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Chelmno

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. 

The village of Chelmno (Ger.: Kulmhof) is located about 30 miles northwest of Lodz along the Ner River, a tributary of the Warta River in today’s west central Poland. Under German occupation in World War II, Chelmno was located in the Wartheland administrative unit (seat Poznan/Posen). SS and police authorities established the Chelmno killing center in order to annihilate the Jewish population of the Wartheland, including the inhabitants of the Lodz ghetto. It was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for mass murder of Jews.

Chelmno: Maps
  • German administration of Europe, 1942

    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.

  • Killing Centers in German-occupied Poland, 1942

    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—Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz camp complex). Chelmno 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.

  • Europe 1943-1944, Chelmno indicated
  • Chelmno environs, spring 1942
  • Chelmno camp, spring 1942

Killing Operations

The “killing center” consisted of an unused manorial estate in the village of Chelmno itself and a large forest clearing approximately 2.5 miles northwest of Chelmno off the east side of the road to Kolo and abutting the village of Rzuchow to the south. These sites were known respectively as the Schlosslager (manor-house camp) and the Waldlager (forest camp). On the grounds of the estate was a large manor house, which contained the reception offices, including rooms for undressing and for relinquishing valuables. The SS and police staff and guards were housed in other buildings in the village. The manor house and the grounds were encircled by a high wooden fence. The clearing in the forest camp, which contained space for mass graves, was likewise fenced off.

Chelmno

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

    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.

  • Manor house in Chelmno

    View of the manor house in Chelmno that became the site of the Chelmno killing center. Chelmno, Poland, 1939.

  • German soldiers guard Jews during deportation from the Zychlin ghetto

    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.

  • Deportation from Lodz to Chelmno

    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.

  • Deportation to Chelmno

    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.

  • Sossia Frenkiel

    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.

  • Isadore Frenkiel

    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.

  • Family members say goodbye to a child

    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.

  • Killing site

    Site at which the SS shot and burned the last 45 of 48 prisoners at Chelmno. The other three prisoners escaped. Chelmno, Poland, 1945.

  • Building used to store belongings taken from Jews

    Postwar photograph of a building in Dabie where the possessions of Jews killed at the nearby Chelmno killing center were stored. Dabie, Poland, June 1945.

  • Postwar photo of a church in the village of Chelmno

    Postwar photo of a church in the village of Chelmno. Jews were kept in this building en route to the Chelmno killing center. Chelmno, Poland, June 1945.

The SS and police carried out killing operations at Chelmno on the authority of the Higher SS and Police Leader for Wartheland District, SS General Wilhelm Koppe. Koppe entrusted the leadership of the special detachment deployed at Chelmno to SS Captain Herbert Lange of the Commander of Security Police and SD station in Poznan. Lange was replaced in April 1942 by SS-Captain Hans Bothmann. Lange and some of his fellow officers had had experience in mass murder of institutionalized Poles with disabilities in 1940. Under the leadership of Security Police and SD officers, the rank and file of the so-called Special Detachment (Sonderkommando) Lange—later called the SS Special Detachment Bothmann—was made up of Gestapo, Criminal Police, and Order Police personnel. The maximum strength of the Special Detachment was just under 100, of whom around 80 belonged to the Order Police.

The SS and police began killing operations at Chelmno on December 8, 1941. During the first five weeks, the victims were Jewish residents of nearby areas in Wartheland District. The SS and police transported them from the places in which they lived by truck to the grounds of the castle in Chelmno.

Guarded by members of the Special Detachment, the victims disembarked one truck at a time in the courtyard of the manor house. SS officials, often wearing white coats to create the impression that they were physicians, explained to the deportees that they would go to Germany as laborers, but first had to bathe and have their clothes disinfected. The Jews then entered the manor house. Once inside they were led to a back room where they undressed and handed over their valuables against receipts to a Polish civilian, who was employed by the special detachment. SS and police personnel led the naked prisoners to the cellar, where they had to walk down a ramp sloping into the back of a large paneled truck that could hold 50–70 persons. When the back of the van was full, the doors were closed and sealed. The mechanic on duty attached a tube to the van’s exhaust pipe and then started the engine, pumping carbon monoxide gas into the space where the prisoners were crowded, killing them by asphyxiation. After the victims were dead, the tube was detached from the exhaust pipe, and the van, now full of corpses, was driven to the forest camp, where the bodies were transferred into previously excavated mass graves. Any victims found to be still alive as the corpses were being unloaded were shot by SS and police officials on duty at the forest camp.

Jews from the Lodz ghetto are forced to transfer to a narrow-gauge railroad at Kolo during deportation to the Chelmno killing center.
Deportation from Lodz to Chelmno

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.

  • US Holocaust Memorial Museum

On January 16, 1942, the SS and police began deportations from the Lodz ghetto. German officials transported the Jews from Lodz by train to Kolo, six miles northwest of Chelmno. There SS and police officials supervised the transfer of the Jews from the freight trains to a train running on a narrow-gauge track, which took them to the Powiercie station, three miles northwest of Chelmno. Then the Jews were transported by truck from Powiercie to the manor-house camp, where they were forced to enter into the killing process.

A few Jewish prisoners were selected from incoming transports to form a forced-labor detachment (Sonderkommando) of 50 to 60 men deployed at the forest camp. They removed corpses from the gas vans and buried them in the mass graves. Because the graves quickly filled and the smell of decomposing bodies began to permeate the surrounding area, including nearby villages, the SS and police ordered in summer 1942 that in future the bodies be burned on open air “ovens” made of rail track in the forest camp. Jewish Sonderkommando members were also responsible for exhuming the graves and burning the previously interred bodies. In addition, they sorted the clothing of the victims and cleaned the vans. Another small detachment of about 15 Jews worked at the manor house, sorting and packing the belongings of the victims. Between eight and ten skilled handicraftsmen produced or repaired goods for the SS special detachment. Periodically, SS and police officials would kill the members of the Jewish special detachments and replace them with laborers selected off of new transports.

Deportations to Chelmno

The SS and police conducted killing operations in Chelmno from December 8, 1941, until March 1943 and then again for a brief period in June-July 1944 in the forest camp. From early December 1941 until mid-January 1942, the SS and police deported Jews by truck from nearby towns and villages; the first transports included Jews from Kolo, Dabie, Sompolno, Klodowa, Babiak, and Kowale Panskie.

From mid-January 1942, SS and police authorities deported Jews in crowded freight trains from the Lodz ghetto to Chelmno. These transports included Jews deported to Lodz from Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia, and Luxemburg. Throughout 1942, the SS and police continued to deport Jews from Wartheland district region to Chelmno and killed them there. Other victims murdered at the Chelmno killing center included several hundred Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Many of the 5,000 Roma (Gypsies) who had been deported from Austria to the Lodz ghetto in 1941 were also among the first victims of Chelmno.

After having annihilated almost all Jews residing in Wartheland District (aside from those remaining in the Lodz ghetto), the SS and police ceased transports to Chelmno in March 1943. Deploying surviving members of the Jewish special detachment, the SS and police demolished the manor house and the open air ovens in the forest camp and then shot the last Jewish forced laborers before abandoning the site in April 1943. In June 1944, however, the Germans renewed deportations to Chelmno to facilitate the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto. The SS Special Detachment Bothmann returned to the forest camp and supervised renewed killing operations. After one night in the village of Chelmno, the 1944 victims were driven to the forest camp, where the camp authorities had constructed two reception huts and two open air ovens. SS and police officials guarded the Jewish victims as they undressed and gave up valuables. Then they killed the Jews either by asphyxiation in a gas van or by shooting. From mid-July 1944, the SS and police deported the remaining inhabitants of the Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Escape from Chelmno

Seven Jews are known to have escaped from Chelmno; all worked in the burial detachment. Mordechai Podchlebnik, Milnak Meyer, Abraham Tauber, Abram Roj, and a mysterious "Szlamek," whose actual identity has never been fully established, escaped during the winter of 1942; Mordechai Zurawski and Simon Srebnik escaped from the labor detail dismantling the killing center in January 1945. Podchlebnik, Zurawski, Srebnik, and Roj survived the war. Though he did not survive, "Szlamek" found refuge in the Warsaw ghetto and told of his experiences. The Jewish underground movement smuggled Szlamek's account that the Germans were systematically killing Jews with poison gas at Chelmno via the Polish underground to the West, where it appeared in a New York Times article published on page six of the July 2, 1942 edition.

Hiding Evidence of Mass Murder

Beginning in September 1944, a group of Jewish prisoners, presumably brought from outside the Wartheland District, was forced to exhume and cremate any remaining corpses from the mass graves at Chelmno as part of Operation 1005 and to obliterate any other evidence of mass murder operations. The SS and police shot about half of the 80-man detachment after this work was done in November 1944. The Germans abandoned the Chelmno killing center on January 17, 1945, as the Soviet army approached. The SS killed at least 172,000 people at Chelmno between December 1941 and March 1943 and in June/July 1944.

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

Critical Thinking Questions

  • To what degree was the German population and the local Polish community aware of the camps, their purpose, and the conditions within? How would you begin to research this question?
  • Did the outside world have any knowledge about the killing centers? If so, what actions were taken by other countries and their officials?
  • What choices do other countries have in the face of mistreatment of civilians?

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