Often times when it comes to the Holocaust, the Concentration Camp most taught about and therefore known about, is Auschwitz. This may be because of Auschwitz’ extreme death toll or it’s overall ‘accomplishment,’ of the mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, Homeosexuals, and the many other oppressed peoples discriminated against during Hitler’s rule ("Concentration Camp Notes.") Although Auschwitz was the most successful on it’s journey to eliminate Jews, many do not realize, it was only one in six death camps on the same journey, and was only one in the thousands of camps created to hold these people--I mentioned earlier--prisoner during World War II ("Nazi Camps." ) Among these thousands of camps, was a death camp called, “Chelmno.” And through the
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When the Jews and other prisoners came into the camp they were put in groups of about 50 and told to remove all clothing. These people were lied to and told that they were going to be workers at a work camp, but first needed to be showered and disinfected. In reality their fate was held in the vans, where they all lasted a mere ten minutes ("Chelmno Concentration Camp: History & Overview.") Because the only purpose of this camp was to kill, few prisoners were actually living there. These few people consisted of a group of slave laborers, selected by the Germans. Most of the time these selected workers were the ones responsible for unloading the countless dead bodies from the vans, and transferring them into mass graves the laborers themselves had dug ("Chelmno Extermination Camp.") The only other prisoners kept alive were those selected to be “Sonderkommando” ("Chelmno Concentration Camp: History & Overview.") The Sonderkommando of the camp helped make lies told to the prisoners, believeable. Because the Sonderkommando were prisoners too, it made the others more willing to do what they said, and allowed for a calm and easy process leading up to the prisoner’s gassing ("Concentration Camp Notes.") Because this camp was strictly a death camp, the number of deaths were very high, and although the exact number is unknown the …show more content…
The Germans did a very good job of destroying almost all evidence about Chelmno, ("Chelmno Extermination Camp.") and with only a handful of survivors, much of what happened inside of it has remained unknown ("Chelmno." ) There were a two commanders of Chelmno and these commanders had Otto Platte and Willi Hiller at their sides as assistant commanders . The first Commander was, Herbert Lange, and after him, Hans Bootman ("Chelmno Extermination Camp.") Lange was killed in battle and therefore not brought to justice in the Nuremberg trials. The other three, along with eight others proven to have helped camp operations at Chelmno, were tried and convicted of war crime, serving sentences ranging anywhere from 1-20 years. ("The Holocaust: Lest We Forget - Chelmno Perpetrators."
When the Jews and other prisoners came into the camp they were put in groups of about 50 and told to remove all clothing. These people were lied to and told that they were going to be workers at a work camp, but first needed to be showered and disinfected. In reality their fate was held in the vans, where they all lasted a mere ten minutes ("Chelmno Concentration Camp: History & Overview.") Because the only purpose of this camp was to kill, few prisoners were actually living there. These few people consisted of a group of slave laborers, selected by the Germans. Most of the time these selected workers were the ones responsible for unloading the countless dead bodies from the vans, and transferring them into mass graves the laborers themselves had dug ("Chelmno Extermination Camp.") The only other prisoners kept alive were those selected to be “Sonderkommando” ("Chelmno Concentration Camp: History & Overview.") The Sonderkommando of the camp helped make lies told to the prisoners, believeable. Because the Sonderkommando were prisoners too, it made the others more willing to do what they said, and allowed for a calm and easy process leading up to the prisoner’s gassing ("Concentration Camp Notes.") Because this camp was strictly a death camp, the number of deaths were very high, and although the exact number is unknown the …show more content…
The Germans did a very good job of destroying almost all evidence about Chelmno, ("Chelmno Extermination Camp.") and with only a handful of survivors, much of what happened inside of it has remained unknown ("Chelmno." ) There were a two commanders of Chelmno and these commanders had Otto Platte and Willi Hiller at their sides as assistant commanders . The first Commander was, Herbert Lange, and after him, Hans Bootman ("Chelmno Extermination Camp.") Lange was killed in battle and therefore not brought to justice in the Nuremberg trials. The other three, along with eight others proven to have helped camp operations at Chelmno, were tried and convicted of war crime, serving sentences ranging anywhere from 1-20 years. ("The Holocaust: Lest We Forget - Chelmno Perpetrators."