Why was the Concentration camp Belzec so small? Because the town of Belzec was very small so they had very limited space for building, Also they had only 1,220 yards of space and got split into two sections. They started to built it by the Bug (buh) river in 1941, It also got surrounded by barbed wire fences. It is found in southeastern Poland between Zamosc and Lvov. It was also known for being a killing Center And held 2,000-2,500 people, And kill about 600,000 Jews. What did the jews do in Belzec? They did what every jew in a concentration camp, they either got to a gas chamber and died of poison or they got sent to the right which they survived for now and they had to do daily runs, and if they fell, they got killed. They also got sick
The conditions of the camp were unbearable. The prisoners were barely fed, mainly bread and water, and were cramped in small sleeping arrangements. "Hundreds slept in triple-tiered rows of bunks (Adler 51)." In the quarters that they stayed, there were no adequate cleaning facilities or restrooms for the prisoners. They rarely were able to change clothes which meant the "clothes were always infested with lice (Swiebocka 18)." Those were sick went to the infirmary where also there were eventually killed in the gas chambers or a lethal injection. The Germans did not want to have anyone not capable of hard work to live. Prisoners were also harshly punished for small things such as taking food or "relieving themselves during work hours (Swiebocka 19)." The biggest punishment was execution. The most common punishment was to receive lashings with a whip.
While some managed to escape and go into hiding, others were captured and sent to labor camps. While a large quantity of Jews were killed upon arrival, others were evaluated and sent to work. The Jews were starved, beaten, or killed and set on fire to make space for more Jews. All of their valuables had been taken away from them for the Nazi’s greed. They were put in blue striped Joseph Mandrowitz spoke of his journey while travelling to Auschwitz,
The extermination and slave labor camp known as Belzec was indeed a nightmare to those who were held within its walls. Not only were the living conditions of the camp unbearable, but it was also very deadly. By closely examining Belzec, one gains an understanding of the horrors that occurred during the Holocaust. Many Jewish people died in Belzec, and the living conditions that they were forced to endure were intolerable and inhumane. Many innocent people suffered under the ruthless and cruel conditions in the extermination camp Belzec. Originally a slave labor camp, Belzec was located in South East Poland. It was said that the camp was responsible for the killing and murdering of 600,000 people. Some were Roma, but the majority of deaths
They could've died cause of sickness, not enough food, and water, or the guards killing them by getting burned or beaten. A lot of Jews started to question Gods existence, they said that there was no God in Auschwitz. "Behind me, I heard the same man asking 'For Gods sake, Where is God?' a within me, I heard a voice answer: 'Where He is? This is where - hanging here from this gallows..." (65). All the Jews had to leister to the guards because if not they would've killed them, they only did as told to survive, they only did as told to survive, they had no choice. Some people lost all hope cause of fear and it caused them to die, some had hope and fear. Hope can help in a life or death
You were probably wondering what they did at the death camps and what happened in the camps? There were six major death camps, Aishwitz, Birkenav, Chelmna, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Warsaw. Jews weren’t the only victims in the camps, there were also Gypsy people, and enemies. Only 7,650 jews survived when the camps closed, and hundreds of millions died a day. All of this took place in the death camps. Jews, Gypsy, and enemies went to suffer everyday. And
Auschwitz Birkenau was the largest death camp during the Holocaust. Auschwitz is located in a Poland city called Oswiecim. The Germans construction of Auschwitz Birkenau began in April 1940. 1.1 million people were sent to Auschwitz and 200,000 of those 1.1 million survived the Holocaust. The people who survived the Holocaust found a new life in modern day to day.
Those not sent to death camps were sent to something even more cruel: concentration camps. In the early days of the war, these camps were only used to house political prisoners of the war such as communists, previous criminals, prisoners of war, and extending even to tramps and beggars (“Concentration Camps” Gale, 127). In 1936, the concentration camp system extended greatly to include Jehovah’s witnesses, convicted prostitutes, Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals (“Concentration Camps” United States Holocaust Museum, par. 1). After 1936, the camps were built next to or near quarries or brickyards and factories where prisoners were forced to perform heavy labor until they were too weak to continue. (128). The program was known as “Vernichtung durch Arbeit”, or “Annihilation through Work” (par. 4). Upon arrival to the camps, lines were formed in front of SS medical officers who directed each prisoner to the left or the right. If you were directed to the right, then you were to live, but die a more drawn out than those who went left
The way that the jews would be transported to the camps was by either truck or train. However the trains were not comfortable at all. There wasn’t very much air so it was hard to breathe and there weren’t any toilets so they had to use buckets. Most of the jews had to stand up the entire way there. There was no food or water so they had to starve. With all of this going on a lot of the jews died on the way there. But you would be considered lucky if you did because you wouldn’t have to go through the torture that would be next. It was the same
The concentration camp Bergen Belsen was established in 1940 but continued on its construction to build more parts of the camp. Bergen Belsen was located just south of the small towns Bergen and Belsen. Bergen Beslen was a large camp that had eight parts. Some were called residence camp, tent camp, small women's camp, large women's camp, prisoners camp, and the neutrals camp(https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224). The first commander of this camp was Josef Kramer(http://www.library.gatech.edu/holocaust/bergendes.htm). This camp was basically a holding camp where people were sent from labor
They were shoved into a boxcar and normally stayed in there for days before being deported. Smaller kids would cry and beg to go home, and the Nazis didn’t care so the older kids would try and comfort them. Whenever the children were in concentration camps, most would be sent to the gas chambers, they didn’t know what was going on and they usually cried. A detachment team was made to comfort them on the way to the chambers, many small children entered in the chamber with their toys and smiles on their face because they didn’t know what was going to happen. The children that weren’t killed would be worked to exhaustion by cleaning, working in kitchens, taking care of horses or dug ditches. They feared if they go too weak they would be sent to the gas chambers but some were sent to hospitals to be used a guinea pigs in experiments. In the hospitals, they were fed well and they didn’t have to work, but people injected them with viruses and medicines. Their bodies were worked so hard some couldn’t walk and had to be carried around. The nazis cowardly killed the kids and got rid of evidence so people wouldn't find
Inmates resembled skeletons and were so weak they were unable to move. The smell of burning bodies was ever present and piles of corpses were scattered around the camp. However, you could be “saved” from the crematoria to be used as test subjects to cruel experimentation and used as lab rats for any experiment the scientists wanted to conduct. Later in the war, extermination camps were built. These were specialized for the mass murder of Jews using Zyklon B to ensure a painful, long, and torturous death. The bodies would then be thrown into the fire and all clothes, teeth, and shoes would be sent to pursue the German war front. At max efficiency, 20,000 people would be killed in the gas chambers a day. As the red Army approached near to liberate the Jews in concentration and extermination camps, SS officers sent prisoners on a death march across hundreds of miles, where they ran with no food or water, no matter the weather, until they reached the closest camp. SS officers proceeded to blow up the camps to hide the genocide from the
First off, all concentration camps contributed to the Holocaust in terrible ways. Over all, Belzec was one of the worst camps because they forced men to do labor. “Up to a thousand Jewish men were kept alive to carry out forced labor at the camp. One group of young Jewish men worked at unloading and cleaning the trains. Another group sorted the property of victims, while a further group removed the bodies from the gas chambers. All of these men were subject to the selection process and themselves in danger of being sent to the gas chambers” (Belzec). According to Labour Camps – Belzec , Sobibor and Treblinka, “After a week these men looked like skeletons.” They
In 1940, the Germans established a long line of labor camps along the Bug River. In November 1941, police authorities in Lublin District began construction of a killing center on the site of the former Belzec labor camp. Belzec began operations on March 17, 1942. The first Jewish communities deported to Belzec were those of Lublin and Lvov. The authorities at the Belzec killing center consisted of a small staff of German SS and police officials (between 20 and 30) and a police auxiliary guard unit of between 90 and 120 men, all of whom were either former Soviet prisoners of war of various nationalities or Ukrainian and Polish civilians selected or recruited for this purpose(Belzec). The Germans divided Belzec into a combined administration-reception area and a separate area, in which the SS and police could carry out the mass murder hidden from view of victims waiting in the reception
Belzec, situated in Eastern Poland, was established by German SS officers as one of the first death camps, envisioned to wipe out the entire Jewish People during World War II. Belzec was one of three killing camps known as the "Reinhard camps:, in honour of the assassinated SS commander, Reinhard Heydrich. The killings that took place at Belzec, was amongst one of the highest numbers of deaths in Eastern Europe concentration camps.
Construction of Belzec began on November 1, 1941 under the direction of SS and police personnel. Polish civilian workers built the killing center outside of Belzec, which is located in southeast Poland. The camp was very close in distance to a major rail