After the closure of the nearby Belzec death factory in June 1943 , head of the Operation Reinhard , '' Obergruppenführer '' Odilo Globocnik inspected the Poniatowa facility in August 1943 . Gottlieb Hering , the camp commandant , was reprimanded for a total lack of prison discipline . Drastic changes were introduced immediately with daily executions of at least several people . The new crematorium was constructed . From September 1943 , the Poniatowa forced labor camp became part of the KL Majdanek concentration camp system of subcamps under '' Aktion Reinhard '' , the most deadly phase of the Holocaust . At the beginning of secretive Operation Harvest Festival ( '' Aktion Erntefest '' ) the inmates were ordered to dig anti-tank trenches at Poniatowa , Trawniki , as well as at the Majdanek concentration camps , unaware of their true purpose . On 3 November 1943 , by the orders of Christian Wirth , the German SS and police began shooting Jews from the camps at these locations . They were massacred simultaneously across the entire Lublin Reservation with subcamps in Budzyn , Kraśnik , Puławy , Lipowa and other places . At Poniatowa , the inmates were compelled to undress and enter the self-prepared trenches naked , where they were shot one-by-one over the bodies of others . On the first day of killings , in one of the barracks at Poniatowa Jews staged a revolt . To stamp it out the SS surrounded the building by a tight cordon , and set it on fire . The smoke triggered the arrival at the gate of a fire brigade from the village because gendarmes were not informed . According to witness , more than one structure was burning at the camp . The firemen were ordered by the screaming SS to leave immediately , but inadvertently noticed that a Jew running from the flames was bludgeoned with rifle butts , and thrown back into the burning building . The area was covered with bodies of women . The next morning ( 4 November 1943 ) , mass killings at Poniatowa went on as planned and continued for the rest of the day . In total , on 3 – 4 November 1943 some 43,000 male and female prisoners were shot over a long line of fake anti-tank trenches . The camps were closed . Commandant Gottlieb Hering then joined fellow SS-men from the Operation Reinhard staff at Risiera di San Sabba in Trieste , Italy
Aktion Erntefest
Aktion Erntefest
Poniatowa concentration camp