Chelmno

   Located in the Polish village of Chelmno some 47 miles west of Lodz, the Kulmhof castle was the first German facility in which stationary gas trucks were used to kill Jews. Kulmhof (the German word for the village of Chelmno) was established in late 1941 for the purpose of exterminating the Jewish population of the Polish provinces of Poznen (Posen) and Lodz. Shortly after Germany’s conquest of Poland, the two provinces were incorporated into the Reich and renamed the Warthegau. In addition to Polish Jews who were the Germans’ primary target, thousands of Germans, Austrians, and Jews from Czechoslovakia were transported and killed in Chelmno, as well as 5,000 Gypsies. The first transport of Jews arrived on 7 December 1941 and the camp began operations on the following day under SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer (roughly equivalent to a first lieutenant) Herbert Lange. The actual killings took place in the Kulmhof castle, the former residence of a local lord, located outside of the village of Kulmhof. Historians number the Jews killed at Chelmno from a low estimate of 152,000 to a high of 310,000, and over 4,000 Gypsies.

   See also Lange Sonderkommando.