Chelmno

1. Chelmno SangWoong Lee

2. For concentration camps, specify the type • This camp is extermination camp

3. The location of Chelmno camp The village of Chelmno is situated 14 km from the town of Kolo, through which runs the main railway line from Lodz to Poznan, and which is connected with the village of Chelmno by a branch line. Lodz, the second largest city of Poland, which in 1939 had a Jewish population of 202,000, was relatively near; the road to it was good and little used.

4. Who was sent to the camp? The aim of the Chelmno camp was the extermination of the Jews from the Warthegau, the part of Poland which consisted of the 1939 province (voivodship) of Poznania, almost the whole province of Lodz, and a part of the province of Warsaw, inhabited altogether by 4,546,000 People (including 450,000 Jews).Also, Austria and Czechoslovakia people sent to this camp.

5. The number of people sent to the camp • about 145,000 people were murdered at Chelmno in the first phase of its operations. Gassings started on December 7th , 1941. The first deportees were Jews from surrounding communities and about 5,000 Gypsies who had been incarcerated in the Lodz ghetto. From January 16th to January 29th, 1942, 10,000 Jews were deported from Lodz to Chelmno and murdered. They were followed by 34,000 between March 22nd and April 2nd, 1942, 11,700 between May 4th and 15th, 1942, 16,000 between September 5th and 12th, 1942. In addition, 15,200 Jewish slave laborers from the Lodz region were gassed at Chelmno. • Amongst the deportees were Jews from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia who had been transported to the Lodz ghetto. After the assassination of ReinhardHeydrich and the annihilation of the Czech town of Lidice, 88 children from there were sent to Chelmno and murdered. • By March 1943, most of the Jews of the Warthegau had been murdered. Only the 70,000 Jews in the Lodz ghetto remained. Chelmno camp was wound up and the schloss actually demolished. It was briefly reactivated on the same lines in April to July 1944 to assist with the liquidation of the Lodz 'ghetto'. In this period, a further 25.000 Lodz Jews were murdered at Chelmno. Afterwards, a unit of 'Sonderkommando 1005 labored to clean up the traces of mass murder. On January 17th, 1945 the work group, numbering 48 men, was to be shot, but the Jews revolted and in the ensuing melee a handful escaped.

6. What people did to survive in the camp • Last day of when the Germany decided to close the camp, many Jews people fought against Germany, but from many Jews people,only 3 survived.

7. When the camp was open? • Chelmno was established December 1941. The first commandant was Herbert Lange. The camp consisted of two parts: administration section, barracks and storage for plundered goods; burial and cremation site. It operated three gas vans using carbon monoxide. The camp began operations on December 7th, 1941 and ended operations on March 1943. It resumed operations June 23, 1944 and finally ceased operations January 17, 1945

8. What happened to the camp in the last days of the war • There is no information about the last days of the war because chelmno camp closed before the last days of the war.

9. The film about chelmno camp • http://youtu.be/72EHKDgL2Rc