|
|
 |
 |
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
|
| |
 |
Back |
 |
Contents |
Page 422 |
|
Home
Page |
Forward |
 |
| |
| |
The "Polish
Resistance” photographs |
|
| |
|
|
| |
Presented in 1945 as
the only photographs of the extermination of the Jews, taken in
August 1944, they were attributed by Judge Jan Sehn in the initial
publications of the Central Commission for the investigation of
Hitlerian crimes in Poland and the Auschwitz Museum to the former
prisoner David Szmulewski.
Four photographs were taken with
a camera smuggled into Krematorium V. Two were of reasonable quality
(Photos 15 and 16 [PMO neg. nos. 280 and 281], one
just about usable (Photo 17 [PMO neg. no. 282] and the
last one useless (Photo 18) [PMO neg. no. 283]. The
clandestine photographer had taken two pictures of corpses being
burnt in the open air [Photos 15 and 16], one of naked women
[Photo 17] and one of tree branches [Photo 18].
As a rule, the three usable photographs are not published
complete, but just the "interesting" part is enlarged and printed
with a general caption: |
|
| |
|
|
| |
· |
Photos 15 and 16:
“Cremation of gassed bodies in open ditches” [PMO enlargements
neg. nos 277 and 278]; |
|
| |
· |
Photo 17: “Prisoners
being led to the gas chamber” [PMO enlargement: neg. no. 279];
|
|
|
 |
Photo 15 |
|
| Photo 16 |
 |
|
 |
Attempted photographic
reconstitution of Photos 15 and 16 made by the author in 1984,
operating inside the northern gas chamber of Krematorium V and
looking northwest. The birch trees visible just behind the barbed
wire fence should be ignored for they were not there in 1944 and
have grown since. The dark line of the Birch wood can still be seen
through them, in particular on the right. The rubble from the
cleared foundations of Krematorium V was simply placed around he
perimeter, so that here the overgrown rubble hides the presumed site
of the cremation ditch, which was filled in by the SS before the
Liberation of the camp. |
|
| |
PhotoSketch map
showing the positon of the Sonderkmmado man who took the photographs
from inside Krematorium V in August 1944: PMO neg. nos. 280
(position 1) and 281 (position 2). |
|
| |
|
|
| |
 |
|
|
| |
Translation of inscriptions: |
|
| |
|
|
| |
· |
Nord / North |
|
| |
· |
Partie ouest du crématoire V /
Western part of Krematorium V |
|
| |
· |
Ch. à gaz / Gas chamber |
|
| |
· |
Chambre à gaz nord / Northern
gas chamber |
|
| |
· |
Positions du membre du
Sonderkommando lors des prises de photos /
Positions of the
Sonderkommando man when he took the photos |
|
| |
· |
Emplacement présumé d’une des
fosses d’incinération / Presumed location of one of the cremation
ditches |
|
| |
· |
Fossé de drainage et
d’évacuation des eaux / Drainage ditch and sewer |
|
| |
· |
Clôture barbelée / Barbed wire
fence |
|
| |
· |
Le Birkenwald / The Birch Wood
|
| |
| |
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
|
Back |
Page 422 |
Forward |
|
|
