|
|
 |
 |
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
|
| |
 |
Back |
 |
Contents |
Page 79 |
|
Home
Page |
Forward |
 |
| |
| |
| THE FIFTY SHOWERS OF THE
ZENTRAL SAUNA |
| | |
 |
Photo 21:
Present state of the five big windows of the shower
room. Above, the roofing felt is still visible. |
| |
| |
Photos 22, 23 and 24:
Three views of the
shallow bath situated at the entrance to the showers, filled with water
and hydrocyanic acid in which the prisoners' body hair was disinfested
just before the shower. |
| |
|
| Photo 22 |
 |
| |
| |
 |
Photo 23 |
| |
| |
| Photo 24 |
 |
| |
| |
| The following testimony is an adaptation of a letter from a
former Czech prisoner to the head of the PMO archives, not yet
classified: |
| |
"Before the shower and during the disinfestation of
their effects, the prisoners underwent a disinfesting treatment.
Just inside the entrance door to the showers there was a small
concrete bath full of a mixture of water and hydrocyanic acid,
obtained by pouring Zyklon-B crystals in the water. The prisoner
arriving for his shower, naked and with his head shaved, stepped
into this basin and another stationed alongside the basin, his
hand protected by a glove, passed the mixture over his head, under
the arms and over the pubic hair." |
| It is interesting to consider this account in connection with an
episode in Dr. Miklos Nyiszli's book "Auschwitz: A doctor's
eyewitness account" (London. Granada Books 1949). In chapter
19, he cites the case of an adolescent Jewish girl who survived the
action of Zyklon-B in the gas chamber of Krematorium II, and
explains it as follows (page 92): |
| |
"By chance she had fallen with her face against the
wet concrete floor. That bit of humidity had kept her from being
asphyxiated, for Zyklon gas does not react under humid
conditions." |
In other words, Dr. Nyiszli considered that there must have been
a little pocket of very moist air around the girl's face, and as
hydrocyanic acid easily dissolves in water the gas was absorbed by
the water vapour and she breathed a much less toxic atmosphere than
the other victims. Of course, HCN dissolved in water remains its
highly poisonous properties as shown by the fact that it was used
for delousing the prisoners and by the fact that in the preparation
of Laurier Cerise water that used to be used in pharmacy in the
fairly recent past, the HCN content had to be carefully measured for
fear of poisoning the patient.
In the author's opinion,
however, the survival of this girl (who was nevertheless killed by
an SS man shortly afterwards by a bullet in the back of the neck)
can be explained otherwise. Dr. Nyiszli states at the beginning of
his account that she was found "Against the wall, near the entrance
of the immense room" (page 89). By chance she must have pressed her
face – lips and nose – against a low air-extraction grill in the gas
chamber. Fresh air still remained in the extraction duct and she was
able to breath almost normally while all those around her succumbed
to the gas. When the extractor fan was switched on she absorbed
enough to be slightly poisoned and suffer convulsions, the state in
which she was found by the Sonderkommmando men, who saved her only
for a very short time.
| |
| |
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
|
Back |
Page 79 |
Forward |
|
|
