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Teaching the Holocaust and other Genocides
 
Created in collaboration with the Holocaust & Human Rights Center, the NYS Education Department, and the NYS Archives Partnership Trust.

Chełmno Extermination Camp

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Chelmno

Chełmno (also spelled Kulmhof) was the first Nazi extermination camp established in occupied Poland, but also as a precursor to the larger extermination operations that would follow in camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka. SS and police authorities established the Chełmno killing center in order to annihilate the Jewish population of the Wartheland, including the inhabitants of the Łódź ghetto. It was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for mass murder of Jews.

Key Points 

Location
Chełmno is in western Poland, near the village of Chełmno, approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Łódź.

Establishment
The camp was established in December 1941 and became operational in early 1942. It was one of the first facilities to implement the Nazis' systematic plan for extermination. The camp, which was specifically intended for no other purpose than mass murder as part of Operation Reinhard.

Mass Extermination
Chełmno was primarily designed for the mass murder of Jews from the Łódź ghetto and surrounding areas. It is estimated that around 150,000 to 200,000 people were killed at the camp, including Jews, Roma, and Poles. At least 172,000 people were killed there between December 1941 and April 1943 and in June 1944 and January 1945. Some Soviet prisoners of war and more than 4,000 Roma (Gypsies) were also executed here. Estimates of the number executed range from 170,000 to 360,000

Methods of Killing
The camp used mobile gas vans to carry out the killings. Victims were led to believe they were being relocated and were loaded into the vans, where exhaust fumes were piped into the sealed compartments, leading to asphyxiation. The first group of prisoners arrived at Chełmno on December 7, 1941, and the first exterminations began the next day. The camp's early victims included Jews from throughout the area, as well as 5,000 Gypsies who had been imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto. No railroad tracks reached Chełmno directly, so the deportees were brought by train to a nearby station, and then loaded onto trucks that delivered them straight to the reception area at Chełmno. The Nazis then gathered the victims in the palace's courtyard and told them that they were being sent to a work camp, and thus had to get washed up. Groups of 50 were then sent to the building's ground floor, where they were made to give up their valuables and undress—men, women, and children together. Next, they were taken to the cellar, where they were reassured by signs that they were heading "To the Washroom," but in fact were forced down a ramp into a gas van. After the van was filled to the brim, the driver locked the doors and turned on the motor. After 10 minutes, the gas fumes had suffocated all those inside the van.

Destruction of Evidence
The Nazis attempted to erase evidence of their crimes by dismantling the camp and burning bodies. After the camp was closed in 1943, they buried many bodies in mass graves.  The Germans abandoned the camp in early January 1945 as the Soviet Army approached. The Chełmno death camp was liberated on January 17, 1945.