PART THREE
CHAPTER
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DEPOSITION OF
24th MAY 1945
BY HENRYK TAUBER
former member of the
Sonderkommando
of Krematorien I, II, IV and V |
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| Introduction |
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The testimony by Henryk TAUBER [Documents 1, 2 ,3 and
4] is the best that exists on the Birkenau Krematorien. Being 95%
historically reliable, it stands head and shoulders above the rest. Though
without the benefit of higher education, Henryk Tauber, a modest man with no
desire to seek the limelight, remembers perfectly. He was the only one to give
a precise and detailed description of the equipment and working of the
Krematorien. His extremely accurate account has been used little if at all by
the historians, quite simply because they could not understand it.
Tauber’s name was not as much as mentioned during the “Faurisson
trial”. The reason for this is that in order to be able to understand and
above all to appreciate the quality of Tauber’s account, one must have
firmly in mind the arrangement of the premises.
When Mrs Dorota Ryszka,
a PMO interpreter, translated it orally for me, I closed my eyes and was able
to follow Tauber, despite the deadpan style of his deposition, as he guided me
through the different parts of Krematorium II, Of the many accounts,
testimonies and confessions with which I was familiar, none had the accuracy of
Tauber’s account. I felt that it should be presented in its entirety and
in a form as close as possible to the original. I used two translations of the
Polish text, one by Mrs Dorota Ryszka and the other by Mr Adam Rutkowski,
translations that I have adapted by including my own remarks and references so
that the reader, too, can let himself be guided by Henryk Tauber.
Some
people may reproach him for his attitude, accuse him of having taken his work
as a “stoker” too much to heart, and to have masked the sordid
reality of the cremations by speaking in such a technical fashion. For my part,
I refuse to level the slightest criticism at this exceptional witness. His
neutral tone, free from grandiloquent opprobrium or political references, is at
the limit of the bearable and is exactly suited to the historical detatchment
necessary for a factual and dispassionate study of the ‘murder
weapon’.
Henryk Tauber’s deposition enabled me at the last
moment to authenticate the testimony of Dr Paul Bendel that I was on the point
of invalidating. |
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| Document 1
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Documents 1 and
2:
PMO photos, neg. nos 21334/64 and /65 |
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Henryk TAUBER in
civilian clothes in May or June 1945 at the time of his testimony to the Polish
judge Jan Sehn. His face gives us a subjective idea of the value of his
testimony. which was for Jan Sehn, a vital element in his research into the
crimes perpetrated in the former KL Auschwitz- Birkenau. |
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| Document 2
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| Document
3 |
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Documents
3 and 4:
PMO photos neg Nos 21334/123 and /122 |
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Henryk TAUBER in May
or June 1945 having put on his old zebra suit over his new civilian clothes for
the benefit of the photgraphers. On his chest is his prison number 90142, with
the red triangle of the political prisoner surmounted by a yellow bar
indicating that he is a Jew. It appears that Tauber probably owed his survival
to his very specialized function of “stoker”, which made him too
indispensible and precious for the SS to be able to liquidate him before
January 1945. |
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| Document
4 |
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