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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 355 |
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PART TWO
CHAPTER 6 |
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| THE VENTILATION SYSTEMS OF
KREMATORIEN II AND III |
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Account of the research undertaken by the author
in
order to explain the ventilation systems of
Krematorien
II and III. |
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In this Chapter I shall not use the method adopted for the
others, i.e. production of documents on a subject, then comments and
conclusion. The problem, for there is a problem, of the ventilation
systems of Krematorien II and III will be presented in the form of
an account including what was known and thought in 1979, my doubts,
my fairly lengthy researches, my findings and finally the discovery
in 1982 in the BW 30/41 file of the “ARBEITSZEITBESCHEINIGUNGEN”
(timesheets) of the Topf & Sons fitter, Messing, who stayed at
Auschwitz and installed all the ventilation systems of Krematorien
II and III at Birkenau between 5th January and 9th June 1943, He was
one of the rare “outside” civilians to be able to directly observe
the consequences of the first gassing of 1500 Cracow Jews in
Krematorium II on l4th March. In his timesheets, there are seven
“slips” that reveal the “abnormal” use of the Leichenkeller
(morgues, or literally “corpse cellars”), which enable two other
isolated references to be explained. The documents relevant to this
account will be produced as it proceeds.
For 40 years, the
question of the ventilation in Krematorien of type II/III was
thought to be obvious and well known. It was concerned with the
fresh air supply and air extraction systems for the underground gas
chambers. The Bauleitung drawings of the projected Krematorium II
show that the rooms designated “Leichenkeller l” or “L Keller 1”
were ventilated. Since the testimonies of former members of the
Sonderkommando assert that Leichenkeller I of Krematorien II and III
had been used as homicidal gas chambers and since two letters from
SS sources indicated that one of the cellars designated a
“Vergasungskeller” had been fitted with a gas tight door, the fact
that this ventilation system appeared an the Bauleitung drawings
became clear premeditation.
The extreme importance
attached to this point is particularly evident in the book by
Georges Wellers, “Les chambres à gaz ont existé”, the
cover of which [Document 1] is part of drawing 1174
[Document 4] which includes a cross section of Leichenkeller
1 of the future Krematorium II, showing the upper and lower
ventilation ducts. This is an indication of the value of this
evidence in the eyes of Georges Wellers. His photo 8 [Document 2] reproduces the cover
illustration with mention of the “ventilation ducts”. His photo 9
[Document 3] shows cross-sections of
Leichenkeller 1 and 2 (taken from drawing 934 [Document 5])
with the observation that L Keller 1 is ventilated, unlike 2.
Lastly, Wellers concludes (page 90), that: |
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“It can be seen that cellar 1 is not so long as cellar
2 and, above all [my underlining]. That it is provided with
a ventilation and air extraction system perfectly visible and
named on the cross section, while “corpse cellar 2” has no such
installation [my underlining]”. |
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This argument was put forward by the Auschwitz Museum and was
used by the advocates appearing for the LICRA during the “Faurisson
trial”. They are blameless, since they are not historians and were
simply repeating an interpretation provided by the Museum and
confirmed by Georges Wellers.
The truth is that
this demonstration is quite erroneous, and hence any attempt to
prove “premeditation” of the criminal use of Leichenkeller 1 as gas
chambers on the basis of the ventilation systems is quite
unfounded.
I worked for a long time on establishing THE
PATHS TAKEN BY ME DIFFERENT VENTILATION DUCTS in Krematorien II and
III. It took me about two years to arrive at a logical explanation
on the basis of the scattered evidence then available to me, whereas
if I had known about the existence of PMO file BW 30/41, simply the
quarter of an hour it took to read it would have saved me a great
deal of groping in the dark. However, this file fully confirmed the
findings of my work.
At the end of 1979, after consulting
drawing 932 in the Museum Archives, a drawing representing the
basement of a projected Krematorium which was to become Krematorium
II, I expressed my doubts as to the technical feasibility of
installing a gas chamber in Leichenkeller 1, because its entrance
was fitted with a double door and the passage between
Leichenkeller 2 (undressing room) and Leichenkeller 1 (gas chamber)
was partly obstructed by a concrete corpse chute leading almost as
far as the double door of Leichenkeller 1. The archivist pointed out
on drawings 933, 934 and 1174, where cross sections of the two
Leichenkeller appeared, that there was a MAJOR DIFFERENCE as regards
ventilation — presence in L KeIler 1 and absence in 2 — a difference
which according to him PROVED irrefutably that Leichenkeller 1 was a
gas chamber and that it had been PLANNED as such. His demonstration
appeared valid at the time and I believed it.
However, when I
had completed my study of ALL THE DRAWINGS connected with the
Birkenau Krematorien, his categorical statement no longer fitted
with my interpretation of some of them, and even less with several
items in file BW 30/34 (microfilm 1060). A note of 3rd February 1943
from a certain Messing mentioned an air extractor fan
[“Abluftgeblase / used air blower"] for Leichenkeller 2 [Document
6]. A letter of 11th February 1943 signed by Bischoff, head of
the Bauleitung, spoke of a 7.5 HP motor for the extractor fan of
Leichenkeller 2 [Document 7]. A letter from Topf & Sons
of 12th February 1943 [Document 7a] used the same terms as
Bischoff on the subject of an extractor fan for Leichenkeller
2.
On drawing 980 of the roof frame of the future Krematorium
II [Document 8], the locations of TWO ventilation chimneys
are shown. The one on the left, quite separate, is the fresh air
intake for Leichenkeller 1. The other, to the right, through which
the noxious air of this same Leichenkeller I is to he expelled, has
FOUR outlets. While one outlet was for this function, the purpose of
the three others remained unexplained. However, the argument of the
Museum archivist was still acceptable despite the documents of BW
30/34, for the mention of a motor for an extractor fan for
Leichenkeller 2 was no proof that it was actually installed…
Five minutes of a television program seen quite by chance
led me to a meeting, accompanied by a former Monowitz prisoner, with
Mr. David Olère, a professional artist and ex member of the
Sonderkommando who, in his canvases, evokes the universe of
Birkenau. I took with me the drawings of the Krematorien so that I
could question him about them, but he refused to look at them. He
had his reasons for this. By their very precision, they disturbed
his personal, residual vision of the infernal environment in which
he had lived from 1943 to 1945. His reflex was more than
understandable. On the other hand, he was willing to tell his own
story. To support what he had to say, he produced his drawings and
in particular those of his “Memento”, produced in
1945-46, shortly after his return from deportation, The Memento was
not able to show me very much however, being virtually emptied of
its 60 to 70 original sketches. The greater part of them — 90 per
cent — had been lent for an exhibition in Israel organized by Mrs.
Myriam Novitch, who never returned them to their author and
owner.
Despite my difficulty in believing certain episodes
related by David Olère, a drawing of the fronts of the five three
muffle furnaces of Krematorium II or III intrigued me. On the right
hand side of each furnace them was drawn a part representing a
pulsed air installation, identical to that fitted on the third
furnace of the Old Krematorium in the main camp. I had not yet any
confirmation of this little known detail of the equipment of the
Krematorien II and II furnaces, but I later found mention of it in
the book by Dr. Nyiszli, “Auschwitz: a doctor’s eyewitness
account” [Chapter VII, page 45], this being reinforced by
the method of operating a three-muffle furnace with its pulsed air
blower being reproduced at the end of the book. In Volume 11 of the
Höss trial there is an identical document, but supplied for the new
(third) two-muffle furnace of the old Krematorium. David Olère,
while lamenting the "loss" of his drawings produced a journal of the
LICA (former name of the LICRA) where three of his
works were reproduced: a plan of Krematorium III, a group of
prisoners returning to the camp, and a view of one of the undressing
rooms in Krematorium II or III [in fact Leichenkeller 2 of
Krematorium III). Along the top left of the room there was a big
black tube from which two smaller tubes with grids over their ends
protruded downwards [Document l3]. The discovery of these
unknown details, that other sources had led me to suspect, proved to
me first of all that I was not dealing with a story teller, even
though some of his declarations were at the limit of the credible,
and secondly that on the evidence of the photos that I knew, his
drawings were authentic at this early date and were very faithful in
their detail and, finally, that an air extraction system (a
detail pointed out by David Olère) had existed in Leichenkeller 2 of
both Krematorien II and III.
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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