Rzuchow Forest

Rzuchow Forest, called a forest camp, is 4 km away from Chelmno. In Chelmno an  abandoned 19th century manor house was choosen to become the first stationary killing centre. Special air tight vans were designed in Berlin, that could hold 50-70 people, then a special hose was attached to the exhaust and run into the van. After people were murdered the van was driven to Rzuchow Forest where the bodies were dumped into mass graves and then the van returned to repeat.
In November of 1939 56 Polish hostages were executed by firing squad in the "Policitical Clearing Grounds" of the Nazi's.
Monument to the Holocaust victims. From the top the monument is sort of the star of David. It is 2500m3 with hidden chambers on the inside and placed on 5 irregularly space pyramids. On the front, the carving depicts the walk towards the Holocaust. In the centre is the outline of the gas van and the right side has the inscription "We Remember". On the back wall is an inscription  from a testimony written down by someone on behalf of the last prisoners in the camp, with the words "Announcement to Our Future."
One of the Jewish plots.
This is one of the execution sites probably one of the original sites as the irregular lines indicated it was dug by hand and there is indication of slack lime used for decomposition.

This place is huge and many of the trees have grown back in.

These mass graves were originally used for buried bodies but deportation was stopped temporarily as there was concern about the smell and contamination of the site. The bodies were exhumed and burned and the bones ground up. 2 crematoriums were then built to handle the bodies on resumption of the murders.
There are many of these memorials dedicated to the many different countries and groups that lost people to the killing camp.


There is a Wall of Remembrance build in 1990. On it are plaques from families,  whole communities and individuals acknowledging those killed here.

Interesting the ground here is not growing much of anything. Contamination of the site?




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