1. By: Jeramy Pegram Allison Berger Stephanie Lopez and Jordan Manley
Belzec
By: Jeramy Pegram
Allison Berger
Stephanie Lopez
and Jordan Manley

2. Establishment
Was Established By Aktion Reinhard, For His Murder Program.
This Camp Was Meant To Be An Extermination Camp, And A Work Camp, To Be Located Between South East Poland, And Eastern Galicia.
This Camp Was Operated By The Nazi SS.
Belzec Was Operated As Two Separate Camps; A Work Camp, And An Extermination Camp.

3. Killing Method
Originally The Camp Had 3 Killing Chambers In Wooden Buildings That Used Carbon Monoxide.
Later There Were 6 Brick And Concrete Houses Built That Used The Same Method Of Pumping Carbon Monoxide Into The Buildings.
This Method Was Less Effective Than More Refined Gases Like The Ones At Auschwitz.

4. Notable Inmates
Maurycy(Moses) Allerhand was a famous lawyer and an author of many books about jurisprudence(the theory or philosophy of law) that is still used by lawyers and students today. He perished in the camp, but his diary was published by his great grandson called “Notes from the Other World.”
Henryk Bekker was the leader of the Folkspartaj(Jewish People’s Party) in Lublin and a member of the Lublin City Council before the war. During the war he was the leader of the Lublin Judenrat. He perished in the camp.

5. Resistance Active Resistance:
A revolt happened in the camp when Jews were ordered to remove the bodies of the murdered women and children. When they saw the terrible scene they attacked the guards killing 6.
Spiritual Resistance:
Though many didn’t survive long in the camp, they kept up their beliefs until the end.

6. Resistance Continued Individual Resistance:
Some escaped during the train ride to the camp by climbing out the small windows.
The train workers told them about jumping out saying that they were going slowly so it would be safe to jump.

7. Liberation
During the early months of 1943, the corpses of the murdered Jews were disinterred and burned in open air pits. The camp was then closed. The camp ceased in December of 1942.
Belzec was liberated by the Soviet army and is now a national shrine.
Between late 1942 and spring 1943, the mass graves were opened and the corpses cremated, in an effort to conceal evidence of mass extermination. The camp was then closed, and the remaining 600 prisoners sent to Sobibor. The site was turned into a farm and given to a Ukrainian guard.

8. 10 New Facts:
Belzec extermination camp was quite small, with a circumference of about 1,220 yards. It was divided into two sections, each one surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
It is estimated that about 600,000 Jews were murdered at Belzec and probably dozens of thousands of Gypsies.
It was the first Nazi camp to have stationary gas chambers.
Belzec was a work camp first. It was first dismantled in 1940, but because of the proximity to railways it was repurposed as an extermination camp
Gassing operations started in March, 1942.

9. Facts Cont.
Certain Jews were selected to survive so they could help move corpses and help detrain other Jews
Only 7 Jews survived this camp by the end of World War II, only 2 have a known testimony
Started with only 3 gas chambers, but at Belzec’s peak it had six.
Belzec was dismantled in June,1943.
Before they left, SS destroyed all buildings connected to the camp, exhumed and burned all jewish bodies, built a manor, and planted trees and crops to make the site of Belzec look like farm.