belzec EXTERMINATION camp
Belzec was established in 1941 and was the first Nazi camp to have stationary gas chambers. Jews and other outsiders were transported by railway and many died on the trip as they were in poor conditions. Most of the time as soon as the Jewish arrived at Belzec they were straight away taken to there death, the gas chambers. There were 3 gas chambers in wooden barracks and walls made of tin, once the gas chambers were filled of prisoners and the doors were shut it took up to 30 minutes before they were all dead, the dead corpes were dragged to burial pits or cremated in order to destroy evidence of mass extermination. Even though 600,000 people died at Belzec a majority of men were kept alive for labour purposes.