A pre-curser to the notorious Belzec Extermination Camp was a series of camps around the Belzec region, southern Poland, where Jews were forced into slave labor. In 1940, a total of some 35 camps were created with over 10,000 workers employed on building fortifications, roads and regulating rivers. The 10,000 Jews were gathered from Lublin, Radom and Warsaw districts between the end of May, 1940 until August 1940.

Their main duty was building fortifications at the Soviet Union border: a rampart of 140 km between the Bug River and the San River. In fact, until October 1940, the "Eastern Rampart" (between Belzec and Dzików Stary village) was only 40 km long, 2.5 m deep and 7.5 m wide. Below is some information that is known about the Belzec sub-camps:

BELZEC VILLAGE: In Belzec Labor Camp (prior to becoming the notorious Death Camp), Jewish prisoners lived at three sites: The manor, called “Belzec-Dwor” (1,000 people), Kessler's Mill, called “Belzec-Mlyn” (500 people) and in the locomotive shed, called “Belzec-Parowozownia” (1,500 people).

CIESZANOW:

IZBICA:

LIPSKO:

PLAZOW:

TOMASZOW LUBELSKI: