PART TWO
CHAPTER 6
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| THE VENTILATION SYSTEMS
OF KREMATORIEN II AND III |
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Account of the research undertaken by the
author in
order to explain the ventilation systems of
Krematorien II
and III. |
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In this Chapter I shall not use the method adopted for the
others, i.e. production of documents on a subject, then comments and
conclusion. The problem, for there is a problem, of the ventilation systems of
Krematorien II and III will be presented in the form of an account including
what was known and thought in 1979, my doubts, my fairly lengthy researches, my
findings and finally the discovery in 1982 in the BW 30/41 file of the
“ARBEITSZEITBESCHEINIGUNGEN” (timesheets) of the Topf & Sons
fitter, Messing, who stayed at Auschwitz and installed all the ventilation
systems of Krematorien II and III at Birkenau between 5th January and 9th June
1943, He was one of the rare “outside” civilians to be able to
directly observe the consequences of the first gassing of 1500 Cracow Jews in
Krematorium II on l4th March. In his timesheets, there are seven
“slips” that reveal the “abnormal” use of the Leichenkeller
(morgues, or literally “corpse cellars”), which enable two other
isolated references to be explained. The documents relevant to this account
will be produced as it proceeds.
For 40 years, the question of the
ventilation in Krematorien of type II/III was thought to be obvious and well
known. It was concerned with the fresh air supply and air extraction systems
for the underground gas chambers. The Bauleitung drawings of the projected
Krematorium II show that the rooms designated “Leichenkeller l” or
“L Keller 1” were ventilated. Since the testimonies of former members
of the Sonderkommando assert that Leichenkeller I of Krematorien II and III had
been used as homicidal gas chambers and since two letters from SS sources
indicated that one of the cellars designated a “Vergasungskeller” had
been fitted with a gas tight door, the fact that this ventilation system
appeared an the Bauleitung drawings became clear
premeditation.
The extreme importance attached to this point is
particularly evident in the book by Georges Wellers, “Les chambres
à gaz ont existé”, the cover of which [Document 1] is part of
drawing 1174 [Document 4] which includes a cross section of
Leichenkeller 1 of the future Krematorium II, showing the upper and lower
ventilation ducts. This is an indication of the value of this evidence in the
eyes of Georges Wellers. His photo 8 [Document 2] reproduces the cover illustration
with mention of the “ventilation ducts”. His photo 9 [Document 3] shows
cross-sections of Leichenkeller 1 and 2 (taken from drawing 934 [Document
5]) with the observation that L Keller 1 is ventilated, unlike 2. Lastly,
Wellers concludes (page 90), that: |
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“It can be seen that cellar 1 is not so long
as cellar 2 and, above all [my underlining]. That it is provided with a
ventilation and air extraction system perfectly visible and named on the cross
section, while “corpse cellar 2” has no such installation [my
underlining]”. |
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This argument was put forward by the Auschwitz Museum and
was used by the advocates appearing for the LICRA during the “Faurisson
trial”. They are blameless, since they are not historians and were simply
repeating an interpretation provided by the Museum and confirmed by Georges
Wellers.
The truth is that this demonstration is quite
erroneous, and hence any attempt to prove “premeditation” of the
criminal use of Leichenkeller 1 as gas chambers on the basis of the ventilation
systems is quite unfounded.
I worked for a long time on establishing
THE PATHS TAKEN BY ME DIFFERENT VENTILATION DUCTS in Krematorien II and III. It
took me about two years to arrive at a logical explanation on the basis of the
scattered evidence then available to me, whereas if I had known about the
existence of PMO file BW 30/41, simply the quarter of an hour it took to read
it would have saved me a great deal of groping in the dark. However, this file
fully confirmed the findings of my work.
At the end of 1979, after
consulting drawing 932 in the Museum Archives, a drawing representing the
basement of a projected Krematorium which was to become Krematorium II, I
expressed my doubts as to the technical feasibility of installing a gas chamber
in Leichenkeller 1, because its entrance was fitted with a double door
and the passage between Leichenkeller 2 (undressing room) and Leichenkeller 1
(gas chamber) was partly obstructed by a concrete corpse chute leading almost
as far as the double door of Leichenkeller 1. The archivist pointed out on
drawings 933, 934 and 1174, where cross sections of the two Leichenkeller
appeared, that there was a MAJOR DIFFERENCE as regards ventilation —
presence in L KeIler 1 and absence in 2 — a difference which according to
him PROVED irrefutably that Leichenkeller 1 was a gas chamber and that it had
been PLANNED as such. His demonstration appeared valid at the time and I
believed it.
However, when I had completed my study of ALL THE DRAWINGS
connected with the Birkenau Krematorien, his categorical statement no longer
fitted with my interpretation of some of them, and even less with several items
in file BW 30/34 (microfilm 1060). A note of 3rd February 1943 from a certain
Messing mentioned an air extractor fan [“Abluftgeblase / used air blower"]
for Leichenkeller 2 [Document 6]. A letter of 11th February 1943 signed
by Bischoff, head of the Bauleitung, spoke of a 7.5 HP motor for the extractor
fan of Leichenkeller 2 [Document 7]. A letter from Topf & Sons of
12th February 1943 [Document 7a] used the same terms as Bischoff on the
subject of an extractor fan for Leichenkeller 2.
On drawing 980 of the
roof frame of the future Krematorium II [Document 8], the locations of
TWO ventilation chimneys are shown. The one on the left, quite separate, is the
fresh air intake for Leichenkeller 1. The other, to the right, through which
the noxious air of this same Leichenkeller I is to he expelled, has FOUR
outlets. While one outlet was for this function, the purpose of the three
others remained unexplained. However, the argument of the Museum archivist was
still acceptable despite the documents of BW 30/34, for the mention of a motor
for an extractor fan for Leichenkeller 2 was no proof that it was actually
installed…
Five minutes of a television program seen quite by
chance led me to a meeting, accompanied by a former Monowitz prisoner, with Mr.
David Olère, a professional artist and ex member of the Sonderkommando
who, in his canvases, evokes the universe of Birkenau. I took with me the
drawings of the Krematorien so that I could question him about them, but he
refused to look at them. He had his reasons for this. By their very precision,
they disturbed his personal, residual vision of the infernal environment in
which he had lived from 1943 to 1945. His reflex was more than understandable.
On the other hand, he was willing to tell his own story. To support what he had
to say, he produced his drawings and in particular those of his
“Memento”, produced in 1945-46, shortly after his
return from deportation, The Memento was not able to show me very much however,
being virtually emptied of its 60 to 70 original sketches. The greater part of
them — 90 per cent — had been lent for an exhibition in Israel
organized by Mrs. Myriam Novitch, who never returned them to their author and
owner.
Despite my difficulty in believing certain episodes related by
David Olère, a drawing of the fronts of the five three muffle furnaces
of Krematorium II or III intrigued me. On the right hand side of each furnace
them was drawn a part representing a pulsed air installation, identical to that
fitted on the third furnace of the Old Krematorium in the main camp. I had not
yet any confirmation of this little known detail of the equipment of the
Krematorien II and II furnaces, but I later found mention of it in the book by
Dr. Nyiszli, “Auschwitz: a doctor’s eyewitness
account” [Chapter VII, page 45], this being reinforced by the
method of operating a three-muffle furnace with its pulsed air blower being
reproduced at the end of the book. In Volume 11 of the Höss trial there is
an identical document, but supplied for the new (third) two-muffle furnace of
the old Krematorium. David Olère, while lamenting the "loss" of his
drawings produced a journal of the LICA (former name of the
LICRA) where three of his works were reproduced: a plan of Krematorium
III, a group of prisoners returning to the camp, and a view of one of the
undressing rooms in Krematorium II or III [in fact Leichenkeller 2 of
Krematorium III). Along the top left of the room there was a big black tube
from which two smaller tubes with grids over their ends protruded downwards
[Document l3]. The discovery of these unknown details, that other
sources had led me to suspect, proved to me first of all that I was not dealing
with a story teller, even though some of his declarations were at the limit of
the credible, and secondly that on the evidence of the photos that I knew, his
drawings were authentic at this early date and were very faithful in their
detail and, finally, that an air extraction system (a detail pointed out
by David Olère) had existed in Leichenkeller 2 of both Krematorien II
and III. |
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