The Chelmo killing center in German-occupied Poland was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for the mass murder of Jews. The SS and police began killing operations at Chelmno on December 8, 1941. At least 172,000 people were killed there between December 1941 and March 1943 and in June/July 1944.
![View of the village of Chelmno. To the left of the church is the Schloss, one of two sites of the Chelmno camp. [LCID: 74883]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a8b6d2f8-f2d2-43f9-a940-31606dacfec6.jpg "View of the village of Chelmno. To the left of the church is the Schloss, one of two sites of the Chelmno camp. [LCID: 74883]")
View of the village of Chelmno. To the left of the church is the Schloss, one of two sites of the Chelmno camp. The Schloss, an old country estate, served as the reception and killing center for victims until it was demolished in April 1943. Chelmno, 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]")
View of the manor house in Chelmno that became the site of the Chelmno killing center. Chelmno, 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 soldiers assist in the deportation of Jews from the Zychlin ghetto to the Chelmno killing center. The Nazis planned this deportation to fall on the Jewish holiday of Purim. Poland, March 3, 1942.
Item View![Jews from the Lodz ghetto are forced to transfer to a narrow-gauge railroad at Kolo during deportation to the Chelmno killing center. [LCID: 25025]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a911bee0-6630-4a03-a770-cb8a599ff39c.jpg "Jews from the Lodz ghetto are forced to transfer to a narrow-gauge railroad at Kolo during deportation to the Chelmno killing center. [LCID: 25025]")
Jews from the Lodz ghetto are forced to transfer to a narrow-gauge railroad at Kolo during deportation to the Chelmno killing center. Kolo, 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 to the Chelmno killing center. Most of the people seen here had previously been deported to Lodz from central Europe. Lodz, Poland, January–April 1942.
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 Warsaw called Gabin. Like most Jewish families in Gabin, 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 Gabin. They shot 10 people in the street and took away others, such as doctors and teachers. Then the German soldiers doused the synagogue with gasoline and burned it.
1940-45: In 1941 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 Gabin.
In May 1942 Gabin's Jews were deported to the Chelmno 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 Warsaw called Gabin. Like most Jewish families in Gabin, 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 Gabin. Ten people were shot in the street; others, such as doctors and teachers, were taken away. The Germans rounded up the Jewish men and held them in the marketplace while soldiers doused the synagogue with gasoline and set it on fire.
1940-42: In 1941 the Frenkiels heard rumors that the Germans were evacuating some towns and deporting the Jews to a death camp. 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 May 1942 Gabin's Jews were deported to the Chelmno killing center. Isadore, Sossia and four of their sons were placed in a sealed van and asphyxiated with exhaust fumes.
Item View![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/large/f846e3f5-0f6b-4c6a-9e87-a1a95cc075c0.jpg "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]")
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 Chelmno during the "Gehsperre" action. Lodz, Poland, September 1942.
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]")
Site at which the SS shot and burned the last 45 of 48 prisoners at Chelmno. The other three prisoners escaped. Chelmno, 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]")
![Postwar photo of a church in the village of Chelmno. [LCID: 51706]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/86fab219-ff9c-4f49-a721-b6600e5378ad.jpg "Postwar photo of a church in the village of Chelmno. [LCID: 51706]")