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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
by Jean-Claude Pressac
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Page 29 |
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Deposition by ex-prisoner Georg
WEYDERT of Luxemburg regarding the installation, in the unused cold storage
chamber at Struthof, of a device that could be used to make liquid flow from
the exterior to the interior:
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“while I was with the sanitary installations
commando at camp Natzweiler, sometime between the spring and summer of 1943, I
had to go to the gas chamber [The witness might seem to be anticipating the
function of the room. It did not become a homicidal gas chamber until
after the work he did there. But it is probable that it no longer served as a
cold storage chamber at the time, and that the SS had already adapted it for
training recruits in the wearing of gas masks.] on orders from the building
directorate, to do some work there with the help of a prisoner of German
nationality. Schondelmaier [an SS-man] was already there, and he told me
to make a funnel out of sheet-metal, which was then attached to the outer wall
of the gas chamber, on the corridor side, right next to a peep-hole for looking
into the chamber. The small end of the funnel led into a pipe which passed into
the chamber and stopped over a hole made in the concrete floor. A porcelain
receptacle with a capacity of one or two litres was placed in this hole.
A tap was fitted into the piece of pipe immediately below the funnel.
The purpose of this device was to pour a liquid – I have no idea what
liquid – into the funnel with the tap turned shut, and then, at a chosen
moment, to cause this liquid to flow towards the gas chamber and into the
porcelain receptacle, where another liquid would have been placed in advance.
[ln fact, J. Kramer placed crystals in the porcelain receptacle.] The
chemical reaction between the two liquids was to result in the release of toxic
gas, designed to asphyxiate prisoners enclosed in the chamber. [The witness
is extrapolating. How could he have known that the system would be used to gas
prisoners? If he had such knowledge through an indiscretion, he should have
said so and his deposition would thereby have taken on even more weight.]
My work was barely finished when Nitsche came along, in the company of
a Wehrmacht doctor whose name I never knew.
After Nitsche had checked
the work, he ordered me to install a grating, fastening it with care over the
porcelain receptacle, so the prisoners enclosed in the chamber would not be
able to move the receptacle.” [The above remark applies again. Note
that the receptacle had no drain and was immobilized by the grating, so any
liquid it contained could not be poured out. This absurdity made cleaning a
problem, and exemplifies the improvised nature of an installation that was to
be used for only a short time.]
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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
By Jean-Claude Pressac
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Back |
Page 29 |
Forward |
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