Transport from Kolo, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 08/12/1941

On December 7, 1941, the entire ghetto population was ordered to assemble in front of the Judenrat office at Nowy Rynek (New Market) Square, renamed Theaterplatz (Theater Square) by the Germans. The Jews were told that they would be sent to western Poland to perform agricultural work and build a rail line. They could each take one piece of luggage. An SS officer then read out loud the names of about 800 Jews from a pre-prepared list and ordered them into the synagogue next to the Judenrat office. This prayer house was the largest in Koło; its interior was entirely burned in 1939 by the Germans, but nevertheless served as an assembly hall where most of the deportees were detained overnight with barely any provisions or water. Some of them were imprisoned in the Judenrat headquarters. That same day the Judenrat was ordered to pay a head tax of 4 RM per deportee. The next morning, on December 8, 1941, the deportees were loaded into 10-12 trucks. The few Jews who resisted were shot on the spot. The action was carried out by the local Orpo (German abbreviation for Ordnungspolizei – Order Police – the regular uniformed police force) under the command of Lieutenant Grein and a unit of the Gendarmerie led by Hauptmann Stark (the given names of these officers are not known). On the back of each open truck stood an armed police officer from the special force (Sonderkommando) Kulmhof, who was ordered to shoot any deportee who tried to escape. It took the trucks about half an hour to drive the 10 kilometers to the Chełmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp, which had been readied to operate for the first time. The trucks waited in line outside the closed gate of the "palace compound" – a large two-story brick country house, enclosed by a tall wooden fence. The perimeter was guarded by men of the Polizeibataillon Posen (Poznań)....