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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and Operation
of
the Gas Chambers © | |
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Page 459 |
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PART THREE
CHAPTER I
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Critical study of the
“WAR REFUGEE BOARD”
report of November 1944 on K L
Auschwitz-Birkenau |
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THE “WAR REFUGEE BOARD”
REPORT OF NOVEMBER 1944 |
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(A collective report based on the
testimonies of Alfred WETZLER and
Walter ROSENBERG [Rudolf
Vrba], Czeslaw MORDOWICZ
and Arwost ROSIN, and a Polish
major.) |
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Large extracts of this report were published in the
“New York Times” on 26th November 1944, the day when
Himmler, it is thought, ordered the dismantling of the three
remaining Birkenau Krematorien. The concordance of dates, though
perhaps due to chance, amply justifies the action of these five
witnesses whose accounts formed the basis for the
report.
My aim is to demonstrate the authenticity of
the Rosenberg / Wetzler testimonies regarding Krematorien of type
II/III, even though their accuracy is not great in the light of what
we know now, because this report was the first on the subject and
was regarded as authoritative for many years, despite errors on
certain points. I have used three sources for the descriptions of
the Krematorien and how they operated: |
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| Version 1: |
“L’extermination des Juifs
en Pologne: Depositions de témoins oculaires. Trotsième série: LES
CAMPS D'EXTERMINATION” published in Geneva in 1944 by Dr A
Silverschein; |
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| Version 2: |
“Souvenirs de la maison
des morts”, Le massacre des Juifs. Unpublished documents on
the extermination camps. Brochure of 76 pages with no publication
date, doubtless of Swiss origin; |
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| Version 3: |
“GERMAN EXTERMINATION
CAMPS. AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU”, Published by the Executive
Office of the President. WAR REFUGEE BOARD, Washington DC, November
1944. |
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Of the three versions of the report, I consider the
American one to be the best. I have underlined in red the phrases
that I consider important and on which I shall comment in detail. In
the second underlined phrase in versions 1 and 2. there is an error
in 1, while in 2 the translator has added something, inspired by the
sketch plan. Unlike versions 2 and 3, version 1 does not contain a
ground plan of a Krematorium of type II/III. I do not know
who drew this plan, which fits the text and is referred to by it,
but in the light of our present knowledge we must say it is
inaccurate.
I mention simply for memory a
translation that does not take account of the context of the
premises, published by G Wellers in his “Les chambres à gaz
ont existé”, taken from “Auschwitz et
Birkenau”, 1945, pages 17 and 18. Here, between the gas
chamber and the furnaces there is a “path” where “lorries” transport
the corpses. There is no mention of [rail] tracks or [narrow-gauge
railway] trucks, the translator having opted for an inappropriate
interpretation of both “track” and “truck”.
In order to
properly situate the report with respect to the reality of the
premises, it should be read in conjunction with Document 4 ("schéma
1"), a simplified plan of Krematorien of type II/III, based on
German sources reproduced below, i.e.: Bauleitung drawing 2216
[Documents 5, 6. 7 and 7a], a general plan of KGL Birkenau, drawn by
prisoner 538, checked by Dejaco and Janisch on 20/3/43,
countersigned by an unidentified person [PMO neg. no, 20583] and
three photographs: PMO neg. nos 286, 287 and 290. [Documents 11, 12
and 13]. In this arrangement, however, the rails do not go from the
gas chamber to the furnaces, but PASS IN FRONT. I shall explain
this. |
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| COMMENTS AND
EXPLANATIONS |
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The report describes the Krematorium as being made up
of three parts. A, B and C. The furnace room (A) and the undressing
room (B) are on the ground floor and the gas chamber (C) is at
basement level [Document 4], The proposed layout, while
recalling that of Krematorien IV and V, applies to Krematorien of
type II/III, as stated. Lastly, the underground location of the gas
chamber (C) and a preparation room (B') is characteristic of
Krematorien II and III [Document 8 (“schéma 2”) ].
The
number of furnaces cited per Krematorium is wrong. Those of type
II/III had only 15 cremation muffles, not the 36 announced. This
error is understandable if we assume that the witnesses had
themselves never entered a Krematorium and all their observations
were from the exterior or based on the accounts of other prisoners,
in particular, though we cannot prove it, Sonderkommando members
working in December 1942 at Bunkers 1 and 2 who would have been able
to watch the building of what they believed would be their future
place of work. Document 9 enables us to understand the
assumed disposition of the furnaces around the chimney, and with
this arrangement the number of furnaces would be a multiple of
three.
In the report the throughput of the four
Krematorien per 24 hours is fairly reasonably estimated at 6000,
though this is one third higher than the 4416 units a day reported
in a letter of 28th June 1943 from the Bauleitung to the SS Economic
and Administrative Head Office in Berlin. Even this I consider to be
a purely administrative document, calculated on the basis of the
original estimated throughput of the furnaces, the true daily rate
for the four cremation installations being no more than 3000. If we
take the rate of incineration given by the witnesses — three corpses
per muffle in one and a half hours — and apply this to the true
number of furnaces, the daily figure for the four Krematorien is
about 2200.
In light of the drawings of type II/IIII
Krematorien now known, it might be thought that there was no
undressing room at ground level, but drawing 2216 of 20/3/43
[Documents 5 and 6], a plan of the entire POW camp, confirms
the reality. As at this date, only Krematorium II AND its gas
chamber were completed. Its future underground undressing room is
shown only as “planned”. It had in fact already been built, but was
not yet operational. Krematorium III was under construction. Its
undressing room and gas chamber were also shown as “planned”. which
is not quite true — they were almost complete, but not yet usable. A
“Pferdestallbaracke OKH Typ 260/9”, a , “stable-type” hut, was
erected as a provisional undressing room in the north yard of
Krematorium II. Two reasons may be advanced for this. First, the SS
intended to use both Leichenkeller (basement morgues) of Krematorium
II as gas chambers, operating them alternately, which would have
been possible after making only minor modifications to Leichenkeller
2 (the undressing room) as it was already ventilated. Second — and
this is more likely — a temporary undressing room was required
because the access stairway to the basement undressing room was not
yet built and work was still going on in this room, making it
unavailable for “special treatment” operations.
It is
difficult to accept at face value the descriptions of the interiors
of the undressing rooms and gas chambers, for the installations
varied over time. Those of summer 1944 are well-known, for they have
been described or sketched many times by former members of the
Sonderkommando. On the other hand, those of the early days have
virtually not been described at all. The witnesses may have
described the strict truth — which already fluctuated according to
the version — but I doubt this, since they never entered Krematorium
II themselves, or they lied, which is also most unlikely in view of
the exact details given elsewhere, or — and this is far more
probable — they invented a little to fill in the gaps in a story
whose ending they knew only too
well. | |
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AUSCHWITZ:
Technique
and operation
of the gas chambers
Jean-Claude Pressac
© 1989, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
| Note: Page 458 is
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