The Polish Underground passed on information about Belzec to the Polish government-in-exile in London, and some of these reports were published by the Polish Ministry of Information. The Home Army (Armia Krajowa), or the Delegatura, passed on information via monthly reports using a network of Underground messengers, who travelled through occupied Europe via neutral countries such as Spain or Sweden to reach the government-in-exile.
The Delegatura report for April 1942 included a comprehensive account of the Belzec extermination camp:
The camp was fully completed a few days before March 17, 1942. From that day transports with Jews began to arrive from the direction of Lvov and Warsaw. On the first day five transports arrived, afterward, one transport arrived daily from each direction. The transport enters the railway spur of Belzec camp after disembarkation, lasting half an hour, the train returns empty. The observations of the local people (the camp is within sight and hearing distance of the inhabitants near the railway station) led all of them to one conclusion: that there is a mass murder of the Jews inside the camp. The following facts testify to this:
1. Between March 17 and April 13, about fifty-two transports (each of eighteen to thirty-five freight cars with an average of 1,500 people) arrived in the camp.
2. No Jews left the camp, neither during the day nor the night.
3. No food was supplied to the camp (whereas bread and other food articles had been dispatched to the Jews who had worked earlier on the construction of the camp).
4. Lime was brought to the camp.
5. The transports arrived at a fixed time. Before the arrival of a transport, no Jews were seen in the camp.
6. After each transport, about two freight cars with clothing are removed from the camp to the railway stores. (The guards steal clothes.)
7. Jews in underwear were seen in the area of the camp.
8. In the area of the camp there are three barracks; they cannot accommodate even one-tenth of the Jews.
9. In the area of the camp, a strong odor can be smelled on warmer days.
10. The guards pay for vodka, which they drink in large quantities, with any requested sum, and frequently with watches and valuables.
11. Jews arrived in Belzec (the township) looking for a witness who would testify that Jews are being killed there. They were ready to pay 120,000 zloty..... They did not find a volunteer. It is unknown by which means the Jews are liquidated in the camp. There are three assumptions: (1) electricity; (2) gas; (3) by pumping out the air. With regard to (1) : there is no visible source of electricity; with regard to (2): no supply of gas and no residue of the remaining gas after the ventilation of the gas chamber were observed; with regard to (3): there are no factors that deny this possibility. It was even verified that during the building of one of the barracks, the walls and floor were covered with metal sheets (for some purpose). In the area of the camp huge pits were dug in the autumn. At that time it was assumed that there would be underground stores. Now the purpose of this work is clear. From the particular barrack where the Jews are taken for so-called disinfection, a narrow railway leads to these pits. It was observed that the ‘disinfected’ Jews were transported to a common grave by this trolley.In Belzec the term ‘Totenlager’ (death camp) was heard in connection with the Jewish camp. The leadership of the camp is in the hands of twelve SS-men (the commander is Hauptmann Wirth) who have forty guards for help.[144]
Dr. Ignacy Schwarzbart, a member of the Polish National Council, stated in London on November 15, 1942:
The methods applied in this mass extermination are, apart from executions, firing squads, electrocution and lethal gas-chambers. An electrocution station is installed at Belzec camp. Transport of settlers arrive at a siding, on the spot, where the execution is to take place. The camp is policed by Ukrainians. The victims are ordered to strip naked, ostensibly to have a bath, and are then led to a barracks with a metal plate for a floor. The door is then locked, electric current passes through the victims, and their death is almost instantaneous. The bodies are loaded on the wagons and taken to a mass grave, some distance from the camp.[145]
In the Polish Fortnightly Review dated Tuesday, December 1, 1942, published in London by the Polish Ministry of Information, the main feature was a report on the extermination of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. It also briefly mentioned Belzec, and, in an annexe to the main report, a fuller account regarding the extermination camp at Belzec was also covered:
Main Report
A camp was organised at Belzec for the special purpose of execution by electrocution and here in the course of about a month, in March and April 1942, 80,000 Jews from the Lublin, Lwow, and part of the Kielce provinces were executed. Out of Lublin’s 30,000 Jews only 2,500 were left, 70 of them being women.[146]
Extraordinary Report from the Jew-extermination Camp at Belzec-Annex, July 10th 1942
According to information from a German employed at the extermination camp, it is situated in Belzec, by the station, and is barred off by barriers of barbed wire. Inside the wire, and all round the outside, Ukrainians are on guard. The executions are carried out in the following fashion: When a trainload of Jews arrives at the station in Belzec, it is shunted by a side-track up to the wire surrounding the place of execution, at which point there is a change in the engine crew and train guards.
From the wire onward the train is serviced by German drivers who take it to the unloading point, where the track ends. After unloading, the men go to a barracks on the right, the women to a barracks situated on the left, where they strip, ostensibly in readiness for a bath.After they have undressed both groups go to a third barracks where there is an electrified plate, where the executions are carried out. Then the bodies are taken by train to a trench situated outside the wire, and some thirty metres deep. This trench was dug by Jews, who were all executed afterwards. The Ukrainians on guard are also to be executed when the job is finished. The Ukrainians acting as guards are loaded with money and stolen valuables; they pay 400 zlotys for a litre of vodka, 2,000 zlotys and jewellery for relations with a woman.[147]
The Polish Underground reported on a spontaneous act of resistance took place in Belzec on June 13, 1942:
The revolt in the camp, probably the first one, took place on June 13th, when Jews were summoned to remove the corpses of murdered women and children: at the horrible sight (they were standing in the gas chamber holding each others’ waists and necks, presumably in the prenatal reflexes), they attacked the ‘Wachmannschaft’ (the guards), which resulted in a struggle in which 4–6 Germans and nearly all the Jews died; several Jews managed to escape.[148]
Dr. Schwarzbart sent a telegram to the Jewish Congress in New York on December 5, 1942, regarding the extermination of the Jews in Poland, including the mass gassing of Jews in Belzec. The extract read as follows: “Special official envoy Gentile escaped and arrived here left capital this October Saw Warsaw Ghetto on last August and September. Witnessed mass murder of one transport six thousand Jews at Belzec. Spoke to him yesterday 3 hours confirm all most horrible mass atrocities......”[149] This telegram can be seen in the chapter marked “Illustrations.”
A British Intelligence report dated March 16, 1945, mentions a transport of Polish people to the Belzec death camp:
It might be interesting to learn that during an ‘Action’ directed spefically against Aryan Poles, the latter were kidnapped in the streets, from streetcars, in stores, and public places. A transport consisting entirely of Aryan Poles was sent to Belzec, where they shared the fate of their Jewish compatriots. This however, only happened once.[150]