Chelmno extermination camp
Encyclopedia
Chełmno extermination camp, also known as the Kulmhof concentration camp, was a Nazi German extermination camp that was situated 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Łódź, near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof an der Nehr in German
). After annexation
by Germany
Kulmhof was included into Reichsgau Wartheland
in 1939. The camp operated in two periods, from to , and from to , to kill the Jews of the Łódź Ghetto and the Warthegau. In between these two periods, modifications were made to the camp's killing procedure.
At least 152,000 people were killed in the camp, mainly Poles
, Jews from the Łódź Ghetto and the surrounding area, along with Romani from Greater Poland
and some Hungarian
Jews, Czechs, and Soviet prisoners of war
. Most of the victims were killed by the use of gas van
s, and the camp served the purpose of early experimentation and development of methods of mass murder, some of which were applied in later phases of The Holocaust
.
Depending on the source, only two or three people are known to have survived Chełmno extermination camp.
to the south. These sites were known respectively as the Schlosslager (manor-house camp) and the Waldlager (forest camp). On the grounds of the estate was a large manor house, which contained the reception offices, including rooms for undressing and for relinquishing valuables. The SS and police staff and guards were housed in other buildings in the town. The manor house and the grounds were encircled by a high wooden fence. The clearing in the forest camp, which contained space for mass graves, was likewise fenced off. The camp consisted of three parts: an administration section, barracks and storage for plundered goods; and a burial and cremation site.
(execution without judicial process) of 100,000 Jews of the Wartheland, about one-third of the total Jewish population of that territory. The letter stated that the process of killing those Jews was expected to be completed very soon. One theory is that Greiser's request arose from the German Government decision of October 1941 to deport German Jews to the Lodz Ghetto; Greiser wanted to create space for the incoming German Jews by killing off part of the existing Polish Jewish population.
According to post-war testimony by the Higher SS and Police Leader for Reichsgau Wartheland, SS General Wilhelm Koppe
, he received an order from Himmler to liaise with Reichsstatthalter Greiser for the purpose of carrying out the Sonderbehandlung requested by the latter. Koppe entrusted the extermination operation to a Sonderkommando (special detachment) under the command of SS Captain Herbert Lange
, stationed at headquarters of the Commander of Security Police and SD
in Poznan
. That detachment, known as the "Sonderkommando Lange", had previous experience of killing Polish mental patients in the Wartheland in mid-1940, using a mobile gas-chamber with bottled carbon monoxide gas as the killing agent. In October 1941, Lange toured the Wartheland looking for a suitable site for an extermination centre, and finally chose Chelmno because of the castle situated there.
As a killing mechanism, the Sonderkommando Lange was supplied with three gas vans by the RSHA in Berlin. These were vehicles that had been converted to mobile gas-chambers by installing a sealed compartment on the chassis into which the engine exhaust was conveyed by an attached pipe; they had only just been developed in September 1941, for the purpose of killing mental patients in the occupied Soviet Union.
The SS also maintained a "paper command" of the Allgemeine-SS, the 120th SS-Standarte
, to which most of the Chełmno camp staff were attached for administrative purposes only (the 120th Standarte never actively mustered nor did it perform any actual duties).
Lange was replaced in April 1942 by SS-Captain Hans Bothmann. Under the leadership of Security Police and SD officers, the rank and file of the so-called Special Detachment (Sonderkommando) Lange -- later called the SS Special Detachment Bothmann -- was made up of Gestapo
, Criminal Police
, and Order Police personnel. The maximum strength of the Special Detachment was just under 100, of whom around 80 belonged to the Order Police.
In late January 1942 the secretary of the local council, Stanisław Kaszyński, and his wife were arrested and executed three days later for trying to bring public attention to what was being perpetrated at the camp.
During the first five weeks, the victims were Jewish residents of nearby areas in Wartheland District. The SS and police transported them by truck from the places in which they lived to the grounds of the manor house in Chełmno. Guarded by members of the Special Detachment, the victims disembarked one truck at a time in the courtyard of the manor house. SS officials, often wearing white coats to induce the impression that they were physicians, explained to the deportees that they would go to Germany as labourers, but first had to bathe and have their clothes disinfected. Occasionally they would be greeted by a German officer dressed as a local squire would be with a feather cap. He would thank them for coming and say some would be staying to work there. The Jews then entered the manor house. Once inside they were led to a heated first floor room where they undressed and handed over their valuables against receipts to a Polish civilian, who was employed by the special detachment. SS and police personnel led the naked prisoners to the cellar, where they had to walk down a ramp sloping into the back of a large paneled truck that could hold 50-70 people. When the back of the van was full, the doors were closed and sealed. The mechanic on duty attached a tube to the van’s exhaust pipe and then started the engine, pumping carbon monoxide gas into the space where the prisoners were crowded, killing them by asphyxiation. After the victims were dead, the tube was detached from the exhaust pipe, and the van, now full of corpses, was driven to the forest camp, where the bodies were transferred into previously excavated mass graves. Any victims found to be still alive as the corpses were being unloaded were shot by SS and police officials on duty at the forest camp.
station, three miles (5 km) northwest of Chełmno. As round ups in Łódź normally took place in the morning, it was usually late afternoon by the time the victims arrived. Therefore they were taken to a disused mill at Zawadki some two kilometres from Powiercie where they spent the night. The following morning the Jews were transported by truck in numbers which could be easily killed from Zawadki to the manor-house camp, where they were forced to enter into the killing process.
In late July 1942 the victims were brought directly to the camp without the need to spend the night at Powiercie. This was because the railway line linking Koło with Dabie was restored as the bridge over the Rgilewka river was repaired. The mill continued to be used if transports arrived late. The distance from the railway station at Chelmno to the death camp was only about seven hundred metres.
) of 50 to 60 men deployed at the forest camp. They removed corpses from the gas vans and buried them in the mass graves. Because the graves quickly filled and the smell of decomposing bodies began to permeate the surrounding area, including nearby villages, the SS and police ordered some time in the spring of 1942 that in future the bodies be burned on open air "ovens" made of concrete with pipes used for air ducts and long ash pans in the forest camp. Jewish Sonderkommando members were also responsible for exhuming the graves and burning the previously interred bodies. In addition, they sorted the clothing of the victims and cleaned the excrement and blood in the vans. Another small detachment of about 15 Jews worked at the manor house, sorting and packing the belongings of the victims. Between eight and ten skilled handicraftsmen produced or repaired goods for the SS special detachment. Periodically, SS and police officials would kill the members of the Jewish special detachments and replace them with laborers selected from more recent transports. The SS would hold jumping contests and speed races among the prisoners, who were shackled with chains on their ankles, to deem who was fit to continue working; the losers of these contests were killed.
, Kłodawa, Babiak
, and Kowale Panskie
.
From mid-January 1942, SS and police authorities deported Jews in crowded freight trains from the Łódź ghetto to Chełmno. These transports included Jews deported to Łódź from Germany, Austria
, Bohemia
and Moravia
, and Luxembourg
. Throughout 1942, the SS and police continued to deport Jews from Wartheland district region to Chełmno and killed them there. Other victims murdered at the Chełmno killing center included several hundred Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Many of the 5,000 Roma (Gypsies) who had been deported from Austria to the Łódź ghetto in 1941 were also among the first victims of Chełmno.
would be shot in the back of the head though survive the liquidation.
testified about the camp during his trial. He visited in late 1942. Simon Srebnik
testified in both the Eichmann and Chelmno Guard Trials. Given a nickname of Spinnefix, Srebnik would only be recognised by the Chelmno Guards by this name.
A gas-van driver named Walter Burmeister (not be confused with the camps Unterscharfuehrer Walter Burmeister) testified:
and Mordechaï Podchlebnik
. Podchlebnik is sometimes noted by another version of his first name, Michal (or Michael). On June 9 1945, Podchlebnik gave a testimony in a Polish court. Twenty days later at age fifteen, Srebnik also testified. Srebnik would go on to testify in both the Eichmann 1961 Trial and the Chelmno Guard Trials of 1962/3. Both Srebnik and Podchlebnik are interviewed in Claude Lanzmann
's film Shoah
.
Yakov (or Jacob) Grojanowski, a pseudonym
of Szlamek Bajler, escaped from Chełmno and documented the workings of the camp in the Grojanowski Report
, which makes the number of Chełmno survivors at least three. However, Grojanowski was later murdered in the gas chamber at Bełżec extermination camp.
Other sources mention three survivors, the third being Mordechaï Zurawski. Zurawski, along with Srebnik and Podchlebnik, was a witness at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, recounting his experience at the camp. Dr. Sara Roy
of Harvard University
has written that her father, Abraham, was one of two survivors of Chełmno, but doesn't mention his surname.
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
). After annexation
Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany
At the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the pre-war Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under German civil administration, while the rest of Nazi occupied Poland was named as General Government...
by Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Kulmhof was included into Reichsgau Wartheland
Reichsgau Wartheland
Reichsgau Wartheland was a Nazi German Reichsgau formed from Polish territory annexed in 1939. It comprised the Greater Poland and adjacent areas, and only in part matched the area of the similarly named pre-Versailles Prussian province of Posen...
in 1939. The camp operated in two periods, from to , and from to , to kill the Jews of the Łódź Ghetto and the Warthegau. In between these two periods, modifications were made to the camp's killing procedure.
At least 152,000 people were killed in the camp, mainly Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, Jews from the Łódź Ghetto and the surrounding area, along with Romani from Greater Poland
Greater Poland
Greater Poland or Great Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief city is Poznań.The boundaries of Greater Poland have varied somewhat throughout history...
and some Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
Jews, Czechs, and Soviet prisoners of war
Soviet prisoners of war
Soviet prisoners of war may refer to Soviet POW in the following contexts:*Soviet prisoners of war *Soviet prisoners of war *Soviet prisoners of war *Soviet prisoners of war in Finland...
. Most of the victims were killed by the use of gas van
Gas van
The gas van or gas wagon was an extermination method devised by Nazi Germany to kill victims of the regime. It was also rumored that analog of such device was used by the Soviet Union on an experimental basis during the Great Purge-Nazi Germany:...
s, and the camp served the purpose of early experimentation and development of methods of mass murder, some of which were applied in later phases of The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Depending on the source, only two or three people are known to have survived Chełmno extermination camp.
Architecture
The "killing center" consisted of an unused manorial estate in the town of Chełmno itself and a large forest clearing about 4 km (2.5 mi) northwest of Chełmno off the east side of the road to Koło and abutting the village of RzuchówRzuchów
Rzuchow may refer to the following places:*Rzuchów, Greater Poland Voivodeship *Rzuchów, Silesian Voivodeship *Rzuchów, Subcarpathian Voivodeship...
to the south. These sites were known respectively as the Schlosslager (manor-house camp) and the Waldlager (forest camp). On the grounds of the estate was a large manor house, which contained the reception offices, including rooms for undressing and for relinquishing valuables. The SS and police staff and guards were housed in other buildings in the town. The manor house and the grounds were encircled by a high wooden fence. The clearing in the forest camp, which contained space for mass graves, was likewise fenced off. The camp consisted of three parts: an administration section, barracks and storage for plundered goods; and a burial and cremation site.
Command structure
The initiative for the establishment of an extermination centre at Chełmno came from the Governor (Reichsstatthalter) of the Reichsgau Wartheland, Artur Greiser. In a letter to Himmler dated 30 May 1942, Greiser referred to an authorisation he had previously received from Himmler and Heydrich for the SonderbehandlungSonderbehandlung
Sonderbehandlung is a German noun meaning special treatment in English, also existing as a verb: sonderbehandeln . While it can refer to any sort of preferential treatment, it is known primarily as a euphemism used by Nazi functionaries and the SS for murder...
(execution without judicial process) of 100,000 Jews of the Wartheland, about one-third of the total Jewish population of that territory. The letter stated that the process of killing those Jews was expected to be completed very soon. One theory is that Greiser's request arose from the German Government decision of October 1941 to deport German Jews to the Lodz Ghetto; Greiser wanted to create space for the incoming German Jews by killing off part of the existing Polish Jewish population.
According to post-war testimony by the Higher SS and Police Leader for Reichsgau Wartheland, SS General Wilhelm Koppe
Wilhelm Koppe
Wilhelm Koppe was a German Nazi commander who was responsible for numerous atrocities against Poles and Jews in Reichsgau Wartheland and the General Government during the German occupation of Poland in World War II.-Biography:Born in Hildesheim, he fought in the First World War...
, he received an order from Himmler to liaise with Reichsstatthalter Greiser for the purpose of carrying out the Sonderbehandlung requested by the latter. Koppe entrusted the extermination operation to a Sonderkommando (special detachment) under the command of SS Captain Herbert Lange
Herbert Lange
Herbert Lange was a Sturmbannführer in the SS. He was responsible for numerous crimes against humanity related to the murder of mental patients in Poland and in Germany.- Background :...
, stationed at headquarters of the Commander of Security Police and SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...
in Poznan
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
. That detachment, known as the "Sonderkommando Lange", had previous experience of killing Polish mental patients in the Wartheland in mid-1940, using a mobile gas-chamber with bottled carbon monoxide gas as the killing agent. In October 1941, Lange toured the Wartheland looking for a suitable site for an extermination centre, and finally chose Chelmno because of the castle situated there.
As a killing mechanism, the Sonderkommando Lange was supplied with three gas vans by the RSHA in Berlin. These were vehicles that had been converted to mobile gas-chambers by installing a sealed compartment on the chassis into which the engine exhaust was conveyed by an attached pipe; they had only just been developed in September 1941, for the purpose of killing mental patients in the occupied Soviet Union.
The SS also maintained a "paper command" of the Allgemeine-SS, the 120th SS-Standarte
120th SS-Standarte
The 120th SS-Standarte was a regimental command of the Allgemeine-SS that was formed in the city of Chełmno, Poland in the summer of 1940.The Standarte was strictly a "paper command" and never had any active members or a posted commander...
, to which most of the Chełmno camp staff were attached for administrative purposes only (the 120th Standarte never actively mustered nor did it perform any actual duties).
Lange was replaced in April 1942 by SS-Captain Hans Bothmann. Under the leadership of Security Police and SD officers, the rank and file of the so-called Special Detachment (Sonderkommando) Lange -- later called the SS Special Detachment Bothmann -- was made up of Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
, Criminal Police
Kriminalpolizei
is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...
, and Order Police personnel. The maximum strength of the Special Detachment was just under 100, of whom around 80 belonged to the Order Police.
Killings begin
The SS and police began killing operations at Chełmno on December 8, 1941. The first people brought to the camp to be murdered were the Jewish population of Kolo. The Jews were brought from Kolo to Poweirce by rail. Using whips, the Nazis drove them towards the river near Zawadki, where they were locked overnight in a mill, without food or water. The next day, they were loaded into trucks and taken to the nearby forest, gassed with exhaust fumes along the way. Their bodies were dumped in deep pits, and then the gassing trucks returned to the mill for more victims.In late January 1942 the secretary of the local council, Stanisław Kaszyński, and his wife were arrested and executed three days later for trying to bring public attention to what was being perpetrated at the camp.
Murder procedure
Murder of Jews from the Łódź ghetto
On January 16, 1942, the SS and police began deportations from the Łódź Ghetto. German officials transported the Jews from Łódź by train to Koło, six miles (10 km) northwest of Chełmno. There SS and police officials supervised the transfer of the Jews from the freight trains to a train running on a narrow-gauge track, which took them to the PowierciePowiercie
Powiercie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Koło, within Koło County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately east of Koło and east of the regional capital Poznań.The village has a population of 710....
station, three miles (5 km) northwest of Chełmno. As round ups in Łódź normally took place in the morning, it was usually late afternoon by the time the victims arrived. Therefore they were taken to a disused mill at Zawadki some two kilometres from Powiercie where they spent the night. The following morning the Jews were transported by truck in numbers which could be easily killed from Zawadki to the manor-house camp, where they were forced to enter into the killing process.
In late July 1942 the victims were brought directly to the camp without the need to spend the night at Powiercie. This was because the railway line linking Koło with Dabie was restored as the bridge over the Rgilewka river was repaired. The mill continued to be used if transports arrived late. The distance from the railway station at Chelmno to the death camp was only about seven hundred metres.
Sonderkommando
A few Jewish prisoners were selected from incoming transports to form a forced-labor detachment (SonderkommandoSonderkommando
Sonderkommandos were work units of Nazi death camp prisoners, composed almost entirely of Jews, who were forced, on threat of their own deaths, to aid with the disposal of gas chamber victims during The Holocaust...
) of 50 to 60 men deployed at the forest camp. They removed corpses from the gas vans and buried them in the mass graves. Because the graves quickly filled and the smell of decomposing bodies began to permeate the surrounding area, including nearby villages, the SS and police ordered some time in the spring of 1942 that in future the bodies be burned on open air "ovens" made of concrete with pipes used for air ducts and long ash pans in the forest camp. Jewish Sonderkommando members were also responsible for exhuming the graves and burning the previously interred bodies. In addition, they sorted the clothing of the victims and cleaned the excrement and blood in the vans. Another small detachment of about 15 Jews worked at the manor house, sorting and packing the belongings of the victims. Between eight and ten skilled handicraftsmen produced or repaired goods for the SS special detachment. Periodically, SS and police officials would kill the members of the Jewish special detachments and replace them with laborers selected from more recent transports. The SS would hold jumping contests and speed races among the prisoners, who were shackled with chains on their ankles, to deem who was fit to continue working; the losers of these contests were killed.
Deportations to Chełmno
The SS and police conducted killing operations in Chełmno from December 8, 1941, until March 1943 and then again for a brief period in June-July 1944 in the forest camp. From early December 1941 until mid-January 1942, the SS and police deported Jews by truck from nearby towns and villages; the first transports included Jews from Koło, Dąbie, SompolnoSompolno
Sompolno is a town in Konin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,700 inhabitants ....
, Kłodawa, Babiak
Babiak
- Places :*Babiak, Koło County in Greater Poland Voivodeship *Babiak, Turek County in Greater Poland Voivodeship *Babiak, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship...
, and Kowale Panskie
Kowale Panskie
Kowale Pańskie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kawęczyn, within Turek County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north of Kawęczyn, south of Turek, and south-east of the regional capital Poznań....
.
From mid-January 1942, SS and police authorities deported Jews in crowded freight trains from the Łódź ghetto to Chełmno. These transports included Jews deported to Łódź from Germany, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
and Moravia
Moravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
. Throughout 1942, the SS and police continued to deport Jews from Wartheland district region to Chełmno and killed them there. Other victims murdered at the Chełmno killing center included several hundred Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. Many of the 5,000 Roma (Gypsies) who had been deported from Austria to the Łódź ghetto in 1941 were also among the first victims of Chełmno.
Destruction of certain facilities
After having annihilated almost all Jews residing in Wartheland District (aside from those remaining in the Łódź ghetto), the SS and police ceased transports to Chełmno in March 1943. As part of Aktion 1005, in early September 1944, the SS and police demolished the manor house and the open air ovens in the forest camp and then shot the last Jewish forced laborers. Simon SrebnikSimon Srebnik
Simon Srebnik was a Polish Jew who was one of only two or three survivors of the Nazi death camp known as Chełmno extermination camp.-Camp life:...
would be shot in the back of the head though survive the liquidation.
Killing operations resume
In June 1944, the Germans renewed deportations to Chełmno to facilitate the liquidation of the Łódź ghetto. The SS Special Detachment Bothmann returned to the forest camp and supervised renewed killing operations. After one night in the village of Chełmno, the 1944 victims were driven to the forest camp, where the camp authorities had constructed two reception huts and two open air ovens. SS and police officials guarded the Jewish victims as they undressed and gave up valuables. Then they killed the Jews either by asphyxiation in a gas van or by shooting. From mid-July 1944, the SS and police deported the remaining inhabitants of the Łódź ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau.Exhumation and destruction of the bodies of the murdered
Beginning in September 1944, a group of Jewish prisoners, presumably brought from outside the Wartheland District, was forced to exhume and cremate any remaining corpses from the mass graves at Chełmno as part of Operation 1005 and to obliterate any other evidence of mass murder operations. The SS and police shot about half of the 80-man detachment after this work was done in November 1944. The Germans abandoned the Chełmno killing center on January 18, 1945, as the Soviet army approached (which arrived at the camp two days later). The SS killed at least 152,000 people at Chełmno between December 1941 and March 1943 and in June/July 1944. (Note: a 1946–47 report places the number closer to 340,000).Testimonies
Adolf EichmannAdolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
testified about the camp during his trial. He visited in late 1942. Simon Srebnik
Simon Srebnik
Simon Srebnik was a Polish Jew who was one of only two or three survivors of the Nazi death camp known as Chełmno extermination camp.-Camp life:...
testified in both the Eichmann and Chelmno Guard Trials. Given a nickname of Spinnefix, Srebnik would only be recognised by the Chelmno Guards by this name.
A gas-van driver named Walter Burmeister (not be confused with the camps Unterscharfuehrer Walter Burmeister) testified:
Survivors
The exact number of survivors of Chełmno, and their identities, is the subject of some ambiguity. Some sources state that there were two survivors: Simon SrebnikSimon Srebnik
Simon Srebnik was a Polish Jew who was one of only two or three survivors of the Nazi death camp known as Chełmno extermination camp.-Camp life:...
and Mordechaï Podchlebnik
Mordechaï Podchlebnik
Mordechaï Podchlebnik was a survivor of the Chełmno extermination camp. He was interviewed for the documentary film Shoah. He managed to survive the war, and in 1961 gave testimony at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. He is sometimes known by the translation of his name, Michal.-References:...
. Podchlebnik is sometimes noted by another version of his first name, Michal (or Michael). On June 9 1945, Podchlebnik gave a testimony in a Polish court. Twenty days later at age fifteen, Srebnik also testified. Srebnik would go on to testify in both the Eichmann 1961 Trial and the Chelmno Guard Trials of 1962/3. Both Srebnik and Podchlebnik are interviewed in Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann
Claude Lanzmann is a French filmmaker and professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Biography:Lanzmann attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand. He joined the French resistance at the age of 18 and fought in Auvergne...
's film Shoah
Shoah (film)
This page is about the film by the name of Shoah. For other uses, see Shoah Shoah is a 1985 French documentary film directed by Claude Lanzmann about the Holocaust...
.
Yakov (or Jacob) Grojanowski, a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of Szlamek Bajler, escaped from Chełmno and documented the workings of the camp in the Grojanowski Report
Grojanowski Report
The Grojanowski Report was written by Szlamek Bajler, under the pseudonym of Yakov Grojanowski, who escaped from the Chełmno extermination camp and described in detail the atrocities that he witnessed there....
, which makes the number of Chełmno survivors at least three. However, Grojanowski was later murdered in the gas chamber at Bełżec extermination camp.
Other sources mention three survivors, the third being Mordechaï Zurawski. Zurawski, along with Srebnik and Podchlebnik, was a witness at the trial of Adolf Eichmann, recounting his experience at the camp. Dr. Sara Roy
Sara Roy
Sara Roy is an American political economist and scholar. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University....
of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
has written that her father, Abraham, was one of two survivors of Chełmno, but doesn't mention his surname.
See also
- List of Nazi-German concentration camps
- Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and EugenicsKaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and EugenicsThe Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics was founded in 1927. The Rockefeller Foundation supported both the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Psychiatry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics...
- Research Materials: Max Planck Society ArchiveResearch Materials: Max Planck Society ArchiveAt the end of World War II, the Kaiser Wilhelm Society was renamed the Max Planck Society, and the institutes associated with the Kaiser Wilhelm Society were renamed "Max Planck" institutes. The records that were archived under the former Kaiser Wilhelm Society and its institutes were placed in the...
- Shark Island, German South West Africa
External links
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Chełmno
- Burmeister's testimony at the Nizkor ProjectNizkor ProjectThe Nizkor Project is an ongoing Internet-based project run by B'nai Brith Canada which is dedicated to countering Holocaust denial. It was founded by Ken McVay as a central Web-based archive for the large numbers of documents made publicly available by the users of the newsgroup alt.revisionism...