On August 23, 2018, teachers and educators from France visited the Museum - Memorial Site in Bełżec. The French came to Poland as a part of an educational program prepared by Memorial de la Shoah in Paris in cooperation with several Polish institutions.

For over a decade, employees of the Museum in Bełżec have been passing their knowledge and sharing experience with guests from France. The difficult history of occupied Poland and the tragic fate of Jews is the subject of interest to the employees of French education.

During the visit, the French familiarised themselves with the history of the death camp in Bełżec and explored Józefów. Before the outbreak of the war, more than the half of the town’s inhabitants were Jewish. In total, about 1,700 Jews lived there. After the center of Józefów was burnt in September 1939, around 700 Jewish residents managed to reach the East together with the Red Army. Then in 1941, about 1,300 Jews from Warthegau were resettled to Józefów. Most Jews, who were staying in Józefów, were shot on July 13, 1942. On that day, German police from Hamburg murdered about 1,500 people.

On July 13, 1942, some young Jews avoided execution. After the selection, Jews were taken to the concentration camp at Majdanek. Those who survived in different ways were deported in November 1942 to the death camp in Bełżec.

The circumstances of the crime committed by the police were the basis for research for the American historian - Christopher R. Browning - in a work entitled ‘Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.’