Chelmno

Chelmo (Kulmhof) was a death camp. It was the first of the death camps. Opened in 1941, the Jews of the Lodz Ghetto were the primary targets. It was closed in 1943 and reopened and reclosed in 1944.

Zyklon B was not used in Chelmno. Instead, engine exhaust and carbon monoxide was used. Those to be killed were loaded into the back of one of three of Chelmno's gassing vans. The exhaust pipes were turned in so that when the van was started the fumes entered the back of the van where the people were being held. They slowly died of carbon monoxide. Compared to Zyklon B, the method was very inefficent: the process took a long time and guards nearby suffered pychological damage from the screams.

Jews, Gypsies, POWs from Czechoslovakia and the USSR were killed during the opereating years of Chelmno and they added up to a total of 153,000 murdered.