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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 219 |
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Document 27 [PMO file BW 30/27, page
24] |
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Translation: |
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COPY / ORDER /
J A TOPF &
SONS |
Erfurt, 12th February 1943 |
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SS and Police Central Construction Management
Oswiecim |
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CONCERNING: Krematorien 2 and 3, POW camp
We acknowledge
receipt of your telegram of 10th February reading as follows:
We once again confirm receipt of your order for five triple
muffle furnaces, including, two electric lifts for the corpses and
one provisional hoist for corpses. Also the order for a practical
device for charging coal and a device for transporting ashes. You
are to deliver the whole installation for Krematorium 3. We expect
you to take the necessary steps to immediately dispatch all machines
and parts. The complete installation must come into service on 10th
April 1943. |
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J A TOPF & SONS |
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[certified a true copy] Captain / KUNIN / |
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[Not having a photograph of the original, the author
presents here the Russian translation of the document. However, as
the telegram concerned was twice transcribed in almost identical
terms (on 11th February in a Bauleitung letter to Topf and on 12th
its the reply), it is possible to make a comparison between the
two German originals and the Russian translation. This last is a
somewhat botched job, with a real error in the third line, where
“we confirm our order” becomes “we confirm [receipt of] your
orders”, to say nothing of the transformation of the Roman
numerals II and III into 2 and 3 and the word “Anlage K III /
installation K III” into “Krematorium 3”. This letter is presented
in Russian in order to demonstrate the difficulty, if not
impossibility, of working with such translations, probably made in
haste and in the heat of the moment in 1945, using unqualified
translators taken from among the Soviet troops who liberated the
Auschwitz Birkenau camp. The German texts and the English
translation are to he found Part II, Chapter 6, “The ventilation
systems of Krematorien II and III”.]
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AUSCHWITZ: Technique
and operation of the gas chambers Jean-Claude Pressac © 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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