Notably, the trial of Holocaust perpetrators from Chełmno was unlike any other war-crimes trial, because the camp had been essentially eradicated by the SS, along with most traces of the mass murder. Truckloads of ashes of its victims were dumped in the Warta river daily, the "palace" was blown up with rubble removed to foundations, mobile gas-chambers and loot were driven back to Berlin, written records were destroyed, including train departure records. There was nothing to see for the commissars, or draw interest. Some of the key evidence was mistakenly discarded in the trash in 1945 (i.e. over 5,000 pairs of damaged shoes from a destroyed synagogue in Koło), or hauled away as usable materials, including wooden fencing and cremation grids; few people were aware of its importance. By comparison, other former death camps were overflowing with direct evidence of war-crimes, as in the case of the Majdanek trial decided several months before.
