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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Contents |
Page 377 |
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Document 39:
Recapitulatory table of motor powers
[The figures are expressed in
kW/HP and those underlined are those of the original
documents] |
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| DESIGNATION OF
ROOMS |
Requirements as per
correspondence of 3-12 February 194 |
Distribution I |
Distribution 2 |
| Krema II |
Krema III |
Krema II |
Krema III |
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AUFZUG /
Lift |
” |
7.3/10 |
2 x [5.6/7-] =
11.2/15,3 |
7.3/10 |
11.2/15,3 |
L-KELLER 1 /
Gas
chamber |
2.6/3.5
No
450 |
3.3/4.5 |
2.5/3.4 |
2.6/3.5 |
2.6/3.5 |
KELLER 2 /
Undressing
room |
5.5/7.5
No. 550 |
2.6/3.5 |
2.6/3.5 |
2.6/3.5 |
2.5/3.4 |
SEZIER-, WASCH-, U.,
AUFBAHRUNGS-
RÄUME / Dissection, washing and laying out rooms
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assumed to be
about
IHP
N°
375 |
1.1/1.5 |
1.1/1.5 |
1.1/1.5 |
1.1/1.5 |
OFENRAUM /
Furnace room
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5.5/7.5
No.
550 |
2.6/3.5 |
2.6/3.5 |
3.3/4.5 |
2.6/3.5 |
Total ventilator
motor
power |
14.3kW/19.5HP |
16.9kW/23.0HP |
20.0kW/27.2HP |
16.9kW/23.0 HP |
20.0kW/27.2HP
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| ANNEX |
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GAS 3000 PEOPLE IN
LEICHENKELLER I OF KREMATORIUM II?
IMPOSSIBLE, THE BODIES WOULD HAVE BLOCKED
THE
LOWER AIR EXTRACTION ORIFICES |
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(Reply to the argument in a letter from a revisionist)
Following the exchange of letters and telephone calls with a
correspondent who doubts the reality of the gas chambers, I have
extracted two of his arguments that appear to me valid.
Describing the ventilation system of Leichenkeller I [of the
future Krematorium II as per the cross-section on drawing 933], he
pointed out to me that the air entered through the upper orifices,
then was extracted through the lower ones, and concluded:
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“This arrangement is perfectly suitable if the room is
used as a morgue: the air entering cools, becomes denser, and is
extracted from the lower part.” |
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| He then asked me to imagine: |
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“the situation in the LK 1 after the gassing of a
large number of people: the corpses are heaped on top of one
another; they block most of the air extraction orifices; the room
is full of warm toxic gas; how can there be rapid and efficient
mechanical ventilation? I would say that it is nor possible...”
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These remarks mean that Leichenkeller I used as a gas
chamber had a poorly designed ventilation system and in the case of
large-scale gassings [3000 people in 210 m² according to Nyiszli, or
13.3 per square meter], the lower orifices being blocked ventilation
would become impossible [a model visible at the Museum illustrates
this “maximum” case, though there are probably no more than one
thousand victims depicted].
The figure of 3000 is
theoretical and exaggerated, but if we take it as correct, then so
is my correspondent's hypothesis and the ventilation is blocked and
cannot work.
What would the SS have done in the case of such
an “incident”?
They would have proceeded in two stages:
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| 1. |
Open wide the doors giving
basement access through the north yard and those of the undressing
room, whose ventilation system working at full power would prevent
the basement being contaminated:
Before putting on their gas
masks, the SS would have then ordered two to four members of the
Sonderkommando to put on masks, open the gas chamber door and drag
bodies out into the vestibule until several of the air extraction
orifices had been cleared. Then the gas-tight door would have been
closed again, the ventilation restarted, and to improve its
efficiency all that was required was to open the Zyklon-B
introduction covers, but not until that moment. After verifying by
means of a gas detector that there was no longer any danger of
hydrocyanic acid intoxication outside the gas chamber,
operations would have resumed their “normal” course. |
| 2. |
Once the gas chamber had been
emptied, a squad of fitters or bricklayers would have fixed at
the end of the chamber, in the southeast corner a steel duct
of about 20 cm diameter and 2 meters high or built a brick chimney
of about the same dimensions connecting with or protecting one of
the lower air extraction orifices and enabling it to take in warm
contaminated air from above. The time taken for the “repair” would
not have been longer than an afternoon. Such an incident would not
have interrupted the “operation” of the Krematorium. As the
documents we possess at present make no mention of such work we can
assume for the moment that the case of the “3000” never occurred,
the number of victims from a convoy always being less than
this. |
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| The initial ventilation system of Leichenkeller I,
which was designed for a basement morgue, is not a “definitive”
obstacle to using the room as a gas chamber.
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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