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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
by Jean-Claude Pressac
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Page 5 |
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INTRODUCTION
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The reproduction of substantial extracts from the
photographic album “CAMP DE CONCENTRATION DU STRUTHOF”,
published by the office of Major Jadin, investigative judge with the Military
Tribunal at Strasbourg, is due to the initiative of Serge Klarsfeld.
This legal document, drawn up on the spot and almost as the events
unfolded, is an authentic report. It visually documents the absurd and tragic
outcome of “racial” correspondence exchanged among SS doctors and
professors on the subject of constituting a collection of about one hundred
skeletons, with selection criteria that remain incomprehensible to this very
day (1).
It is traditional to await the demise, whether natural,
accidental or by illness, of an individual before being able to dispose of his
skeleton. But the SS doctors were in a hurry, and they had no problem in
finding a way of improving on this painstaking method. They achieved immediate
results by shortening the individual’s life-span. The technique they
settled upon had the additional advantage of not damaging the body.They decided
on gassing.
Of the 115 individuals “selected” at Auschwitz
for their special bone structure, only 87 Jews, 30 women and 57 men, actually
made it to the K.L. Natzweiler for their “treatment”.
The
executor of this task was the camp commandant, SS Captain Josef Kramer. The way
in which he gassed a number of people, as confessed by him on the 26 July 1945
to Major Jadin cannot be considered credible. He would have ended up gassing
himself.
He asphyxiated his victims by causing the release of gaseous
prussic acid. According to his first testimony of the 26.07.45, he proceeded by
mixing a “salt” with water, which is a chemically impossible reaction
because the formula “Acid + Base yields Salt + Water” is not
reversible.
Because of the absurdity of this modus operandi and his
ignorance about the substances involved, some quite legitimate historical
suspicion has weighed on the procedure and on the very existence of the gas
chamber at Struthof.
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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
By Jean-Claude Pressac
|
Back |
Page 5 |
Forward |
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