Chelmo September 13, 2025
So on Sunday morning while the Craig's and team curled in the semi finals Ed and I went to a place called Chelmno where the Kulmhof Museum is. There were 6 "Death Camps", "Extermination Camps" or "Killing Centres" as they were called, in Nazi occupied Europe. Almost all of them are in Poland.
One thing I learned was the difference between a concentration camp and extermination camp. The concentration camps were mostly in Germany and were forced labour camps to keep the German economy going while the men fought. Yes people died there as they were kept in a perpetual state of starvation, brutal treatment and disease. Extermination camps on the other hand were set up to murder people, particularly Jews. Chelmno, also known as Kulmhof was the first extermination camp built only for mass murder in conjunction with Operation Reinhard, the secret code name for Nazi's operation to annihilate the Jews. With the thought the Moscow was going to fall the Nazi's conceived Operation Reinhard as part of the Final Jewish Solution. It ran from Mar 1942 to Nov 1943. They managed to murder 1.5 million Jews in 100 days. In Chelmno alone it is estimated that 200,000 people were murdered.
Auschwitz was very interesting and moving but this place hits you right in the heart. It is not very big. It didn't have to be as you arrived and you died. They have made this museum very personal. It is a place of remembrance and its history and events are told by eyewitness perspective, both victims and civilians, personal accounts, letters and photographs.
Chelmno was the only extermination camp that used gas vans and used the experiments from here in future camps. It was manned by German guards who wanted to be there. They could be transferred out if they didn't like it but there were many perks to the job.
Chelmno was one of the first extermination camps set up to test ways of killing people. The Germans had been mass shooting people but the commanders complained to Himler that the men were being psychologically damaged so they needed another way to kill people. The Nazi's had used carbon monoxide to murder 70,000 disabled people but it was seen as too expensive to tranport the cylinders to the East. A new method had to be found. Chelmno used vans with gas hoses piped in through the floor.
The train would bring people to Chelmo where they were moved into the mansion house. The people were told to relinquish their belongings and that they would get them back after the delousing. They were even given receipts for their goods. The were then taken down a ramp to a hallway, stripped then forced into a van. The doors were shut, the engine was started and they were dead within 20 minutes. Then the van was driven to Rzuchow Forest where the bodies were buried.
In 1944 the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto began and the camp was opened again.
Walking into Chelmno. This area was chosen because there was an abandoned mansion here, the granary building and a town for accommodations for the Germans.The white building is the Granary. To the left of it would have been where the mansion would have been but it was blown up to cover up the crimes.
This is the museum with the memorial in the middle with first hand accounts from people who escaped as well as letters from eyewitnesses.
The ruins of the mansion.
The Granary was where prisoners worked to mend and keep the officer's clothing etc in good dress form. During the evacuation, the last 47Jewish prisoners that had been used to cover up the evidence in the camp were taken out and shot 5 at a time. The last 17 revolted and killed 2 guards. The Germans set fire to the building. After the war a notebook was found in the remains of the building. It contained storis and letters to family and friends by the people who were prisoners in the Granary.
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