Chelmo, Poland: Located only thirty miles from the Lodz ghetto, Chelmo was constructed by the Nazis with the sole purpose of killing European Jews. Chelmo was in use from 1941-1945, and it was here that the Nazis perfected the use of poison gas to efficiently execute the most prisoners possible, with most estimates putting the total number of people who died at Chelmo at 152,000. While vans and carbon monoxide were used initially, with bodies being buried in mass graves in the nearby forest, the Nazis quickly found easier ways to commit murder and began cremating bodies in large ovens so as to destroy the evidence of murder. Much of the camp was destroyed before liberation, but several monuments stand at Chelmo today– small markers among the stark, open landscape. The main memorial was purposely designed to resemble a van, intended to conjure the image of Jews’ violent deaths at the hands of the Nazis. Several mass graves have been marked and preserved. A small museum located on the grounds offers tourists a look at historical documents, most of which are in Polish.
