In the Shadow of the Gas Chambers: Social Dynamics and Everyday Life around the Killing Center at Bełżec (1941–1944)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Nazis’ killing center at Bełżec (1941–1944) poses a fundamental challenge to Holocaust scholars. How can we write the history of a place that has been obliterated and whose records have been destroyed? Twelve untapped non-Jewish video testimonies provide new insights into aspects of daily life around Bełżec. This essay argues that strong social ties dictated who lived and died in the shadow of the gas chambers. The least well-known killing center radicalized social relations in the village, inflected by class, age, and gender. Ultimately, this essay seeks to pave the way for a more systematic approach to the much-debated notion of “social dynamics,” and encourages Holocaust scholars to tackle more directly non-Jewish testimonies.