Drawing D57,253 of 10/6/40 [Photo 2] is much more
valuable. It was found in the KL Mauthausen correspondence, attached to a Topf
letter of 23rd November 1940 in which the firm extolled the virtues of its
products and assured the Mauthausen Bauleitung that they had made the "right
choice", telling them that KL Auschwitz already had a similar furnace in
activity and had just ordered another. Topf had enclosed with their letter a
drawing of the furnace produced for Auschwitz. The coke-fired, double-muffle
furnace ordered by KL Mauthausen for the Gusen subcamp [Lager Unterkunft Gusen]
was installed in 1941, and is miraculously still there today. A second furnace,
whose metal components were first sent in August 1942 by in entirely deliberate
error to Auschwitz and then forwarded, was built at the Mauthausen main camp
[Photos 2a, 2b,
2c and
2d].
Historically, the letter of 23/11/40 and the attached
drawing of 10/6/40 cross check with the chronology put forward by Danuta Czech
in her "Calendar of events in the Auschwitz Birkenau camp", where the
work of transforming the old powder magazine (or dry goods store) of the Austro
Hungarian barracks into a crematorium [Krematorium I] is said to have started
on 5th July 1940. The letter indicates that two double muffle furnaces were
installed at first, and this was indeed the case.
Technically,
Drawing D57,253 makes it possible to situate the underfloor smoke flues
in Auschwitz Krematorium I and to see that the reconstruction of two furnaces
effected by the Poles after the war is far from being a faithful reproduction
of the original state, in particular as regards the coke-fired hearths at the
rear of the furnaces. The exaggerated simplification of the cross-section means
that the smoke evacuation path in the furnace and the positions of the pulsed
air vents remain unknown. The cremation capacity of the Gusen double-muffle
furnace was estimated in a Topf letter of 14th July 1941 addressed to KL
Mauthausen [although Gusen acquired a very large degree of autonomy from
Mauthausen, it still depended on the latter as regards cremation matters] as
being from 10 to 35 corpses 10 hours of operation [see Reimund Schnable, "Macht
ohne Moral" (Might without morals). Röderbergverlag, Frankfurt am Main
1957, page 346]. If we arbitrarily take the maximum figure of 35, this gives a
total capacity of 84 corpses in 24 hours, so that three such furnaces could
cremate 252 corpses in 24 hours. Auschwitz Krematorium I, which actually had
three such furnaces, was officially stated to have a throughput of 340 corpses
a day, or one third higher than the Topf maximum figure. It is impossible to
know whether this was the usual SS exaggeration or a true figure. |
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| Translation of inscriptions:
|
| |
| |
Schnitt A B/ Section A-B
|
|
| |
· |
Einführungstür / Corpse loading door
|
|
| |
· |
Aschenentnahmetür / [Human] ash removal
door |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Schnitt C D / Section C
D |
|
| |
|
|
| |
[Plan view Lower left] |
|
| |
· |
Schienen for den Einführungswagen / Rails
for the [corpse] loading trolley |
|
| |
· |
Schornstein 10-14 m hoch / Chimney 10 14 m
high |
|
| |
· |
Saugzuganglage / Forced draught
installation |
|
| |
· |
Rauchkanal / Smoke flue |
|
| |
· |
Koksgenerator / Coke fired hearth |
|
| |
· |
Schacht / Pit |
|
| |
· |
Aufbahrungsraum and Leichenzellen / Laying out
room and corpse cells |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Schnitt a b/ Section a b
|
|
| |
· |
OK Fussboden / Floor level |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Ofenfundament / Furnace
foundations |
|
| |
· |
Grundriß / Plan view |
|
| |
· |
Holzklötze 80/140 100 tief einsetzen / 80
x 140 wooden blocks set 100 deep |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Alle Masse sind in mm angegeben /
All dimensions are given in mm |
|
