Chronology of the Death Camps

1933 - 1941: Concentration Camps established

First camp established by Himmler and run by the SS: Dachau

Stone quarry at Mauthausen

Summer of 1941

Construction begins at Auschwitz and Majdanek

Fall - Winter 1941

Gas vans used at Chelmno, near Lodz ghetto

November: Construction of Belzec, a labor camp since 1940

1942

Belzec operational from March - December 1942, using carbon monoxide

Sobibor constructed in eastern Poland, operational May 1942 - Fall 1943

Treblinka, near Warsaw and Radom, operational July 1942 - May 1943

Majdanek, operational October 1942 - end of 1943 -- used both carbon monoxide and Zyklon B

Auschwitz, operational late 1942 - late 1944

Approximate death totals and numbers of survivors at the six extermination camps:

Camp	Victims	Survivors
Chelmno	152,000	0
Belzec	600,000	2
Sobibor	250,000	64
Majdanek	125,000	0
Treblinka	700,000	40
Auschwitz-Birkenau	1,300,000	5,000?

For further information, see the Holocaust Museum's Learning Center's section on Extermination Camps