CHELMNO : DEATH CAMP

1939-1945

Welcome to Chelmno!(located in northern poland)

They arrived at Chelmno on trains!These trains were packed tightly with Jewish men, women, and children. They were

given no water, no food, and no rest room. Therefore they were forced to relieve themselves in all four corners of their box car, making the air stink and become polluted.

Most Jews became sick while on these trains. So many of these people thought they were being taken to a work camp, but sadly they were being brought to their deaths…

After they were loaded off the trains they were forced to strip, and leave their clothes behind, they were told that they would get them back after their shower…. Most of them never got any clothes back let alone their own.

Two lines: the line that kept you living, or dead

The next thing after a nice warm shower was probably the scariest, men, women, and children were forced into two lines, one lead you straight to your death and the other

kept you alive for later. The living line was made up of men over the age of 17 who were able to work and women who were healthy enough to work. The death line consisted of

children mostly or sick people who were no use to anyone.

Chelmno was the first Death Camp to use Gas to kill it’s occupants. They had gas chambers that would release deadly toxins into the air and kill everyone in the room in a matter of around 20 minuets. The weird thing is, the man who came up with this idea was Hitler’s physician. He claimed it was “the most humane way to kill jews.”

This is a gas chamber: imagine being locked in here with all the lighs

off and slowly be brought to your death.

Another way that Chelmno used gas was in what they called ‘Gas Vans’ which are vans that they would pump with gas on the way to the camp and when they arrived, everyone was dead.

Children were not killed with gas however:

Children, believe it or not, would take twice as long to suffocate in the gas as an adult would. So the SS soldiers thought of a new way to kill the children. They had a furnace that they would shove children in and turn up the heat to almost 500 degrees, wait 10 minuets and

then open it up to see nothing but ashes.

The days at Chelmno were filled with terror and false hope. The guards used to let the prisoners write letters home to their families, but the letter had to start with: “I’m doing well and I love it here.” or something along those lines. This was so that no one would ever know the truth about the death camps and cause mass-chaos. They used to send these letters months after the prisoner was dead.

Chelmno was the first death camp, the first camp to use gas, and the first camp to use vans, but chelmno had the least amount of deaths during it’s run. An estimate of 153,000 Jews were slaughtered at Chelmno.

Chelmno, Poland 1939-1945

CreditsBooks: The Holocaust: 1-56006-124-3 The Death Camps: 1-56006-094-8

Internet:http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/ChelmnoEng.html

By: Devyn Schneider2-6-2011Mrs.Vosburg’s U.S history IIPeriod 7