Editing Extermination camp (section)

=== Pure extermination camps ===
[[File:Children headed for deportation.JPG|thumb|left|Jewish children during deportation to the [[Chełmno extermination camp]]]]
During the initial phase of the [[Final Solution]], [[Nazi gas van|gas van]]s producing poisonous [[Exhaust gas|exhaust fumes]] were developed in the occupied [[Soviet Union]] (USSR) and at the [[Chełmno extermination camp]] in occupied [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], before being used elsewhere. The killing method was based on experience gained by the [[SS]] during the secretive {{lang|de|[[Aktion T4]]}} programme of involuntary [[euthanasia]]. There were two types of death chambers operating during the Holocaust.<ref name="YV-Reinhard-pdf" />

Unlike at Auschwitz, where cyanide-based [[Zyklon B]] was used to exterminate trainloads of prisoners under the guise of "relocation", the camps at [[Treblinka]], [[Belzec extermination camp|Bełżec]], and [[Sobibór extermination camp|Sobibór]], built during [[Operation Reinhard]] (October 1941{{snd}}November 1943), used lethal exhaust fumes produced by large [[internal combustion engine]]s. The three killing centres of {{lang|de|Einsatz Reinhard}} were constructed predominantly for the extermination of [[Polish Jews|Poland's Jews]] trapped in [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|the Nazi ghettos]].<ref name="ushmm.org">{{cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ghettos|title=Ghettos|website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org}}</ref> At first, the victims' bodies were buried with the use of [[crawler excavator]]s, but they were later exhumed and incinerated in open-air pyres to hide the evidence of genocide in what became known as {{lang|de|italic=no|[[Sonderaktion 1005]]}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Desbois |first1=Patrick |title=The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews |date=2008 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-2305-9456-2 |page=170 |language=en |chapter=Operation 1005}}</ref>{{sfn|Arad|1999|pages=152–153}}

The six camps considered to be purely for extermination were [[Chełmno extermination camp]], [[Bełżec extermination camp]], [[Sobibor extermination camp]], [[Treblinka extermination camp]], [[Majdanek extermination camp]] and [[Auschwitz extermination camp]] (also called Auschwitz-Birkenau).

Whereas the Auschwitz II (Auschwitz–Birkenau) and Majdanek camps were parts of a labor camp complex, the Chełmno and Operation Reinhard death camps (that is, Bełżec, Sobibór, and Treblinka) were built exclusively for the rapid extermination of entire communities of people (primarily Jews) within hours of their arrival. All were constructed near [[branch line]]s that linked to the Polish railway system, with staff members transferring between locations. These camps had almost identical design: they were several hundred metres in length and width, and were equipped with only minimal staff housing and support installations not meant for the victims crammed into the [[Holocaust train|railway transports]].{{sfn|Arad|1999|p=37}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/aktion-reinhard/prolog-arad.html |title=Aktion Reinhard: Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka|access-date=3 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513174430/http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/camps/aktion-reinhard/prolog-arad.html|archive-date=13 May 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>
 
The Nazis deceived the victims upon their arrival, telling them that they were at a temporary transit stop, and would soon continue to German {{lang|de|Arbeitslager}} (work camps) farther to the east.<ref name="explained.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-camps/daily-life/journeys#.V6SvaDW19kQ |title=Deportation and transportation |publisher=London Jewish Cultural Centre |work=The Holocaust Explained |year=2011 |access-date=5 August 2016 |via=Internet Archive |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150113195832/http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-camps/daily-life/journeys#.V6SvaDW19kQ |archive-date=13 January 2015 }}</ref> Selected able-bodied prisoners delivered to the death camps were not immediately killed, but instead were pressed into labor units called {{lang|de|[[Sonderkommando]]s}} to help with the extermination process by removing corpses from the gas chambers and burning them.