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 17 March 1942 to the end of December 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.