PART TWO
CHAPTER
7 |
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KREMATORIEN
IV AND V
Plans, construction and general
study |
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General history of Birkenau
Krematorien IV and V,
covering their design, construction,
limited
utilization and destruction. |
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KLG Birkenau Krematorien IV
and V
(Bauwerke 30b and 30e) |
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Unless and until further evidence is
discovered, Krematorien IV and V [Document 1] will continue to be the
least known of the instruments of extermination at Birkenau.
Until
1980, it was very easy to summarize the little that was known about their
history. Krematorium IV entered service on 22nd March 1943 and operated until
7th October 1944, the date of the Sonderkommando revolt, when it was set on
fire. Krematorium V, handed over to the camp administration on 4th April 1943,
operated until 17th-18th January 1945, the night during which the evacuation of
Auschwitz II [Birkenau] began, and the SS dynamited the building a few nights
later. Yet key dates, found in the publications of the Auschwitz Museum, did
not stop certain people from still believing in 1980 that these installations
had worked continuously from 1940 to 1945.
The history of Krematorien
IV and V, mirror image buildings, is considered from four aspects: design,
construction, operation and duration of activity (from which the number of
cremations can be estimated). In 1980, the dates given above brought the answer
to one aspect of this history: the duration of activity. In addition, it was
thought that their operation was perfectly well known. But a certain neophyte
researcher could not help noticing that the operation of Krematorien IV and V
was illogical to the point of absurdity, which led him to doubt the validity of
the events described.
Our knowledge of the history of these two
installations now having progressed somewhat, it is possible to be quite
certain about the design and construction aspects. The knowledge acquired
regarding their construction helps to explain their operation, though certain
points remain obscure. As for the duration of activity, all the previous
certainty has been swept away, but for lack of original documents it is not
possible to be precise, apart from certain limits that can be seen. One might
have thought that regarding this aspect the recollections of former prisoners
and SS would have been decisive and made up for the lack of documentation, but
unfortunately a comparison of such testimonies reveals inconsistencies: |
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| 1.- |
Rudolf Hoess. former Camp Commandant, reports
that: |
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“Number III [Kr IV] failed completely after
a short time [in 1943] and later ceased to be used altogether. Number IV [Kr V]
had to be repeatedly shut down, since after its fires had been burning for from
four to six weeks, the ovens or the chimneys burnt out.”
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In Hoess’ opinion, these installations were little
used and were soon abandoned, irreparably damaged. However, it would appear
that Hoess was in error, for while Kr IV was closed down because its chimneys
and/or furnaces were burnt out, Kr V, of exactly the same structure as IV,
suffered damage that could be repaired, but could subsequently be operated only
sporadically and in moderation. |
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| 2.- |
Pery Broad, a former member of the Political Section of the
camp, while rightly stating that: |
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“Even before the construction of all four
Krematorien had been completed [Kr III was still not completed in May 1943],
the chimney of Krematorium I [II], which had recently entered service, split as
the result of overloading and had to be repaired.” |
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goes on to say that: |
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“In the spring [should be summer] of1944,..
The four Krematorien were operating at full capacity, but very soon, as the
result of continuous overloading, the furnaces were damaged and only
Krematorium III [IV] was still smoking.” |
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Thus Broad states that in, most probably, summer 1944,
while Krematorien II, III and V were damaged and shut down, only Krematorium IV
valiantly stood up to the continuous overloading, which is completely
wrong. The episode he is relating took place in the summer of 1943
(a year earlier!), when Kr II had to be shut down with a damaged chimney,
IV was completely out of service and V had its furnaces and/or chimneys [half]
burnt out. Only Kr III, handed over for use on 25th June 1943, was
operating. |
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| 3.- |
Dow Paisikovic, a former prisoner, in his deposition of
17th October 1963 [CDJC CCCLXI-370], states that having arrived in the Birkenau
camp in May 1944 and being incorporated in the Sonderkommando, he first worked
at Bunker V [2], then in Krematorium I [II] or II [III]. He reports that a,
group of 100 Sonderkommando prisoners were detached and taken to Krematorium
III [IV]. Despite a twice repeated error regarding the number of the
Krematorium that was operating in May-June 1944, for the open air cremation
ditches were behind Krematorium V, not next to Krematorium IV, his deposition
confirms that as of that date, only one of Krematorien IV and V was working
(and hence that the other was not used). In contradiction to his earlier
statements, he goes on to say that so far as he knew, no Krematorium had the
slightest breakdown and they always worked perfectly. |
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| 4.- |
Filip Müller, another former prisoner, relates in
“Trois ans dans une chambre à gaz à
Auschwitz” that, probably at the beginning of May 1944, there was
a complete overhaul of the four Krematorien in preparation for the
“Hungarian action” noting that six chimneys were checked (one each in
Kr II and III and two each in Kr IV and V), four undressing rooms repainted
(one in each Krematorium) and eight gas chambers repainted (one each in Kr II
and III and three each in Kr IV and V). According to him, the four
Krematorien were still working. The repair and maintenance work was carried
out by shutting down each of them in turn. Then, as his account continues, he
adds that in summer 1944, at the height of the Hungarian extermination, they
were using five gas chambers (one each in Kr II and III and three in Kr
IV) and the thirty eight furnaces [muffles] (fifteen each in Kr II and
III and eight in Kr IV) of Krematorien II, III and IV. |
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