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Page 456 AUSCHWITZ:
                        Technique and Operation
                            of the Gas Chambers ©
 
 
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[Anothers Traces :]  
 
32. Beschläge für gasdichte Tür / fittings for gas-tight door    
[Annex 15 to Volume 11 of the Hoess trial, “Schlosserei WL”, Order 516 of 17th June 1943]
[Photo 38] 
     
    Translation    
   
 
    17/6/43 No 516 Administration V 4 [Birkenau Krematorien].
Metalworking shop producing fittings for gas-tight door as per Orders 1893 and 2085. Hall II has the main order. If necessary, consult foreman Mullebach.
Administration V 4 Order No 148 of 7th May 1943.
Operative: Mirek. Completed: 10/6/43. 
 
   
 
    This order was issued by the Birkenau Krematorium maintenance service, but does not mention the destination of the fittings. In view of the date, a new door was probably being fitted to replace a faulty or damaged one.      
       
33.  1 Schlüssel für Gaskammer / 1 key for gas chamber   
[Annex 15 to Volume 11of the Hoess trial, “Schlosserei WL”, Order 600 of 12th July 1943]
[Photo 38]  
     
    Translation:    
   
 
    12/7/43 No 600. Krematorium-Administration.
Subject: 1 key. for gas chamber.
Report to SS captain of the SS hospital pharmacy.
BBD administration Order No 87 Block of 9th July 1943.
Operative: Goderski. Completed 13/7/43.  
 
   
 
    This order can be regarded as the very model of a dubious “trace”. lssued by the Krematorium maintenance service, this request for the production of a key for a gas chamber might be understandable, but the destination Krematorium is not known. The order to report to the pharmacist of the SS hospital and the mention of a “Block” make the order incomprehensible with our present state of knowledge. There was, and perhaps still is, exhibited on the first floor of Block 14 (Soviet Pavilion). a key used for a Zyklon-B store, but the doors to the homicidal gas chambers of the crematoriums were not fitted with locks.    
       
34. Die Beschläge zu I Tür mit Rahmen, luftdicht mit Spion für Gaskammer /
The fittings for 1 door with frame, air-tight with peephole for gas chamber
   
[Annex 15 to Volume 11 of the Hoess trial, “Schlosserei WL”, Order 459 of 28th May 1943]
[Photo 39] 
     
    Translation    
   
 
    28/5/43 No 459. Disinfestation Chamber Auschwitz concentration camp [i.e. main camp, NOT Birkenau]
Subject:
1. Fittings for one door and frame, air-tight with peephole for gas chamber.
2. Lath door. Capo Kühne knows about this.
Administration V 4 Order No 158/2 and 2a of 25th January 1943.
Operative: Mirek. Completed: 10/6/43. 
 
   
 
    This order has nothing to do with the Birkenau Krematorien, but was destined for one of the disinfestation gas chambers of the main camp, probably the one in Block 1.    

The text of this order was used by R Faurisson in his little workRéponse a Pierre Vidal-Naquet [page 80, Second (enlarged) Edition, La Vieille Taupe. 1982] in his argument aimed at demonstrating that the “Gas[s]kammer” of Krematorium IV were nothing but ordinary “disinfection (sic) gas chambers”.

This document is not part of the incriminating evidence, but is presented simply to show the care that must be taken in using the original documents.
       
  CONCLUSION     
   
  Summarizing. a study of the files concerning the construction of the four Birkenau Krematorien reveals 39 (THIRTY NINE) “slips” or “criminal traces” of different sorts, the majority of which constitute material proof of the intention to make certain rooms IN THE FOUR KREMATORIEN “Gasdichte” or gas-tight. The incompatibility between a gas-tight door and 14 shower heads indirectly proves the use of one of these rooms as a HOMICIDAL GAS CHAMBER. There can no longer be any contestation or denial of the existence of homicidal gas chambers at Birkenau in view of such an accumulation of written indiscretions on a subject that was supposed to remain secret but became an open secret throughout all of what was then Upper Silesia.  
 
AUSCHWITZ:
Technique and operation
of the gas chambers

Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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