Page "Extermination camp" Paragraph 22

Whereas the Auschwitz II ( Auschwitz – Birkenau ) and Majdanek camps were parts of a labor camp complex, the Operation Reinhard camps and the Chełmno camp were exclusively for the quick extermination of many people ( primarily Jews ) within hours of their arrival.

Some able-bodied prisoners delivered to the death camp were not immediately killed, but were forced into labor units ( Sonderkommando ) to work at the extermination process, removing corpses from the gas chambers and burning them.

Because the extermination camps were physically small ( only several hundred metres long and wide ) and equipped with minimal housing and support installations, the Nazis deceived the prisoners upon their arrival, telling them that they were at a temporary transit stop, and soon would continue to an Arbeitslager ( work camp ) farther east.