There Were Five Chelmno Trials in Two Countries

There were five Chelmno trials in two countries (one in Poland, four in West Germany) that spanned exactly twenty years – from 1945 to 1965.

The first trial of members of the SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof who committed serial mass murder (genocide) of Jews in Chelmno death factory (killing center) began less than a month after the end of the Second Great War – on May 24, 1945. It was held in Poland, at the District Court in Lodz (Chelmno death factory was created specifically to kill Jews in Lodz ghetto – the second largest in Poland).

The subsequent four trials, held in Bonn, West Germany, began in 1962 and concluded three years later, in 1965 in Cologne.

The biggest problem with the first Chelmno trial was (and is) that it violated the first fundamental principle of criminal justice: victims can not try the criminal in a court of law (otherwise it would be revenge – not justice).

Consequently, while de-facto all defendants were guilty of serial mass murder (no doubt about that), de-jure they are all not guilty. Not innocent – just not guilty… even if you do not take into account highly questionable witnesses’ statements, forged documents (standard operation procedure of Communists worldwide) and use of torture to secure confessions (ditto).

Chelmno trial was unlike any other war-crimes trial, because the camp had been essentially annihilated by the SS (in Aktion 1005), along with most traces of the serial mass murder.

Truckloads of ashes of its victims were dumped in the Warta River daily, the mansion was blown up with rubble removed to foundations, mobile gas-chambers and loot were driven back to Berlin, written records were destroyed, including train departure records.

To make things worse, some of the key evidence was mistakenly discarded in the trash in 1945 (i.e., over 5,000 pairs of damaged shoes from a destroyed synagogue in Ko;o), or hauled away as usable materials, including wooden fencing and cremation grids; few people were aware of its importance. By comparison, other former death camps were overflowing with direct evidence of war-crimes, as in the case of the Majdanek trial decided several months prior.

Still, three defendants were sentenced to death (no surprise here), including the camp deputy commandant Walter Piller; the gas van operator Hauptscharf;hrer Hermann Gielow, as well as Bruno Israel from Ordnungspolizei, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

Death sentences were made possible by the Decree by the Communist Polish “government” of August 31, 1944 pertaining to Nazi War Criminals. This decree made war crimes trials in now Communist Poland not much different from show trials in kangaroo courts in the Soviet Union under Stalin. 

Both Walter Piller and Hermann Gielow applied for a presidential pardon, which they were not granted. After a few years spent on death row, Walter Piller was executed on January 19, 1949. Herman Gielow was executed in the Poznan Prison on June 6, 1951.

Chelmno Trials in Germany were highly valuable because they (officially, in a court of law) provided the total number of victims (180,000) which was far lower than the commonly accepted 320,000. Which means that the total number of Holocaust victims is probably lower than 4 million that I estimated (and the number of entries in Yad Vashem database).

Twelve former members of SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof were tried before the Special Criminal Court in Bonn, in 1962–1965 on charges of complicity to the murder of 180,000 Jews. One more was tried in Cologne.

A total of four trials were held. Later observers referred to at least one of them as a judicial farce… which made this trial not that different from the one in Poland.

The problems the judges (and prosecutors) faced were even worse. For starters, genocide was not in the criminal code of Nazi Germany (which formed the basis for the one in BRD) and the court ruled that it could not be applied retroactively.

Depositions were not sufficient to secure convictions. There was little physical evidence remaining at the crime scene. No victims’ bodies to examine: their ashes had been carried downriver and out to sea. Et cetera, et cetera.

Still, prosecutors somehow managed to secure convictions in 7 out of 13 cases. The most severe penalties of 15 years were given to Gustav Laabs, SS Hauptscharf;hrer, (Oberfeldwebel) a gas van operator, and Alois H;fele, SS Untersturmf;hrer (second lieutenant), a camp Hauskommando leader.

The latter’s sentence was reduced by two years on appeal… because he reportedly gave cigarettes to some of the victims. Oberscharf;hrer (Feldwebel) Gustaw Fiedler, from Polizeiwachtkommando, was tried in 1965 in Cologne and sentenced to 13; months imprisonment.

Other defendants were cleared of all charges and released.