We are all familiar with the name Auschwitz. Most people could identify Auschwitz as a 'death camp' for the Jews. Many people might be capable of recalling that it was located in Poland. Many would be uncertain of details, but would be at least familiar with the name. In any case, it is a part of modern culture.

The above article by Dan McSweeney was published on May 1, 1997, in the Australian newspaper Killoy Sentinel (New South Wales). David Cole's eye-opening video, described in the article, can still be purchased today.[88] The leisure facilities described in the article above are in no way as unknown to the usual literature as represented here. Rather, the literature of concentration camp experiences and the secondary literature dealing with the same subject is saturated with similar references to stays in hospital, expensive health care treatments of seriously ill 'unfit' persons, dental clinics, kindergartens, concerts, sports events (Birkenau had its own soccer field), access to the city of Auschwitz, etc.). These descriptions are, of course, not the dominant theme. They are mentioned in passing, alongside the well-known horror stories and atrocities. It is only when one deliberately looks for such things and compiles them that one becomes aware of what a paradoxical image these contemporary witnesses of Auschwitz actually portray-and not just of Auschwitz, by any means. That should be sufficient 'food for thought' for any of us. A consistent analysis of the eyewitness accounts which have, in the meantime, multiplied to sheer infinity, from this point of view, remains to be compiled. Who dares to perform this thankless task?

Although the name of Auschwitz, a town in Polish Upper Silesia, is utilized as a synonym for the alleged National Socialist crime of an assembly-line extermination of Jews-frequently described as 'unique'-thus far, worldwide, there has never been any balanced description of this concentration camp. Generally, only three books, from the thousands on the subject, are worth selecting for discussion here.

Danuta Czech's Kalendarium, a work of post-war Polish-Communist propaganda, resembles a sort of catalogue of chronological listing of actual and invented individual events, without any attempt to draw up a theoretically definitive and critical view of the existing material on the history of the camp.[89]

Jean-Claude Pressac's works concentrate almost exclusively on only five buildings in the camp, the crematoria,[67],[90] but due to his lack of technical and architectural expertise, nevertheless fails miserably in his self-appointed task of explaining the technique and manner of functioning of these buildings.[91]

Robert van Pelt and Deborah Dwork, in their history of the city of Auschwitz, deal only superficially with the subject of the concentration camp,[92] and van Pelt's more recent book is perhaps a bit too narrowly focused on homicidal gassings and does not really go beyond what Pressac already presented.[69]

Books available on bookstore shelves are-for the most part-a compendium of eyewitness reports, scattered amongst serious attempts at documentation and literary pretensions.[93]

Only in the very early 1990s, i.e., since the collapse of the Communist regime in Eastern Europe, did the files of those agencies of the Third Reich become available to us which allow a reliable history of Auschwitz camp to be written. The files of the Zentralbauleitung der Waffen SS und Polizei Auschwitz (Central Construction Office of the Waffen SS and Police at Auschwitz),[94] which are located in Moscow, the files of the Kriegsarchiv der Waffen SS (War Archive of the Waffen SS) in the Military-Historical Archives in Prague, and the files of Auschwitz concentration camp, which are located at the Auschwitz Museum, are especially important in this regard. Since there are more than one hundred thousand documents in these archives, it will be necessary to wait for several years for the appearance of a seriously documented work on the topic. It must be considered certain that such research, which is only just beginning, will lead to a further massive revision of our image of Auschwitz concentration camp.

In the absence of better documentation, in the following-as far as the brief survey of the history of Auschwitz is concerned-I will rely upon the statements of Jean-Claude Pressac,[67],[90] where his statements are undisputed, since Pressac is continued to be praised as the expert regarding the technique of Auschwitz.[95]

The installations of the Auschwitz I camp, also known as the Stammlager (main camp) and located on the outskirts of the city of Auschwitz, originally formed part of the barracks of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy (later Poland), and were transformed into a concentration camp after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Camp II, located in the vicinity of the city of Birkenau (known as Auschwitz-Birkenau), was rebuilt after the start of the Russian campaign, officially as a Waffen SS prisoner of war camp for the reception of Russian POWs. Both camps belonged to the same complex, with over 30 additional smaller camps in Upper Silesia, intended to supply manpower, etc., for the chemical works recently built by the Germans on a large scale at Auschwitz, in particular the BUNA works of the German industrial giant I.G. Farbenindustrie AG for coal refining (liquefaction and gasification plants for artificial rubber and fuel production), located close to the settlement Monowitz east of Auschwitz, see Fig. 10. Birkenau camp was used, among other things, for the reception of unfit prisoners. The intended camp capacity of 200,000 to 300,000 inmates, according to the final planning situation, was unique among the concentration camps of the Third Reich. This capacity was however never even approximately achieved.

The cramming together of large number of people in the most restricted areas of the camp, the sanitary infrastructure of which was just being developed, caused serious health problems in all camps of the Third Reich. Both inmates and hundreds of civilians working in the camps could introduce all sorts of parasitic insects into the camp, in particular lice and fleas. Lice are the chief carriers of epidemic typhus which was a widespread disease in Eastern Europe. Therefore, the camps were equipped with hygienic installations, including extensive disinfestation installations, in which the clothing and personal effects of newly arriving inmates were disinfested, for instance with the insecticide Zyklon B (a porous carrier material soaked with liquid hydrogen cyanide), a product frequently used for this purpose. The inmates themselves were given a haircut[96] and were made to shower thoroughly. Since the camp was at times insufficiently equipped with disinfestation installations and materials, also aided by the carelessness during disinfestation on the part of civilians working in the camp, typhus epidemics broke out repeatedly killing large numbers of inmates as well as guards.

Due to the high mortality rate, these camps were equipped with cremation facilities. After a devastating typhus epidemic during the summer of 1942, during which more than 300 people died per day in peak times, plans were made to build four cremation facilities at Birkenau in the hope of being able to cope with the amount of corpses. Of these four crematoria, however, two were severely damaged shortly after they were put into operation. Since it turned out that the capacity of the four Birkenau crematoria was much higher than needed, the two damaged crematoria were not repaired but were allowed to remain idle. The main camp in Auschwitz possessed only one crematorium installation which was put out of operation with the opening of the installations at Birkenau.

Historians today usually assume that the above mentioned cremation installations were not only used for the purpose initially planned, i.e., the incineration of inmates having died of natural causes, but were later misused for the mass extermination of the Jews, among others. According to these historians, the term "arbeitsunfähig" (unfit for labor), used in relation to prisoners, was equivalent in meaning to 'undeserving of life'. This implies that any arriving inmates who were unable to work were killed immediately. For this purpose, human beings are said to have been killed ('gassed'), after a few structural modifications, in a few rooms in the particular cremation installations, using Zyklon B-actually intended for vermin control. Allegedly, the victims were then burnt, some of them in the cremation ovens and some in open ditches.

According to eyewitness accounts, a homicidal gas chamber is supposed to have existed in the crematorium of Auschwitz I; this location still exists today, intact, but has been the object of serious manipulation, as we shall see. Additional homicidal gas chambers are said to have existed in the Birkenau camp, Auschwitz II, located approximately three kilometers away. These gas chambers were allegedly located in the four crematoria of that camp, as well as in two farmhouses outside the actual camp itself, modified for homicidal gassing purposes.

Of the installations used for disinfestation in the Birkenau camp using Zyklon B, only buildings 5a and b (BW 5a/b) in construction sections 1a/b (Bauabschnitt 1a/b) remain intact. In these buildings, one wing each is said to have been temporarily used for the disinfestation of personal effects with hydrogen cyanide. The following is an architectural and structural description of the individual structures of the Auschwitz main camp and Birkenau, Figs. 11 and 12.

Before the era of modern warfare, it has always been taken for granted that during a war epidemic disease caused more deaths among the soldiers and civilians than the use of weapons. It took the atomic bomb, deployed in a ruthless and criminal manner by the United States against unarmed people and in contravention of international law, to change this assumption.

The epidemic most feared in World War I at the eastern front was typhus.[98] Typhus epidemics claimed uncounted thousands of lives among German soldiers at the Russian front and could be prevented from spreading into German territory after the end of the war only by the most rigorous of measures. Since that time, the danger of epidemics has been taken seriously by medical and military offices and personnel.[99]

For example, the German encyclopedia Der große Brockhaus, vol. VI of the 1930 Leipzig edition, contains a comprehensive article on epidemic typhus. This acute infectious disease is spread only by the body louse:[100]

The experiences of German physicians during WWII were no different.[101],[102] The topic of epidemics can be found in countless publications. Practical experiments were also conducted which increased the knowledge about fighting the causes of this disease.

Professor Dr. F. Konrich was completely justified in stating, in his publication "About sanitation facilities of German POW camps"[103] that epidemics such as those in question "[...] had long been extinct here [in Germany]." However, it also becomes quite understandable why all of the offices and institutions involved over-reacted when epidemic typhus broke out in the Auschwitz concentration camp in early July 1942.[104] The outbreak was traced to the civilian laborers brought in to work in the camp, rather than to inmates deported to Auschwitz. Also, due to drastic measures taken to isolate and eradicate this epidemic, its spreading to the camp's nearby civilian population could be prevented.

One of the most efficient methods to fight lice and thereby to contain and eliminate typhus-but also to kill other vermin like grain beetles, bugs, cockroaches, termites, mice, rats and many more-is their poisoning with highly volatile hydrogen cyanide.

Liquid hydrogen cyanide has a short shelf life and is extremely dangerous with incorrect handling. At the end of the First World War, hydrogen cyanide was introduced onto the market in an easier to handle and safer form: porous materials soaked with hydrogen cyanide with the addition of a stabilizer and an irritant warning material, intended to warn people of low concentrations of hydrogen cyanide, which in lower concentrations has only a slight odor and that many people cannot even smell at all. This product, called Zyklon B, was then packed in tin cans, which can only be opened with a special tool. The number of patents filed for the additives to Zyklon B shows that there was no simple, clear solution to the problems relating to the stabilizers and irritant warning materials.[105] Legally, there was a great difference between the stabilizer for Zyklon B and the irritant warning material. A stabilizer for Zyklon B was required by German law,[106] while an irritant warning material, by contrast, was not legally required.[107]

Zyklon B was licensed and produced by the DEGESCH[108] corporation residing in Frankfurt.[109] Until the end of the Second World War, it played an extraordinarily important role in the struggle against insect pests and rodents[110],[111] in food warehouses, large-scale means of transport like trains, ships, both in Europe and in America.[112] For example, Dr. G. Peters reports in his work Blausäure zur Schädlingsbekämpfung (Hydrogen Cyanide for Pest Control)[113] about the fumigation of ships with hydrogen cyanide, which happened in the United States as early as 1910, and about tunnel facilities, in which entire railway trains could be driven into in order to be disinfested (see Fig. 13). The use of Zyklon B in public buildings, barracks, prisoner of war camps, concentration camps was also featured in the literature of that time.[114],[115],[116],[117] Of course, there were several other gaseous pest control agents in addition to Zyklon B.[118],[119] Zyklon B continued to play an important role even after the war, until it was largely replaced by DDT and its successors.[120],[121]

A large number of publications are available from both the wartime and pre-war periods, to which reference is made.[113],[114],[117],[122],[123],[124],[125],[126] There are also guidelines on the fumigation of property and rooms, describing the procedures in detail, both before and afterwards.[127],[128] These do not considerably differ from the regulations in application today.[129] Based upon this, the following is a brief discussion of the technology and method of procedure employed.

Initially, for the disinfestation of personal effects, ordinary rooms (10 to 30 m² surface area) were temporarily modified, by making the windows and doors as gas-tight as possible by means of felt sealant material and paper strips, while providing for proper heating and ventilation of the rooms. Workers wearing gas masks spread Zyklon B evenly on the floor of the room containing the property to be disinfested. This procedure was similar to what was then the regular fumigation of ordinary rooms for the destruction of vermin. Such converted rooms may be seen even today in the main camp of Auschwitz I. The use of temporarily sealed rooms for fumigation purposes is not without risk since the sealing is never perfect.

Later, special gas-tight installations without windows were built, equipped with efficient heating and ventilation systems, and later also with circulating air systems for a more rapid circulation of the gas inside the room (so-called "DEGESCH-Kreislaufverfahren," DEGESCH circulation procedure, see Fig. 14). Cans of Zyklon B were opened by means of an exterior mechanism, so that the workers were no longer exposed to danger. The bottom of the can was automatically punctured and the preparation fell into a basket, into which a fan blew hot-air, thus quickly evaporating the hydrogen cyanide and carrying the fumes away. These installations, with the so-called circulation procedure, were relatively small in size, a few m³, to economize on the highly-expensive vermin destruction product.

These professional installations were often part of an entire hygienic complex. As a rule, this building complex was organized approximately as follows in terms of purpose (see Fig. 15):[103]

• Undressing room, 'dirty side'. People to be deloused removed their soiled clothing and handed them over for disinfestation/disinfection.
• Shower. Prisoners washed themselves after undressing, plus sometimes other procedures, such as haircuts, medical examinations, including a sauna.
• Dressing room, 'clean side'. Their own cleaned and sanitized clothing was given back to the prisoners or substitute clothing was issued to them since the cleaning may have lasted many hours.
• Disinfestation/Disinfection room. An area to clean and process the clothing combined with a laundry.

Fig. 15: Schematic organization of a hygiene complex à Clothing pathway; è Inmate pathway

It was not uncommon for a crematorium to be installed in the same building complex, as may still be seen at Dachau concentration camp today (near Munich), in which the new hygienic installation possesses a series of DEGESCH circulating air installations for the disinfestation of clothing, with an undressing and redressing room to the right and left of the inmate showers, as well as a crematorium. (The room described as a "gas chamber" at Dachau today is actually the inmate shower, which is indispensable in the above schema, and which has been intentionally mislabeled by the Museum.)

The applicable concentrations during the disinfestation of clothing might be very different according to the type of vermin and exterior conditions, and usually ranged from 5 to 30 g of hydrogen cyanide per m³ of air. The application time varied just as greatly, from under two hours up to ten hours and more. In the more modern installations with heating (higher than 25°C) and circulating air/ventilation installations, good results could be attained with concentrations of 20 g per m³, already after 1 to 2 hours. Disinfestation in ordinary rooms, on the other hand, could last up to 24 hours or more.

5.2.3.1. Terminology Used and Responsibilities

We shall use the technical terms established in the 1939 German Army Regulations (Heeresdienstvorschrift 194),[127] since these determined how the personnel, i.e., the physicians and those who disinfected the camps, were to proceed:

The regulation quoted lists all known physical and chemical means of disinfection and disinfestation. Similarly, a "work guideline" was released in 1943 by the Sanitation Institute of the Waffen-SS: "Entkeimung, Entseuchung und Entwesung"[114] (Sterilization, Disinfection and Disinfestation).

The authority in charge of sanitation in the Waffen-SS as well as in the concentration camps was the "Hygieneinstitut der Waffen-SS"[132] (Sanitation Institute of the Waffen-SS), established in 1942 in Berlin, which set up a branch office in 1943 in Rajsko near Auschwitz, with its "Hygienisch-bakteriologischen Untersuchungsstelle Südost d. W-SS" (Sanitary and Bacteriological Testing Station Southeast of Waffen-SS). The files from this testing station have survived (151 volumes dating from 1943 to 1945).[133]

The garrison physician (army medical officer) and the medical personnel were in charge of implementing all sanitary measures. This physician-and this was the case at Auschwitz as well-was to be consulted as subject expert in all relevant matters of construction planning and other things. Where hydrogen cyanide was to be used, requirements called for specially trained expert personnel. In Auschwitz, this role was filled by the "disinfectors".

Generally, four procedures were used at Auschwitz for disinfestation and disinfection:

• hot air
• hot steam
• hydrogen cyanide
• microwaves

Data on the disinfestation and disinfection installations in operation in Auschwitz camp may be taken from a listing dated January 9, 1943: "Hygienische Einrichtungen im KL und KGL Auschwitz"[134] (Sanitary Facilities in the POW and Concentration Camp Auschwitz) directed to the Amtsgruppenchef C (Berlin), and an "Aufstellung über die im KL. und KGL. Auschwitz eingebauten Entwesungsanlagen Bäder und Desinfektionsapparate"[135] (List of Disinfestation Facilities, Baths and Disinfection Systems Installed in the POW and Concentration Camp Auschwitz), dated July 30, 1943.

The following capacities, taken from the last-mentioned document, relate to a 24-hour a day operation period.

1. In the concentration camp (protective custody camp):

   Block 1: One hot air disinfestation installation, manufactured by the Klein corporation for 1,800 people and approximately 3,600 blankets since the fall of 1940.

   Block 3: One hydrogen cyanide gas disinfestation installation (i.e., Zyklon B), for 1,400 people and approximately 20,000 pieces of laundry.[136]

   Block 26: One hot air installation for 2,000 people.

   Disinfestation building at Deutsche Ausrüstungs-Werke (German Equipment Works, i.e., Canada I): 1 hydrogen cyanide gas disinfestation installation (BW 28) for approximately 30,000 pieces of laundry, blankets, etc. (in operation since the summer of 1942).

   Civilian worker disinfestation barracks: One hot air disinfestation installation, manufactured by the Hochheim corporation, with a daily capacity for 2,000 people, with large shower bath installation and disinfection apparatus, permanently installed.

2. In the POW camp (K.G.L., Birkenau):

   BW 5a in B Ia: One disinfestation apparatus (manufactured by Werner) and one hot air apparatus (manufactured by Hochheim) in operation since November 1942 for 2, 000 people.

   One chamber for hydrogen cyanide fumigation has been built for 8,000 blankets and has been in operation since the fall of 1942.

   BW 5b in B Ib: Installation as in BW 5a.

All the facilities listed therein were subject to modifications. The number of sanitary facilities increased with the number of inmates, as the two aforementioned documents already show. Pressac mentions 25 chambers operated with Zyklon B, without providing a verifiable source.[137]

The results could only be compiled if one knew the number of persons disinfested by means of the installation. These numbers have thus far remained unclear. Although Danuta Czech claims in her book[89] that such documents on large time periods are available in the Auschwitz archive, we have so far been unable to examine them. As of the present writing, it is still impossible to make a reliable statement as to whether or not the existing disinfestation installations were consistently reliable for the indicated number of persons. Pressac, in the conclusions to his second book,[138] indicates the peak of the first epidemic between "7./11. September" 1942 with "375 deaths per day", which clearly indicates that the capacity of the facilities available did not suffice.

Two policy decisions made by the SS-Hauptamt Haushalt und Bauten (SS Main Office Budget and Construction) in the Reich Administration of the SS and its successor no doubt also influenced the measures taken in the camp. The first decision of June 5, 1940,[139] stated that HCN would no longer be used, and replaced instead with a hot-air method. The reason for this was probably that the use of HCN in makeshift delousing chambers was not reliable and had caused many accidents and was thus deemed too dangerous. The second decision, issued on March 11, 1942,[140] 21 months later, seems to have reversed that first decision by calling for the "[...] conversion of all delousing facilities to operation with HCN", in which regard it was noted:

A further letter from the Office C VI of February 11, 1943,[141] to the Commandant again expressly states, probably with reference to the letter of June 5, 1940: "[...] as per the prohibition against the use of HCN for disinfestation [...]". This means that all efforts were to be made to convert all facilities to be operated with the only really reliable method available-HCN-but that the use of HCN was allowed only where and if the necessary safety and reliability of the method was assured, i.e., makeshift delousing chambers were not allowed to be operated with HCN.

Men in positions of authority, accustomed to decision-making, and faced with a dangerous epidemic capable of spreading to the civilian population with incalculable consequences, will always take suitable measures and act accordingly. Hydrogen cyanide (= Zyklon B) was the most reliable disinfestation agent of its time (for details, please see "Blausäure als Entlausungsmittel in Begasungskammern",[142] or "Entlausung mit Zyklon-Blausäure in Kreislauf-Begasungskammern".[143] The only problem was in finding a safe location for such facilities, perhaps outside the actual camp (see chapter 5.4.3.).

On September 9, 1942, Dr. E. Wirths was stationed in Auschwitz as garrison physician. From the records we may say that he performed his duties correctly; in this context, reference is made, in particular, to his massive criticism of the highest echelons.

As time went by, the number of inmates increased steadily, and unfortunately there were more than just one epidemic. We shall therefore briefly summarize, by means of examples, the conclusions reached by this physician and the steps he took in consequence.

On December 4, 1942, Dr. Wirths reported to headquarters about a discussion held in the administrative council of Bielitz District. The subject was epidemic typhus. A considerable number and range of persons had participated in the discussion, including the medical officer, the Wehrmacht, and representatives of the government. This illustrates how seriously the epidemic was taken to be:[144]

Buildings BW5a and 5b were intended for the inmates. The capacity of these disinfestation facilities was probably adequate for the number of inmates at this time. One must consider, however, that at this same time the structural shell for another 19 DEGESCH circulation fumigation chambers was being completed in Building BW160 of the Main Camp (Admissions building). Another paragraph of the above letter states that the garrison physician of Kattowitz had provided the loan of two mobile boiler installations.

On April 18, 1943, Wirths reports to the Commandant, with warning reference to the sewer system in Birkenau, and concludes that "[...] great danger of epidemics is inevitable."[145]

On May 7, 1943, in a discussion with the chief of Amtsgruppe C, SS Brigadier General and Major General of the Waffen-SS engineer Dr. Kammler, and others, the garrison physician set out in chapter "II. Bauten in Zuständigkeit des Standortarztes" (II. Buildings Under the Charge of the Garrison Physician):[146]

Dr. Wirths clearly pointed out the inadequacies and also how to rectify them.

At this point we must warn the reader, who may perhaps not be sufficiently aware of the historical context, not to jump to false conclusions. The reader may well lack an understanding of all the problems that were involved in obtaining materials as well as all the other necessities required to build these facilities in wartime. Figuratively speaking, a written permission was required to purchase every brick.

We must also point out that, in those days in eastern Europe, a sewer system of any kind at all was exemplary to start with, and that this is all the more true for sewage treatment facilities, which were built for both camps at great expenditure in resources and according to high technical standards.

The above quoted document continues:

It began with the toilet facilities, with regards to which he enforced changes that he considered necessary. For example: lids on the toilets, because otherwise "[...] a great danger of epidemics is inevitable."[147] These lids were ordered by the Head of Department C of the WVHA (Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, Economic Administrative Main Office) on May 10, 1943.[148] It ended with roofing matters related to the gypsy kindergarten:[149]

In between, on May 28, 1943,[150] he selected six circulating air delousing facilities which-as was noted down in handwriting-were ordered on May 29, 1943, by the Building Administration's expert on heating matters, Jährling. Then there is an account of a water quality test on June 1, 1943,[151] etc. This extensive correspondence resulted in separate subject files in the filing system of the Zentralbauleitung, such as "Sanitary Conditions".[152]

The physician's field of work was great and varied and deserved its own monograph. He was even responsible for ensuring that the inmates' kitchen personnel were frequently examined-including laboratory tests of their stool, etc. That Dr. Wirths truly saw to absolutely everything is obvious from the documents.

The garrison physician's reminders and admonitions increased over time. On balance, one must conclude that, just as today, while there were opportunists and careerists in those days, there were also-as our example shows-SS-men with backbone and a sense of duty, professional ethics and the courage to stand up for their beliefs.

At the end of the comments section of the Memorandum of May 9, 1943, we find:

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of Auschwitz concentration camp is the installation of a stationary short-wave installation, the world's first technological predecessor to the microwave ovens in common use today. This technology was invented by Siemens in the late 1930s and developed to mass-production readiness during the war. This was a by-product of the powerful radio tubes built for the television transmission of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, the energy-rich radio waves which killed the insects in the vicinity of the antenna. The development took place with financial assistance from the Wehrmacht, which hoped to achieve a perceptible improvement in the struggle against the epidemics raging in the east. Since the inmates assigned to the armaments industries in the concentration camps were particularly valuable towards the end of the war, the Reich leadership decided not to put the first installation into operation at the front for the disinfestation of soldiers' clothing, but rather, in the largest Labor complex in the Reich, in Auschwitz. Due to Allied bombing attacks, however, there was a one-year delay in the completion of this installation, which probably cost the lives of tens of thousands of inmates. The Auschwitz camp administration had anticipated its installation as early as 1943 and had therefore postponed other delousing projects. This facility, put into operation during the summer of 1944, proved in fact to be of revolutionary effectiveness, both quick and cheap: personal effects were moistened and placed on one end of a conveyor belt and emerged at the other end a few minutes later, completely free of vermin and sterile.[153]

The only buildings remaining intact in Auschwitz-Birkenau today, possessing a wing for the disinfestation of personal effects with Zyklon B, are buildings (Bauwerk, BW) 5a and 5b in building sections B1a and B1b, respectively. Both buildings were planned as mirror images of each other. The west (resp. east) wing of these buildings were used, at least temporarily, for disinfestation with Zyklon B. These rooms were expressly labeled "Gaskammer" (gas chamber) in the building plans, see Fig. 17.

For this reason, in the following, the term gas chamber will be placed in single quotation marks at all times ('gas chamber'), whenever the word refers to chambers for the execution of human beings. There are two reasons for this:

1. The German technical term Gaskammer originally pointed exclusively to disinfestation chambers operated with toxic gas. To apply the same term to chambers intended for the execution of human beings is an incorrect use of the term at that time.
2. Simply for the purpose of avoiding confusion as to the meaning of the word 'gas chamber' in each case, a distinction must be made in writing.

Fig. 17 shows the ground plan of the two disinfestation gas chambers of building 5a and 5b approximately in their original condition. The chamber in building 5a was transformed in the summer of 1943 and received two small hot air chambers, visible in Fig. 18.[154] The buildings have ordinary brick walls and a concrete foundation built level with the ground, plastered and whitewashed on the interior with chalk-based mortar. The room in building 5b has no separate ceiling, the roof's framework is covered from underneath with boards of an unknown material (perhaps Heraclite). Originally without windows, like building BW 5b today, the disinfestation wing of BW 5a was equipped, during the building alterations, with windows firmly walled in which cannot be opened.

In the gable wall of the disinfestation room in BW 5b are two circular openings, approximately 50 cm in diameter, corresponding to the former ventilation exhaust and air intake channels, Fig. 19. The roof has three ventilation chimneys; there must have been three ovens in this room during the time of operation.[155] The double doors, opening inwards and drawn onto the plans, have been replaced with single doors, also opening inwards. For the time being, one can only speculate on any equipment of the disinfestation chambers.

The room has a surface area of approximately 130 m², is open to the framework of the roof, and therefore has a volume of at least 400 m³. However, the space above 2 m in height must probably be considered to have been unusable dead space, resulting in the waste of huge amounts of HCN/Zyklon B, since a quantity of Zyklon B of at least 4 to 5 kg (10 g per m³) cyanide content was necessary for just one gassing,[156] regardless of whether the room contained only a few personal effects or whether the available area was filled. For example, with 100 fumigation cycles per year (one every 3 or 4 days) approximately 0.8 tons of Zyklon B would have been consumed by this installation alone and by building 5a, corresponding to 10% of the entire Zyklon B deliveries to Auschwitz in 1942, with a total delivery of 7.5 tons.[157]

When one considers that there were other HCN disinfestation installations in Birkenau in addition to this one; that the deliveries to Birkenau camp also supplied the related labor camps (more than 30 in number); and the fact that inmate barracks were also occasionally fumigated with this insecticide,[158] it will be seen that the quantities of Zyklon B delivered to Auschwitz camp can actually be explained by normal delousing activities.

The annual delivery quantities were too low to ensure successful disinfestation of all personal effects and buildings in all camps in the Auschwitz complex, since typhus epidemics were never entirely eliminated.

How frequently the delousing chambers of BW 5a and 5b were actually used for HCN disinfestation has to remain open for the time being, since no documentation about this has been found yet, and also because the document cited above states that the use of Zyklon B had to be abandoned as early as December 1942 (at least in unsafe installations), i.e., just a few weeks after this installation was put into operation (see p. 70).

A remarkable feature of this room in building BW 5b is the intricate construction of the water pipes, laid in the hooks fastened to the diagonal roof girders, visible in Fig. 20. A few of the pipe endings are equipped with shower heads. The water pipes have no connection. Paradoxically, they end in the above mentioned ventilation outlets, and can only have been installed after the removal of the ventilators installed there. There are, of course, shower rooms in these buildings, but in a very different location (see Fig. 17). The shower installations once in existence there, however, have been entirely dismantled. Since the doors to these rooms are open, any visitor may examine this peculiar construction. The original German drawings and documents of this building do not indicate that these pipes were installed during the German occupation, which means that they were probably installed after the war for an unknown reason.

According to Pressac, no material or documentary evidence of the 'gas chamber' in the crematorium in the main camp exists, but there are many eyewitness accounts:[159]

These accounts, according to Pressac, are characterized by many contradictions, technical impossibilities, and general incredibility. He observes a "general tendency to exaggerate", and explains the gross errors and technical impossibilities in the eyewitness accounts and writings of camp commandant Höß by stating:

That is, Pressac alleges that Höß had no idea of the methods, risks and dangers involved in the handling of Zyklon B. But this is in contradiction to an order issued by commandant Höß calling for caution during the fumigation of barracks with Zyklon B[158]-caution which had become necessary in view of several cases of poisoning. This special order of the commandant warning of accidents involving Zyklon B gas, an order which was distributed throughout the camp, indicates a duty of care with regards to those inmates who were, allegedly and nevertheless, doomed to die from the effects of that same gas sooner or later. We will have occasion to speak of Höß's testimony at a later time.

Pressac, moreover, explains the form and basic tone of the testimony of SS man Pery Broad as incorrect because this testimony is soaked in Polish patriotism, to say nothing of the transparent Polish hatred against SS men, although Broad was an SS man himself and had no links to Poland, and because Pressac found out that this 'testimony' has been slightly reworked by the Poles, the original of which is missing. In other words, this 'document', obviously patched together by the Poles, is quite worthless insofar as a critical examination of its source is concerned. Nevertheless, Pressac considers the basic testimonies with regards to homicidal gassings to be correct.[160]

The 'gas chamber' in the main camp is a room in a ground level building, which replaced a former kitchen building of the former Austro-Hungarian barracks located at the same spot.[161] The floor and ceiling of crematorium I are of reinforced concrete while the exterior walls are of brick masonry, insulated on the exterior by a coating of tar. Except for the access ways, the building is practically underground due to the fact that dirt has been piled up against the walls. The interior walls are plastered and whitewashed.

Fig. 21 shows the building plan of the building at the beginning of the war, planned and constructed as a normal crematorium, with a morgue.[162] This also explains the piles of dirt, which were intended to ensure an even, cool temperature. For the same reason, the partition between the morgue and the oven room is double-walled with a heat-insulating air-barrier in between.

As far as I know, no documents exist concerning the installation of a ventilation system into this morgue, though it appears inconceivable to operate a morgue without windows, exterior doors, and any kind of forced ventilation.

The morgue was later alleged to have been 'converted' into a 'gas chamber'. Three to four hatches are later said to have been pierced through the roof for the introduction of the Zyklon B for homicidal gassings, as well as two hatches for the incorporation of heavy ventilators.[163] The head of the Auschwitz Museum, Franciszek Piper, however is of the opinion that:[164]

Pressac reproduces a photo of the roof of the crematorium, taken by the Soviets shortly after the liberation, in which three dark spots on the roofing felt are alleged to be troughs of former Zyklon B introduction holes, allegedly now covered up.[163],[165] The photograph reproduced in his book is, however, too poor in quality to permit anything to be seen with clarity, much less permitting any conclusion as to the construction or engineering. Pressac's speculation must therefore be viewed as groundless.

In the autumn of 1944, the crematorium was converted into an air raid shelter. The building alterations, especially the replacement of the thin partition by thick walls, can be seen in Fig. 22.[166] The alleged Zyklon B introduction holes as well as the ventilation holes are alleged to have been sealed at that time-assuming that they ever existed.

The building work undertaken for this conversion is described in a document into the smallest detail.[167] There is no mention of any filling in of any old existing holes pierced in the roof but rather of the incorporation of gas-tight windows and doors as well as the piercing of new holes:

This is a strong indication that before this time there were neither gas-tight doors and windows nor any other openings for ventilation installations or for any other purpose (Zyklon introduction holes); otherwise such old openings would have been used for this purpose, or their filling would have been mentioned.

Direct access to the air raid shelters, which evolved from the multiple division of the morgue/'gas chamber', was possible through a newly added entrance with sluice, which today is represented as the entryway taken by the victims, although the 'gas chamber' had no entrance in that location-as a matter of fact, it had no direct entrance from the outside at all.[163] Toilets were likewise built into the former washroom at this time.

Fig. 23 shows the ground plan of the crematorium in its present condition.[168] According to Pressac, the access from the morgue/'gas chamber' to the present cremation room was newly placed after the war-not quite at the original location. The partitions in the air-raid shelter, including the wall to the washroom, which was, however, never part of the morgue (the later 'gas chamber'), were torn down. Accordingly, the irritated visitor sees two discharge pipes from two toilets inside the alleged 'gas chamber'. According to Pressac, who gives no source for this statement, the roof was newly covered with tarpaper during which the traces of the Zyklon B holes and ventilation holes of the 'gas chamber' were allegedly covered over. The renewed incorporation of four staggered Zyklon B introduction stacks by the Polish Museum after the war is therefore not alleged to have taken place in the same location. This argument, on Pressac's part, must cause astonishment, since from the inside, the roof/ceiling is of unplastered bare concrete. It should have been quite possible to determine the location of the original openings-now allegedly sealed-from the interior and it would also have been quite possible to make openings in the same place.

As confirmed to visitors by the Museum administration upon inquiry, the two chimney openings in the cremation room, as well as the chimney itself, which is without any functional connection outside the building, were built after the war as a "reconstruction for Museum purposes" on the location of the alleged original installations.[169]

The French journalist and well-known anti-revisionist, Eric Conan, writes:[170]

According to the inflection: they were lying, they are lying, they will be lying...

In view of this unrealistic 'reconstructions' carried out after the war, the Jewish-American professor of architecture Robert van Pelt, who actually is only a professor for cultural history, in co-operation with the Jewish-Canadian Holocaust historian Deborah Dwork, arrives at the following, no less unequivocal conclusions:[173]

This argument of the "usurpation" is packed with dynamite, because it suggests that the events alleged to have taken place in crematorium I, events described by eyewitnesses Rudolf Höß, Pery Broad and a few others actually never took place at this location. But this undermines the credibility of all other eyewitnesses from the very outset, including those from Birkenau. We wonder if the authors are aware of this?

It may at least be stated without fear of contradiction that the ceiling, exterior walls and pillars as well as the foundation of the building are in their original condition. If Zyklon B introduction stacks and ventilation openings had existed in the reinforced concrete roof, breaks in the reinforced concrete structure would be visible from the interior in the corresponding places, since these cannot have been made to disappear without leaving visible traces. In addition to today's Zyklon B introduction stacks there are, however, no indications of any former openings in the roof. The holes allegedly made in another location therefore never existed!

The openings in the concrete visible today are neither plastered, nor have the remains of the cut steel reinforcement rods been removed in a professional manner. The holes have been planked with wood and sealed with tar. Such poor workmanship reflects neither the care required in handling a poisonous gas, nor standard German craftsmanship.

If the SS had put these holes in the concrete during the war, one must assume that they would have taken care to evenly distributed these holes in the ceiling of the original(!) morgue in order to ensure an even distribution of the Zyklon B inside the room. The stacks today, however, are only evenly distributed in the ceiling of this room if one considers the washing room, which was only incorporated after the war(!), as an integral part of the morgue ('gas chamber'.) (See Figs. 21 and 23). Thus, the arrangement of today's introduction holes only make sense if they were created especially for its present status as a falsely dimensioned "reconstruction for Museum purposes" (B. Bailer-Galanda)[169] after the war. This by itself is strong circumstantial evidence that those holes were chiseled in after the interior walls of the former air raid shelter-one too many of them-had been torn down by the Soviets or the Poles. This is also supported by the fact that it has been generally assumed until the present day-without contradiction by any side-that the introduction holes visible today were indeed created after the war without recourse to the alleged remains of old, walled-up holes.[174]

The flat roof of the crematorium, like all flat roofs, is not water-tight. Due to decades of erosion by rain water and the steel reinforcement rods, lying near the surface, rusting over time and splitting the concrete,[175] the interior of the room exhibits clear signs of decay; see Figs. 24f. The Museum administration has, of course, attempted to plaster these places, but the plaster is immediately destroyed by the crumbling of rust from the steel reinforcement rods. Janitors from the Museum are compelled to sweep away falling pieces of crumbling mortar and concrete. It would be entirely incorrect to explain these signs of deterioration as the remains of former introduction holes through the roof. Such a claim is refuted by four facts:

1. The steel reinforcement rods would have had to have been removed during the opening of any holes.
2. A border between the old concrete of the ceiling and the filling material added later would also be visible. The corrosion locations all indicate a homogenous structure of the concrete.
3. These locations would have to be evenly distributed over the ceiling of the original morgue.
4. These locations would have to exhibit an even, regular form (round, square or rectangular).

Based on all these arguments, it can be concluded with certainty that at the time of the alleged use of this rooms as a 'gas chamber', there were no openings for the introduction of Zyklon B. There is no indication of a former device to ventilate the room either. Furthermore, there was no direct access to the 'gas chamber' from the outside. The victims would have had to enter through the corpse room (laying out room), or through the oven room. They would, therefore, have had to file past the corpses of their already-murdered companions in misery-truly a macabre spectacle. There could be no successful deception of the victims and camouflage nor could there be any hope of willing co-operation or acquiescence on the part of the inmates under such circumstances. Or, to put the lack of direct access doors to the 'gas chamber' in Robert Faurisson's words:

5.4.1.1. Starting Situation

These crematoria are entirely comparable in size, equipment, and manner of construction to other similar installations built in the Third Reich at that time, as well as with those built today.[176] In this connection, reference is made to the trial of the builder of the cremation installations in Birkenau camp. In 1972, the court acquitted the two defendants, master builder W. Dejaco and master builder F. Ertl, since suspicion of aiding and abetting in mass murder could not be corroborated.[177] An expert report drawn up during this trial on the surviving plans and documents on the construction of the crematoria led to the conclusion that these buildings could not have been used or modified so as to serve as instruments of mass murder.[85] In an eyewitness statement made recently, one of the master builders at Auschwitz, Walter Schreiber, stated as follows on the planning of these crematoria:[178]

Prof. van Pelt has stated as follows on crematorium II:[179]

We will not allow ourselves to be distracted by the notion that Prof. van Pelt considers internment in a madhouse the only alternative to believe in the Holocaust. Van Pelt's testimony does, however, emphasize the importance of crematorium II (and crematorium III, built as a mirror image of crematorium II, although allegedly not used quite so intensively), which will be discussed in the following.

A special, separate morgue with better ventilation w\as then used, as is usual today, as a laying out room for the victims of possible epidemics. This cellar is designated as an "Infektionsleichenkeller" (infection corpse morgue) in the technical literature. Fig. 26 is the ground plan of morgue 1 (alleged 'gas chamber') of crematorium II, which was designed mirror symmetrically to crematorium III. Fig. 27 shows the cross section through morgue 1.[180] As may be seen from the cross-section, these morgues, for the most part, are located below ground. The long and slender type of construction, the underground location, as well as the lack of contact with the cremation rooms result in an even, cool temperature in these areas. This corresponds to their having been planned as morgues, which is how they are designated in the building plans.

The planning of such large cellars is not astonishing, furthermore, when one considers that several hundred corpses a day had arrived during the worst periods of the epidemics raging in Auschwitz, and that these corpses had to be stored somewhere. The compelling interpretation of the non-criminal planning of these rooms as harmless morgues is shared even by Pressac.

The documentation reproduced by Pressac shows that this installation was derived from an earlier 1941 plan for a new crematorium in the main camp.[181] The access street to the crematoria in Birkenau was located on the side of the chimney wing (see Fig. 29). The original plan for the main camp, however, provided for an access street on the other side of the building. Moreover, the high water table of the terrain in Birkenau did not permit location of the morgue quite under ground.[182] The cellars were therefore raised so as not to swim on top of the ground water. Together with the layer of earth on top of the cellars, these were insurmountable for vehicles and carts. Direct access to the cellars from the outside was therefore blocked. For this reason, an additional flight of stairs was incorporated to the offices of morgue 3 as well as a flight of stairs at the end of morgue 2 (see Fig. 29).

Possibly as a result of the dramatically altered military situation after the German defeat of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43, all construction plans were reduced in costs and required manpower wherever possible. Hence, the new stairways did not have corpse chutes as the old stairway. Several other cost-reducing changes were made on crematorium III.[183] Defects in the quality of the cheap material used for crematoria IV and V must have led to their early breakdown (see next chapter).

The original basement stairways with corpse chutes of crematoria II and III had already been finished by then, although they could only be accessed with difficulty. That these stairs were built at all, indicates an over-hasty transmission of the old plans for the main camp to the new situation in Birkenau.

The walls of the morgue consist of double brick masonry with a layer of tar in between for insulation.[183] The interior walls are plastered with a hard, cement-rich material, the ceiling and support pillars of reinforced concrete show the marks of wooden planking and are therefore not plastered. The roof, made of reinforced concrete, is isolated by a layer of tar, which is protected from environmental and mechanical damage by a rather thin layer of cement covering it. The layers of tar both on top of the roof as well as between the two brick walls was indispensable as a water barrier due to the high ground water in the swampy region of Birkenau. Both morgues had several drains.

Jean-Claude Pressac was the first researcher to dig through the mountains of documentation at the Auschwitz Museum and later through the documentation of the Zentralbauleitung stored in Moscow. He was also the first one to create the now-widely used term "criminal trace". Based on the total absence of documents proving the erection of homicidal 'gas chambers', Pressac resorted to a semantic trick by attributing a criminal significance to harmless documents, which were said to constitute a clue that something was not quite right about the crematoria at Auschwitz. Based on the progress in research, however, all these 'criminal traces' compiled by Pressac and others and accompanied by sometimes fantastic cerebral acrobatics have collapsed. The most notable of them are listed and briefly refuted in the following.

Fact 1: Additional access ways via stairways from the outside were later incorporated into the cellars of crematoria II and III.

Incorrect additional allegation: The corpse chute at the old, original stairway entrance was demolished.[184]

Incorrect conclusion: The construction of new stairways without corpse chutes with the simultaneous demolition in the original stairway access way could mean only one thing: no more corpses were to go sliding into the cellars but rather people who were still able to walk down a few steps. Hence they had to be alive while entering, and were killed after they had entered the building.[185]

Correct conclusion: The new stairways were necessary based on the alteration in the plans, see the chapter above. This is supported by the heading of the plan for the new stairways: "Change of cellar access to street side".[186] The corpse chute, furthermore, was not even demolished. In fact, it appears in all following plans as shown by Carlo Mattogno:[187]

Furthermore, crematoria II and III were undoubtedly used during their entire period of operation for the temporary storage of the bodies of persons having died of 'natural' causes (epidemics, exhaustion, age, etc.), awaiting cremation, which amounted at least to thousands of bodies. If it were true that stairways without chutes could only be used by living persons still capable of climbing stairs on their own, then one might be permitted to ask: how did the corpses of persons having died of 'natural causes' get into the morgue (or wherever they were stored)? Did they walk by themselves? Of course not. They were carried, and sometimes certainly even a few steps up and down-and not only inside the crematorium. Was it therefore impossible to get corpses into a building not having a chute? Certainly not. Would missing chutes therefore prove that only living people could enter? Of course not. So why did the SS not build a new corpse chute by the new stairway? Perhaps simply because the costs of the crematorium were running out of control due to the constant changes in plans, and because it was desired or necessary to keep the costs down? Would that not be a much simpler and more logical explanation?

Fact 1: There are documents of SS Zentralbauleitung which mention an "Auskleidekeller" (undressing room) in crematorium II.[193]

Fact 2: There is a document which mentions a "Vergasungskeller" (gassing cellar,) in crematorium II.[194]

Fact 3: There is a document which lists "14 Brausen" (14 showers) for crematorium III.[195]

Fact 4: Pieces of wooden planking left in the underside of the ceiling of morgue 1 in crematorium II are visible even today.[196]

Incorrect conclusion: Morgue 1 of crematoria II & III was built as homicidal 'gas chamber', equipped with "false" shower heads, which were fastened to the pieces of wood left in the concrete and used to deceive the victims; morgue 2 was used as the undressing room for the victims.[197]

Correct conclusion: It is not known which room is being referred to by means of the term "Vergasungskeller" in the above mentioned document. Since there were still no proper means to drill holes in concrete ceilings and no neat plastic rawl plugs in the 1940s, there was only one way to fasten installations to bare concrete walls: conical pieces of wood were cast in the concrete onto which the electrical lines, water pipes, and other installations were screwed tightly. The existence of such pieces of wood in the ceiling of morgue 1 does not prove that shower heads were fastened there. It is more probable that lamps or electrical lines were fastened there. Nor is there any proof that the "showers" mentioned in the document were "false", as stated by Pressac. In actual fact, the Zentralbauleitung temporarily considered expanding the Birkenau crematoria into hygiene centers equipped with disinfestation installations, inmate showers and undressing rooms but nevertheless later abandoned these plans. Carlo Mattogno has produced extensive documentation in support of this argument:[198]

Since, as shown in chapter 5.2.2., the installation of hygiene centers with showers, disinfestation, undressing and dressing rooms and adjacent crematoria is not at all unusual, the "traces" adduced by Pressac and van Pelt may be seen to have been incorrectly interpreted.

Fact 1: Morgue 1 in crematorium II was equipped with gas-tight doors with a peephole.[206]

Fact 2: An initially planned double door opening to the inside of morgue 1 was replaced by a double door opening to the outside.[207]

Incorrect conclusion 1: Morgue 1 in crematorium II was converted into a homicidal 'gas chamber', equipped with gas-tight doors.[208]

Incorrect conclusion 2: Doors opening to the inside of morgue 1 would have been blocked by gassing victims piling up in front of it so that the doors could not have been opened. Realizing this, the SS changed the doors to open to the outside.

Correct conclusions 1: Even if a peephole was not entirely necessary for a disinfestation chamber, it has nevertheless been proved that the disinfestation chamber doors installed in Auschwitz were also equipped with exactly such peepholes, as shown in the photograph reproduced here (Fig. 33).[209] One document indicates that gas-tight doors measuring 100 cm × 192 cm were ordered for morgue 1 (the 'gas chamber') of crematoria II and III.[210]

On the delivery plan, i.e., the final plan for crematorium II, the size of the doors is nevertheless drawn in as 190 cm × 200 cm, as on all previous plans, so that these gas-tight doors would not have fitted.[211] Based on the ruins, it must be possible even today, to establish whether the door was possibly walled in to make it narrower and whether there are any traces of door frames. Excavations would be necessary to determine this.

The engineers Nowak and Rademacher have shown that the 'gas-tight' doors manufactured at Auschwitz by inmates from wooden planks could not have been gas-tight in a technical sense, the planks did not close hermetically, the fittings were simply fastened through the wood by means of bolts, and the seals consisted of felt strips.[212]

One has to consider that a hypothetical homicidal 'gas chamber' door would have to open outwards-a door opening inwards would be blocked by inmate bodies lying in front of the door. Such doors would require an especially stable arrangement as the locks and hinges would have to be capable of resisting the pressure of hundreds of panicking people. The pressure exerted by such masses of people becomes apparent when one recalls the photographs of panicky spectators at football/soccer matches. Separating fences and partitions between individual spectator blocks are commonly trampled down like mere blades of grass in such situations. In any case, a simple wooden door, rendered provisionally gas-tight, as has been found in Auschwitz, a photograph of which is reproduced by Pressac in his book (see Fig. 33),[213] could never have resisted such pressure.

The camp administration could actually have ordered solid, technically gas-tight steel doors (air-raid shelter doors, Fig. 34) since they were offered such doors but it can be proven that they did not order them. One must assume that they had no serious need for them.[212]

Fig. 34: German air-raid shelter door from 1939 in the cellar of a private house in Karlsruhe © Photo: R. Faurisson, 1991

In this context, a comparison of the flimsy wooden doors as found in Auschwitz (used for delousing purposes only) with technically gas tight, massive iron doors as used for executions in U.S. homicidal gas chambers is revealing, compare Fig. 33 with Fig. 5 (page 24).

The installation of a door with felt seals in crematorium II may have been temporarily considered either in connection with the temporarily considered expansion into a hygiene center or because it was desired to use the only solid reinforced concrete cellar in Birkenau camp as an air-raid shelter, as remarked by senior engineer Schreiber. This cellar was actually used as an air-raid shelter for inmates as suggested by a few eyewitness testimonies.[214] This would also explain other more minor 'traces' which cannot be discussed here. Samuel Crowell has shown in several articles the extent to which the SS actually built air-raid shelter installations not only for themselves but also for the camp inmates.[215]

Correct conclusions 2: The change in orientation of the doors was probably caused by the design of this morgue's ventilation system. Since the air inlet of this system had a higher resistance than the outlet (see next chapter), a considerable subpressure was caused in morgue 1, constantly sucking air in from the rest of the building. This is a desired effect for a morgue where many corpses had to be stored, so that unpleasant smells would not reach other parts of the building. A double door opening to the side with a lower pressure (inside morgue 1) would open automatically, whereas a door opening to the side of higher pressure closes automatically.

Fact: All rooms in crematoria II and III were equipped with efficient ventilation installations.[216]

Incorrect conclusion: Morgues 1 of crematoria II and III were converted into homicidal 'gas chambers' equipped with installations for the intended purpose of evacuating poison gases.[217]

Correct conclusion: It is in fact inconceivable that a large morgue without windows and with only one door filled with innumerable bodies of the victims of epidemic disease would not be equipped with a ventilation installation. The efficiency of the ventilation, however, proves that these installations were designed for typical morgues.[218] The efficiency of the blowers may be seen from the invoices sent to the Zentralbauleitung by the Topf corporation after installation of the systems.[219] According to the invoices, both morgues #1, i.e., the alleged 'gas chambers' (in the invoice designated as the "B-room"), were each equipped with a 4,800 m³/h intake and outlet blower,[220] while for the "L-room" (the so-called "undressing room") only one outlet blower was installed, with a capacity of 10,000 m³/h.[221]

When considering the volume of the two morgues (morgue 1÷504 m³; morgue 2÷900 m³), the results for the alleged, planned 'gas chambers' (4,800/504 =) are approximately 9.5 air exchanges per hour and for the undressing room (10,000/900 =) approximately 11 air exchanges per hour. Does anybody seriously believe that, at the end of May 1943, i.e., two months after the beginning of the alleged mass murders, it was assumed that the 'gas chambers' would need less ventilation than the undressing rooms, or even less than the dissecting rooms, laying out rooms and wash rooms, the ventilation efficiency of which were even greater-approximately 13¹/₃ air exchanges per hour?

Wilhem Heepke's classic work on the construction of crematoria states that a morgue requires a minimum of 5 air exchanges per hour and 10 during intensive use.[222] Thus it is clear that the ventilation installations provided for the morgues were designed, in terms of orders of magnitude, for morgues in intensive use or for morgues containing the bodies of epidemic disease victims. For comparison: Zyklon B disinfestation chambers with circulating air systems were equipped with 72 air exchanges per hour.[223] Furthermore, it should be mentioned that the original plans for a new crematorium in the main camp from 1941-a time when even Pressac admits that the SS had no criminal intentions-provided for 17(!) air exchanges per hour for the dissecting room(!) and the morgues.[224] This exchange rate is considerably higher than what was later realized for all rooms of crematoria II and III, including the alleged 'gas chambers'. Thus, on the way from beneficial planning to (allegedly sinister) construction, the air exchange rates had been drastically reduced (probably in order to reduce costs). Does anybody seriously believe, the SS would have lowered the ventilation capacity when changing the designation of a morgue from a beneficial use to a homicidal 'gas chamber', instead of increasing it? This is thus the final refutation of any argument on the alleged criminal characteristics of the ventilation installations in these crematoria.

Fact: The morgues of crematoria II and III were never heated, although a heating system was temporarily considered; water pipes in morgue 1 were removed.[225]

Incorrect conclusion: Morgues need no heating for normal operational functioning. Crematoria II and III were converted into homicidal 'gas chambers', (intended to be) equipped with a heating system so that 'the gas would work more rapidly'. It was necessary to eliminate the plumbing system in the morgue because panic-stricken inmates would have damaged the pipes.[226]

Correct conclusion: According to expert literature, morgues do indeed need some kind of heating equipment, because corpses must be protected from the effects of frost and freezing temperatures in winter.[227] Hence, under normal operation, morgues would have been equipped with heating devices, but the initial plans to equip the morgues in Auschwitz with heaters were cancelled,[228] rendering the argument irrelevant. Regarding the removal of the water pipes, a 'non-criminal' explanation follows logically: Since no heating was ever installed in these morgues, there was a danger that the water pipes would have burst in freezing temperatures due to the lack of any heating. In order to prevent burst pipes and a subsequent flooding of the morgues, the pipes had to be removed.

Fact: With regards to the "Electrical supply and installation of the concentration camp and prisoner of war camp" the documentary note ("Aktenvermerk") of the Auschwitz Zentralbauleitung of January 29, 1943, states:[229]

Incorrect conclusion: Since the "special treatment" mentioned apparently required electricity and because the homicidal 'gas chamber' possessed an electrical ventilation, R.J. van Pelt concludes that "Sonderbehandlung" referred to homicidal gassings, which was made possible by operating the ventilation despite a reduced power supply.[230]

Correct conclusion: First, it is not apparent from this document whether or not electricity is required for "special treatment". Furthermore, on January 29, 1943, the ventilation installation for the morgue had not yet even been delivered, let alone installed and put into operation. Commencement of construction was not anticipated before February 10.[231] Installation was only charged to the account on February 22, 1943.[232] Therefore, the "available machines" on January 1, 1943, in no way included the morgue ventilation installations. Actually, the concept "special treatment" in this connection has no 'criminal' significance at all, as W. Stromberger[104] and recently C. Mattogno have pointed out:[233]