Bełżec (pronounced [ˈbɛu̯ʐɛt͡s], in German:Belzec) was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to eliminate Polish Jewry, a key part of the "Final Solution" which entailed the murder of some 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. The camp operated from 000000001942-03-17-000017 March 1942 to the end of 000000001942-12-01-0000December 1942. It was situated about 0.5 km (0.31 mi) south of the local railroad station of Bełżec in German-occupied Poland, in the new Distrikt Lublin of the semi-colonial General Government territory. The burning of exhumed corpses on five open-air grids and bone crushing continued until March 1943.