Bełżec extermination camp

Bełżec (, in ), was the first of the World War II Nazi German extermination camps created under Operation Reinhard. This was a key part of Hitler's "Final Solution". Hitler wanted to kill all of Europe's 11 million Jews. The camp operated from to the end of . Bełżec concentration camp was about south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in German-occupied Poland. Between 430,000 and 500,000 Jews are believed to have been murdered by the German SS at Bełżec. There were also an unknown number of Christian Poles and Roma people killed there. Only seven Jews working as slave labor with the camp's "Sonderkommando" survived World War II. Only one of them became known from his own postwar testimony submitted officially. The lack of witnesses who could testify about the camp's operation is the primary reason why so little is known about Bełżec.