CHAPTER 4
KANADA I AND ITS CLOTHING DELOUSING
INSTALLATION
with a presentation of various gas-tight
doors |
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The study of "Kanada I" [Documents 1 and 2] and
its delousing gas chamber(s) using Zyklon-B is essential for several
reasons. From the standpoint of the prisoners, it was the only place
in the camp where a "normal" life was maintained despite the
imprisonment, ensuring regular food for those who worked there
(taken from what the gassed victims had brought with them) and
decent clothing (from the same source). It is here that woman and
men had contact and "love stories" could develop, evoked in Andrzej
Munk's film "La Passagère" (1964), or the Rudolf
Vbra's book "Je me suis évadé d’Auschwitz" (1988 for
the French version).
With its "decent" male and female
prisoners, Kanada I could be photographed without fear by the SS.
Ten photos from the "Album d'Auschwitz" [Photos 3 to
10] show the activities of sorting the victims' effects in this
complex.
For the historian the essential part of Kanada I is
its Zyklon-B delousing gas chamber(s) which operated permanently
from 1942 to 1944 [Photos 7, 9 and 10]. A former prisoner,
Josef Odi, explains how the operation was carried out.
Deposition made on 25th August 1963 by Josef Odi, born 15th
August 1923 at Brzeziny Slaskie, registered number 61615, now living
at Oswiecim, ul. Wiezniowzo 20.
Arrested on 20th April 1942
and prisoner at Auschwitz-Birkenau on 22nd August 1942, Josef Odi
worked in the Kanada I commando in the spring of 1944. His
description concerns only 1944. He had already furnished other
information on this subject recorded in the PMO archives as part of
the "testimonies", volume 33, pages 112-116 and volume 51, pages
119/134. |
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| Entwesungskommando /
Kanada |
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"...I was working in the Entwesungskommando Kanada
[Kanada disinfestation kommando: should be called
"Entlausungskommando / delousing kommando" because
"delousing" was done in one or two Zyklon-B gas chambers] near the
Bauhof / building materials yard]. There I disinfected the effects
of people who had been killed. Furs and valuable objects that
could not be disinfested by steam were disinfested using Zyklon-B,
the same method that was used in the gas chambers to kill men. In
our Kommando there were about fifteen prisoners. We used this
method in gas chambers specially set up for disinfestation.
They had one or two entrance doors and a few extractor
fans. This disinfestation was organised as follows: all the
furs and valuable objects to be disinfested were hung up. As soon
as this was done, we covered the floor. Two prisoners put on gas
masks and then went into the middle of the chamber with cans of
Zyklon-B. One prisoner stood near the entrance and watched to
see that the two prisoners in the middle of the room didn't poison
themselves. Using special chisels, the two men opened the cans
of Zyklon-B, poured it on the floor and withdrew rapidly, closing
the gas-tight doors behind them. One hour later, they
opened the doors and the extractor fans were switched on. The used
Zyklon B was collected by us and put back in the original cans and
cases. We took these cases to the Theatergebäude [theatre
building] to be sent to back to the gas manufacturer.
Our
group also prepared the Zyklon-B for the gas chambers. We
transported four or five wooden cases from the Theatergebäude to
Kanada. When the cases were ready, a vehicle from the Health
Service arrived and the cases were loaded in it. There were 40
or 50 cans in each case, so about 200 cans in
all...." |
[A literal translation from the Polish, this testimony
is not really "good." It was too late, 1963, and though the witness
remembered what he had experienced, certain details of the
environment escape him (underlined with dashes). On the other hand,
certain other details (full underlining) are excellent.]
At
the liberation of the camp none of the homicidal gas chambers
remained in their original state, they had been dismantled,
dynamited or transformed. The only intact gas chamber(s) were in
Kanada I [Photos 11 to 13]. The Soviet film "Chronicles of the
liberation of the camp, 1945" shows a gas-tight door
belonging to this or these gas chamber(s) [Photos 14 and 15].
The cans of Zyklon-B discovered in Kanada I had been used there for
delousing purposes [Photos 16 and 17]. Not one of them was
full. Also found was a box containing a chemical reagent used to
check for the presence of hydrocyanic gas, a box to which the
Soviets wrongly attributed a criminal use [Photo 18].
Since the homicidal and delousing gas chambers using
Zyklon-B had been installed and equipped according to the same
principle, they had identical gas-tight doors fabricated in the same
workshops, the Auschwitz DAW woodworking and metalworking shops
[Photos 28 to 31]. Confusion was inevitable, since at this
time it was not known how to distinguish between the two types of
gas chamber. Photos taken after the war [Photos 19 to 27] and
before the remains of the Kanada I delousing installation were
demolished make it possible to see that the two types of gas chamber
were equipped in exactly the same way. The only difference is in the
gas-tight doors: there is a hemispherical grid protecting the
peephole on the interior of the doors of homicidal gas chambers, a
protection not fitted on the doors of delousing
chambers. |
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Document 1:
(Translation of a note
of 8th July 1982 sent to the author by the
PMO Archivist,
Mr. Tadeus IWASZKO) |
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| Key to the plan or Kanada
1: |
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| [The huts have been numbered (1 to 5) but
the witness is not certain to which huts the numbers refer. (The
photos of Kanada I contained in the Auschwitz Album
confirm this numbering)]. |
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| 1, 2: |
Wooden huts [1 and 2) of the
Pferdestall / stable type where the deloused linen and clothing was
stored. Here the effects were cleaned, mended and patched and
subsequently transported to a brick building (7 on the
drawing) |
| la. 2a: |
Awnings extending the roof of
the huts to protect the clean (deloused) linen. |
| 3: |
Wooden hut [3] of the stable
type containing linen and deloused clothes. |
| 4: |
Hut [4] of the stable type. This
contained suitcases and bags whose contents were to go to the
delousing chamber. |
| 4a: |
Wooden awning running the length
of the sorting hut [4]. There was also a temporary shower
installation for the prisoners who sorted the baggage. [Another
aerial photograph seems to show that the awning was not on the east
side of but 4 but on the northern part of the west side]. |
| 5: |
Wooden hut [5] of the stable
type used for sorting the contents of the baggage. Any valuable
objects found during sorting were put in a special chest, the
"Wertkiste." |
| 6: |
Temporary baggage store.
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| 7: |
Brick building with a pitched
roof, used as a store, with shelving inside to hold the deloused
clothing. This is where parcels were prepared for subsequent
dispatch by rail to the Reich (Germany). |
| 8: |
Brick building occupied by the
Kanada I SS Kommandoführer and other SS employed in Kanada I.
|
| 9: |
Brick house, which had been
inhabited by a Polish family who were evicted, converted for
delousing. Inside tubular frames had been erected for hanging
clothes to be deloused using Zyklon-B gas. |
| 9a: |
Room next to the delousing
chamber where medicines and prostheses were kept. Some of the
medicines were subsequently sent to the hospital, Block 28 of KL
Auschwitz I. |
| 9b: |
Room used to store gas masks,
cans of Zyklon-B and the tools for opening them (cold chisels with a
toothed head). The cans of Zyklon-B stocked here came from the
"Theatergebäude" main store, carried on a two-wheeled hand
cart [Photo 3]. |
| 9c: |
Place in front of the delousing
chamber building where the deloused clothes were brought out.
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| 9d: |
Roof under which objects were
kept. |
| 10: |
Brick latrines for the prisoners
working in Kanada I. |
| 1 l: |
Probable location of the wooden
watch towers for the surveillance of Kanada I. |
| 12: |
Railway by which the wagons to
be loaded with recovered, deloused and prepared goods arrived. The
trains subsequently went to the Reich. |
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