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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 392 |
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Bauleitung drawing 1678 of
14.8.42
The first drawing 1678(p) [Polish] is
from PMO file BW 30b-30c/22. neg. no. 20946/6.
The second
drawing 1678(r) ]Russian] is from the “October
Revolution” Central State Archives.
Einäscherungsanlage im KGL / Cremation installation in the
POW camp
Maßstab / Scale 1:100
Drawn by prisoner 538 on 14th
August 1942,
checked by SS Second Lieutenant Dejaco and approved
by SS Captain Bischoff on 15th September 1942 |
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Drawing 1678, the first one of the future Krematorium IV,
two copies of which were to he built (the second being Krematorium
V), was drawn in haste in order to try to deal with the catastrophic
situation in which the camp found itself in August 1942. A typhus
epidemic was raging and Bunkers 1 and 2 were regularly turning out
batches of gassed bodies to be buried in the Birch Wood, a procedure
that constituted a major health hazard at the height of summer.
The urgency with which the drawing was produced can be seen
in its unfinished appearance and by comparing the date on which it
was checked and approved (15th September 1942) with the date on
which the chimneys were ordered (20th August 1942), the former being
much later than the latter.
The fact is that the
building was merely the frame in which an eight-muffle cremation
furnace was to he housed, the drawings of this already having been
supplied by Prüfer, the chief engineer of Messrs Topf. The title
“Einäscherungsanlage / Cremation installation” rather than
“Krematorium” indicates that it was the act of incineration that had
priority and that the planned facility would be of more summary
design than Krematorien II and III.
Despite its apparent
innocence as a sanitary instrument, there is a criminal
element, linked with homicidal gassings, in the drawing. The
essential parts of a crematorium are its furnace(s) and its
morgue(s). Other ancillary rooms may go to complete this basic unit,
such as coke store, laying out room, dissecting room and various
others. In the arrangement of the premises, the only two rooms that
are to be found in the immediate vicinity of the furnace room are
those containing what is essential for its operation: coke from the
coke store and corpses from the morgue. On Drawing 1678, the
coke store is shown, but the morgue is not. The only room big enough
to serve this purpose is the uncompleted room on the left. beyond
the air lock. The complementary drawing 2036, despite the absence of
a specific label, makes it clear that this is the only room that
could fulfil this function. This room, a morgue by virtue of its
position, has by definition to be cool, but the SS planned it to be
fitted with a stove [symbol #], which would be absurd. The
arrangement of the premises in a homicidal crematorium (one with a
gas chamber) was in accordance with an inescapable logical sequence.
For example, in the new crematorium at Dachau, there follow the
undressing room, the gas chamber (labelled “Brausebad" / Shower
bath”), the morgue and the furnace room. In Auschwitz Krematorium I,
the room that served first as a morgue and then as a gas chamber was
next to the furnace room. The most noticeable difference between the
two types of use is the air temperature: a morgue needs to be cool
or cold, while a gas chamber using Zyklon-B needs to be heated to
26° or 27° C to facilitate the diffusion of the hydrocyanic gas. The
presence of a stove in the uncompleted room of drawing 1678 is a
formal indication that it was used for gassing. The weakness of this
criminal trace is that it stands alone. Its strength is that it
exists: this symbol of a stove cannot he “rubbed out” or
forgotten.
Drawing 1678 is connected with Bunkers 1
and 2. Instead of locating furnaces at the exits of their gas
chambers as Prüfer had suggested in order to solve the problem of
the mass graves, the SS preferred to bring the two functions
(gassing and cremating) under the same roof. As evidence of this
“affiliation”, the method of introducing Zyklon-B into the gas
chambers in Krematorien IV and V was directly inspired by that used
in Bunkers 1 and 2, the pellets containing the poison being poured
through openings covered by wooden shutters, set high in the walls
of the gas chamber and accessible only by means of a
ladder.
Since Bunkers 1 and 2 were the only gas chambers in
continuous operation in July-August 1942, the SS were willing to
abandon them only in favour of two installations that could perform
the same "work" much "better": cremation installations IV and V.
subsequently known as Krematorien IV and V. |
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Translation of
inscriptions
(from top to bottom and left to
right): |
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Giehelansichi / Gable
end [east elevation of Krematorium IV] |
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Ansicht / Elevation
[south elevation of Krematorium IV] |
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Erdgeschoß-Grundriß /
Ground floor plan |
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Entlüftung / Air
extraction |
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Binder / Pillar |
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Zwischen Schornstein und
Innenwand Dehnungsfuge vorsehen /
Allow for expansion joint
between chimney and internal wall |
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Schleuse u. Geräte / Air lock
and tools |
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Schleuse / Air lock |
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Verbrennungsraum / Cremation
room [furnace room] |
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Generator / Firebox |
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Achtmuffel Einäscherungsofen /
Eight-muffle cremation furnace |
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Siehe bet. Zeichnung / See the
drawing concerned |
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Entlüftung / Air
extraction |
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Aufenthaltsraum / [Prisoners’]
rest room |
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W.F. / Wind break |
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Eingang / Entrance |
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WC |
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Kohlen / Coal [in fact coke]
store |
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Schnitt A-B / Section
A-B |
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Entlüftung / Air
extraction |
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Schornsteinhöhe / Chimney
height |
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Nagelbinder / Nailed
truss |
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Einäscherungsofen / Cremation
furnace |
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OK Gelände / Ground level
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Schornsteinfundament / Chimney
foundations |
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Ansicht / Elevation
[north elevation of Krematorium IV] |
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Fundamentplan / Plan
of foundations |
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Schornsteinfundament / Chimney
foundations |
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Ofenfundament / Furnace
foundations |
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Siehe bet. Zeichnung / See the
drawing concerned |
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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