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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
by Jean-Claude Pressac
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Following an interpellation: Hirt
came to visit the Struthof camp perhaps twice and Hagen once.
Professor
Bickenbach came to Struthof on several occasions to confer with Krieger or
Blancke, the camp doctors. I do not know whether he con-ducted any experiments,
but he did tell me one day that he had been ordered to conduct experiments on
prisoners, without specifying their nature, and that in any event he was sworn
to secrecy by SS Headquarters.
One day, on the occasion of a general
inspection of the camp, I discovered ten prisoners in an infirmary with
bandages on their arms. I was told that these prisoners had been subjected to
experiments by Bickenbach. When I asked what these experiments involved, he
refused to give me any explanations. [J. Kramer is mixed up. Liquid mustard
gas was applied to prisoners’ arms by Professor Hirt and Doctor Wimmer of
the Luftwaffe. Bickenbach did not participate in this project.]
Ido
not know how many deaths occurred in the camp while I was there. I admit that
the food was inadequate and the climate very severe, and that, moreover, the
labour imposed on the prisoners was very hard.
Following an
interpellation: To my knowledge, the professors of Strasbourg did not go to
the gas chamber. I do not think that any experiments involving gas were
conducted by doctors in the gas chamber. I never had any knowledge of phials
containing gas being thrown into the chamber for the purpose of experimentation
with prisoners. [J. Kramer is misinformed. Fifteen groups consisting of 2 or
4 prisoners, divided into protected subjects and controls, were subjected to
phosgene effects in the gas chamber. Each group were in with a phial of
phosgene, containing a known quantity of gas that was different for each
experiment, which had to be crushed by foot against the ground, on a signal by
Professor Bickenbach from the outside.]
Question: Just a
while ago, you told me about the conditions under which you executed prisoners
by means of asphyxiating gases. If the prisoners had not been killed as a
result of your introducing [releasing] gases in the chamber, would you
have finished them off with a bullet? [A senseless question. The prisoners
were deliberately killed by gas in order not to damage their skeletons by the
impact of bullets.]
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THE STRUTHOF
ALBUM STUDY OF THE
GASSING AT NATZWEILER-STRUTHOF
By Jean-Claude Pressac
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Page 33 |
Forward |
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