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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 82 |
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| Photo 31: [PMO neg. no.20995/476]
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| The battery of three autoclaves, south, clean side numbered
above the manufacturer's nameplate 1, 2, 3 from left to right. The
steam arrived through the light coloured pipe above the autoclaves.
It is more than likely that it came from the basement boiler. The
dark pipe connected the pressure vessel to the hot water tanks. An
electric motor enabled the steam to be rapidly evacuated at the end
of the cycle (to the left of each autoclave). On the door of
autoclave 1 (Photos 31 and 35) are two gauges, one showing
the pressure and the other the temperature. On the table (Photo
35) a prisoner is filling in the operating report and there is a
clock for timing the sterilization cycle. For those who believe that
autoclaves were gas chambers, I would point out that on Photos 31
and 35 there are no gas masks to hand and nobody is wearing a
gas mask. The two short rails in front of each autoclave are to
receive the trolley carrying the effects to be
disinfected. | |
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Photo
32 | |
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| Photo 33 |
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| Photos 32 and
33 |
| Present state of the
autoclave, south side, doors closed (Photo 32) and open
(Photo 33). They still contain the clothes trolley. All the
auxiliary equipment is missing, probably because it was not replaced
after being damaged when the roof fell in. In the foreground on the
left of Photo 33, there is a pipe for pumping out the water
that due to a rise in the water table since 1945 has flooded the
stoking pits of the disinfestation oven and the basement
area. | |
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Photo 34:
Autoclave 2, door half open, present state, south side
(see Photo 28 for the north side).
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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Page 82 |
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