Chelmno was the first death camp opened by the Nazis. Located in western Poland, Chelmno's main purpose was the murder of Polish Jews, Gypsies, and Soviet prisoners of war. Unlike other death camps where prisoners were murdered in gas chambers, victims at Chelmno were herded into large vans and killed with the carbon monoxide generated by the vehicles' engines. Killings began at Chelmno in December 1941, and by the time it was closed in January 1945, as many as 360,000 people had been murdered there and buried in mass graves.
