Muzeum byłego niemieckiego Obozu Zagłady Kulmhof w Chełmnie nad Nerem — Attraction in gmina Dąbie

The camp comprises two parts, the Kulmhof death camp museum at Chelmno nad Nerem, and the memorial site at Las Rzuchowski.

The museum is situated in what is the grounds of the former palace. Only the palace foundations remain though, as the Germans blew it up in 1943. The granary, which served as quarters for the Sonderkommando, houses a museum / exhibition displaying personal effects found from the recent archaeological digs at the site.

I visited the camp in mid-March 2018 and was the only visitor at the time, but felt fortunate and privileged to receive a ninety-minute guided tour of the grounds and granary museum from an English-speaking member of staff. The staff are clearly passionate about the subject matter and naturally very welcoming to visitors, especially given how remote the site is and how little attention it receives internationally compared to Auschwitz-Birkenau, despite being the forerunner of the other death camps.

The memorial site at Las Rzuchowski is about three miles (an hour's walk) further north up the A473 and contains memorials to the persecuted groups who found themselves deported to Kulmhof (Jews from Lodz and Hamburg, gypsies, the children of Lidice - there are so many groups to list), along with signs marking the locations of burial pits and crematoria.

You really do need to visit both sites to get a full picture of the horrors which occurred at Kulmhof, and it is well worthwhile buying the museum's guide book to both sites (10 zl), as it details the camp's history and the layout of both sites in an easy-to-follow manner.

Whilst visitors can only imagine the brutality and inhumanity which was carried out here, visiting Kulmhof is a very sobering experience and will make you appreciate your freedom from...

Feels a bit odd giving a place 4 stars that brought death and untold misery to hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, children and indeed babies, but there you go. It is a place where one can just stop, sit and gather their thoughts whilst thinking about what occurred here.

There's nobody in attendance, hence the 4 stars, so all associated information has to be gleaned off the Internet or the several headstones families of the slaughtered have erected in their memory. We were at the location for at over an hour just ruminating on the tragedy and trying to make sense of something one can never make sense of. I think what sells the place is its tranquility. I remarked, to my wife, how it looked so beautiful and gave an air or tranquility about it on the hot summer day we visited. It was uncanny, for afterwards when we visited the Chelmno museum a few hundred yards into the town center itself we watched a short documentary on the camp and an Eyewitness survivor of the camp stated when they were brought there in buses they all remarked on how it almost resembled a health spa and how they'd be well treated etc etc. If only.

The thing about visiting one of these camps is there's never a sense of satisfaction at having visited it but rather one of sadness and deep reflection on mankind's inhumanity and cruelty towards mankind. But having said that, I am glad I visited this site as being a WW2 interested person, it adds images to the historical accounts one often reads or sees in black and...

Very informative and well set up museum. Apart from a smaller (temporary?) exhibition everything is written in English too. The museum closed earlier than we read, but the friendly member of staff was willing to stay longer in order for us to see everything! There are leaflets for takeaway and books you can buy (also in English) In short: definitely worth a visit. And don't forget to visit the former camp site in the forest which is only a few kilometers...