Bełżec Death Camp - Genesis of Genocide

The Ghetto Fighters' House invites you to the second program in the series Rethinking the 'Final Solution' and the Wannsee Conference 80 Years Later.

The Bełżec Death Camp was the first of the three Operation Reinhard camps. As the first camp, Bełżec served as the prototype for the two subsequent camps, Sobibór and Treblinka. Bełżec has been called the "forgotten camp". One of the main reasons is that only three Jews survived. Two gave testimony about their experience at Bełżec immediately after the war, and one of them was murdered right after giving his testimony.

Chris Webb is one of the only researchers in the world that has extensively investigated the unique story behind the Bełżec Death Camp. During his talk, he will present sources that were discovered in recent years and help us to better understand how the camp where over half a million Jews were killed actually operated. Tali Nates, Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center, will share her family’s Holocaust history, their life in Nowy Targ before the war and their fate during Nazi occupation. Drawing on documents, family photos, testimonies and more, she will explore the story of one family who was murdered in Bełżec.

Guest Speakers
Chris Webb, Research Associate for the Centre of Fascist, Anti-Fascists and Post Fascists Studies at Teesside University.

Tali Nates, Historian and founder and director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and Chair of the South African Holocaust & Genocide

Register here.

This program is in partnership with Liberation 75, Remember the Women Institute, the Rabin Chair Forum, Classrooms Without Borders, the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site, and the Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Center.