Armenian-Turkish Research Project

Genocide in Our Time

Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota
100 Nolte Center West
315 Pillsbury Drive
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-624-0256
Fax: 612-626-9169
E-mail: chgs@umn.edu

College of Liberal Arts

Belzec Death Camp Memorial, Poland

Belzec was established as one of the first major death camps by German occupation forces and SS for Jews in Eastern Poland during World War II. After the assassination of Reinhold Heydrich, #2 in the SS by Czech partisans near the town of Lidice, the three camps in Eastern Poland and north of Warsaw, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, were called the "Reinhard camps," (Aktion Reinhardt) in memory of Heydrich. The killing at Belzec and Treblinka were the highest in number of the Eastern camps. Most of the victims at Treblinka were from the Warsaw Ghetto and surroundings. Most of the victims at Belzec were from Galicia. Unlike most Nazi camps where name records were kept, victims names were not recorded at Belzec where most were shot. However, gas vans and three gas chambers existed at the camp.

In the new memorial, names on the wall are first names and family names from Jewish families in the area who disappeared. Around the central monument, which appears to some as volcanic lava field with a "tube" down the center where the visitors actually descends below the ground-level monument, there are the names of all the towns in Poland where Jews were deported to Belzec.

Belzec opened in March, 1942 and the killings continued until Spring, 1943, when dismanteling of the camp began. An archeological expedition at the site in 1997 and 1998 found 33 mass graves estimated to hold 15,000 unburned bodies. Total victims are estimated to between 430,000 and 500,000 Jews, although some figures are higher.

Best book on the subject is Yitzhak Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1987, NCR 0-253-34293-7.

The new monument was designed by Polish artists Andrzej Solyga, Zdzislaw Pidek, and Marcin Roszczyk and opened in ceremony on June 3, 2004. In the adjacent museum, American scholar Michael Berenbaum was a prime consultant. The Wilf family of Minneapolis, current owners of the Minnesota Vikings NFL team lost family at this camp and contributed significantly to this memorial. Their contribution is acknowledged at the site.

For an artistic view of the camp in charcoal from an aerial photograph, see work by Arie Galles:

Entrance to Belzec memorial	Inscribed cast iron plate in form of a broken Star of David	Inscribed cast plate detail	Inscribed cast plate detail
Wall quote in rusted cast iron from Biblical Book of Job	Wall quote in rusted cast iron from Biblical Book of Job	Wall quote in rusted cast iron from Biblical Book of Job	Wall quote in rusted cast iron from Biblical Book of Job
View down the center dividing the field of rubble, sometimes called the "tube." A memorial wall is at the end.	Wide view of entrance to memorial	Details of the monument which has the form of absolute devastation.	Details of the monument which has the form of absolute devastation.
Details of the monument which has the form of absolute devastation	Details of the monument which has the form of absolute devastation	View while walking through the tube	View while walking through the tube
View while walking through the tube	Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec. Note while some of the names are traditionally Polish-Jews, many suggest are Polish which suggest paths of assimilation before the Holocaust.	Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec.	Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec.
Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec.	Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec.	Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec.	Monument wall of of first names of Jews from region who died at Belzec.
Monument at the end of the Tube	Monument at the end of the Tube	Monument at the end of the Tube	Monument at the end of the Tube
Details of the monument which has the form of absolute devastation. View from end of tube.	Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Two of the many towns whose Jewish population was exterminated at Belzec	Two of the many towns whose Jewish population was exterminated at Belzec
Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Names of towns which lost Jewish communities
Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Names of towns which lost Jewish communities	Poem by Dan Pagis found in a boxcar
Railroad ties and tracks stacked to form a monument	Railroad ties and tracks stacked to form a monument	Railroad ties and tracks stacked to form a monument	Overview of monument after walk around the perimeter
Dedication plaque includes Wilf Family of Minneapolis	Belzec Museum: Nazi Racial Policy	Belzec Museum: Nazi decision to kill the Jews	Belzec Museum:Death rate from March 1942 to Spring 1943
Interior Belzec Museum	Aktion Reinhard description	March 1942 Report about Massacres at Belzec	Details about Belzec
Details about Sobibor Death Camp	Map of Belzec	Map of Southern Poland where Belzec's victims came from	Belzec Museum
Nazi order from Krakow about death penalty for aiding Jews	Original Nazi notice regarding undressing	Translation of the above order	Details about Bobowa Hasidism, killed at Belzec

For other monuments see: