Chełmno ( Kulmhof ) camp was set up by '' SS-Sturmbannführer '' Herbert Lange , following his gas van experiments in the murder of 1,558 Polish prisoners of the Soldau concentration camp northeast of Chełmno . In October 1941 , Lange toured the area looking for a suitable site for an extermination centre , and chose Chełmno on the Ner , because of the estate , with a large manor house similar to Sonnenstein , which could be used for prisoner ' admissions with only minor modifications . Staff for the facility was selected personally by Ernst Damzog , Commander of Security Police and SD from headquarters in occupied Poznań ( Posen ) . Damzog formed the '' SS-Sonderkommando Lange '' ( special detachment ) , and appointed Herbert Lange the first camp commandant because of his experience in the mass killing of Poles from '' Wartheland '' ( Wielkopolska ) . Lange served with '' Einsatzgruppe '' VI during Operation Tannenberg . Already by mid-1940 , Lange and his men were responsible for the murder of about 1,100 patients in Owińska , 2,750 patients at Kościan , 1,558 patients and 300 Poles at Działdowo , and hundreds of Poles at Fort VII where the mobile gas-chamber ( '' Einsatzwagen '' ) was invented . Their earlier hospital victims were usually shot out of town in the back of the neck . The two so-called '' Kaisers-Kaffe '' vans , manufactured by the Gaubschat factory in Berlin , were delivered in November . Chełmno began mass gassing operations on using vehicles approved by '' Obergruppenführer '' Reinhard Heydrich from RSHA . Two months later , on Heydrich , who had already confirmed the effectiveness of industrial killing by exhaust fumes , called a secret meeting of German officials to undertake the European-wide Final Solution to the Jewish Question under the pretext of " resettlement " . The use of the killing centre at Chełmno for the mass murder of rapidly growing number of Jews deported to the Łódź Ghetto ( " Special Handling " , the '' Sonderbehandlung '' ) was initiated by Arthur Greiser , the Governor of '' Reichsgau Wartheland '' . In a letter to Himmler dated Greiser referred to an authorization he had received from him and Reinhard Heydrich ; stating that the clandestine program of killing 100,000 Polish Jews , about one-third of the total Jewish population of '' Wartheland '' , was expected to be carried out soon . Greiser 's plan was based on the German government 's decision of October 1941 to deport German Jews to the Łódź Ghetto . Greiser and the SS decided to create space for the incoming Jews by annihilating the existing Polish-Jewish population in his district
Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg
Chełmno extermination camp