Researchers locate site of gas chambers in Poland

Sept. 17, 2014: This photo shows the remains of a building that housed gas chambers at Sobibor, a death camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in Sobibor, Poland. (AP/Yoram Haimi, Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research) (The Associated Press)

Sept. 2014: This photo shows a ring discovered near recently discovered gas chambers at the Nazi-era death camp of Sobibor in Sobibor, Poland. (AP/Yoram Haimi, Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research) (The Associated Press)

WARSAW, Poland – Polish and Israeli Holocaust researchers say they have discovered the exact location of the building that housed gas chambers at Sobibor, one of the death camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.

The Majdanek State Museum in Poland, which oversees Sobibor, and Yad Vashem in Israel announced the finding on Wednesday, both calling it an important discovery in the field of Holocaust research.

Between April 1942 and October 1943 the Germans murdered an estimated 250,000 Jews at the camp. In the wake of a prisoner revolt in October 1943 the Germans completely dismantled the camp, leaving little material evidence behind.

Photos released by Yad Vashem and Majdanek show the remains of a rectangular brick building which they say is the building that housed the gas chambers.