, 1942. from right to left: Heinrich Barbl, Artur Dachsel, Lorenz Hackenholt, Ernst Zierke, Karl Gringers, (unknown), Reinhold Feiks, Karl Alfred Schluch, and Friedrich Tauscher (front left).

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  8-page from "Raczyński's Note" with Treblinka, Bełżec and Sobibor extermination camps – part of official note of Polish government-in-exile to Anthony Eden, 10 December 1942

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  This document, the so-called Höfle Telegram, confirms 434,508 Jews were murdered at Bełżec in 1942.

See also

In Spanish: Campo de exterminio de Bełżec para niños