BelzecBelzec is a concentration camp that was first established November 1, 1941. The camp was located in southeastern Poland in the Lublin District. It was originally in 1940 a slave labor camp. Between March and December in 1942 600,000 Jews were killed. In 1942 the gas was carried out in wooden barracks that held 100 to 150 prisoners. Six gas chambers could hold 1,500 people. The SS or protective units ran the camp and they had brutal discipline. Belzec consisted of two camps into three parts: administration section, barracks and storage for plundered goods, and extermination section. The camp was quite small, it had a circumference of + - 1,200 yards. The camp was divided into two sections, each surrounded by barbed wire fence, and watch towers all around the main perimeter. The camp consisted of an expansion where the men, women, and children were separated. The barracks were where they were to undress and be shaved, and the huts where the SS carried out the murder duties. The second camp was the gas chamber and burial pits. It was reached by a long narrow passageway fenced in. It was said to be called “the tube”. It was screened off from the rest of the camp by leafy branches intertwined with barb wire. They had to have camouflage for the murder process. The women had their hair shaven off and then were taken to the “tube” which they were told were going to be the showers. After the murdering a dentist would take anything that was valuable, that included pulling out gold teeth. This is a testimony of SS-officer Schluch. “After leaving the undressing barracks, I had to show the Jews the way to the gas chambers. I believe that when I showed them the way they were convinced that they were really going to the baths. After the Jews entered the gas chambers, the doors were closed. Then the switch was turned on which supplied gas.” “I could see that the lips and tips of the noses were a bluish color. Some of them had their eyes closed, others eyes rolled. The bodies were dragged out of the gas chambers and inspected by a dentist, who removed rings and gold teeth.” In later years they built a concrete building holding six gas chambers, which let the SS men kill up to 1,500 people at a time. Any person remaining at Belzec were transported to Sobibor death camp and murdered. In early 1943 after the murdering the dead were burned in open air pits. One of the worse things that happened was when the SS men took about a hundred Jews on ten trucks and made them dig ditches. Then lay down and threw grenades on them. As you know 550,000 to 600,000 Jews were murdered at Belzec. It was an awful thing that happened.
Seavor Askren 7th Grade Rossville Jr. High Spring 2001 |
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