We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
![Family members say goodbye to a child through a fence at the ghetto's central prison where children, the sick, and the elderly were ... [LCID: 89772]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/272dbc14-8a78-4af5-b2c7-84e1479e6e15.jpg)
To carry out the mass murder of Europe's Jews, the SS established killing centers devoted exlusively or primarily to the destruction of human beings in gas chambers. Chelmno was among these killing centers. It was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for the mass murder of Jews.
![Women survivors huddled in a prisoner barracks shortly after Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz camp. [LCID: 31450b]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/8fdec1b8-47fa-40f1-9a27-06e7262bad5e.jpg)
Learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust
![Blanka Rothschild holds one of her prewar family photographs. [LCID: athbr039]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/11721704-922d-4af9-8e09-16ab9e4123c5.jpg)
Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust.
How and why was the Holocaust possible?
