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Page 178 AUSCHWITZ:
                        Technique and Operation
                            of the Gas Chambers ©
 
 
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Document 9

  Document 9:

Sketch by David Olère dating from 1945 and representing Bunker V in summer 1944, reactivated and operating as a gas chamber.
This mental snapshot drawn by D. Olère is a view of the southwest corner of Bunker V. [On Drawing 1I have shown in red dotted lines the angle of view for this picture.]

Inexact details: 
 
     
·   The hilly nature of the terrain. Reacting against the monotonous flatness of Birkenau, David Olère, in some of his drawings, has introduced a hilly landscape, clearly for artistic reasons only.   
·   The orientation of the hut on the right. We should see the entrance not on the side.   
·   The house in the background on the right is probably a reminder of Bunker I, which no longer existed n 1944.   
     
  Exact details:   
     
·   The relative positions of the ditch. Bunker V and an undressing - hut are well respected though they arc shown somewhat too close together   
·   The positions of the door and the opening for introducing the gas in the west corner of Bunker V are also correct.   
·   The hut is of the stable type   
·   Part of the north-west wall was indeed set back as shown by the ruins, but in the reverse direction.   
·   There was still a tree in front of Bunker V in 1982, of identical shape, a striking coincidence as forty years later it is not the same tree.   
 
This scene recorded a year after the events by D. Olère is of such remarkable precision as to be almost as good as a photograph.  
 
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique and operation
of the gas chambers

Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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