Metal tablespoon recovered from Chelmno killing center
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm) | Width: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) | Depth: 7.375 inches (18.733 cm)
Archival History
The tablespoon was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by the Muzeum Okręgowe w Koninie.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Muzeum Okręgowe w Koninie
Scope and Content
Metal tablespoon, likely recovered from a temporary pit furnace at Chelmno killing center in German-occupied Poland, during an archaeological excavation in 1986 and 1987. Killing operations at Chelmno commenced on December 8, 1941. Prisoners were taken to a camp at a manor house (Schlosslager) in the village to undress and relinquish their valuables. They were then loaded into a gas van where they were killed. The van was then driven 2.5 miles northwest of the village to a camp in the Rzuchowski forest (Waldlager), where the bodies were dumped into mass graves. The large number of corpses created a threat of disease and discovery by Allied forces, so the bodies were exhumed and burned in seven primitive pit furnaces. In the fall of 1942, the furnaces were replaced with two open-air crematoria consisting of concrete foundations topped by a grate of train rails. In March 1943, transports to Chelmno stopped, and the manor house and open-air crematoria in the forest were demolished. Deportations to Chelmno resumed from June to July 1944, to facilitate the liquidation of the Łódź ghetto. In this second phase, the entire killing process was carried out in the forest camp (Waldlager), necessitating the construction of new buildings. The Germans abandoned the camp on January 17, 1945, having killed over 172,000 people. The excavations of 1986-87, and later work have identified additional furnaces, crematoria, and mass graves at the site.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Dark gray metal spoon with a wide, oval-shaped bowl and undulating handle. One end of the bowl tapers into a long, narrow, cylindrical stem. The length of the stem is bent in a wavy form and then flattens and widens near the handle. The handle ends in a flat teardrop shape with a stamped ornate, decorative pattern on the top surface. The pattern consists of an oval with a beaded and banded border. Below the oval is a floral bloom, with a leaf sprig on each end. A large, raised rib is on the spoon back and extends from the tip of the handle to the beginning of the stem. There is moderate corrosion across the entire surface of the spoon, and there are scattered remnants of a silver-colored plating on both the front and back.
back, handwritten, black ink : CHO 36
Corporate Bodies
- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel
- Chelmno (Concentration camp)
Subjects
- Exhumation--Cremation--Poland.
- Archaeology and history.
- Executions and executioners--Poland--History.
- Crematoriums--Poland.
- Rzuchowa (Poland)
- Genocide.
- World War, 1939-1945--Occupied territories.
- Mass burials--Poland.
- Gas vans (Gas chambers)--Poland.
- Execution sites--Excavation--Material culture.
- Chełmno (Koło, Poland)
Genre
- Household Utensils
- Spoons.
- Object