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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Contents |
Page 63 |
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CHAPTER 6
THE
DISINFESTATION INSTALLATION OF THE
GYPSY CAMP IN SECTOR B.IIe OF
BIRKENAU |
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| In the second stage of the construction of Birkenau camp,
B.a.II, a stable-type WC block in the Gypsy Camp (B.IIe) was
transformed at the end of 1943 or in early 1944 into a
disinfestation installation for effects. Only the south-east part of
this installation was photographed by the Auschwitz Bauleitung
[Photo 1]. It was made up essentially of a battery of eight
disinfestation chambers that occupied almost half the area of the
hut, controlled and operated in pairs [Drawing 2]. In a morning
there were three rotations, each lasting about 45 minutes. Electric
motors indicate that these chambers had forced ventilation. Located
exactly in the corner of B.IIe [Bauleitung drawing 3764 of 23/3/44],
its internal arrangements are not precisely known. The
disinfestation vector or product used against lice is indicated in
"Der Auschwitz Process" by Hermann Langbein (Europa Verlag Wien.
Frankfurt. Zurich, a report of the Frankfurt trial in 1963-1965),
volume 2, p. 568. Amann is a former Auschwitz prisoner: |
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"I belonged to a disinfestation Kommando. Klehr was
the chief. Our job was to delouse the accommodation Blocks and the
people. At first, we used mobile disinfestatIon vehicles and
later, AN ELECTRIC HOT AIR CHAMBER was built in the Birkenau Gypsy
Camp."
"We deloused the clothes, the people and the
buildings. When a Block was to be deloused, it was evacuated. The
people were sent to the disinfestation service where they were
shaved and had a liniment applied. During this time, the clothes
were placed in a steam boiler, where they remained for an hour and
a half. Meanwhile, the prisoners bathed then had to wait on the
'clean' side of the disinfestation service. The blankets remained
in the Block to be disinfested." |
| This installation was dismantled after the war.
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| Photo 1: |
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Bauleitung photograph [PMO neg. no. 20995/420]
"Disinfestation installation in gypsy camp." |
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| Translation (of inscriptions:
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Essai de
reconstitution.../
Attempted reconstitution of the
internal layout of the disinfestation hut of B.IIe |
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cheminée/
Chimney |
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chaufferie en
s/sol...
/ Boiler room in basement with access by external
stairway |
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position du photographe /
Position of the photographer
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
| Note: Page 64 is
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