Research Catalog

Title

Obóz zagłady w Bełżcu / Robert Kuwałek.

Author

Kuwałek, Robert

Publication

Lublin ; Bełżec Państw. Muzeum na Majdanku, 2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

91 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

Traces the history of the extermination camp at Bełżec, the construction of which began in November 1941. The camp commandant was Christian Wirth, and later Gottlieb Hering. The first deportations to Bełżec took place in March 1942 from the ghettos of Lublin and Lwów. Deals with consecutive transports, mainly from Galicia. Describes the killing process, which was organized in such a way that the Jews believed that they were brought to a transit camp; the crematorium was hidden in the forest. The exterminations ceased in December 1942, when the administration initiated actions to cover up the truth about the camp. The burning of corpses, on the order of Himmler, lasted three months, until March 1943. The complete liquidation of the camp was accomplished in June 1943. Evaluates that in Bełżec ca. 500,000 Jews were murdered. Asserts that during the war both Jews and Poles knew that it was an extermination camp, but after the war this place was "forgotten", also because there were few survivors of this camp and they left Poland. In 2004, a Museum and Memorial Site was established there. The expanded 2010 edition is a scholarly work (as opposed to the more popular first edition), based on documents and with extensive notes, appendices, and a bibliography. It includes two chapters on the situation of the Jews in Poland in 1941-42, before the deportations began, as well as more information on all the aspects of the creation and functioning of Bełżec.

Subject

• Belzec (Concentration camp)
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) > Poland

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

ISBN

8391650057

OCLC

• 74909334
• SCSB-11642164

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library