A Jewish child is separated from his family as he is about to be sent to another concentration camp, 1942.

 A Jewish child is separated from his family as he is about to be sent to another concentration camp, 1942.


Seen here is a child who is about to be sent to the Chełmno concentration camp.

 Chełmno was a killing centre which was located in west central Poland.

 It was used to execute Jews who were living in Poland, Luxembourg and Germany. 

This child was sent there as part of the "Gehsperre Aktion", an event which saw Jews being transferred from the Lodz ghetto to other concentration camps.

Once the Jews arrived at Chełmno, they were stripped and led through a cellar to a van.

 Once they entered the van, they were told they were going to be transported to Germany to work as labourers. 

Instead, the van was closed and sealed, and poisonous gas was pumped into it through a tube in the exhaust pipe. 

The van would then transport the bodies to a forest nearby, where the bodies would be dumped in a mass grave. The van had a capacity of 50-70 people.

At least 172,00 people died at Chełmno, by poisonous gas or by other methods of execution.

 The killings at Chełmno began in 1941 and ended in 1945 when Chełmno was abondoned as the Soviet army approached from Russia.


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