Chelmno Extermination Camp, The Castle

This was the main camp building where the Jews were told they were going to Germany to work, but before they go they had to undress and shower. The shower room was in fact the gas van that was parked north-west of the building at the tree. When the van was loaded it drove north to the forest where they were cremated.

Chełmno extermination camp (German name Kulmhof) was an extermination camp of Nazi Germany that was situated 70 kilometres (43 mi) from Łódź, near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof an der Nehr, in German). This was in a part of Poland annexed by Germany as Reichsgau Wartheland in 1939. It was the first extermination camp, opened in 1941 to kill the Jews of the Łódź Ghetto and the Warthegau.


At least 153,000 people were killed in the camp, mainly Poles, Jews from the Łódź Ghetto and the surrounding area, along with Gypsies from Greater Poland and some Hungarian Jews, Czechs, and Soviet prisoners of war.