Kulmhof - The establishment of an extermination camp

In October 1941, SS Obersturmführer Herbert Lange, by secret order of the SS, was obliged to establish the first extermination camp. The palace complex in Kulmhof am Nehr (Chełmno nad Nerem), bearing many similarities to Sonnenstein Euthanasia Center where mass murders were carried out as part of Operation T4, was selected as the site of the first German center for the mass extermination of Jews. As a result, Kommando Lange began building the SS Sonderkomando Kulmhof, the first extermination camp. It was initially intended for the mass extermination of Jews from the territory of the Reichsgau Wartheland and the Litzmannstadt Ghetto (Łódź Ghetto).


The German extermination camp Kulmhof (Chełmno on the Ner) The estimated number of victims is about 200,000 [read more]


The beginning of SS Sonderkommando Kulmhof