Bełżec (pronounced [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s]) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to eradicate Polish Jewry, a key part of the "Final Solution" which entailed the murder of some 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.[2] The camp operated from 17 March 1942 to the end of June 1943.[3] It was situated about 0.5 km (0.31 mi) south of the local railroad station of Bełżec, in the new Distrikt Lublin of the semi-colonial General Government territory of German-occupied Poland.[4] The burning of exhumed corpses on five open-air grids and bone crushing continued until March 1943.[5]