Author’s Introduction

Belzec Death Camp—History, Biographies, Remembrance is an updated and revised edition of my book Belzec—The Death Camp Laboratory, which was first published in 2012. This new version has provided a more comprehensive coverage of both the Jewish victims as part of the Roll of Remembrance and the perpetrators. Extensive use has been made of the Bundesarchiv Memorial database to include those German Jews who were deported to Belzec from the Reich, not included in the earlier version.

This work should be viewed as a companion edition to my book on the Treblinka death camp, published in 2014 by ibidem-Verlag Stuttgart. This book has been re-written to match the style of the book on Treblinka and to include new information on the victims and the perpetrators and to further increase our understanding of the role that Belzec played in the destruction of Polish and European Jewry. Firstly, I must thank Professor Matthew Feldman from Teesside University for not only writing the foreword to this book, but also for his long-standing friendship and support. It is thanks to Matthew that I was introduced to Anna Pivovarchuk, who has diligently and skillfully proof-read the manuscript in such a professional manner, for which I must thank her profusely. I must thank Clare Spyrakis, for her work on the cover design.

I must thank both Dr. Robin O’Neil and Michael Tregenza for their groundbreaking research into the grisly world that was Belzec death camp. I am grateful to the current Belzec museum director, Tomasz Hanejko, for all his help and support. I must also mention Tomasz's father Eugeniusz Hanejko,at the Regional Museum Tomaszow Lubelski for allowing the use of a number of photographs from their archives in this book. Also I am indebted to Shaul Ferrero from Yad Vashem and Zvi Oren from the Ghetto Fighters House. I must pay special tribute to Robert Kuwalek who sadly passed away in June 2014, in Lvov. I met him in 2000, when I first went to Lublin. His knowledge on Belzec in particular and the Holocaust in general was second to none, and his tragic early death, has robbed the world of a great talent. Sadly continuing this theme, I must also record my thanks to another Polish researcher, the late Artur Hojan, from the Tiergartenstrasse-4 Association, who helped me with this project, along with co-founder Cameron Munro, who shared some of his research material.

Finally, I must also express my gratitude to the late Sir Martin Gilbert, the well-respected British historian who has allowed me to show his brilliant map of Belzec, and has allowed me to use some of his other maps in my wider research.

Belzec is often referred to as the “Forgotten Camp of the Holocaust”—this book attempts to ensure that the victims of this charnel house are not forgotten.

 

Chris Webb

February 2015