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The first Nazi camp in which mass executions were carried out by
means of gas, and the first site for mass killings within the
framework of the "Final Solution" outside the area of Nazi
occupation in the USSR.
The camp was destined to serve as a center for the extermination of
the Jews in the Lodz Ghetto, and the Warthegau region, which had
been annexed to the Third Reich. It was located in the Polish
village of Chelmno, 47 miles (70 km) west of Lodz, in the Kolo
district. A total of 320,000 people were put to death there. The
camp was set in the Schloss, an old palace inside the village, and
in the Waldlager in the adjacent Rzuwowski Forest, in which mass
graves and crematoria were later found.
Administration and Structure
To administer and operate the camp, a special unit was set up called
Sonderkommando Kulmhof, also known as Sonderkommando Lange, after
its first commandant, Hauptsturmfuehrer Herbert Lange and later,
from March 1942, known as Sonderkommando Bothmann, after its first
commandant, Hauptsturmfuehrer Hans Bothmann. Twenty members of Sipo
held central posts in the camp. Some one hundred and twenty
Schutzpolizei were divided into secondary units. The Schlosskommando
guarded the palace camp and participated in the killing process,
while the Waldkommando, which operated in the forest camp,
supervised the unloading of the victims' corpses, their burial, and,
later, their cremation. Sonderkommando Kulmhof was directly subject
to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office; RSHA),
in Berlin. However, the governor of the Warthegau region, Arthur
Greiser; the SS commander in the Warthegau, Wilhelm Koppe; and the
head of the Lodz Ghetto administration, Hans Biebow, all concerned
themselves with the affairs of the camp as well. Members of the camp
staff received for their services a special increment of twelve to
fifteen reichsmarks in their wages.
The Murder Process
The deportees were generally brought to the Kolo junction in freight
trains. From there they were transferred to another train, running
on a narrow-gauge track, which proceeded to the Powiercie station.
The victims were first concentrated in the courtyard of the Schloss,
where they were reassured that they were being sent to a work camp
and were to wash while their clothes were being disinfected. They
were then taken in groups of fifty - men, women, and children
together - to the ground floor of the Schloss, where they were told
to strip. Here, their valuables were collected in baskets that would
supposedly be marked with their names. Then they were brought to an
enclosed ramp made of boards and which slanted downward. At the end
of the ramp stood a gas van with its doors open. The moment the
victims entered the ramp, the Germans forced them, with blows, to
run toward the bottom and into the van. They had no alternative but
to enter it. From December 1941, three gas vans were operated in the
Chelmno camp. They were Renault trucks, two of medium size and one
larger, hermetically sealed inside and with double back doors. On
the outside, they looked like furniture delivery vans. The enclosed
space within the van was from 13-15 feet (4-5 m) long, 6.75 feet
(2.2 m) wide, and 6.5 feet (2 m) high; fifty to seventy people were
crammed into each van, which was lined inside with galvanized tin.
After the van had been filled with people, the driver closed and
locked the doors, entered the truck's cab, and switched on the
motor. For ten minutes, the victims within suffocated from the gas.
Once they were dead, the exhaust pipe was detached from its
connection.
Transports to Chelmno
The first transports to Chelmno began on December 7, 1941, and the
camp began to operate on the following day. The first victims were
Jews from the communities in the area of Lodz, as well as 5,000
Gypsies. In mid-January 1942, the deportations from the Lodz Ghetto
began. Between January 16-29, 10,003 Jews were taken from the ghetto
and killed at Chelmno; from February 22 to April 2, 34,073; from May
4-15, 11,680; and from September 5-12, 15,859. These numbers
included Jews from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Luxembourg
who had first been expelled to the Lodz Ghetto. In addition, 15,000
Jews who were sent from the Lodz Ghetto to forced-labor camps in the
Warthegau region were put to death. In March 1943, the transports to
Chelmno came to an end, since the entire Jewish population had been
exterminated. In April 1944, in connection with the planned
liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto, the Nazis decided to renew their
extermination activities in Chelmno. On June 23, 1944, transports to
Chelmno from the Lodz Ghetto began anew, and by July 14, 7,176
persons had been killed. The system was similar to that previously
used.
The Abandonment of the Camp
On the night of January 17, 1945, when the Red Army was approaching,
the Nazis abandoned Chelmno. As they were executing the forty-eight
Jewish prisoners remaining in the camp, the latter resisted, and
three managed to escape. The others were killed.
Reports on the Camp
From among the victims who were selected to work as grave-diggers,
two succeeded in escaping. At the end of January 1943, one of them,
Jacob Grojanowski, reached the Warsaw Ghetto and delivered a
detailed report about Chelmno to the Oneg Shabbat archives. This
report was then sent to London through the Polish underground and
became known in June 1942. After the war, a detailed description of
the camp, telling what happened there, and the daily life of the
Nazi staff, was given to the American authorities in West Germany by
Heinrich May, a former Nazi who was Fortsmeister (forest inspector)
in Precinct 77 of the Warthegau during Chelmno's existence.
Postwar Trials
From 1947-1950, trials were held in Poland of two staff members of
the camp, Walter Piller and Hermann Gielow. Both were sentenced to
death. Later, from 1962-1965, a trial of twelve of the camp's staff
was held in West Germany. Three of them were sentenced to thirteen
years' imprisonment, and one to seven years; the others received
only light punishment.
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