Chelmno Essay
Long Pham
Mrs. Burnett
U.S. History II block 8
27 January 2010
Chelmno
“A large baseball stadium holds about 55,000 people. If everyone in that stadium were murdered, and if the stadium were filled up again five more times and all of those people were also murdered, what would still be less than the number of Jews killed at Chelmno alone.” (Feldman 220) Chelmno is the first extermination camp and the leading camp in the in-vans asphyxiation killing method that killed hundreds thousands of people in the Holocaust during World War II. Learning and understanding the holocaust, we would be able to know the brutality and inhumanity of the Nazi and to let it never happen again.
Chelmno is a small village in the West Central German – occupied Poland. It was belonged to the Wartheland district and located pretty far from other city, which is a ideal place for the Nazis to practice extermination. Chelmno had been established 2 months before the Wannsee Conference convened in Berlin to arrange the “Final Solution” – The Nazi plan to annihilate all European Jews. This concentration camp was led by SS Captain Herbert Lange and later SS Captain Hans Bothmann, together with under 100 SS and police officials. There were also Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans volunteering to help the Nazis guard the camp. Chelmno was an advanced killing center included an unused manorial estate, called “Schilosslager” or manor-house camp and a nearby forest “Waldlager” or forest camp. It was established on December 7, 1941 and the gassing process began one day after that on December 8. The first victims were Jews in Chemlno and surrounding towns such as Kolo, Dabie and Klodowa in Wartheland district. This open-stage lasted about 5 weeks from December 8, 1941 to January 16, 1942. Those Jews were transported from where they lived to the courtyard of Chelmno manor by truck. (Feldman)
When the Jews arrived there, the killing procedure began. They were greeted by SS officials dressed in
Mrs. Burnett
U.S. History II block 8
27 January 2010
Chelmno
“A large baseball stadium holds about 55,000 people. If everyone in that stadium were murdered, and if the stadium were filled up again five more times and all of those people were also murdered, what would still be less than the number of Jews killed at Chelmno alone.” (Feldman 220) Chelmno is the first extermination camp and the leading camp in the in-vans asphyxiation killing method that killed hundreds thousands of people in the Holocaust during World War II. Learning and understanding the holocaust, we would be able to know the brutality and inhumanity of the Nazi and to let it never happen again.
Chelmno is a small village in the West Central German – occupied Poland. It was belonged to the Wartheland district and located pretty far from other city, which is a ideal place for the Nazis to practice extermination. Chelmno had been established 2 months before the Wannsee Conference convened in Berlin to arrange the “Final Solution” – The Nazi plan to annihilate all European Jews. This concentration camp was led by SS Captain Herbert Lange and later SS Captain Hans Bothmann, together with under 100 SS and police officials. There were also Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans volunteering to help the Nazis guard the camp. Chelmno was an advanced killing center included an unused manorial estate, called “Schilosslager” or manor-house camp and a nearby forest “Waldlager” or forest camp. It was established on December 7, 1941 and the gassing process began one day after that on December 8. The first victims were Jews in Chemlno and surrounding towns such as Kolo, Dabie and Klodowa in Wartheland district. This open-stage lasted about 5 weeks from December 8, 1941 to January 16, 1942. Those Jews were transported from where they lived to the courtyard of Chelmno manor by truck. (Feldman)
When the Jews arrived there, the killing procedure began. They were greeted by SS officials dressed in