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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 367 |
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In these cells, the women have now been replaced by shelves
loaded with files. The visit began. Iwaszko carefully explained the
content of each one. There were many files, but in view of the
activity of the camp and its great size it was obvious that there
remains only a small part of what must have been an enormous amount
of paper.
We examined five cells whose subjects were
not connected with my work, except that in one there was a file on
the consumption of wood and coke by the Krematorien. The sixth cell
was that of the “Bauleitung” and here I found the drawings over
which I had sweated so often. I at last discovered the system under
which the documents and drawings concerned with the Krematorien were
classified. Each document or set of documents is catalogued under
the initial designation BW 30/ [i.e. “worksite 30” the Bauleitung
designation of the Krematorien] followed by a catalogue number. BW
30/1 to BW 30/34 contain the drawings of the Krematorien. BW 30/25
to 30/31 and 30/34 contain correspondence, orders and various other
papers that have been found concerned with the construction of these
buildings. I checked, for the principle of the thing, to make sure
that I knew the main files, going through them to identify them. On
the middle shelf where the BW 30 files were arranged. I found two
that were carefully boxed and tied, marked in black letters Glowna
Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich W Polsce [Central Commission
for the Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes in Poland] that I had
never seen. I took them and put them on small table that had been
placed there to facilitate handling the documents. The open boxes
revealed twelve small files, ten catalogued BW30/32 to 42, plus
30/32 A and 30/34 A. Seeing my surprise, mixed with a certain
suppressed irritation, Iwaszko assured me that he had received then
only two months earlier [!]. After quickly checking to see whether
there was anything new among the fourteen drawings of the BW30/ 34
A. I came across the timesheets of Messing, a Topf fitter. Messing
had noted, week by week. the details of the work of installing all
the ventilation in Krematorien II and III. His records confirm what
I had been trying to prove for two years. Obviously, the
“Auskleidekeller / undressing cellars” struck us immediately.
The visit had to end there because I had little time to look over
everything before returning to France. I never finished visiting the
archives... I bet Iwaszko a bottle of (Romanian) champagne that
these new files would reveal “traces / slips” with “Gas-”. By the
time the archives closed I had found a “Gasskammer” [gas
chamber] in BW 30/38 and asked for it to he sent to me in
microfilm form as soon as possible, which was done. As for the
champagne, our schedules being so tight, it became purely symbolic.
These “rediscovered” files are extremely important. They
contain eleven “slips” by civilian employees participating in the
construction of the Krematorien. What is more, the timesheets
[Document 27], brought further evidence regarding the already
accusatory significance of a Bauleitung telegram [Document
28] urgently requesting Topf to supply “10 Gasprüfer / 10 gas
detectors” for BW 30 [Krematorium II]. I call “slip”, the fact
that a civilian working in an underground morgue (here Leichenkeller
2) of an apparently normal cremation installation can write instead
of “L-keller 2”, “Auskleidekeller 2” [undressing
cellar], which means that he had understood and knew very well
what the purpose of this installation was. He was prudent, however,
and did not have the courage to go all the way and call
Leichenkeller I “Gaskeller 1” or “Vergasungskeller
1”.
Messing's timesheets are the best documents found on the
ventilation installations in Krematorien II and Ill. They cover in
particular the period during which Krematorium II was unofficially
brought into service. Messing was the kingpin in this work. Gassing
would not have been possible in an underground gas chamber without a
proper ventilation system. The beginning of the industrial
extermination programme depended directly on his work. |
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| * * * |
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| Document 23: |
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Document 23:
[PMO neg. no
291] |
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THE FURNACE ROOM OF KREMATORIUM II, END JANUARY 1943 looking
west-east. At the far end on the right is the corridor from which a
staircase led to the roof space and at the end of which was the room
known as “prisoners rest room” where Dr. Nyiszli and his assistants
were housed in summer 1944. The hot air evacuation openings are
indicated above furnaces 2, 3, 4 and 5, that of furnace I being
hidden by a supporting beam. These openings were connected to a duct
leading to the main ventilation chimney. It is impossible to state
whether this was the first or second opening at the east end, the
other opening being the gas chamber noxious air outlet. David Olère
relates that when the members of the Sonderkommando were made to
live in the roof space of Krematorien II and Ill, the favourite
places to sleep were along the ducting, because of the heat given
off.
This photograph was already famous at the time. Pery
Broad speaks of it: |
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“Krematorien I [II] and II [III] were fitted with 15
furnaces each able to take four or five corpses. The Auschwitz
camp Bauleitung was so proud of its work that a collection of
photos of the Krematorien was publicly exhibited in the vestibule
of its main building.
It had been entirely forgotten that
the civilians who were going in and out past a close up picture of
15 cremation furnaces neatly aligned one beside the other might
have been inclined to reflect less about the technical
capabilities of the Bauleitung and much more about some of the
more dubious institutions of the Third Reich.
It is true
that Grabner soon intervened and quickly put an end to this
singular propaganda, but he could not prevent the Bauleitung from
employing civilian workers who, naturally, were perfectly familiar
with the Krematorium equipment. When they left the camp they told
all that they had
seen.” | |
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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