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Chełmno extermination camp ((ドイツ語:Vernichtungslager Kulmhof)) built during World War II, was a Nazi German extermination camp situated 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of the metropolitan city of Łódź, near the Polish village of Chełmno nad Nerem (''Kulmhof an der Nehr'' in German). Following the invasion of Poland in 1939 Germany annexed the area into the new territory of ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' aiming at its complete "Germanization"; the camp was set up specifically to carry out ethnic cleansing through mass killings. It operated from parallel to Operation Reinhard during the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, and again from to during the Soviet counter-offensive. Polish Jews of the Łódź Ghetto and the local inhabitants of ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (''Warthegau'') were exterminated there.〔 In 1943 modifications were made to the camp's killing methods because the reception building was already dismantled.〔 At a very minimum 152,000 people (Bohn) were killed in the camp,〔 though the West German prosecution, citing Nazi figures during the Chełmno trials of 1962–65, laid charges for at least 180,000 victims. The Polish official estimates, in the early postwar period, have suggested much higher numbers, up to a total of 340,000 men, women, and children. The Kulmhof Museum of Martyrdom (pl) gives the figure of around 200,000,〔 the vast majority of whom were Jews of west-central Poland,〔 along with Romani from the region, as well as foreign Jews from Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, Germany, Luxemburg, and Austria transported to Chełmno via the Łódź Ghetto, on top of the Soviet prisoners of war. The victims were killed with the use of gas vans. Chełmno was a place of early experimentation in the development of Nazi extermination programme, continued in subsequent phases of the Holocaust throughout occupied Poland.〔 Russian troops captured the town of Chełmno on . By then, the Nazis had already destroyed evidence of the camp's existence leaving no prisoners behind. One of the camp survivors who was fifteen years old at the time testified that only three Jewish males had escaped successfully from Chełmno.〔 The ''Holocaust Encyclopedia'' counted seven Jews who escaped during the early 1940s; among them, the author of the Grojanowski Report written under an assumed name by Szlama Ber Winer,〔 prisoner from the Jewish ''Sonderkommando'' who escaped only to perish at Bełżec during the liquidation of yet another Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Poland.〔 In June 1945 two survivors testified at the trial of camp personnel in Łódź. The three best-known survivors testified about Chełmno at the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Two survivors testified also at the camp personnel trials conducted in 1962–65 by West Germany.〔 == Background == Chełmno (Kulmhof) was set up by ''SS-Sturmbannführer'' Herbert Lange, following his gas van experiments in the murder of 1,558 Polish prisoners of the Soldau concentration camp northeast of Chełmno.〔 In October 1941, Lange toured the area looking for a suitable site for an extermination centre, and chose Chełmno on the Ner, because of the estate, with a large manor house similar to Sonnenstein, which could be used for prisoner' admissions with only minor modifications.〔 Staff for the facility was selected personally by Ernst Damzog, Commander of Security Police and SD from headquarters in occupied Poznań (Posen).〔 Damzog formed the ''SS-Sonderkommando Lange'' (special detachment), and appointed Herbert Lange the first camp commandant because of his experience in the mass killing of Poles from ''Wartheland'' (Wielkopolska). Lange served with ''Einsatzgruppe'' VI during Operation Tannenberg. Already by mid-1940, Lange and his men were responsible for the murder of about 1,100 patients in Owińska, 2,750 patients at Kościan, 1,558 patients and 300 Poles at Działdowo, and hundreds of Poles at Fort VII where the mobile gas-chamber (''Einsatzwagen'') was invented. Their earlier hospital victims were usually shot out of town in the back of the neck. The two so-called ''Kaisers-Kaffe'' vans, manufactured by the Gaubschat factory in Berlin, were delivered in November.〔 Chełmno began mass gassing operations on using vehicles approved by ''Obergruppenführer'' Reinhard Heydrich from RSHA. Two months later, on Heydrich, who has already confirmed the effectiveness of industrial killing by exhaust fumes, called a secret meeting of German officials to undertake the European-wide Final Solution to the Jewish Question under the pretext of "resettlement".〔 The use of the killing centre at Chełmno for the mass murder of rapidly growing number of Jews deported to the Łódź Ghetto ("Special Handling", the ''Sonderbehandlung'') was initiated by Arthur Greiser, the Governor of ''Reichsgau Wartheland''. In a letter to Himmler dated Greiser referred to an authorization he had received from him and Reinhard Heydrich;〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.holocaust-history.org/quick-facts/special-treatment.shtml )〕 stating that the clandestine program of killing 100,000 Polish Jews, about one-third of the total Jewish population of ''Wartheland'', was expected to be carried out soon. Greiser's plan was based on the German government's decision of October 1941 to deport German Jews to the Łódź Ghetto. Greiser and the SS decided to create space for the incoming Jews by annihilating the existing Polish-Jewish population in his district.〔 According to post-war testimony of Wilhelm Koppe, Higher SS and Police Leader for ''Reichsgau Wartheland'', Koppe received an order from Himmler to liaise with Greiser regarding the ''Sonderbehandlung'' requested by the latter. Koppe entrusted the extermination operation to ''SS-Standartenführer'' Ernst Damzog from Security Police in Poznań. Damzog supervised the camp's daily operations thereafter.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chełmno extermination camp」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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