On this day in 1941, the Chełmno death camp in Poland began operations. By the end of World War II, 172,000 people would be murdered at Chełmno. The Nazis would bring Jews to the camp and tell them that they were being sent to German labor camps. Once their clothes were washed and they had taken a shower, the Jews were told to walk through the reception building at the manor where they had to deposit their valuables. They then walked downstairs and onto the back of a truck which would be filled with carbon monoxide. The Nazis would then drive the truck to the forest, where mass graves had already been dug, and then they would leave the bodies there. On January 16, 1942, once the Nazis had killed all of the Jews in the nearby villages, they began bringing Jews from the Łódź Ghetto using trains. Around 60 men were chosen from the ghetto to form a labor detachment that worked in the forest, where they were responsible for digging the graves and burning the bodies. They also had to sort through the clothing and clean the trucks. Another group was made up of 15 Jewish prisoners, tasked with working in the reception building and sorting through belongings. A third special detachment was created of 10 skilled artisans to do handiwork and repairs for the SS. Periodically, the SS guards would kill the laborers and replace them with new men. Seven men were able to escape from Chełmno, all of whom were in the burial detachment. Chełmno was used from December 1941 until March 1943 when the Nazis stopped because all of the Jews in Wartheland, except for those in the Łódź Ghetto, had been murdered. In June and July of 1944, the Nazis decided to liquidate the ghetto and they reactivated Chełmno. It was used for a brief period before they closed it once again and sent the remaining Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Auschwitz. Then, in September 1944, the Nazis brought 80 Jews to Chelmno to take apart the entire camp to destroy the evidence. They were also forced to exhume and burn any remaining bodies. On January 17, 1945, the Nazis abandoned Chełmno as the Soviet Army approached.