Belzec was an extermination camp, which was located in Lublin district of Southeast Poland. 600,000 Jews and some gypsies were exterminated in Belzec. Belzec was the first camp that had gas chambers. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire fences. People could not tell what was going on in the inside. The outside had camouflage. There were watch towers on either corner of the building.

Trains would bring the people to Belzec. There were 100 - 130 people to a car. Conditions were deplorable. There were no toilets, and no water. Some people never made it out of the railroad cars. Freight cars with the people were detached and a locomotive pulled them inside the camp. When the people arrived, they were told they were going to go to a labor camp. In the mean time, they were made to get out and were told they were going to be cleansed. They were to get undressed and give the Germans their money and their valuables. Men were separated from the women and the children. The people got undressed, then they were rushed into the gas chambers. The process at the beginning took 3 - 4 hours. Later on it took 60 - 90 minutes.

December 1942 - the extermination operation at Belzec ceased. Between December 1942 and the Spring of 1943 graves were opened and burned. When everything was burned the camp was taken apart anbd all traces were obliterated.

Arad, Y Operation Reinhard Death Camp Belzec, Sobilar, & Trebinka, Bloomington, 1987
"Belzec" Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Eds. Robert Rozett and Shmuel Spector. New York: Facts on File, 2000.