Figure 1.--Here a group of Roma victims have just varrived at Belzec and are awaiting instructions from the German guards, probably some time in 1943. They are sitting in an open area near a rudimentary fence. For the killing operations, elaborate facilities were not needed. It is likely that the gas chamber is already filled and they are waiting for the earlier group to be processed. It is clear that they have no idea that they are about to be killed. Source: Archiwum Dokumentacji Mechanicznej.

The first gassing operations in the Reich were conducted on handicapped children and the mentally retarded and ill--the T4 Program. After Barbarossa, there were gassing experiments on Soviet POWs. Carbon-monoxide was used as it was readily available as gasoline exhausts. Himmler knew about this and ordered his protoge Odilio Globocnik. to begin preparing a gassing facility (about October 13). Himmler had earlier supported Globocnik in confrontations with Frank, the Governor General of the Government General (occupied Poland). Globocnik is one of the truly hideous individuals in the NAZI heirarchy and architects of the Holocaust. Globocnik chose Belzac tg become the first deth camp (late-October). Thus the purpose of Belzac was changed from a exterminatory slave labor camp to a pure death camp. [Snyder, p. 254.] It was Globocnik that developed the killing process using a remarkably small German staff given the numbers of Jews actually killed at the camp. The Einsatzgruppen unleashed with Barbarossa were fairly small, but mostly composed of Germans, although some non-German police units wre also used. At the death camp not only was process much faster, but required an amazing small German staff. Belzac was Globocnik's sollution to the killing problem fased by NAZI officials west of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line. They did not have enough Germans to begin shooting Jews likethe Einsatzgruppen east of the Line. And they did not want to divert manpower from the front or arm Poles to assist with the killing. Thus Belzac was design to kills huge numbers of Jews very rapidly with only a handfull of Germans. With would b the protype death camp.

Nisko or Lublin Plan (September 1939)

The Nisko Plan or Lublin Lublin Plan was an early SS effort to address the what they saw as their Jewish problem after the invasion of Poland. The NAZI's initial ppolicy toward the Jews was to isolate them from German society and encourage them to emigrate after first stealing their property. Here they made considerable progress, bu as aesult of the Austrian Anschluss (April 1938) and the seizure of the Sudehntlad (October 19138, and Czechoslovakia (March 1939), they found that they had more Jews than when they began. The partition of Poland with the Siviets brough eben larger numbes of Jew with in the expanding NAZI empire. Arange of groups began studing options for dealing with this problem. One of the vest known wasafter the fall of France to deport them to Madagascar. An early effort became one of Hitler's per programs. An early SS iniitiative drawn ip even as fighting was still underway in Poland was the Nisko-Lublin Plan (September 1939). This was described as the 'territorial solution to the Jewish Question' (September 1939). Initioal steps to implement it began immediately (October 1939). The idea was to create a kind of Jewish reservation, the Nisko Reservation. This was in the Lublin District of the General Government, the area of occupied Poland not annexed to the Reuch. It was tobe aiant concentration camp complx. Lublin and Nisko were cities in the area. The SS began by setting up forced labor camps next to the reservation. Labor for the campswas to be obtained in the reservation. The first camps were part of the Burggraben project devised to fortify the Molotiov-Ribbentrop Line demrking the new NAZI-Soviet border. Much of the NAZI leadership supported the effort, including Adolf Hitler and self-procclimed NAZI ideologist Alfred Rosenberg. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler assumed resonsibility for the project and began the planning process. Individuals involved in aspects of the planning included SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann; General Governor Hans Frank Arthur Seyss-Inquart also working in the General Government, and Gestapo Chief Heinrich Müller. Odilo Globocnik, the former Gauleiter of Vienna, wasappointed ti be the SS and Police Leader of the Lublin district. He worked closely with Himmler and was given charge of the reservation and camps. Himmler had about 95,000 Polish Jews Jews deported to the Reservation. The largest camp was Belzac which was part of the SS Burggraben project. In the end, however, the plan proved unworkable and was discontinued (April 1940). The Burggraben camps were temporarily closed after Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union (late-1940). Defensive works were no longer needed. The SS began e reactivate them in in 1941. The main camp was Belzac which would the first death camp, Two other death camps, Sobibor and Majdanek, were lsubsequently opened in the Lublin District. The Lipowa Camp became a Majdanek subcamp (1943).

Labor Camp

Belzec was the first labor camp in the General Government (NAZI-occupied central Poland).

Gassing

The first gassing operations in the Reich were conducted on handicapped children and the mentally retarded and ill--the T4 Program. After Barbarossa, there were gassing experiments on Soviet POWs. Carbon-monoxide was used as it was readily available as gasoline exhausts. Gassing had many advantages for the Germans. This was essentially amatter of efficency. The Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union with the onset of Barbarosa proved tht small groups could kill large numbers of people. But the killing squads spent most of theretime traveling and iounding up Jews. There actions were also very public and there was also the problem of disposing of the bodies. Gassing in purpoe designed facilities mean that the Jews could be bought to the killers, greatkly increasing the number of people who could be killed in a guven ime period nd rducing the number of Germans involved to a handfull. Tis solved the problm of the limited staff available to SS-Obergruppenführer Odilio Globocnik. [Musial, p. 31.]

Death Camp

Belzac became the first of the death camps the Germans built in occupied Poland or near Poland after 'perfecting' the killing process at Chelmo. Himmler knew about this and ordered his protoge Odilio Globocnik. to begin preparing a prototype gassing facility (about October 13). Globocnik chose Belzac to become the first deth camp (late-October). The site was chosen because it was located in an isolated area on the railroad line connecting Lublin andf Lvov. Thus the purpose of Belzac was changed from a exterminatory slave labor camp to a pure death camp. [Snyder, p. 254.] It was Globocnik that developed the killing process using a remarkably small German staff given the numbers of Jews actually killed at the camp. The Einsatzgruppen unleashed with Barbarossa were fairly small, but mostly composed of Germans, although some non-German police units wre also used. At the death camp not only was process much faster, but required an amazing small German staff. Belzac was one of three Operation Reinhard death camps that the Germans built in Poland. Belzec, was Belzac was a small camp with one purpoise only--to kill. SS men first appeared at Belzec to recruit labor to begin building the camp (October 1941). [Breitman] Construction began soon after (November 1941) and was completed (March 1942).

Subsequent Camps

The SS quickly followed with the construction of three additional killing facilities (Sobibór and Maidanek) in the Lublin district and Treblinka at Małkinia Górna (early 1942).

Odilio Globocnik

Himmler had earlier supported Globocnik in confrontations with Frank, the Governor General of the Government General (occupied Poland). Globocnik is one of the truly hideous individuals in the NAZI heirarchy and architects of the Holocaust. Globocnik did such an impressive job at Belzac that Himmler chose him to be the SS officer overseeing the construction projects and the subsequent operation of the camps.

Christian Wirth

The first commandant of Belzec was SS Colonel General Christian Wirth, a pre-NAZI police officer and who had played an importanbt role in implementing the pre-War T4 euthanasia program. Commandant Wirth when Globocnik got into trouble for corruption was transferred with his boss to Trieste. After Mussolini's overthrow (July 1943) and the subeequent German invasion (September), he was assisned to to carry out the deportation of Italian Jews. On a inspection tour to Fiume, Yugoslav partisans shot and killed him (May 26, 1944).

Operation Barbarossa (June 1941)

Hitler launched his long awaited Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union. It was the latgest military opetation in human history up to that point. Tge results were were stunning. Hitler and his generals were sure that they had won the War. More stunning victories fillowed in July and August. Gradually Soviet resistahnce stiffened abd aided by the weather slowed the German advance. The Soviet winter offensive (December 1941) threatened the whole unfolding process of the Holocaust. The Wehrmacht succeeded, however, in sabilizing the front (mid-April 1942). The NAZIs had been denied victory, but they still controlled Poland and areas of the western Soviet Union.

Operation Reinhard

The failure of Barbarossa undid General Plan Ost. Now the Germans had to develop new ways of dealing with the Jews ansostpone major actions against the Poles. Work on Belzec and the other death camps were rushed to completion. Belzec was a small camp with one purpoise only--to kill. It was one of the Aktion Reinhard killing facilities.[Arad]

Janowska

Many of the Belzec transports went through Lviv whuch had a substantial ghetto. The Jews were often 'processed' for death at the nearby Janowska concentration camp located there. Jews were detrained there and marched into the camp assembly ground where they were ordered to strip naked. They were then marched back to the waiting transports and sent on to the Belzec killing facility. This facilitated the transport of their possessions to the wearhouses.

Design and Facilities

When murder was the sole purpose, the camps did not have to be very large. There was no need for barracks or other facilities, except for the small staff

Staff

The staff at Belzac was incredibly small, amazing given the number of people killed there. Belzec was run by a small German staff of SS men and mostly Ukranian guards trined at the Trawniki Camp. These wee Red Army soldiers captured by the Germans. The primary work force at the camp was slave worker Jews. The SS kept only a few hundred worker Jews in Belzec at any given time. They were used in various ways, both in the killing operation and in the recovery of clothing and items of value left after the victimes undressed. [Breitman] The SS used worker Jews because they would also be killed leaving very few people left with a knowledge of what occurred here.

Victims

Many of the Jews murdered eventually murdered at Belzec were from Eastern and Western Galicia. Many Reich (German) Jews and Jews from areas of occupied countries incorporated into the Reich were also killed at Belzec. About 1,500 Poles accused of helping Jews, Gypsies, and thousands of Soviet prisonors of war were also killed at Belzec. [Gilbet, p. 421.]

Killing Process

The victims after arrival by train were ordered to remove their clothes for disebnfecting shower. This was not always necessary as some of the Jews were stripped of their clothing and possessions before reaching Belzec. They were then directed into disguised gas chambers and were then murdered with exhaust gas (also used at Sobibor and Treblinka). There was no crematirium. The bodies were buried in 33 massive pits. The pace of the killing declined (Late 1942), primarily because they had suceeded in killing most Polish Jews. Killing and Belzec stopped and slowed substantially at the other Reinhard camps. Himmler visited the Reinhard camps (February or early May 1943).

Death Toll

The SS proved to be chillingly effextive in ku\illing Jews at Belzac, their first purpose-built murder facility. The SS succeeded in killing about 74,000 Jews from Lublin and Galacia in only the first month. one month. A total of 0.4-0.6 million Jews are believed to have been murdered at Belzec. All this was accomplished in little miore tha ayear of operations.

Closing

The date for closing the camps became dependant on the final stage of the operatuon--destroying the evidence. [Arad] As there were no crenmatorium--there were hundreds of thousand of bodies. The NAZis attempted to hide what was done at Belzec. The SS attempted to destroy the evidence when the fighting in the Eastern Front began to go against them--Aktion 1005. They began to disinter the bodies and burn them in open air pits. It was aassive undertaking given the number of corpses. This process was, thus not completed at the time the camp was closed (early-1943). They destroyed the buildings and planted trees. They also built a small farm house there.

Memorial

Sources

Arad, Yitzhak. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps.

Breitman, Richard. Official Secrets: What the Nazis Planned, What the British and Americans Knew.

Gilbert, Martin. A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 2 1933-54 (William Morrow and Company, Inc.: New York, 1998), 1050p.

Musial, Bogdan. "Przypadek modelowy dotycacy eksterminacji Zydów': Poczatki 'akcji Reinhardt'--planowanie masowego mordu Zydów w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie," Dariusz Libionka, ed., Akcja Rinhardt: Zaglada Zydów w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie (Warsaw: IPN, 2004), pp. 15-38.

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Created: 4:59 AM 5/25/2011
Last updated: 9:34 AM 8/12/2019