Fragment of an upper denture, likely recovered from a temporary pit furnace at Chelmno killing center in German-occupied Poland, during an archaeological excavation in 1986 and 1987. Killing operations at Chelmno commenced on December 8, 1941. Prisoners were taken to a camp at a manor house (Schlosslager) in the village to undress and relinquish their valuables. They were then loaded into a gas van where they were killed. The van was then driven 2.5 miles northwest of the village to a camp in the Rzuchowski forest (Waldlager), where the bodies were dumped into mass graves. The large number of corpses created a threat of disease and discovery by Allied forces, so the bodies were exhumed and burned in seven primitive pit furnaces. In the fall of 1942, the furnaces were replaced with two open-air crematoria consisting of concrete foundations topped by a grate of train rails. In March 1943, transports to Chelmno stopped, and the manor house and open-air crematoria in the forest were demolished. Deportations to Chelmno resumed from June to July 1944, to facilitate the liquidation of the Łódź ghetto. In this second phase, the entire killing process was carried out in the forest camp (Waldlager), necessitating the construction of new buildings. The Germans abandoned the camp on January 17, 1945, having killed over 172,000 people. The excavations of 1986-87, and later work have identified additional furnaces, crematoria, and mass graves at the site.
overall: Height: 0.500 inches (1.27 cm) | Width: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm) | Depth: 1.875 inches (4.763 cm)
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The denture fragment was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by the Muzeum Okręgowe w Koninie.
Fragment of an upper denture from a maxillary arch with five, off-white porcelain teeth. The base or support for the teeth is made of a dark reddish-orange, hard rubber, molded to follow the curved contours of the upper gum and jaw. The right half of the denture has broken off, leaving a jagged edge along the thin, slightly convex, central portion or palate. While being worn, this portion would rest against the upper palate in the mouth. Along the front and sides of the denture’s palate is the perpendicular gumline, a narrow band that has several arched notches for the teeth cut into the smooth surface. The arches are closely spaced, with four incisors — narrow teeth with thin, flat bottom edges — set into the front. These are followed by five empty arches for teeth that are now missing: one canine, two premolars, and two molars. At back of the gum is a wide molar with a flat base. The gum has smooth, rounded, top edges that are thin at the front and thicken as they curve toward the back. The back edge of the denture is thin, smooth, and rounded. The upper portion of the gum, above the empty notches, is broken, and the molded rubber has cracked away along the canine and premolar arches, exposing a dark, silver-colored metal interior. The teeth are discolored from use, and the base is soiled overall. The right half of the denture, which supported six porcelain teeth, is now missing. bottom, back right, handwritten, black ink : CHO 40
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Partial upper plate of a denture with five teeth recovered from Chelmno killing center