Chelmno opened first on December 7, 1941 and ended its operations in March 1943. It once again resumed operation on June 23, 1944 and finally ceased operations on January 17, 1945. It’s estimated that anywhere from 150-300, 000 Jews were killed in Chelmno through out the times that it was up and running.
Chelmno developed a lot experience in the use of gas vans. The early models were equipped to pipe carbon monoxide from cylinders in the driver's cab into the van in which the 'patients were locked. Each afternoon, Jews were brought under guard by train from Lodz via Kolo junction (where they transferred to open rail cars running on a narrow-gauge track), or from nearer locations by lorry, to the castle or schloss. They were gathered in the castle courtyard, subdivided into groups of 50 and told to undress. They were forced to hand over all their valuables. They where then told that they were about to be transferred to a work camp, but first they had be disinfected and showered. They were taken down into the castle cellar to a ‘washroom’, which actually led via a ramp into a waiting van. Vicious beatings ensured that none hesitated or declined entrance into the Vans.
After 50-70 persons were jammed into the van's freight compartment, the exhaust pipe was connected to an opening in the compartment and the engine switched on. After about ten minutes those inside were pronounced dead. The driver, usually a member of the 'Schutzpolizei', then drove the van 2.5 miles into the nearby Rzuchow Forest, to the second camp &endash; the "Waldlager." Here the SS had prepared mass graves, dug by Jewish slave labor, and later cremation pyres.
A team of 40-50 Jews, wearing leg-irons to prevent their escape, hauled the bodies out of the van and dumped them in the graves.
Another team of Jews sorted the clothes and objects of those killed so that they could be made available to Germans in the Reich. The "Sonderkommando" had three vans at its disposal. The only technical innovation was the specially constructed sealed compartments mounted on a Renault chassis. These compartments were lined with tin and had airtight, double doors. The floor of the compartment had a wooden lattice to facilitate the cleaning out of detritus. Beneath it was an aperture with a nozzle to which the pipe from the exhaust was connected.
It was through these means that through the first phase approximately 145,000 people where murdered at the Chelmno Concentration camp. The gassings had stated on December 7, 1941. The first deports were Jews from the surrounding communities as well as about 5,000 Gypsies. From January 16-29, 1942, over 10,000 Jews were deported from Lodz to Chelmno and murdered. Followed by 34,000 murdered between March 22 and April 1942. 11,100 between May 4-15, 1921 and an other 16,000 between September 5-12, 1942. In addition, 15,200 Jewish slave labors from Lodz region were gasses at Chelmno.
Totaling over 197,300 murdered at the Chelmno concentration camp