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Chelmno: Maps

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Chelmno killing centers occupied Poland

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Europe 1943-1944, Chelmno indicated [LCID: che72050] — Item View

German administration of Europe, 1942 [LCID: eur66060] — In 1942, Germany dominated most of Europe. Greater Germany had been enlarged at the expense of its neighbors. Austria and Luxembourg were completely incorporated. Territories from Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, and the Baltic states were seized by Greater Germany. German military forces occupied Norway, Denmark, Belgium, northern France, Serbia, parts of northern Greece, and vast tracts of territory in eastern Europe. Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia, and Vichy France were all either allied to Germany or subject to heavy German influence. Between 1942 and 1944, German military forces extended the area under their occupation to southern France, central and northern Italy, Slovakia, and Hungary.
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Killing centers in occupied Poland, 1942 [LCID: pol72090] — Killing centers (also referred to as "extermination camps" or "death camps") were designed to carry out genocide. Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis established five killing centers in German-occupied Poland—Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz camp complex). Chełmno and Auschwitz were established in areas annexed to Germany in 1939. The other camps (Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka) were established in the General Government (an administrative unit of occupied Poland). Auschwitz functioned as concentration and forced-labor camps, as well as a killing center. The overwhelming majority of the victims of the killing centers were Jews. An estimated 2.7 million Jews were killed in these five killing centers as part of the Final Solution. Other victims murdered in the killing centers included Roma (Gypsies) and Soviet prisoners of war.

On this map, the Majdanek camp is labeled as a killing center. In the past, many scholars counted the Majdanek camp (located just outside the city of Lublin) as a sixth killing center. However, based on newer research, Lublin-Majdanek is usually classified as a concentration camp. According to this research, German authorities used Majdanek primarily as a place to concentrate Jews who were being temporarily spared for use as forced laborers. Occasionally, especially after Belzec ceased operating in late 1942, Jews were sent to Majdanek as part of Operation Reinhard to undergo selection. Jews selected as unfit for labor were murdered at Lublin-Majdanek either by shooting or in the camp's gas chambers.
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Chelmno environs, spring 1942 [LCID: che42060] — The Chełmno killing center in German-occupied Poland was the first stationary facility where the Nazis used poisonous gas for the mass murder of Jews. The Chełmno killing center consisted of two main parts: the manor house (located in the village of Chełmno) and a large clearing in the Rzuchów forest. The SS and police murdered at least 152,000 Jews and 4,300 Roma at Chełmno.
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Chelmno camp, spring 1942 [LCID: che22030] — The Chełmno killing center in German-occupied Poland was the first stationary facility where the Nazis used poisonous gas for the mass murder of Jews. The Chełmno killing center consisted of two main parts: the manor house (located in the village of Chełmno) and a large clearing in the Rzuchów forest. The SS and police murdered at least 152,000 Jews and 4,300 Roma at Chełmno.
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