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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 343 |
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| Photo 19 |
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| Photo 20 |
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| Photos 19 (above) and 20 (below)
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[These photos are from Serge Klarsfeld’s "Auschwitz
Album" where Photo 19 is numbered 128 and Photo 20 is 141
[or 145, the two being identical except for the amount of background
shown.141 has been chosen here precisely for the depth of
background.
The two pictures, classified under the
heading “Nicht mehr einsatzfähige Frauen u. Kinder / Women and
children not capable of being employed”, were taken one after the
other, fixing the two groups between Krematorien II and III ( the
eastern part of the latter being visible on Photo 19), the SS
photographer having his back to the south, a few meters away from
the barbed wire fence surrounding Krematorium II, the gate to which
is on the left. To show the true locations of the two prints with
respect to their backgrounds, they should have a space of about 15
cm between them.
These are the last pictures taken of people
about to enter Krematorium II. The photographer did not take
pictures in the Krematorium grounds or inside the building itself.
His visual report was concerned with those about to be exterminated,
not the technique employed, which was known to all the SS.
Given this gap in the photographic evidence (whatever the
reason for it) Robert Faurisson explains that these people are
simply “passing by” on their way to the Zentral Sauna to be
medically examined, shorn, deloused and showered, before being
integrated into the camp or transferred “elsewhere”. He thus implies
that their presence between the two Krematorien is simply a
consequence of the route taken, and is thus perfectly normal if not
commonplace.
Admittedly, on many “Auschwitz
Album” photographs, the SS photographer made people stop and
sometimes turn completely round for the sake of the picture, but
frequently one or more of the group did not obey (through fatigue,
incomprehension, or deliberately) and remained facing where they
were going when the photo was taken.
In the “Auschwitz
Album”, photo 142, taken before the two presented here,
shows women and children walking, not on the “Hauptstaße / Main
road”, but leaving it to go off at an angle towards the grounds of
Krematorium II. The women and children in Photo 19 [128] are
not “passing by”, they are stopped, their bodies facing west and
their heads turned to the south, to watch the photographer. Those
on Photo 20 [141] have their bodies almost facing the
entrance to Krematorium II, situated in the extension of the path
leading from the gate of Krematorium III (visible in the right hand
background). They too have their heads turned to watch the
photographer.
The some 35 women and their children on these
two photographs have only about two hours to live.
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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