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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 398 |
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Bauleitung drawing 2036 of
11.1.43
The first version, 2036(p) [Polish], is
from PMO file BW 30b-30c/23, neg. nos 2634 and 20818/10.
The second and third versions, 2036(r.a) and 2036(r.b)
[Russian], are from the “October
Revolution”
Central State Archives.
The six
photos forming 2036(r.a) are to be found in PMO file BW
30/43, pages 3 to 8.
Einäscherungsanlage für das KGL /
Cremation installation for the POW camp
[Also added in the
identification block: Krem IV u. V / Krematorien IV and V]
Deckblatt für die Zeichnung Nr 1678 / Correction sheet to
drawing 1678
Maßstab / Scale 1:100
Drawn by prisoner 127,
checked by SS Second Lieutenant Dejaco and approved by SS
Captain Bischoff on 11th January 1943 |
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2036(p) is the definitive drawing for what was to be
Krematorium IV insofar as the external aspect and interior
arrangement are now fixed and are to change but little despite some
modifications made both during construction and afterwards. The
orientation is not shown on the drawing. but reference to the actual
building shows that it is “north up”. The elevation is the north
elevation of the future Krematorium IV. The two chimneys are thicker
than on Drawing 1678. The orientation of the ground floor
plan is north up, west to the left, east to the right and south
down. Section A-B is a cross-section of the western part and C-D one
of the eastern part, through the 8-muffle furnace.
The
main difference between this and the Karl Segnitz drawing concerns
the roof height, which is has been made lower over the western part,
above the two westernmost rooms and the corridor serving
them.
A striking feature of Drawing 2036(p) is that
four of the rooms are not labelled: the two westernmost rooms
and their corridor (with a total floor area of 240 m²) and the large
room (245 m²) in the centet of the building. The stove for heating
this room, present on Drawing 1678, has disappeared, but each
of the two westernmost rooms has a stove, the hearths being fired
from the corridor, outside the rooms (using coal from the store
next to the doctor’s room).
Despite the absence of some of
the function labels on the ground floor plan of 2036(p),
useful indications are nevertheless present. It can be seen that
each of the two westernmost rooms has a door direct to the exterior
as well as to the corridor. Their ceilings are low (2.20 m ). They
are heated by stoves and there is a drain in the centre of each.
They communicate with the centre of the building via the corridor
and the vestibule. Next to the coal store for the stoves in these
westernmost rooms, the presence of a doctor’s room implies that the
function of these rooms requires his presence. The large central
room with three ventilation chimneys and no stove could be a morgue
providing corpses for the 8-mufle furnace, as this is the room
closest to the furnace room and no other room is labelled as being
for this purpose.
Various Bauleitung orders sent to the
Auschwitz DAW workshops and two timesheets covering work done by
Riedel & Son prove that the westernmost rooms were fitted with
gas-tight doors and windows, and must therefore have been
gas-chambers. According to various testimonies they were homicidal
gas chambers. In that case, Drawing 2036(p) can be read in
terms of an industrial production line: two production units (gas
chambers requiring the presence of a doctor to certify death)
operate alternately; the “products” obtained are evacuated via the
corridor and vestibule and stored in the morgue (in the centre of
the building), which can also receive others coming from external
sources; finally. the products are consumed (cremation). In this
sequence the undressing room is missing. It could have been provided
in the form of a hut erected outside but very close to the
Krematorium, as was done in the case of Krematorium II in the second
half of March 1943 (a wooden hut was erected in the yard to serve as
a temporary undressing room while Messing was completing the
installation of the air extraction system in Leichenkeller
2).
In order to explain the lack of an undressing roorn in
Krematorien IV and V , it must he borne in mind that they were
originally conceived simply as additional cremation
installations, dependent on Bunkers 1 and 2, and not as fully
fledged complexes like Krematorien II and III. Bringing the means of
extermination under the same roof led the SS to supplement the first
Drawing. 1678, by a second. 2036, which is in fact
labelled a “correction sheet” to drawing 1678. There would have been
a third drawing with further modifications to the ground floor plan
in order to provide the missing undressing room had the SS not
decided to resolve the problem by making the large central room play
a double role: that of morgue and/or undressing room (an arrangement
inspired by what was done in Krematorium I in the Stammlager). This
double role made it possible for the Bauleitung to use drawing
2036(p) as it stood but for minor modifications. |
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Translation of
inscriptions
(from top to bottom and left to
right): |
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Ansicht / Elevation
[north elevation of Krematorium IV] |
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Querschnitt A-B /
Cross-section A-B |
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Herakliht 3 cm / 3 cm herakliht
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Nagelbinder / Nailed truss
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OK Gelände / Ground
level |
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Querschnitt C-D /
Cross-section C-D |
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OK Gelände / Ground
level |
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Nagelbinder / Nailed
truss |
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Erdgeschoß-Grundriß /
Ground floor plan |
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Binder / Pillar |
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Lichte höhe 2.20 m / Clearance
height 2.20 m |
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Kohle / Coal store |
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Vorrann / Vestibule |
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Arztzimmer / Doctor’s
room |
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Entlüftung / Air
extraction |
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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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Achmuffel Einäscherungsofen /
Eight-muffle cremation furnace |
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Verbrennungsraum / Cremation
room [furnace room] |
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Aufenthaltsraum / [Prisoners’]
rest room |
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Kohlen / Coal [in fact coke]
store |
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Kanalisation / Sewer
pipes |
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
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