|
|
 |
 |
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
|
| |
 |
Back |
 |
Contents |
Page 294 |
|
Home
Page |
Forward |
 |
| |
| Drawing 1311(r) |
 |
| |
|
| Bauleitung
drawing 1311 |
| |
The first drawing, 1311
(r), [Russian] comes from the “October Revolution”
Central State Archives in Moscow.
The second drawing,
1311(p) [Polish] comes from the PMO Archives, file BW
30/11, neg. no. 20922/5
Entwurf für das Krematorium /
Project for the crematorium
Deckblatt zum Grundriß vam
Untergeschoß / Correction sheet to basement plan
Krematorium:
Scale 1:100
[Krematorium II of Birkenau POW camp, BW 30]
Drawn on 14/5/42 by SS Sergeant Ulmer,
checked [not
dated] by SS Second Lieutenant Dejaco and SS Sergeant Ertl,
and
approved on 23/5/42 by SS Captain Bischoff |
|
|
Translation of inscriptions
(left to right and top to bottom) |
| · |
Leichenkeller 2 |
| · |
Betonboden / Concrete
floor |
| · |
Leichenkeller 3 |
| · |
Gang / Corridor |
| · |
Büro / Office |
| · |
Tres[s]orraum / Strongroom
|
| · |
Vorpl[atz] /
Antechamber |
| · |
Siphon/ Siphon |
| · |
Vorraum/ Vcstibule |
| · |
Leichenkeller 1 |
| · |
Goldarb[eit] / Gold
working |
| · |
Ofen / Stove [or gold smelting
furnace?] |
| · |
Entlüftungsschächte / air
extraction shaft |
|
Drawing 1311 is a correction sheet modifying
drawings 932 and 1301, mainly as regards Leichenkeller 3. About two
thirds of the area of this room was reorganized as follows (reading
from left to right): a “Goldarb[eit” ] goldworking] room for the
recuperation of gold teeth, no doubt, in view of the “furnace” in
the corner for melting them down into rough ingots); an antechamber
giving onto the goldworking room and an office where records of the
gold operations were kept and where there was a strongroom for
storing the records and the booty before its shipment to the Reich.
The remaining third of the area retained the designation
“Leichenkeller 3”.
The designation “goldworking” was
considered in 1945 47 by the Soviet and Polish Commissions to be
important incriminating evidence against the SS concerning the
extermination of the Jews, but in fact on its own it proves nothing,
as the recovery of gold from corpses is current practice, even
though it may he considered repugnant. The term “Goldarbeit”, this
time spelled out in full, is also found on drawing 2003, showing the
final version of the rearrangement of Leichenkeller 3, but the room
so designated was never actually used for that purpose. However,
according to the testimony of former Sonderkommando men [see sketch
by David Olère] there was a primitive gold recovery and smelting
shop on the ground floor of Krematorium III. On Bauleitung drawing
2136, this room is designated “Labor[atorium] / Laboratory”.
| |
| |
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
|
Back |
Page 294 |
Forward |
|
|
