|
|
 |
THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
by Jean-Claude Pressac
|
|
| |
 |
Back |
Page 32 |
 |
Home
Page |
Forward |
 |
| |
Following an interpellation: I do
not know the nationality of the prisoners I asphyxiated. I think they came from
South-East Europe, but I cannot specify the country.
(We show the
witness the album of photographs containing views of the gas chamber.)
The witness: I recognize on these photographs the Struthof gas
chamber that was built [in fact, adapted] towards the middle of 1943,
for the purpose of asphyxiating the prisoners to be handed over to Professor
Hirt.
Following an interpellation: The gas chamber was
transformed by prisoners on my orders. It had been built some time earlier as a
cold store. [This answer has been consistently omitted from subsequent
historical studies of Struthof.]
Following an
interpellation: To my knowledge, apart from the 80 prisoners brought from
Auschwitz and asphyxiated in this chamber, no-one else was killed under the
same conditions.
Following an interpellation: To my knowledge,
no phial of asphyxiating gas was ever thrown into the gas chamber for the
purpose of asphyxiating prisoners.
I do not know what purpose was
served by the iron pipe fitted into the gas chamber’s entrance door.
[See details A and B on the two photographs of the entrance door indicating
the “gas admission pipe”. This conduit was not used to lead gas in,
but rather for sampling. Installed after the criminal gassings, this pipe
served, during the 15 experiments conducted by Professors Bickenbach and Hirt
on prisoner subjects, some protected by urotropine and some not, to measure the
phosgene concentration remaining in the gas chamber, in order to determine the
Cmt, or concentration absorbed in milligrams multiplied by the inhalation
duration in minutes per m³. A flexible tube connected the pipe to a
complicated apparatus which measured the phosgene concentration by
potentiometry.]
Following an interpellation: I admit that a
large percentage of French prisoners died in the camp. In my opinion, they were
intellectuals who could not withstand the hard labour imposed on them in the
camp.
Following an interpellation: It is true that prisoners
were shot in the sand-pit, located above the entrance to the camp, by SS-men
under my command.
|
|
| |
| |
| |
THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
By Jean-Claude Pressac
|
Back |
Page 32 |
Forward |
|
|
