The remains of the building where Jews were prepared for their deaths. Undressed, herded, robbed of their possessions and their lives.
May God avenge their blood.

One of three mass graves at Chelmno.
May God avenge their blood.

Three graves: two contain the bones that still, even more than 60 years later, rise to the surface in heavy rains. And one grave - an infant who died within 3 days of his birth, whose parents hid his body, to be found decades later and buried near the mass graves that contain the remains of his parents. May God avenge their blood.

A memorial to the victims of hate. Chelmno. May God avenge their blood.

The grave of a three day old baby boy. Probably buried hastily by his parents under a staircase before they were murdered at Chelmno. He was found 60 years later and buried close to the mass graves at Chelmno.

May God avenge his blood.

Chelmno holds a special place in the annuls of world history. It was the first Nazi death camp, opened in November, 1941. The goal was simple - to kill as many Jews as possible. The method was crude and would later be found to lack efficiency. The Jews were brought to Chelmno, with promises that work awaited them. Immediately after their arrival, they were taken to a large room and told to undress for disinfecting.

They were herded through a corridor to the front door, where a large truck awaited them.

The Jews were told that the truck would take them to the bath-house. When the truck was full, the door was locked, the engine started, and carbon monoxide was redirected from the exhaust into the interior through a specially- constructed exhaust pipe.

Within about 5 minutes, when the cries and struggles of the victims were silenced, the truck was driven to the forest, some 4 km (2 1/2 miles) away. There the bodies were unloaded and buried.

Even now, more than 60 years later, bones still come to the surface with the rains. We went to Chelmno on a rainy day, and it was hard not to scan the areas of the mass graves, ever-fearful that we might actually identify a piece of bone.

One of the things that angers you when you stand in Chelmno is the closeness of the Church looming in the distance. A sanctuary of God. It should have been a haven to save those in need.

Inside the church...the clothes of the victims.

Instead, it was used to house the overflow, the ones who could not be killed immediately because the Germans had learned that their method of killing Jews, putting them in trucks and gassing them from the exhaust of the truck simply took too long. Inefficient. Too slow. Chelmno was soon abandoned in favor of the "hi-tech" gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka, the death camps of Bergen-Belsen and Sobibor. See Story of the Chelmno Baby.