by Chris Webb
SS-Oberscharführer Erwin Fichtner, the camp quartermaster at Belzec, was killed by Polish partisans on March 29, 1943, near Tarnowatka. He too, like Jirmann, was buried in in the German military cemetery in Tomaszow Lubelski and was later moved to the German military cemetery in Przemysl.[128]
Chapter XII
The Final Days
With the last of the bodies exhumed and cremated the SS started to dismantle the barracks, destroy the buildings, and plant trees and shrubs to disguise the mass slaughter that had taken place at Belzec.
SS-Scharführer Werner Dubois testified about the dismantling of the camp:
The transports to Belzec and, consequently, the gassing operations, stopped quite suddenly. As staff members of the Belzec camp, we were informed that the place would be re-built completely. A working group of Jews, whose size I don’t remember, was in charge of the demolition work. It is worth mentioning that at that time March–April 1943 the cremation of the corpses was terminated and the graves were levelled.
The camp was emptied entirely and levelled accordingly. I heard that some planting was done there. The Jewish work commando, after accomplishing this work, was taken to Sobibor. I remained in Belzec for two more days, together with some of my colleagues and guards, to carry out the last clearing and loading..... Some time later, when I was in Sobibor, I heard that during the transport of the Jewish work commando from Belzec to Sobibor, some mutiny and shooting took place, which led to some deaths.[129]
Fritz Tauscher testified on December 18, 1963, in a prison in Stadehelm:
After the cremations had been carried out, Commandant Hering left Belzec. Wirth then assigned me to complete the job of closing down the camp, levelling the ground and planting new shrubs. This was finished by the end of March or early April 1943. To carry out this task we had available: the remainder of the core German staff including Dubois and Jührs, the Ukrainian guards and 300 to 350 Jewish labourers.
The latter had been assured by Hering that after Belzec had closed down, they would be taken to a labor camp of their own choice, either Lublin, Trawniki or Budzyn. What happened in fact was that about 14 days before the work was fully completed Wirth, the inspector of the three extermination camps, turned up all of a sudden without warning early one morning. At the same time, a train with eight or nine wagons pulled into the camp. Wirth announced that the Jews were now going to a camp of his choice, and they all had to get into the train.[130]
The destination of this transport was the Sobibor death camp. Edward Luczynski, a local Belzec villager testified about this transport on October 15, 1945, in Belzec:
During the time of the disbandment of the camp a few transports of completely naked Jews were brought to Belzec, which were then sent on to Sobibor. These Jews came from the direction of Lwow, it was said that they came from the city of Lwow itself. Between Belzec station and Mazily, a small village about 8 kilometres NW of Belzec and the next station along the line, the naked Jews began to leap out of the wagons, but they were shot down by the Germans.
The Jews who had been chosen to work in the death camp in Belzec were, after the disbandment of the camp,put into railway wagons almost naked and brought to Sobibor. From this transport only Sylko Herc from Krakow was able to escape[131]: he came to Belzec and told me how he had saved himself. From here he went to Krakow; whether he is still alive or not, I do not know. I know that he had a wife and children in Krakow who had been hidden by a Catholic priest.[132]
One thing worthy of mention is that whilst the wooden barracks were burnt down, the fences and watch towers taken down, and the gas chambers destroyed, the sturdily built Kommandantur and the adjacent house used for the SS camp staff were returned to the Ostbahn.[133]
Edward Luczynski testified about the lengths the Germans went to in order to disguise the site:
After levelling and cleaning the area of the extermination camp, the Germans planted the area with small pines and left. At that moment, the whole area was plucked to pieces by the neighboring population, who were searching for gold and valuables. That’s why the whole surface of the camp was covered with human bones, hair, ashes from cremated corpses, dentures, pots and other objects.[134]
A special SS commission inspected the area to ensure that all traces of the mass murder had been eradicated, and the SS finally left Belzec on May 8, 1943. The SS garrison was distributed to a number of camps in the Lublin district, either to Sobibor or Treblinka, or the labor camps at Poniatowa, Dorohucza, Budzyn, or the Old Airfield camp in Lublin, which was the main sorting depot for the clothes of the Jews murdered in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka death camps.[135]
In a number of well-regarded accounts of when the transport of Jewish workers left Belzec for Sobibor, there appears to be much confusion and conflict. Yitzhak Arad states in his book Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, on page 265, that this transport left in July 1943. Robin O’Neil, in his book Belzec—Stepping Stone to Genocide, states on page 183 that Leon Feldhendler, one of the leaders of the revolt in Sobibor, has testified that this transport from Belzec arrived on June 30, 1943, whilst Thomas Toivi Blatt, in his book Sobibor—The Forgotten Revolt, writes on page 31 that the transport from Belzec arrived on June 26, 1943.
It seems unlikely that if the SS did leave Belzec on May 8, 1943—and indeed this seems more likely as the demolition and planting work was completed in April 1943—that the Jewish workers who toiled on this project would have left two months later. It is more logical that this transport left just before the SS left Belzec in May 1943, and indeed the statement of a Sobibor survivor, Moshe Bahir, would seem to support this view:
One day in the month of May 1943, we were ordered to remain in our huts. We were not taken to work, and this aroused dark forebodings in us. In the afternoon the Bahnhofkommando (station / transport reception commando) was summoned to its usual work at the train station. When the men got to the train, a dreadful vision appeared before them. This train had brought the last of the Jews from the Belzec death camp who had been engaged in burning the bodies of those killed in the gas chambers.[136]
Odilo Globocnik, the head of Aktion Reinhardt, wrote to Heinrich Himmler proposing that a small farm should be built on the sites of all three death camps, occupied by a guard to ensure that the Polish population did not search for gold and valuables on the sites, and to provide the false perception that these former sites of mass murder were just innocent farmsteds.
A small group of 12 Ukrainians under the command of SS-Unterscharführer Karl Schiffner went to Belzec from Treblinka to build the farmhouse, and SS-Scharführer Heinrich Unverhau, from Sobibor, also came to Belzec, and testified about this visit after the war:
A few weeks before the uprising in Sobibor, I and three other SS men and a larger group of Ukrainian auxiliaries were again ordered to go to Belzec. We were doing afforestation work there ..... We had to prevent the Poles from turning the whole area upside down in their searches for gold.[137]
This work was completed at the end of October 1943, the SS vacated the site, and a former Ukrainian Volksdeutscher member of the camp personnel settled into the farm with his family.[138]
Part II
Survivors, Victims, Perpetrators, and the Aftermath
Chapter XIII
Jewish Survivors and Victims
This chapter is an attempt to record some of the names of Jewish survivors and victims who set foot on the living hell that was Belzec death camp. What has been created is not an impersonal statistic, but an attempt to show that these people were flesh and blood, and to honor their memory.
Where possible where surnames and some personal details are known, these have been included but are painfully aware that there are many more names, and many more accounts are unknown, so this roll of remembrance will never be complete. This list does not claim be a definitive one—that will probably never be achieved. The Germans did not make transport lists of names of Polish Jews, but comprehensive records exist in the case of the German Jews deported fr
om the Reich.
We have relied on information according to a number of sources, victims databases on reputed websites, books, survivor accounts, and personal correspondence. This information is respectfully presented, and hopefully the memory has been preserved, in an accurate and fitting manner. Firstly, we will cover the survivors / escapees, and then those who were selected at Belzec to work in other camps, and, finally, the victims. All the names shown are in alphabetical order, surname first then, where known, forenames.
Rudolf Reder, in his book Belzec, was able to devote one paragraph to his fellow inmates who endured the hell called Belzec, and he wrote this:
We moved around like people who had no will anymore. We were one mass. I know a few names, but not many. Who was who and what their names were, in any case, were matters of complete indifference. I know that the physician was a young doctor from somewhere near Przemysl, he was called Jakubowicz. I also met a merchant from Krakow, Schlüssl, and his son, and a Czech Jew named Ellenbogen, who was said to have a bicycle warehouse, and a chef, Goldschmidt, who’d been well known at the Brüder Hanicka restaurant in Karlsbad. No one took any interest in anyone else. We went mechanically through the motions of that horrible life.[139]
*
Belzec Survivors—this includes those who survived the Holocaust, or escaped from the camp but did not survive:
ASTMAN, Mina. Deported from the Zolkiew ghetto in the Galician district at the end of March 1942. Escaped from the camp along with Malka Talenfeld. They returned to Zolkiew and their story was recorded. Her fate is unknown but it is likely she did not survive.
BACHNER. A dentist from Krakow. Arrived in the camp with the last transports from Krakow at the begining of October 1942. When the transport reached the camp, he succeded in entering a latrine and hid there for a few days. One night he was able to leave the latrine pit and escaped from the camp. He returned to Krakow, but his eventual fate is unknown. He told his story to Tadeusz Pankiewicz in Krakow.
HERC, Sylko. Sylko and his father (first name unknown), were both deported from Krakow to Belzec. A member of the Jewish work brigade that dismantled the camp and was put on a train in May 1943, bound for Sobibor death camp. He escaped along with Chaim Hirszman and returned to Belzec village where he spoke to Edward Luczynski about the escape. He returned to Krakow but his eventual fate is not known.
HIRSZMAN, Chaim. Born on October 24, 1912, in Janow Lubelski. He was a mechanic and metal worker by profession and lived in Janow Lubelski during the occupation. In September 1942 Chaim, his wife, and 6-month-old child went to Zaklikow, from where they were deported to Belzec. They were both murdered on arrival, but Chaim was selected to work.
Chaim was part of the Jewish work brigade who dismantled the camp and put on a train to the Sobibor death camp in May 1943. He escaped from the death train along with Sylko Herc and managed to join a partisan group in the forests near Janow Lubelski. He fought bravely, murdering 29 Germans, and was awarded the Grunwald Cross.
He gave evidence to the Jewish Historical District Commission on March 19, 1946, and that same evening he was murdered by two or three men from the Narodowe Sily Zbrojne (NSZ, National Armed Force) group in Lublin. Chaim maried Pola, who also testified after his murder on what he had told her of his experiences in Belzec.
REDER, Rudolf. Born on April 4, 1881, in Lvov. He lived in Lvov and was by profession a chemist in the soap industry. He was deported to Belzec from Lvov on August 16, 1942. He worked in the “death brigade,” clearing the gas chambers and digging mass graves.
He managed to escape from Lvov after being sent there by Fritz Jirmann at the end of November 1942, and hid with his landlady until Lvov was liberated by the Red Army.
Reder lived in Krakow and wrote his memoirs in 1946—the only account by a survivor of Belzec, and then emigrated to Toronto, Canada, changing his name to Roman Robak. He attended the Belzec trial of Josef Oberhauser, in Munich; Oberhauser was the only member of the SS garrison to stand trial for the crimes committed at Belzec.
SAND, Jozef. Born in 1924. He was a student of the Jewish Gimnazjum in Lvov. Joseph Rebhun, in his account Leap for Life, recalls:
On a sunny morning in the ghetto, I suddenly encounter someone, Josef Sand, whom I have not seen for years. He adds some information that is so incredible I do not mention it to anyone in the ghetto, so as not to be considered certifiably crazy. Sand tells me that he ran away from Belzec. I have no clear idea how he escaped. He had been taken there as a member of a small group separated from the one thousand taken from the Janowska camp.
In Belzec, he claimed, he had helped to build showers through which poisonous gas could be piped in for the trapped Jews; the showers kill thousands each day. He swears to me that he is telling the truth, but it is impossible to believe what I hear. He looks normal to me, and yet his story is incredible. I ask him what he intends to do now. To leave the ghetto as soon as possible, he says; he just came to find out about his family. I never see him or hear about him again.
SHAPIRO, Isaac. He was a rabbi from Lvov, who was deported to Belzec in October 1942. He worked in the Jewish “sorting brigade,” shifting through the clothes and possessions of the Jews murdered in the gas chambers. He escaped in the cattle wagons taking away the clothes for distribution to the Reich.
SZMIRER. A Jew called Podgorski, a survivor from the Lublin ghetto, met Mr. Szmirer, a 21-year-old man, somewhere on a ghetto street. Szmirer was the son of a well-known furniture merchant from Lublin, and he said he had been deported to Belzec during the Aktion in March 1942.
Szmirer informed him that he had escaped from Belzec hidden under the clothes of the gassed victims on a freight train that had returned to Lublin. Back in Lublin, Szmirer had informed some members of the Jewish Council about his experiences, though it would appear that not many people believed him. His eventual fate is unknown, but it is likely he perished during the final liquidation of the Lublin ghetto on November 9, 1942.
Whilst undoubtedly there were more escapes from Belzec, this incredibly low number shows just how efficient at mass murder Belzec was, although it is recognized that it was very primitive in construction. Franz Suchomel, in an interview with Claude Lanzman for his film Shoah, had this to say about Belzec:
Belzec was the laboratory. Wirth was camp commandant. He tried everything imaginable there. He got off on the wrong foot. The pits were overflowing and the cesspool seeped out in front of the SS mess hall. It stank—in front of the mess hall, in front of their barracks.
.... Wirth with his own men—with Franz, with Oberhauser and Hackenholt—he tried everything there. Those three had to put the bodies in the pits themselves, so that Wirth could see how much space he néeded. And when they rebelled—Franz refused—Wirth beat Franz with a whip. He whipped Hackenholt too..... Kurt Franz. That’s how Wirth was. Then, with that experience behind him, he came to Treblinka.[140] [141]
*
Victims from Germany—Murdered at Belzec
This is a listing of all the Jews who were deported from the Reich to the Belzec death camp, from the Bundesarchiv Memorial website. Where there is doubt as to the whether the individuals were murdered in Belzec or another camp, such as Sobibor, or Auschwitz, then these people have not been included:
APFELBAUM, Nathan. Born on February 5, 1890, in Rzeszow, Poland. Emigrated from Berlin to Poland. Deported from Rzeszow on July 7, 1942. Perished in Belzec on July 7, 1942.
APFELBAUM, Sara. Born on September 12, 1895, née Kurz, in Blizne, Poland. Emigrated from Berlin to Poland. Deported from Rzeszow on July 7, 1942. Perished in Belzec on July 7, 1942.
BAUM, Johanna. Born on May 11, 1907, in Frei-Laubersheim. Deported from Mainz-Darmstadt on March 25, 1942, to the Piaski transit ghetto in Poland.
BECKER, Joel. Born on January 28, 1932, in Kiel. Expelled to Poland in 1939. Perished in Belzec during September 1942.
BEIN, Malka. Born on March 31,1886, in Gorlice, Poland. A resident of Leipzig, she was expelled to Poland on October 28,
1938.
BERGER, Jenta. Born on October 22, 1889, née Gartner, in Nowy Zmigrod, Poland. Emigrated to Poland on July 24, 1939, from Munich.
BERGER, Josef. Born on August 30, 1887, in Nowy Zmigrod, Poland. Emigrated to Poland on July 24, 1939, from Munich.
BERGER, Lemel. Born on December 10, 1885, in Sokolow, Poland. Expelled to Poland from Nuremburg on October 28, 1938, to the Bentschen internment camp. perished in Belzec in 1942.
BERGER, Sara. Born on June 16, 1888, née Kaufmann, in Nienadowka, Poland. Expelled to Poland from Nuremburg on October 28, 1938, to the Bentschen internment camp. Perished in Belzec in 1942.
BINDER, Aron. Born on September 17, 1897, in Nowy Sacs, Poland. Deported from Berlin.
BRODREICH, Lionel. Born on March 8, 1881, in Einartshausen. Deported from Mainz-Darmstadt on March 25, 1942, to the Piaski transit ghetto in Poland.
BRUCKNER, Adolf. Born on May 7, 1931, in Cologne. Perished in Belzec in June 1942.
BRUCKNER, Regina. Born on May 12, 1890, née Piperberg, in Blazowa, Poland. Deported from Rzeszow, Poland, to Belzec. Perished in Belzec in 1942.
BRUCKNER, Salomon. Born on September 15, 1870, in Sienliawa, Poland. Expelled to the Bentschen internment camp. Deported from Rzeszow, Poland to Belzec.
BUCHSDORF, Golda. Born on January 4, 1884, in Lvov. Expelled from Breslau to Poland in 1938 / 39. Deported from Lvov ghetto to Belzec. Perished in Belzec during 1942.
DECKER, Johanna. Born on January 13, 1895, in Wachenheim. Deported from Mainz-Darmstadt to the Piaski transit ghetto in Poland.
DOMINITZ, Sabina. Born on April 18, 1897, née Unger, in Tuchow, Poland. Expelled to the Bentschen internment camp on October 28, 1938, from Cologne. Deported to Belzec.
DREILINGER, Edith. Born on May 15, 1922, in Vienna, Austria. Lived in Gelsenkirchen. Perished in Belzec during 1942.