Killing Operations Begin at Chełmno

Killing operations begin at the Chełmno killing center, located about 40 miles northwest of Łódź.

SS and police authorities established the Chełmno killing center in order to murder the Jewish population of the Warthegau (an area of western Poland directly annexed to the German Reich), including the inhabitants of the Łódź ghetto. It was the first stationary facility where poisonous gas was used for mass murder of Jews. The killing center operated from December 1941 until April 1943 and then briefly from June 1944 until January 1945.