PART THREE
CHAPTER I |
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Critical
study of the
“WAR REFUGEE BOARD”
report of November 1944 on K
L Auschwitz-Birkenau |
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THE “WAR REFUGEE
BOARD”
REPORT OF NOVEMBER 1944 |
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(A collective report based on
the testimonies of Alfred WETZLER and
Walter ROSENBERG [Rudolf Vrba],
Czeslaw MORDOWICZ
and Arwost ROSIN, and a Polish major.) |
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Large extracts of this report were published in
the “New York Times” on 26th November 1944, the day
when Himmler, it is thought, ordered the dismantling of the three remaining
Birkenau Krematorien. The concordance of dates, though perhaps due to chance,
amply justifies the action of these five witnesses whose accounts formed the
basis for the report.
My aim is to demonstrate the authenticity of
the Rosenberg / Wetzler testimonies regarding Krematorien of type II/III, even
though their accuracy is not great in the light of what we know now, because
this report was the first on the subject and was regarded as authoritative for
many years, despite errors on certain points. I have used three sources for the
descriptions of the Krematorien and how they operated: |
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| Version 1:
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“L’extermination des Juifs en Pologne: Depositions
de témoins oculaires. Trotsième série: LES CAMPS
D'EXTERMINATION” published in Geneva in 1944 by Dr A Silverschein;
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| Version
2: |
“Souvenirs
de la maison des morts”, Le massacre des Juifs. Unpublished
documents on the extermination camps. Brochure of 76 pages with no publication
date, doubtless of Swiss origin; |
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| Version
3: |
“GERMAN
EXTERMINATION CAMPS. AUSCHWITZ AND BIRKENAU”, Published by the
Executive Office of the President. WAR REFUGEE BOARD, Washington DC, November
1944. |
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Of the three versions of the report, I consider
the American one to be the best. I have underlined in red the phrases that I
consider important and on which I shall comment in detail. In the second
underlined phrase in versions 1 and 2. there is an error in 1, while in 2 the
translator has added something, inspired by the sketch plan. Unlike versions 2
and 3, version 1 does not contain a ground plan of a Krematorium of type
II/III. I do not know who drew this plan, which fits the text and is
referred to by it, but in the light of our present knowledge we must say it
is inaccurate.
I mention simply for memory a translation that
does not take account of the context of the premises, published by G Wellers in
his “Les chambres à gaz ont existé”,
taken from “Auschwitz et Birkenau”, 1945, pages 17 and
18. Here, between the gas chamber and the furnaces there is a “path”
where “lorries” transport the corpses. There is no mention of [rail]
tracks or [narrow-gauge railway] trucks, the translator having opted for an
inappropriate interpretation of both “track” and “truck”.
In order to properly situate the report with respect to the reality of
the premises, it should be read in conjunction with Document 4 ("schéma
1"), a simplified plan of Krematorien of type II/III, based on German sources
reproduced below, i.e.: Bauleitung drawing 2216 [Documents 5, 6. 7 and 7a], a
general plan of KGL Birkenau, drawn by prisoner 538, checked by Dejaco and
Janisch on 20/3/43, countersigned by an unidentified person [PMO neg. no,
20583] and three photographs: PMO neg. nos 286, 287 and 290. [Documents 11, 12
and 13]. In this arrangement, however, the rails do not go from the gas chamber
to the furnaces, but PASS IN FRONT. I shall explain this. |
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| COMMENTS AND
EXPLANATIONS |
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The report describes the Krematorium as being
made up of three parts. A, B and C. The furnace room (A) and the undressing
room (B) are on the ground floor and the gas chamber (C) is at basement level
[Document 4], The proposed layout, while recalling that of Krematorien
IV and V, applies to Krematorien of type II/III, as stated. Lastly, the
underground location of the gas chamber (C) and a preparation room (B') is
characteristic of Krematorien II and III [Document 8 (“schéma
2”) ].
The number of furnaces cited per Krematorium is wrong.
Those of type II/III had only 15 cremation muffles, not the 36 announced. This
error is understandable if we assume that the witnesses had themselves never
entered a Krematorium and all their observations were from the exterior or
based on the accounts of other prisoners, in particular, though we cannot prove
it, Sonderkommando members working in December 1942 at Bunkers 1 and 2 who
would have been able to watch the building of what they believed would be their
future place of work. Document 9 enables us to understand the assumed
disposition of the furnaces around the chimney, and with this arrangement the
number of furnaces would be a multiple of three.
In the report the
throughput of the four Krematorien per 24 hours is fairly reasonably estimated
at 6000, though this is one third higher than the 4416 units a day reported in
a letter of 28th June 1943 from the Bauleitung to the SS Economic and
Administrative Head Office in Berlin. Even this I consider to be a purely
administrative document, calculated on the basis of the original estimated
throughput of the furnaces, the true daily rate for the four cremation
installations being no more than 3000. If we take the rate of incineration
given by the witnesses — three corpses per muffle in one and a half hours
— and apply this to the true number of furnaces, the daily figure for the
four Krematorien is about 2200.
In light of the drawings of type
II/IIII Krematorien now known, it might be thought that there was no undressing
room at ground level, but drawing 2216 of 20/3/43 [Documents 5 and 6], a
plan of the entire POW camp, confirms the reality. As at this date, only
Krematorium II AND its gas chamber were completed. Its future underground
undressing room is shown only as “planned”. It had in fact already
been built, but was not yet operational. Krematorium III was under
construction. Its undressing room and gas chamber were also shown as
“planned”. which is not quite true — they were almost complete,
but not yet usable. A “Pferdestallbaracke OKH Typ 260/9”, a ,
“stable-type” hut, was erected as a provisional undressing room in
the north yard of Krematorium II. Two reasons may be advanced for this. First,
the SS intended to use both Leichenkeller (basement morgues) of Krematorium II
as gas chambers, operating them alternately, which would have been possible
after making only minor modifications to Leichenkeller 2 (the undressing room)
as it was already ventilated. Second — and this is more likely — a
temporary undressing room was required because the access stairway to the
basement undressing room was not yet built and work was still going on in this
room, making it unavailable for “special treatment”
operations.
It is difficult to accept at face value the descriptions of
the interiors of the undressing rooms and gas chambers, for the installations
varied over time. Those of summer 1944 are well-known, for they have been
described or sketched many times by former members of the Sonderkommando. On
the other hand, those of the early days have virtually not been described at
all. The witnesses may have described the strict truth — which already
fluctuated according to the version — but I doubt this, since they never
entered Krematorium II themselves, or they lied, which is also most unlikely in
view of the exact details given elsewhere, or — and this is far more
probable — they invented a little to fill in the gaps in a story whose
ending they knew only too well. |
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