Editing Belzec extermination camp (section)

===Camp construction===
{{main|The Holocaust in Poland}}
The decision to begin work on the first stationary [[Gas chamber#Germany|gas chambers]] in the [[General Government]] preceded the actual [[Wannsee Conference]] by three months.<ref name="M/MPwB"/> The first steps were taken between mid-September and mid-October 1941,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Browning |first=Christopher R. |year=1994|title=The Nazi Decision to Commit Mass Murder: Three Interpretations: The Euphoria of Victory and the Final Solution: Summer-Fall 1941|journal=German Studies Review |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=477 |doi=10.2307/1431894 |issn=0149-7952 |jstor=1431894}}</ref> and the construction began around 1 November.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=je27CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74 |title=The Extermination of the European Jews|last=Gerlach|first=Christian|date= 2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521880787 |page=74 |language=en}}</ref> The site near Bełżec was chosen for several reasons: it was situated on the border between the [[Lublin]] District and the German [[District of Galicia]] formed after Operation Barbarossa. It could "process" the Jews of both regions.<ref name="M/MPwB"/> The ease of transportation was secured by the railroad junction at nearby [[Rava-Ruska|Rawa-Ruska]] and the highway between Lublin-Stadt and Lemberg.<ref name="MMPwB-Reinhardt"/> The northern boundary of the planned killing centre consisted of an anti-tank trench constructed a year earlier. The ditch, excavated originally for military purposes was likely to serve as the first mass grave. Globocnik brought in ''[[Obersturmführer]]'' [[Richard Thomalla]] who was a civil engineer by profession and the camp construction expert in the SS. Work had commenced in early November 1941, using local builders overseen by a squad of [[Trawniki men|Trawniki guards]]. The installation, resembling a railway transit point for the purpose of forced labour, was finished before Christmas. It featured insulated barracks for showering among several other structures. Some local men were released. The SS completed the work in February 1942 by fitting in the tank engine and the exhaust piping systems for gassing. The trial killings were performed in early March.<ref name="JVL">{{cite web | url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/reinhard.html | title=The "Final Solution": Operation Reinhard – The Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka - The Construction of the Belzec Extermination Camp | publisher=Jewish Virtual Library | year=2015 | orig-year=1984 | access-date=25 April 2015 | translator-last=McVay | translator-first=Kenneth }}</ref><ref name="ARC-Reinhard"/>

The "Final Solution" was formulated at the [[Wannsee Conference]] in late January 1942 by the leading proponents of gassing (who were unaware of Bełżec's existence),<ref name=Bergen178/> including Wilhelm Dolpheid, Ludwig Losacker, Helmut Tanzmann and Governor [[Otto Wächter]].<ref name="ARC-Reinhard"/> Dolpheid negotiated with the ''SS-Oberführer'' [[Viktor Brack]] in Berlin for the use of the [[Aktion T4]] personnel in the process.<ref name="ARC-Reinhard">{{cite web |url=http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/finalsolution.html |title=Aktion Reinhard and the Emergence of 'The Final Solution' |publisher=Deathcamps.org |year=2014 |access-date=4 March 2014}}</ref> Only two months later, on 17 March 1942, the daily gassing operations at Bełżec extermination camp began with the T4 leadership brought in from Germany under the guise of [[Organisation Todt]] (OT).<ref name="M/MPwB"/><ref name="annefrank.dk">{{cite web |url=http://www.annefrank.dk/kurtgerstein/report.htm |title=The Gerstein Report (''Der Gerstein-Bericht im NS-Archiv'') |publisher=Annefrank.dk |date=26 May 1945 |access-date=4 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203235034/http://www.annefrank.dk/kurtgerstein/report.htm |archive-date=3 February 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>