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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
by Jean-Claude Pressac
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Page 7 |
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But what substance would react with
water ? In “Les chambres à gaz, Secret d’Etat” ("The Gas
Chambers: State Secret", Collection Arguments, Les Editions de Minuit,
September 1984), Professor Wellers provides two equally valid answers. Either
the flask provided by Hirt, with a capacity of about 250 ml, contained an inert
combination of sodium or potassium cyanide thoroughly mixed with a crystalline
acid, such as citric, oxalic or tartaric acid, these being two agents that
react with one another only in an aqueous medium. Or the flask contained
calcium cyanide, which has the peculiarity of decomposing in water with
hydrocyanic acid release. It would be possible to determine exactly what
substance was used by complicated calculations, based on the volume of the gas
chamber (approximately 20 m³), the quantity used (1 /3 or 1/4 of 250 ml),
and the expected HCN release, as a function of the amount of water added,
needed to bring the room's atmosphere rapidly up to a lethal concentration for
man. But, this is not the key issue. Professor Wellers has amply demonstrated
in a few lines that Kramer’s modus operandi was not incompatible with the
rules of common chemistry.
Josef Kramer stated that he had gassed 80-85
individuals on 4 or 5 occasions. He had to separate them into groups of about
fifteen, as the gas chamber could not hold more at one time. Whatever the
number of victims per “batch”, the gassings took place on 3 different
dates in the evening *.
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* Jean Lentbergor, a Struthof
prisoner at the end of August 1943, and one of 3 Jews still alive there when 87
people arrived from Auschwitz. saw only the group of men. They came to the camp
in several convoys and were housed in hut number 10. Lemberger noticed them for
the first time in front of the “Wachtstube” (guard station) at the
camp’s entrance. Dressed in patched “zebra” clothing with a
yellow star, and being of very pale complexion, they contrasted with the
camp’s prisoners, who wore civilian clothing, haphazardly painted yellow
in the case of Jews. They received exactly the same food as the other
internees. Realizing that they did not work, Lemberger wanted to have himself
added to their group. His kapo dissuaded hen by giving him to understand that
his request was sheer foly. Then, bit by bit, the “zebra” group
melted away. Until one morning there were none left Later on, it was
Lemberger’s turn to undertake the opposite journey from Struthof to
Auschwitz. Based on a telephone conversation on 14 March 1985 between the
witness and the author
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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
By Jean-Claude Pressac
|
Back |
Page 7 |
Forward |
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