On March 17th in military history....in 1942

On this day in military history….in 1942. Belzec Concentration Camp opens. The Belzec Concentration Camp was the first of the Nazi extermination camps opened to implement Operation Reinhard, the extermination of Polish Jews. Operation Reinhard was named after SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (who happily was assassinated by the Czech resistance in May 1942), the coordinator of the Final Solution, the extermination of the Jews living in German-occupied areas of Europe. Whereas camps like Auschwitz were “labor” camps, the three camps that were opened for Operation Reinhard (Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka) were “death” camps. Jews were taken there only to be killed, just like an abattoir or slaughterhouse.

It was thru Operation Reinhard that the Nazis were able to perfect the ability to kill large amounts of human beings and dispose of the bodies. Belzec was in operation for only 9 months until it was shutdown due to the main reason that all the Jews in the surrounding areas had been exterminated and that the concentration camp at Auschwitz would be able to handle the rest. It is estimated that between 550,000 and 600,000 Jews and gypsies were gassed at Belzec. Only two people are known to have survived.