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Page 555 AUSCHWITZ:
                        Technique and Operation
                            of the Gas Chambers ©
 
 
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Photo 28 - -
 Photo 28:
[PMO file BW 30/28, page 68]
(PMO microfilm 1256) 
 
   
Tagesbericht. Einäscherungsanlager 4 [Krematorium IV]. In this daily report for 2nd March 1943, again under item 5, we read:    
· Fussboden Auffühlen, Stampfen und Fussboden betonieren im
Gas[s]kammer  /
 
  Cover floor with hard fill, tamp down and concrete floor in gas chamber    

Photo 29
(Personal archives)

Polish paper stamp depicting Death in SS uniform pouring Zyklon B over the Maidenek concentration camp, issued on 29th April 1946 and valid until 1st July 1946. 218,000 stamps were printed. Designed by J Wilczyk, photoengraved by the Cracow People's Press, Perforation 10 3/4.

[Source: “Michel”stamp catalogue. Schwanenberger Verlag GmbH. München] 
Photo 29
Translation: 
 
·   MAJDANEK DEATH CAMP 1941-44 
·   BATHS AND GAS CHAMBERS 
·   POLAND

He returned to this theme at the end of his speech:
 
Hydrocyanic acid does not leave such deep, indelible traces unless it has been used for months and months so that it penetrates deep into the walls.  
The red ochre bricks stained with dark blue were for him material and visible proof of the existence of homicidal gas chambers. The problem, for there is one, is that the gas chamber presented has all the characteristics of a DELOUSING installation. I am not saying that it was never used to kill people, for that is still possible, but the traces of Prussian blue are an absolutely certain indication of use for delousing purposes. At Birkenau the west wing of BW 5a is a typical example: the bricks of the walls are stained with Prussian blue, especially in the area of stoves inside that were used to bring the room up to the evaporation temperature of hydrocyanic acid. On the outside there are two holes where the extractor fans were fitted. There are two protective air locks for access. On two Auschwitz Bauleitung plans, 801 of 8th November 1941 and 1715 of 25th September 1942, this wing is labeled “GASKAMMER”. It is a gas chamber, but for delousing [Entlausung]. What is more, the gas-tight door of a Kanada I delousing gas chamber had an inspection peep-hole — a photograph in theAlbum d’Auschwitztaken in May or June 1944 proves it. But how can we be certain that the indications on the drawings corresponded to the real use made of it? According to the technical manuals and the accounts of former prisoners, the contact time with hydrocyanic acid for effects to be deloused varied from several hours to a whole day, depending on the quantity of the product used, and this explains the impregnation of the walls. By contrast, in homicide gassings, the quantity of Zyklon B used was smaller, man being more sensitive than lice or bugs to hydrocyanic acid. A little of the poison injected was inhaled by the victims and the rest was removed by the extractor fans, so that the contact time was brief and the walls did not have the time to become impregnated. In fact, in the ruins of the Krematorium II gas chamber, it is not possible to see any blue-stained bricks in its walls. It was the role of the officials of the Maidenek Museum to explain all this to Maître Jouanneau. Furthermore, this Museum gave him part of a plan [the left side of that presented as Photocopy 31] showing “Gaskammern für Zyklon Blausäure” as evidence of the existence of homicidal gas chambers, which is a false interpretation of this plan. This exhibit [No 80] appears in the file of evidence against Faurisson. It is simply a project, never implemented, for a mixed delousing installation using Ventox [acrylonitrile] and Zyklon B. Any Degesch technician would confirm this. At the CDJC in Paris I became acquainted with the documents and photographs given to Maître Douaneau by this Museum. I am sorry to say, and I am not the only one in the West, that the Maidenek homicidal and/or delousing gas chambers are still waiting for a true historian, which is mildly upsetting in view of the fact that the camp fell into the hands of the Russians intact since 1944.

Faurisson called the mass of documents that Maître Jouanneau had brought back from Poland a “shameful hotchpotch”. In this he himself showed shameful duplicity, for the “revisionist cell” had been delighted to receive such good historical material on Auschwitz, and translated into the bargain. These involuntary “gifts” enabled us to advance more rapidly than our adversaries. It is not enough to possess a piece of evidence, it is also necessary to be able to exploit it fully. Maître Jouanneau’s exploitation of the BW 30/31 file, known as the “Metalworking shop” file, was disastrous. He sited Order No 71 of 8h March 1943 requesting the:
 
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique and operation
of the gas chambers

Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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