Newsgroups: alt.revisionism,soc.history,talk.politics.misc
Subject: LEST WE FORGET: Shutting Down - Belzec Dismantled
Reply-To: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca
Followup-To: alt.revisionism
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac, Vancouver Island, CANADA
Keywords: Belzec,Dubois

Himmler, during a visit to Lublin in March of 1943, made the decision to
terminate activities at the Operation Reinhard death camps. Most of the
Jews were already dead, and the extermination machine at Auschwitz-Birkenau
was still in full operation, and could handle any requirements the Nazis
might still have with regard to the "final solution" of the Jewish
"problem."

"The final date for the closing of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka now
depended on when the cremation of the corpses could be completed. The SS
authorities planned to leave absolutely no trace of the death camps. All
construction in the camps was to be destroyed or evacuated. The whole area
was to be cleaned of debris, plowed over, and trees were to be sown and
planted.

The first camp to be dismantled and closed was Belzec. <1> The mass
deportation to this camp stopped in December 1942. Some transports of Jews
from the district of Lvov, which arrived in Belzec after this date, were
sent from there to Sobibor. But the liquidation process took several
months. Scharfuhrer Werner Dubois, who was in Belzec at the time,
testified:

          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 rebuilt
	  completely. A working group of Jews, whose size I don't remember,
	  was in charge of the demolition work. It is worth mention at that
	  time [March-April 1943] the cremation of the corpses was
	  terminated and the graves were leveled. The camp was emptied
	  entirely and leveled 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...." <2>

<1> Yad Vashem Archives, TR-10/517, Trial of Josef Oberhauser, Band 6, 
    p. 1140
<2> Ibid, Band 7, pp. 1402-1403; Ibid, TR-10/1069, Sobibor-Bolender Trial, 
    Band 3, p.483 (Dusseldorf)
	  
Excerpted from....----------------------------------------------
BELZEC, SOBIBOR, TREBLINKA - the Operation Reinhard Death Camps
Indiana University Press - Yitzhak Arad, 1987. ISBN 0-253-3429-7
----------------------------------------------------------------
Files used for these news posts are available to anyone upon request.
Send email to kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca and request oneb-txt.zip or
oneb-txt.tar.Z - it will be uuencoded and sent to you as soon as I 
can get around to it.