Lasted between 7 December 1941 (the first transport) and 11 April 1943, when the commando left the camp, blowing up the crematoria, and earlier (7 April) the palace. The killing was done in mobile gas chambers – converted trucks, using exhaust gases. The bodies of the victims were taken to Rzuchowski Forest, some 4 km away. They were buried in graves between 60 and 230 metres long. The first victims came from the local Jewish ghettos in Koło, Kowale Pańskie, Kłodawa, Izbica Kujawska. In January 1942, Roma from the Łódź camp (Ziegeunerlager), established in the fall of 1941, began arriving in Chełmno, followed by Jews from the Łódź ghetto, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, who in 1941 were forcibly re-settled in Łódź. In the summer of 1942, as a result of the decaying bodies in the mass graves and the ensuing threat of an epidemic, transports were suspended. Bodies were excavated from the graves and incinerated in field crematoria. In March 1943, the decision was taken to liquidate the camp.