The Chełmno (Kulmhof) killing center in German-occupied Poland was the first stationary facility where the Nazis used poison gas for the mass murder of Jews. The SS and police began killing operations at Chełmno on December 8, 1941. At least 152,000 Jews and 4,300 Roma were killed there between December 1941–April 1943 and June 1944–January 1945.
In fall 1941, Nazi German authorities took over a number of buildings in the Polish village of Chełmno nad Nerem. These buildings included a church (the tallest building visible here); a run-down manor house; the village’s community administration building (gmina); the village fire station; and several private homes. Beginning in December 1941, the manor house (visible here to the left of the church) became part of the Chełmno killing center. The other buildings were mostly used for housing and feeding the SS and police staff and guards. Chełmno nad Nerem, Poland, 1939–1943.
Item View![View of the manor house in Chelmno that became the site of the Chelmno killing center. [LCID: 43097]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/28f42d5e-4560-483c-aa13-1aaa56f6c29d.jpg "View of the manor house in Chelmno that became the site of the Chelmno killing center. [LCID: 43097]")
In fall 1941, Nazi German officials requisitioned a manor house in the Polish village of Chełmno nad Nerem. This manor house (which had previously been converted to apartments) became part of the Chełmno killing center. Chełmno nad Nerem, Poland, 1939.
Item View![Young German soldiers assist in the deportation of Jews from the Zychlin ghetto to the Chelmno camp. [LCID: 18876]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/c2088b68-613c-4fce-8705-01d9761c6e60.jpg "Young German soldiers assist in the deportation of Jews from the Zychlin ghetto to the Chelmno camp. [LCID: 18876]")
Young German policemen assist in the roundup and deportation of Jews from the Żychlin ghetto in German-occupied Poland. Jews from Żychlin were transported to the Chełmno killing center, where they were murdered in gas vans. This brutal roundup took place on Jewish holiday of Purim. Poland, March 3, 1942.
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Jews from the Łódź ghetto en route to the Chełmno killing center are forced to transfer from one train to another in the Polish town of Koło. Koło, Poland, probably 1942.
Item View![Jews carrying their possessions during deportation to the Chelmno killing center. [LCID: 10047]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/82cbdfa5-e49f-4de8-8a2d-47d55228a9c3.jpg "Jews carrying their possessions during deportation to the Chelmno killing center. [LCID: 10047]")
Jews carrying their possessions during deportation from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno killing center. Jewish prisoner Mendel Grossman, who worked as an official photographer in the ghetto, took this photo. Łódź, Poland.
Item View![Sossia Frenkiel [LCID: 2035]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/cf42c9dd-bd9f-4c72-82a9-7a17ba014d5c.gif "Sossia Frenkiel [LCID: 2035]")
Sossia and her husband, Isadore, were the parents of seven boys. The Frenkiels, a religious Jewish family, lived in a one-room apartment in a town near Łódź called Gąbin. Like most Jewish families in Gąbin, they lived near the synagogue. Sossia cared for the children while Isadore worked as a self-employed cap maker, selling his caps at the town's weekly market.
1933-39: Because of the Depression, Isadore's business had fallen off, but the Frenkiels managed to continue providing for their family. Shortly after the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, they occupied Gąbin. The Germans mistreated the Jewish population: beating them; forcing them out of their homes; extorting money from them. Some were killed.
1940-45: In August 1941, the Frenkiels were imprisoned in a ghetto. Eventually, they heard rumors that the Germans were evacuating some towns and deporting the Jews to their deaths. A cousin visited the Frenkiels after escaping from a transport. He confirmed rumors about the killing of Jews, warning them: "They put you in trucks, gas you, then throw your body into a burning pit." Sossia's 3-year-old son cried, "Will they burn me, too?" Isadore urged his cousin to tell the Jewish elders. He met with them, but they did not believe his story. In May 1942, two months after three of Sossia's sons had been deported for forced labor, the Germans rounded up all the Jews in Gąbin.
In April 1942, Gąbin's Jews were deported to the Chełmno killing center. Sossia, Isadore, and four of their sons were placed in a sealed van and asphyxiated with exhaust fumes.
Item View![Isadore Frenkiel [LCID: 1686]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/d8d85923-e1f7-46f9-a4fe-0b30e34250aa.gif "Isadore Frenkiel [LCID: 1686]")
Isadore and his wife, Sossia, had seven sons. The Frenkiels, a religious Jewish family, lived in a one-room apartment in a town near Łódź called Gąbin. Like most Jewish families in Gąbin, they lived in the town's center, near the synagogue. Isadore was a self-employed cap maker, selling his caps at the town's weekly market. He also fashioned caps for the police and military.
1933-39: Isadore felt the pinch of the Depression, but although business was poor, he was able to provide for his family. Shortly after the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, they occupied Gąbin. The Germans mistreated the Jewish population: beating them; forcing them out of their homes; extorting money from them. Some were killed.
1940-45: In August 1941, the Frenkiels were imprisoned in a ghetto. Eventually, they heard rumors that the Germans were evacuating some towns and deporting the Jews to their deaths. A cousin visited the family after escaping from a transport and said the rumors were true. "They put you in trucks, gas you, then throw your body into a burning pit," he said. Isadore's 3-year-old son ran to his mother crying, "Will they burn me, too?" Isadore urged his cousin to tell the Jewish elders. He met with them, but they did not believe his story and told him to leave town.
In April 1942 Gąbin's Jews were deported to the Chełmno killing center. Isadore, Sossia and four of their sons were placed in a sealed van and asphyxiated with exhaust fumes.
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Family members say goodbye to a child through a fence at the ghetto's central prison where children, the sick, and the elderly were held before deportation to the Chełmno killing center. Łódź, Poland, September 1942.
In September 1942, German authorities rounded up and deported about 15,000 Jews from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno killing center. During this action, they specifically targeted the sick, the elderly, and young children under age ten. On September 4, Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Łódź Jewish Council, called on ghetto residents to cooperate and give up their young children. The following day, the Germans imposed a curfew that confined Jews to their homes while the roundup took place. This roundup became known as the Gehsperre action, named for the German phrase "allgemeine Gehsperre," meaning "general curfew."
Item View![Site at which the SS shot and burned the last 45 of 48 prisoners at Chelmno. [LCID: 43201b]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/b8ec77ad-f5ca-4034-8496-f62473449bf7.jpg "Site at which the SS shot and burned the last 45 of 48 prisoners at Chelmno. [LCID: 43201b]")
In 1944, Nazi German authorities reopened the Chełmno killing center. During this period, the Nazis used the granary building (seen here) to house Jewish forced laborers. On January 17, 1945, as the SS abandoned and destroyed the camp, the SS carried out a massacre of Jewish forced laborers outside the granary. Of the 47 remaining forced laborers, 45 were killed. Szymon Srebrnik survived his wounds. Mieczysław Żurawski attacked the guards with a knife and fled. The granary building was set on fire. Chełmno nad Nerem, Poland, 1945.
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![Postwar photograph of a building in Dabie where the possessions of Jews killed at the nearby Chelmno camp were stored. [LCID: 51702]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/934b480d-9fce-4a8b-9f82-c63732da3c21.jpg "Postwar photograph of a building in Dabie where the possessions of Jews killed at the nearby Chelmno camp were stored. [LCID: 51702]")