Chelmno (Nazi death camp)

Chelmno concentration camp . It was a Nazi death camp that was located 70 km from Lodz, near a small town called Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof an der Nehr, in German), in the so-called General Government of Poland (which was annexed and incorporated in 1939 to Germany under the name Reichsgau Wartheland). It was the first extermination camp, opened in 1941 to kill the Jews of the Lodz and Warthegau ghetto ; being the first place in Holocaust history to use poison gas.

Table of Contents

Summary

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1 History
2 When it was closed
3 Those who inaugurated the extermination camp
4 Witness to the extermination camp
5 Staff outposted in Chelmno
6 Guards who worked in this death camp
7 SS Watchers
8 After the war
9 Source

History

The Kulmhof death camp in the Polish city of Chelmno was the first dedicated to the systematic extermination of Jews in occupied Poland. From December 1941 to the spring of 1943 and the summer of 1944, the German Security Police forces murdered almost the entire Jewish population in the Kulmhof area, which was part of the Warthegau region. The decision to establish the camp in this area is believed to have been decisively influenced by the local Warthegau authorities. At least 152,000 people were killed in this camp, mainly Jews from the Lodz ghetto and its surroundings, along with gypsies from Greater Poland and some Hungarian, Polish, Czech and Soviet POWs. The location selected for the killing center was a small town, Chelmno / Ner, near the city of Kolo, which had good communications with Lodz, the ghetto with the largest Jewish population in the region. In November 1941, the palace and the adjacent park were occupied, the premises surrounded by barbed wire, the local population deported, and the main buildings were occupied by the Sonderkommandos. In 1942, due to the process of decomposition of the bodies in the mass graves and the threat of epidemics, the transports were stopped. Jewish prisoners were forced to unearth the bodies and burn them in crematoriums specially created for this purpose. the facilities surrounded by barbed wire, the deported local population and the main buildings were occupied by the Sonderkommandos. In 1942, due to the process of decomposition of the bodies in the mass graves and the threat of epidemics, the transports were stopped. Jewish prisoners were forced to unearth the bodies and burn them in crematoriums specially created for this purpose. the facilities surrounded by barbed wire, the deported local population and the main buildings were occupied by the Sonderkommandos. In 1942, due to the process of decomposition of the bodies in the mass graves and the threat of epidemics, the transports were stopped. Jewish prisoners were forced to unearth the bodies and burn them in crematoriums specially created for this purpose.

When it was closed

In April 1943, when it was closed and its crematorium destroyed. In the spring of 1944 it was restored and closed again on January 17, 1945. A special SS Sonderkommando named Sonderkommando Kulmhof asphyxiated people with exhaust fumes and then burned them. The field consisted of two parts: an administrative section, barracks and warehouses for looted goods; and a burial and cremation site. He operated three gas cars that used carbon monoxide .

Who inaugurated the extermination camp

The first to pass through the camp were Jews from the local ghettos (Kolo, Dabie, Kowale Panskie, Klodawa and Izbica Kujawska). In January 1942 the transports of gypsies from Lodz began, shortly before Jews from the same ghetto, as well as Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia and Austria, who in the autumn of 1941 had been temporarily sent to the Lodz ghetto. The contingents of deportees were Jews from the communities adjacent to the camp and about 5,000 Gypsies who had been imprisoned in the Lodz Ghetto.. Nearly 10,000 Jews were deported from Lodz to Chelmno and killed between January 16 and 29, 1942. About 34,000 were “tried” between March 22 and April 2, 1942. Another 11,000 were deported. and gassed between May 4 and 15, 1942, 16,000 Jews between September 5 and 12, 1942 and a number of 15,200 Jewish forced laborers from the Lodz region were also gassed.

The mass murder began on December 8, 1941, with the near total annihilation of the nearby town of Wartheland, subsequently three gas trucks, traveling between Kulmhof and a forest where a series of mass graves had been prepared. The first victims were Jews from local communities, but 4,300 gypsies (Sinti and Roma) who were imprisoned in a special section of the Lodz ghetto were also included. The exact total of victims of that day is not known, although it is only known that more than 5,000 gypsies were gassed. The transports of Jews came from Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic who, reinstated in the Lodz ghetto, would be dragged to Chelmno to die. Among the prisoners taken to Chelmno were 88 children who were among the few survivors of Lídice, population that was totally razed in revenge for the murder of Reinhard Heydrich; all were killed directly upon arrival. In March 1943, the population of Warthegau and theghettos were emptied of Jews in their entirety and murdered in Chelmno; In Lodz alone there were 70,000 Jews left. Once this extermination was concluded, the racial cleansing of the region was terminated and the arrival of trains was slowed down.

Witness to the extermination camp

Adolf Eichmann testified on the field during his trial. He visited it in 1942:

‘ As soon as the ramp had been raised in the castle, people started arriving at Kulmhof from Lizmannstadt (Łódź) in trucks … They told people that they had to bathe, that their clothes had to be disinfected and that they could deliver in advance any object of value to be registered […] When they had undressed, they were sent to the basement of the castle and then along a passage to the ramp and from there to the gas truck. In the castle there were signs marked “to the baths”. The gas vans were large, 4-5 m long, 2.2 m wide and 2 m high. The interior walls were lined with sheet metal. There was a wooden grate on the floor. The floor of the van had an opening, which could be connected to the exhaust pipe by means of a removable metal pipe. When the trucks were full of people, the double doors at the rear were closed and the exhaust pipe connected to the inside of the van […] The command member gave details while the driver would start the engine immediately, so that the people inside the truck were suffocated by the exhaust gases. Once this was done, the joint between the exhaust pipe and the inside of the truck was disconnected and the van was driven to the field in the woods, where the bodies were unloaded. In the early days, they were first buried in mass graves, later cremated … So I brought the van back to the castle and parked it there. Here it would be cleaned of the excreta of the people who had died there. Afterward, it would be used once more for gas poisoning […] ‘ So I brought the van back to the castle and parked it there. Here it would be cleaned of the excreta of the people who had died there. Afterwards, it would be used once more for gas poisoning […] ‘ So I brought the van back to the castle and parked it there. Here it would be cleaned of the excreta of the people who had died there. Afterwards, it would be used once more for gas poisoning […] ‘

By March 1943, many of the Warthegau Jews had been murdered. Only about 70,000 remained in the remains of the Lodz Ghetto. Himmler ordered the field to be dismantled on April 7, 1943, Chelmno was then closed down and the facilities demolished. However, by necessity of the plan organized by the German forces, operations continued on June 23, 1944, with a new Commander, Hans Bothmann, who led the “Sonderkommando Bothmann” together with Hermann Gielow and Walter Piller. In this second period, a contingent of more than 25,000 Jews from Lodz were murdered in Chelmno. In addition to this, the Sonderkommando 1005 under the orders of the SS Standartenführer Paul Blobel, worked in cleaning up traces of the mass murder. On the night of January 17, 1945, the task force consisting of 48 detainees were to be shot, but they rebelled and provoked a fight, only three managing to escape. It has been reported that at least 10 people managed to survive in this field.

Outstanding personnel in Chelmno

The camp had two commanders throughout its history:

SS Sturmbannführer Herbert Lange (Killed in combat against the Russians, April 20, 1945, near Berlin)
SS Hauptsturmführer Hans Bothmann (Committed Suicide while in custody by the British)

Guards who worked in this death camp

SS Scharführer Heinrich Bock
SS Unterscharführer Walter Burmeister (13 in prison)
SS Unterscharführer Walter Filer
SS Hauptscharführer Hermann Gielow (Executed by the Poles)
SS Hauptscharführer Wilhelm Gürlich
SS Untersturmführer Alois Häfele (13 years in prison)
SS Unterscharführer Karl Heinl (7 years in prison)
SS Oberscharführer Wilhelm Heukelbach (13 and a half years in prison)
SS Scharführer Gustav Hüfing
SS Rottenführer Fritz Ismer
SS Oberwachmeister Bruno Israel
SS Oberwachmeister Moyz Kerzer
SS Oberwachmeister Oskar Kraus
SS Unterscharführer Erich Kretschmer
SS Hauptscharführer Gustav Laabs (13 years in prison)
SS Wachmeister Wilhelm Lenz
SS Scharführer Kurt Möbius (8 years in prison)
SS Scharführer Rudolf Otto
SS Oberscharführer Walter Piller (Executed by the Poles)
SS Oberwachmeister Albert Plate (Wounded in action by Russians – Committed suicide)
SS Sturmscharführer Albert Richter
SS Unterscharführer Johann Runge
SS Scharführer Franz Schalling
SS Rottenführer Wilhelm Sefler
SS Scharführer Max Sommer
SS Oberscharführer Otto Stadie (7 years in prison)

SS watchers

SS Wachmeister Bartel
SS Unterscharführer Belaff
SS Wachmeister Blanch
SS Oberwachmeister Bulmann
SS Scharführer Bürstinge
SS Oberwachmeister Daniel
SS Oberscharführer Görlich
SS Oberwachmeister Han
SS Wachmeister Richert
SS Wachmeister Ross
SS Wachmeister Rubmiech
SS Unterscharführer Schmidt
SS Oberwachmeister Schneider
SS Wachmeister Shlipke
SS Rottenführer Stark
SS Unterscharführer Thiele
SS Wachmeister Zimmermann

After the war

At the end of the war, a trial was organized against some of the guards who had served in Chelmno, this process took place in Essen , Germany, between 1962 and 1965 and generated several sentences to medium terms of prison. Both camp commanders managed to escape justice: Lange would fall fighting the Russians and Bothmann will commit suicide while in the power of the British.