Belzec Death Camp Essay

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The Belzec death camp was an extermination camp located in Poland, it was established November 1st 1941. It was the second camp in Poland to begin operation. (Killing centers Holocaust Encyclopedia) This camp was created to make Jews work for the Nazis. The Nazis took the Jews away from their families and they were forced to work and do jobs they did not want to do. Being in Belzec camp was a tiring and traumatizing thing that happened to the Jews. The victims of the Holocaust that were imprisoned in those camps had no way of getting out on their own. Someone was always watching. These innocent people were treated like animals. They were beaten, starved, and overworked all while fighting to stay alive. They had to get up before sunrise …show more content…

If an inmate was chosen to get gassed they would be told they were going to get showers to get rid of dirt and lice. When the day came that the Jews would be gassed they would be led out to the gas chambers with about 2,000 other inmates. Once everyone got there the guards told them to undress and get into the chambers. No one would suspect anything because the chambers were disguised as showers. The guards would open the top of the chambers and the Jews thought it would be water, when in reality it would be pellets of carbon monoxide raining into the chambers. (Downing 20) This whole process took about thirty minutes. Since there were so many people shoved into these chambers, once everyone was dead there was no room for the limp bodies to fall so all the unlived Jews would all be standing up. Once the guards took all the bodies out of the chambers they would search everyone for gold teeth and other valuables before they disposed of the bodies by burning them.(Downing 20) Since there were so many married Jews that died, when the guards searched the inmates for valuables they took the wedding rings off their bodies and stored them in a bucket so they could melt them down and dispose of them.(Resnick 62) As a result this killed about 434,500 Jews. (History Belzec Concentration camp Jewish Virtual

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