Museum of the Former German Kulmhof Death Camp in Chełmno on Ner

Established in December 1941, Chelmno was the first of the Nazi extermination camps and a prototype for the later camps of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. It was primarily used for the mass murder of Jews from the Lodz ghetto and the surrounding areas.

The camp consisted of two sections: the manor house camp (Schlosslager) in Chelmno and the forest camp (Waldlager) about 2.5 miles away. Victims were initially killed in gas vans, a method that would later be replaced by stationary gas chambers in other camps. At Chelmno, Jews were told they were being transported for resettlement but were instead driven to the forest camp, where they were gassed in the vans. Their bodies were then buried in mass graves or later burned in open-air crematoria.

An estimated 172,000 people were killed at Chelmno between December 1941 and March 1943, and during a brief period of renewed operations in June/July 1944. The victims included Jews from the Wartheland district, the Lodz ghetto, and other areas, as well as several hundred Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Many of the Roma deported from Austria to the Lodz ghetto were also among Chelmno’s first victims.

In an effort to hide evidence of mass murder, the SS initiated Operation 1005 in September 1944, forcing Jewish prisoners to exhume and cremate the corpses from the mass graves. The camp was abandoned on January 17, 1945, as the Soviet army approached.

Today, the site includes a museum housed in the former manor house, with exhibitions detailing the history of the camp, the lives of the victims, and the process of extermination. The forest camp area, where the killings took place, is marked by a memorial stone and an educational path leading visitors through the history of the camp.