Small metal key recovered from Chelmno killing center
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm) | Width: 0.250 inches (0.635 cm) | Depth: 2.625 inches (6.668 cm)
Archival History
The key 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 key, 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
Small, corroded, metal skeleton key. The exterior of the key is covered in reddish-brown rust, and the surface is rough and coarse. The key has a circular bow, and a small, cylindrical shank with a rectangular tooth (or bit) at the end.
Corporate Bodies
- Chelmno (Concentration camp)
- Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei. Schutzstaffel
Subjects
- Exhumation--Cremation--Poland.
- World War, 1939-1945--Occupied territories.
- Execution sites--Excavation--Material culture.
- Chełmno (Koło, Poland)
- Gas vans (Gas chambers)--Poland.
- Mass burials--Poland.
- Archaeology and history.
- Crematoriums--Poland.
- Genocide.
- Executions and executioners--Poland--History.
- Rzuchowa (Poland)
Genre
- Tools and Equipment
- Object
- Keys (Hardware)