The Chelmno Trials

[Stubble]

Does anyone have the 'investigation reports' prepared in '45-'46, the minutes for the Polish trials and the minutes for the German trials handy?

I'd like to go over this stuff and get a bit of a refresher before I approach another thread concerning the legendary Aktion 1005.

In the mean time I will keep digging. If I run across this stuff, I will link it back here as I do, lest I forget.

Thanks in advance.

[Stubble]

interestingly, contrary to an assertion made by SanityCheck in another thread about the availability of information in the digital super age, these items appear to all be inaccessible on the internet.

I can not find the primary source material to review, in 2025...

I wanted to make sure my powder was dry and I had all of my facts and sources in order and cited before engaging in discourse on this subject with Bombsaway in the Aktion 1005 thread (the missing evidence was perpetually excused away with Aktion 1005). Unfortunately, without these primary sources to cite and to reference, I am under equipped for that argument.

Such is life.

Nick, no, even in this day and age, everything isn't literally at anyone's fingertips, and sometimes, stuff is completely unavailable for review...

[Archie]

There was the early Polish trial and then more trials in West Germany in the 1960s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che%C5%82mno_trials

For the earliest trial, the Polish judge was Bednarz.
https://holocaustencyclopedia.com/histo ... yslaw/395/

I have not seen the complete original trial transcripts for this (the Eastern European stuff is generally harder to find). But the site below has a large collection of statements from the early trials in Poland. I haven't looked specifically for Chelmno, but go ahead and see what you find. I would gather witness names from secondary sources and then search for the actual texts on here.
https://www.zapisyterroru.pl/dlibra

As for the later West German trials, they have put the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial materials online, but as far as I know this is not the case with the Chelmno trials.
https://www.auschwitz-prozess.de/

For the main secondary sources, there is HH#23 on Chelmno. And for the orthodox side, the main book is Chelmno and the Holocaust by Patrick Montague.

[Stubble]

These are great resources Archie, thank you.

It is unfortunate that the minutes of the various trials and the Soviet investigations are not readily available.

Basically all I have been able to turn up on this on my own was a paper by SanityCheck.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 18.1524632

He appears to hold the same position on this as Nessie and Bombsaway are crowing in the thread;

While Nazi deception measures are more vividly recorded in postwar testimonies, this article also shows that Nazi attempts to erase the physical evidence of mass murder through the cremation of the corpses can be documented much more extensively than hitherto appreciated using contemporary sources.

Kind of astounding considering that the lack of evidence was the reason for the incredibly light sentences handed out at the west German trials. I don't know about the Polish trials, but, I assume the result was much the same.

This retcon of history regarding what evidence is or is not in a place having nothing to do with the supposed Aktion 1005 is perplexing. My whole life I had been hearing, 'oh, the nazis destroyed everything with this program of burning and ball mills'. Now, apparently, all the evidence anyone ever needed is right there on the spot.

No, no, the bodies at chelmno weren't thrown in the river and washed out to sea, no, they are right there.

It is a head scratcher.

I also just found this;

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ation_camp

I haven't read it yet. There is also a Polish article 12 pages long from 2020 in some library publication. My Polish sucks though, so, it looks like a soup sandwich to me.