Holocaust by Gas Started Weeks Before Wannsee

Initially, Wannsee Conference (its primary objective being creation of a comprehensive infrastructure for “Holocaust by Gas” – the second stage) was scheduled for December 9, 1941 and held at the then offices of Interpol at Am Kleinen Wannsee, 16.

Hence, it made complete sense that “Holocaust by Gas” was to commence the day before – on December 8th – in a “trial mode” (of sorts). Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything and forced RSHA Chief Reinhard Heydrich to move the date of the conference to January 20th – and its location to Wannsee House.

However, it was decided to go ahead with the first stage of the “Holocaust by Gas” to obtain (in)valuable data and experience. So, on December 8 the first gassing took place in Chelmno (Kulmhof) – the first killing center of the “Holocaust by Gas”, specifically constructed for that diabolical purpose.

The first people transported to the camp were the Jewish and Romani populations of cities and villages of Ko;o district (Landkreis Warthbr;cken). A total of 3,830 Jews and around 4,000 Romani were murdered by gas before February 1942.

Che;mno nad Nerem is a village in Poland, annexed to Nazi Germany in 1939 and renamed Kulmhof during German occupation. The death factory itself was situated 50 km north of Lodz and served the dual purpose.

On the one hand, it was established to murder all 200,000 or so Jews in Lodz Ghetto (the second most populous after the one in Warsaw) and in the surrounding cities and villages.

On the other hand, it was supposed to be a “trial” (and thus simplified) version of the “standard” killing center (death factory). Simplified because it was smaller operation than the “standard one” (up to one million victims) and because no complicated logistics was necessary (victims had to travel only 50 km).

Che;mno death factory was established on the orders by Reinhard Heydrich made “Shoah project manager” by G;ring (actually, by Adolf Hitler). The order was given sometime in early October of 1941, after it was decided to make “Holocaust by Gas” a radically scaled-up reincarnation of another “democide by gas” – Aktion T4 (forced euthanasia program).

Not surprisingly, Heydrich chose SS-Hauptsturmf;hrer Herbert Lange to find the optimal location for the death factory – and then create and operate it. Lange was no stranger to serial mass murder by gas – one year prior he and his team killed 1,558 mental patients in gas vans reinvented by the Nazis (they were originally invented by NKVD and used for mass murder in Great Purge of 1937-38).

Lange chose Che;mno on the Ner, because of the estate, with a large manor house similar to Sonnenstein, which could be used for serial mass murder in mobile gas chambers with only minor modifications.

The killing center (Chelmno death factory) consisted of two components: the killing site and the burial site (mass grave). The killing site where victims were loaded (packed actually) in a gas van was a vacated manorial estate in the village of Che;mno on the Ner river.

The burial site was set up in a large forest clearing about 4 km northwest of Che;mno, off the road to Ko;o town. The two sites were known respectively as the Schlosslager (manor-house camp) and the Waldlager (forest camp).

On the grounds of the estate was a large two-story brick country house called “the palace”. Its rooms were adapted to use as the reception offices, including space for the victims to undress and to give up their valuables.

The SS and police staff and guards were housed in other buildings in the town. The Germans had a high wooden fence built around the manor house and the grounds. The clearing in the forest camp, which contained large mass graves, was likewise fenced off.

The killing center was initially supplied with two gas vans, each carrying about 50 victims gassed en route to the burial. Later on, Lange was given three gas vans that had a larger capacity – up to 75 victims each.

Victims were brought to a manor house (first on trucks and then also by rail) and led to a large empty room and ordered to undress; their clothing stacked for disinfection. They were told that all hidden banknotes would be destroyed during steaming and needed to be taken out and handed over for safe-keeping. Occasionally they were met by a German officer dressed as a local squire with a Tyrolean hat, announcing that some of them would remain there.

Wearing just underwear, with the women allowed to keep slips on, the Jews were taken to the cellar and across the ramp into the back of a gas van. When the van was full, the doors were shut and the engine started.

After about 5–10 minutes, the vans full of corpses were driven to Waldlager camp. The vans were unloaded to excavated mass graves, and cleaned by the Waldkommando before returning to the manor house for the next batch of victims.