The village of Belzec, in southeastern Poland, first appeared in records during the Middle Ages, and show the village as a settlement of animal breeders. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Lipski family—proprietors of Belzec—endeavoured to acquire a municipal charter, but this attempt failed because of the proximity of major towns such as Tomaszow Lubelski and Florianow, now re-named Narol.[30]
Two hundred years later, in the 19th century, Belzec lay on the border between Galicia and the Kingdom of Poland, with a railway border crossing to that part of Poland under the Tsarist Russian occupation. The location ensured business flourished and this attracted an influx of Jewish settlers, and, just prior to the First World War, over one hundred Jewish families made a living here on cross-border trade. Most of the Jewish settlers came from Rawa Ruska and Jaroslaw. Jewish culture flourished in Belzec, and it had its own house of prayer and a traditional elementary school—a cheder.[31]
During the First World War Belzec was occupied by Austrian troops and a part of the village was burnt down by Russian soldiers as a reprisal for the murder of a Russian officer by locals. During 1915, Belzec was liberated from Austrian occupation and six years later the village was incorporated into the new Republic of Poland.[32]
The Jewish population declined during the interwar years, and on September 13, 1939, the German Army occupied the village. A number of the Poles and Ukrainians registered as Volksdeutsche—ethnic Germans—and some volunteered for war work in the Reich. History repeated itself when Belzec once again became a border post, this time between the Generalgouvernement and the Soviet Union.[33]
From the end of May 1940 until August 1940, the Germans established a number of labor camps in and around the village of Belzec. These housed workers building the so-called “Otto Line”—a series of fortifications along the border with the Soviet Union. The Germans forced Jews from Lublin, Radom, and Warsaw districts to slave on this project, and Gypsies from the Reich and other parts of Poland were also used. The Jews were housed at three sites in Belzec: the Manor, which housed 1,000 people; Kessler’s Mill, which housed 500 people; and Locomotive Sheds, which housed 1,500 people.
Outside Belzec village other workers were housed in Cieszanow in two barracks and Plaszow—not to be confused with the notorious Plaszow Arbeitslager in Krakow—in two houses and in Lipsko near Narol.[34]
The labor camps were established in abandoned synagogues, warehouses or barns, a total of some 35 camps were created with over 10,000 workers employed on building fortifications, roads and regulating rivers.
The commander of the labor camps complex was SS-Sturmbannführer Hermann Dolp, who had also been the commandant of the Lipowa Street Camp in Lublin and during 1941—after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union—had served in the “SS Strongpoints in the East” construction program based in Minsk.[35] His deputy was SS-Hauptscharführer Franz Bartetzko, who later went on to manage the Jewish forced labor camp at Trawniki, from the spring of 1942.[36] Another more famous SS officer, Oskar Dirlewanger, who was the commander of the notorious SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger, which was made up of petty criminals and cut-throats. They were resoponsible for the orgy of killing of the population during the Warsaw uprising in 1944. Prior to this, Dirlewanger was the commander of a Jewish labor camp at Dzikow, one of the camps in the Belzec area.[37]
The working conditions in the labor camps were truly awful, with workers beaten and tortured, and forced to perform heavy labor on starvation rations. Adam Czerniakow, the chairman of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in the Warsaw ghetto, wrote about the Belzec labor camp conditions several times in his diary. His entry on August 29, 1940, is as follows:
Word from the Belzec camp, poor food etc. I arranged for two conferences, one with participation of Neustadt. I authorised the Obmann (Chairman) from Zamosc to engage doctors at our expense for Belzec. Tomorrow I will try to obtain a loan for the camp.[38]
Another entry in his diary, recorded on September 3, 1940, stated that “Zabludowski, Faust and Furstenburg left for Lublin with the gifts for the workers including 10,000 zloty for the camp. Lambrecht made a demand for twenty doctors for the camp.” [39]
Though the labor camps were controlled by the SS, the supply of food, clothes, and the administration was managed by the Lublin Judenrat. In Belzec, the Germans established a so-called Jewish Gremium, which was responsible for the camp’s organization. All costs connected with the existence of the prisoners were paid by the Judenrat of the towns from where the prisoners came. It was the Gremium who decided the allocation of food to the workers. After August 1940, the Gremium was re-named the Central Camps Council and was led by Leon Zylberajch from Lublin.
The labor camps in Belzec and those located in the area were closed down in October 1940, and this “Eastern Rampart” was only some 40 kilometers in length, 2.5 meters deep and 7.5 meters wide, between Belzec and Dzikow Stary village. Some of the Jewish workers were released prior to the final liquidation of the labor camps, because they were unfit for work; the last transport of workers released went to Hrubieszow in late October 1940.
No account of these terrible working conditions in the Belzec labor camps is complete without mentioning the fate of the Gypsies who were deported from the Reich and were incarcerated on a farm at Belzec Manor. As with the Jews, the Gypsies were also employed in digging fortifications on starvation rations and many succumbed to illnesses such as typhus and dysentery.
One of these Gypsies, Martha W.—a Sinti woman, born in Kiel, Germany, in 1921—was deported to Belzec together with her two children, her mother, and her brother. After the war she recounted her story in an interview with Karin Guth, which is incredibly moving and heart-rending:
In May, I think it was 16 May 1940, they came for us and brought us to the Fruchtschuppen (Fruit Warehouse) in the harbour of Hamburg. My memory is not that good anymore. I only know that a lot of people were in the warehouse. It was like being in an ant-hill, so many people were running around.
We were registered and those above the age of fourteen received a number on the arm, this was not tattooed, as was later the case in Auschwitz, but stamped in ink. The number faded after a few days. I cannot remember how many days we were in the warehouse. Not many perhaps three days. Quite nearby, only some steps away, we were ordered to enter goods wagons at the Hannoverscher Station.
There was an awful confusion, there being hundreds of people. We were told we were being transported to Poland, where we would receive a nice little house. And they told me that my father was already there, but we were deceived.
When we arrived at our destination SS surrounded the train. They were there at our arrival and drove us out of the wagons. Policeman had accompanied us, two to a wagon (probably within the brakers cabin at the rear of some wagons).
We naturally did not travel without a guard. They knew we would have otherwise simply left the train and escaped. We would have done this had we had the chance. The policemen, who had escorted us, appeared thoroughly sheepish, when they saw the SS and heard the SS commandant, a small man standing there with a whip in his hand; immediately shouting, ‘if you don’t obey the orders!’ Oh dear and the rest he said. He called us dogs and we were treated as such. That was so awful. The policemen from Hamburg stood there speechless. I presume they hadn’t known what we were to experience in Belzec.
Then we had to walk to a large barn, that was more a very large shed. There was only old straw on the floor. We had to enter this shed , SS guards were posted outside. Today I no longer remember how long we were in that Belzec camp. It was summer when we arrived. I think we were there for some weeks . It was awful there. One could not wash oneself, there were no toilets. We were all crammed together.
We were immediately set to work in a work column. We had to dig tank ditches. There were many Jews in Belzec too. They were housed in the same shed as us and also worked in the column. They usually only remained for some weeks, then they were transported from Belzec to somewhere else.
The food was awful. A Roma was detailed to cook for us all. The SS shot crows and ravens and simply threw them into the large pot. The man didn’t want to cook the birds without first plucking the feathers. They beat him so badly that the blood ran out the bottom of his trousers.
One day those of us with children had to line up because the children were to receive something special to eat. I had two children. My daughter was two and my son was one-year old. Each was given a bowl containing milk with bread crumbled in it. Or so it appeared.
This was especially for the children. Well, one child after the other died over the following days. There was such lamenting, lamenting and crying. Shortly after having eaten the children were unable to breathe anymore, they asphyxiated. My little boy died first. Someone woke me in the morning. I was woken because the chid had kicked and the person wanted to cover him again. So I awoke and went to pick him up. He was already quite stiff.
I was devastated with grief and I didn’t know what to do. My cousin, the sister of Mrs B. lifted him and a big clot of pus came out of his throat. All the children experienced this. My two year old daughter died in the same way the next day. They had been poisoned.
One day we had to enter cattle wagons again, in Belzec. There was just a bare floor. There were no windows, only air slits, high up. There were no toilet facilities. We had to enter that train, not knowing what to expect. Nobody told us anything.
We were taken to Krychow. We travelled through the night in this cattle wagon. When we arrived at the station, horse-drawn vehicles awaited us that took us to the camp. It was a former Polish prison, far away from the station. We were guarded by men wearing a black uniform. They were Volksdeutsche. These Volksdeutsche and SS were everywhere.[40]