Bełżec extermination camp

Bełżec (pronounced [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s], in German: Belzec) was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, a key part of the "Final Solution" which entailed the murder of some 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. The camp operated from 000000001942-03-17-000017 March 1942 to the end of 000000001942-12-01-0000December 1942. It was situated about 0.5 km (0.31 mi) south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in German-occupied Poland, in the new Distrikt Lublin of the semi-colonial General Government territory. The burning of exhumed corpses on five open-air grids and bone crushing continued until March 1943.

Between 430,000 and 500,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by the German SS at Bełżec, along with an unknown number of Christian Poles and Romani people. Only seven Jews performing slave labour with the camp's Sonderkommando survived World War II; and only one of them, became known from his own postwar testimony submitted officially. The lack of viable witnesses who could testify about the camp's operation is the primary reason why Bełżec is so little known despite the enormous number of victims.