Gas chambers and crematoria of the Auschwitz concentration camp
In the camp complex of Auschwitz , there were seven buildings used as gas chambers were used. They were in the main camp Auschwitz (also known as Auschwitz I) and in Auschwitz-Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz II) - the part of the Auschwitz-Monowitz concentration camp (also known as Auschwitz III) had no such facilities due to its function as a forced labor camp . For the destruction of the corpses , there were also five crematoria in the two camps and another three places where corpses were disposed of in cremation pits. The mass murder of around 900,000 victims could be carried out in these facilities on an industrial scale. The bodies of another 200,000 inmates who had died from working conditions, starvation, disease, medical trials and executions were also cremated in these crematoria and cremation pits.
However, the systems were not in operation at the same time. From the first gassing in 1941 to the daily murder of the inmates of several rail transports in the " Hungary Action " in 1944, the facilities were continuously expanded and technically and organizationally optimized based on the experience gained. The extermination of the Jews was by the SS -Führung mainly as a technical and logistical considered problem that had to be solved; Both ethical aspects and inexpedient brutality played no role here; the camp management and the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) were primarily concerned with the highest possible efficiency in the destruction. In the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , the gas chambers installed had a capacity of 8,696 people per gassing . They could be used several times a day. In the crematoria, 4416 people could be cremated in 24 hours, the cremation pits had an in principle unlimited capacity.
Counting the crematoria
In the literature and in the historical sources there are two different counting methods for the Birkenau crematoria. In the first counting method, the crematorium of the main camp is counted as Roman I and the four Birkenau crematoriums are numbered as II to V. After the closure of the crematorium in the main camp (mid-July 1943), the Birkenau crematoria are counted as I to IV in various sources; in particular on the task force lists of the Sonderkommando or in the case of witness statements from the Sonderkommando.
Since the construction plans of the SS construction management and the correspondence with the furnace builders of the company JA Topf & Sons (hereinafter referred to as "Topf" ) count the main camp crematorium, the Birkenau crematoria are counted as II to V in this article - especially also to be able to clearly distinguish them from the crematorium of the main camp (I).
Main camp
Crematorium I.
The engineer Kurt Prüfer began on June 10, 1940 at the Topf company with the design for a double muffle furnace for the Auschwitz crematorium. This oven of the type "D-57253 model Auschwitz" was later used in the crematoria of many concentration camps, including in Buchenwald , Dachau , Mauthausen and Gusen . The performance specifications were two corpses per hour and the possibility of continuous operation over several days.
On October 1, 1940, the double muffle furnace in Auschwitz went into operation. A double pot muffle furnace "Model Auschwitz" was also installed in the Gusen I concentration camp in Mauthausen. On July 14th, the Topf company sent operating instructions to the Mauthausen concentration camp , stating the performance with 10 to 35 corpses in 10 hours (3.5 corpses per hour).
Two further double muffle furnaces were installed in the crematorium of the main camp; on December 15, 1940, all three ovens were completed.
Gassings in the main camp
Beginning of the gassings
In August 1941 Rudolf Höss was summoned to Berlin for a meeting with Adolf Eichmann in the Department of Jews IV B4 of the RSHA . While Höss was away, his deputy, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch , gassed Soviet prisoners of war in a cellar without authorization. Fritzsch therefore called himself the “inventor of the Zyklon B method”. After the successful use of Zyklon B by Karl Fritzsch, Höß and Eichmann agreed on the use of this product for the extermination of Jews.
The majority of specialist historians date the first gassing in the main camp to the beginning of September 1941; occasionally a range up to December 1941 is considered possible. According to the popular version by Danuta Czech , the process is as follows:
Block 11 was evacuated on September 2, and 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 sick people were gassed in its basement the following day. On the morning of September 4th, the basement was entered with a gas mask. Since some prisoners were still alive, Zyklon B was poured again. In the afternoon all prisoners were dead, the doors were opened and the window seals removed. On the night of September 5th, the bodies were taken from the cellar and stripped.
The crematorium command needed several days to cremate the bodies. The secrecy was broken: On November 17, 1941, the High Command of the Association of Polish Armed Resistance published a note about the gassing of 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 Polish prisoners. The date given is the night of September 5th to 6th (the transport of the corpses to the crematorium was completed on September 6th).
Gas chamber in the main camp
The ground-level morgue of the crematorium in the main camp, also known as the morgue or morgue, was converted into a gas chamber by punching holes in the ceiling. Since the room was ventilated by means of a fan and the Zyklon B could be distributed better through the insertion holes, unlike the previous gasification in the basement of Block 11, smooth operation was possible. On September 16, 1941, 900 prisoners of war were gassed in the morgue of Crematorium I for the first time. From this point on, the room was used as a gas chamber until the gassings were moved to the facilities in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The morgue was then used as a place of execution by shooting and in 1944 it was converted into an air raid shelter . After the end of the war , the crematorium and the gas chamber were reconstructed.
Birkenau
Crematorium II and III
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All four gas chamber buildings of camp part 2 (A-Birkenau concentration camp) went into operation in 1943. Crematoria II and III each contained a morgue / changing room in the basement and the adjoining gas chamber. Above that there was a crematorium on the ground floor with several ovens mounted in a row, in which the bodies of the murdered were cremated. At the end of 1943 the approximately 210 square meter gas chambers were divided. The almost identical crematoria II and III were named BW30 and BW30a. Five three-muffle ovens from the Topf company were installed in each of these crematoria . The crematorium building had a partial basement. In the construction plans, the basement rooms are referred to as morgues and later in numbered form as morgues I and II. Leichenkeller II was used as a changing room, and Leichenkeller I was used as a gas chamber. The dimensions of the gas chamber (Leichenkeller I) are 30 meters by 7 meters at a height of 2.41 meters, those of the undressing room (Leichenkeller II) are 49.5 meters by 7.9 meters and 2.30 meters high.
Crematorium II was put into operation on March 13, 1943 and was in operation continuously for 603 days until November 24, 1944. Crematorium III was in operation for about 517 days from June 25, 1943, probably until November 24, 1944. The gassings with Zyklon B were probably stopped on October 25, 1944, but no later than November 2, 1944; then the dismantling of the gas chambers began. The gas chambers were therefore in operation 20 to 30 days shorter than the crematoria.
It cannot be determined with certainty whether the original plan for Crematorium II included the use of a cellar room as a gas chamber. In the original plan from October 2, 1941, a staircase with a central slide for corpses is drawn. The length had not yet been determined, on the plans there is the note "Length as required". The double doors of Leichenkeller I were shown opening inwards. The plans were modified several times to enable Leichenkeller I as a gas chamber and Leichenkeller II as a changing room. In the plan of December 19, 1942, the double doors of Leichenkeller I are shown opening outwards. This door could be opened again without any problems after the gassing. The intended staircase with a funeral slide was removed and an entrance for SS personnel on the street side was provided. A staircase was planned at the end of Leichenkeller II, via which the later changing room could be reached.
Throw in the Zyklon B
For introducing the Zyklon B into the gas chamber, four openings were present in the ceiling, which ended a severe grid column in each. The Zyklon B was inserted into a device made of wire mesh and sheet metal and lowered into these columns on a cord or wire. The inmate Michal Kula made these wire mesh columns and described them extensively:
“[…] Among other things, the fake showers for the gas chambers and the net columns for pouring the cyclone granules into the gas chambers were manufactured in the locksmith's shop. This column was 3 meters high, with a diameter of about 70 cm. This column consisted of three nets inserted into one another. The outer net was made of 3 mm thick iron wire, which was stretched on 50 × 10 mm corner pillars. These corner pillars are located in all corners of the network and were connected in the upper part by a pillar of the same type. The mesh of the net was square and measured 45 mm. The second net was made in the same way and installed 150 mm apart within the first. The meshes of this net were square and measured approx. 25 mm. Both nets were connected in the corners by an iron bar. The third part of the column was mobile. It was an empty column made of thin zinc sheet with a diameter of about 150 mm. It ended in a cone at the top and a flat square at the bottom. About 25 mm from the edges of this column, sheet metal corner pillars were welded onto thin sheet metal rods. A fine net with square meshes about 1 mm in size was drawn over these corner pillars. This net ended at the base of the cone; from there a sheet metal frame led all the way up to the tip of the cone. The contents of a cyclone can was poured from above into the cone used for scattering [the granules], and thus an even distribution of the cyclone on all four sides of the column was achieved. After the gas had evaporated, the entire inner column was pulled up and the empty carrier granules were taken out ... "
In 2000, the Holocaust History Project and Harry W. Mazal carried out a comprehensive investigation including aerial photographs of the breakthroughs in the partially preserved ceiling of the gas chamber in Crematorium III. These were able to confirm the position of the throw-in openings described by witnesses and seen on aerial photographs by the Royal Air Force . However, the square openings found had a side length of 50 centimeters, which is why it is assumed that only the inner wire mesh was passed through the openings. The outer wire mesh in this case ended at the ceiling. An alternative explanation is that when Kula stated that he was 70 centimeters in diameter, he meant the measure from corner to corner. This would give a square area with a side length of 49.5 centimeters; the entire column would therefore fit through the openings.
Crematorium IV and V
An eight-muffle furnace from the Topf company was installed in each of the structurally identical crematoriums IV and V. The eight-muffle furnace had a mirror-image structure with four muffles (combustion chambers) on each side. Crematorium IV was decommissioned on October 7, 1944, after the Sonderkommando partially destroyed the crematorium and the gas chambers in an uprising that day. Crematorium IV was in operation for 562 days from March 22, 1943 to October 7, 1944, and crematorium V from April 4, 1943 to mid-January 1945. Until the last days before the demolition on January 26, 1945 Executions took place and bodies were burned. The crematoria did not have a basement, but were built entirely at ground level. Therefore, the gas chambers could be ventilated through the doors and did not require forced ventilation by means of a fan.
The gas chambers had a total area of 236 square meters and consisted of two large and two small rooms. The large rooms had a floor area of almost 100 square meters and could be ventilated and spaced out through doors. They could be heated by ovens to ensure the rapid release of hydrogen cyanide gas from Zyklon B even in winter . Due to the different room sizes, Zyklon B could also be gassed for smaller transports without "wasting".
The Zyklon B was thrown into the rooms from the outside through openings with gas-tight doors (30 cm × 40 cm). The openings were placed very high so that the SS disinfector (a medical grade trained to handle Zyklon B) had to pour the contents of the Zyklon B cans with a ladder.
Bunker I (Red House)
Bunker I was the farmhouse of farmer Josef Wichaj (Wiechuja), who was driven from his property. The house was not plastered and was therefore called the “Red House” or “Little Red House” because of the red bricks. It was first used for gassings on March 20, 1942, when a small group of " Schmelt Jews " were experimentally killed. On May 4, 1,000 sick camp inmates were gassed, and in the course of the month a further 5,200 Jews from the surrounding area were murdered. The first transport of Jews from Slovakia arrived on July 4, 1942; after a selection , most of the newcomers were killed in the “red house”.
The floor area was 90 square meters and was divided into two gas chambers. Zyklon B was thrown into openings on the side wall for gasification . A work detachment of around 20 men took the bodies from the gas chamber and buried them in a mass grave next to the farmhouse. The members of this work detail were later killed with phenol injections in the prisoner infirmary. The house was completely demolished in the spring of 1943.
While working on the book Auschwitz. National Socialist extermination camp , historian Franciszek Piper identified the exact location of the red house on the basis of extracts from the land register. A new house was built in 1955 on the location of the red house by the owners of the property. In 2002 the area was bought by the chairman of the French Yad Vashem committee, Richard Prasquier, from the owner Andrzej Czarnik for the sum of US $ 100,000. A team from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum removed the newly erected buildings and converted the site into a memorial.
Bunker II (White House, Bunker V, outdoor area)
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Bunker II was the farmhouse of farmer Józef Harmata, who had also been evicted. The farmhouse was plastered white and was therefore called the “White House”. It was located a few hundred meters behind the later reception building, the so-called “ central sauna ” (building BW 32), in the forest and was used as a gas chamber from mid-1942 to spring 1943 and from May 1944 to autumn 1944. In the first period of use (1942–1943) the white house was referred to as "Bunker II", in the second period of use (1944) it was referred to as "Bunker V" or "outdoor facility". The floor area was 105 square meters.
In the “White House” there were four gas chambers of different sizes, each with two doors. The ventilation and the removal of the corpses has thus been significantly simplified compared to Bunker I.
Cremation pits
The following section shows two examples of this.
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Removal of the mass graves at Bunker I + II
In the gas chambers of Bunker I and Bunker II, mass graves were created until autumn 1942 in order to remove the bodies of those gassed. During the very hot summer of 1942 this became an increasing problem as the decomposition brought gases and liquids to the surface. The stench that was perceptible in the entire area and the danger to the groundwater forced the camp management to act.
In the course of the special operation 1005 , led by SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, some mass graves were opened by the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD and the corpses burned. On September 17, 1942, Höß, accompanied by SS-Obersturmführer Franz Hößler zu Blobel, traveled to Kulmhof to have this action demonstrated. The corpses were burned on pyre and the bones were crushed with a bone grinder. After returning to Auschwitz, Hoess ordered a bone mill for Auschwitz from Schriever AG in Hanover.
The opening of the mass graves began on September 21, 1942 under the direction of Hößler. In order to be able to carry out the work, a special detachment for cremation was set up among the Jewish prisoners . First of all, the corpses were burned on pyres that were placed on railroad tracks. The bodies were later cremated in large cremation pits 30 m long, 7 m wide and 3 m deep. Wood and corpses were alternately stacked on top of one another. After the ashes had cooled down, the pits were emptied and the remains of bones in the ashes were crushed. The ashes were then driven to the Soła , a tributary of the Vistula , and poured into the river in places with strong currents. At the end of November 1942, the mass graves at Bunkers I and II were cleared.
As a result, at the beginning of December 1942, the first Sonderkommando was completely killed.
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"Hungary Action" behind Crematorium V and Bunker II
Undressed people waiting at Crematorium V; Photo by Alberto ErreraDuring the mass murder of the Hungarian Jews from spring to autumn 1944, the incoming transports were so large that these people could not be murdered by the SS alone in the short time requested. Therefore, the gas chamber in the farmhouse "Bunker II" was put back into operation , albeit under the name "Bunker V" or "outdoor facility". At that time, the crematoriums were designated as I to IV, as the crematorium in the main camp was no longer used. This resulted in the designation "Bunker V" for the gas chamber Bunker II
at this time . Both at the farmhouse "Bunker II" and behind crematorium V (called IV at that time) cremation pits were built to burn the large number of corpses can. The Sonderkommando prisoner, Alberto Errera, took two photos of the cremation pits from a door at Crematorium V and two more photos of victims in clothes standing in front of the gas chamber. These photos came into the hands of the Polish resistance on September 4, 1944. They show how members of the Sonderkommando throw the corpses lying in front of the pits into the fire of the pits.
Many prisoners in the Sonderkommando reported that there were depressions at the ends of the cremation pits, into which the fat from the corpses flowed through a central channel. This was scooped out using buckets attached to poles and poured over the corpses as fuel. Hauptscharführer Otto Moll came up with this system of channels, and when the incineration pits were being laid out, he gave precise instructions on where and how the gutters and depressions had to be laid. The aim was obviously to accelerate combustion and reduce the need for firewood.
Gas chambers
Number of persons
When assessing the capacity of the gas chambers, the historian Franciszek Piper refers to the “Tram Construction and Operating Regulations” (BOStrab) of August 31, 1965. The standing area per person is given as 0.125 square meters (eight people per square meter). This results in the following capacities for the individual gas chambers:
| designation | Floor area (m 2 ) | Number of persons |
|---|---|---|
| Bunker I. | 90 m 2 | 720 |
| Bunker II | 105 m 2 | 840 |
| Crematorium II + III | 2 × 210 m 2 | 2 × 1680 |
| Crematorium IV + V | 2 × 236 m 2 | 2 × 1888 |
| All in all | 1087 m 2 | 8696 |
Gasification and ventilation
The farmhouses and gas chambers in crematoria IV and V could be easily ventilated by opening the doors. Ventilation using a fan was not necessary due to the volatile hydrogen cyanide gas . In order to ensure rapid ventilation and thus a high throughput in the large underground gas chambers of crematoria II and III, these were forcibly ventilated. Forced ventilation was carried out using a fan with a circulation rate of 4,800 cubic meters per hour. The ventilation of the gas chambers (in the plans for Leichenkeller II) had already been provided for during construction. No ventilation was planned for the undressing room (in the plans for Morgue I). This was later retrofitted with pipes and heated with hot air from the crematorium.
Crematoria
In particular, the crematoria built in Auschwitz-Birkenau were not crematoria as understood then and now. The technical design and mode of operation is comparable to a cadaver incinerator.
Efficiency
The performance can be determined on the basis of several received documents and testimonies. The crematoria were able to burn at least 60 to 90 corpses per muffle and, according to witnesses, sometimes even more than 120 corpses in 24 hours. The nutritional status and the number of women and children under the corpses as well as the specific type of furnace (crematorium I: double muffle furnace, crematorium II and III: three muffle furnace, crematorium IV and V: eight muffle furnace) played a decisive role. The central documents indicate the planned capacity of all crematoria as 3,450 corpses per day (Kurt Prüfer, September 8, 1942) and the determined capacity of 4,756 corpses per day (Central Construction Office, June 28, 1943). These capacities were based on adult men, so that two to three times the capacity could have been achieved when cremating children.
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Kurt Prüfer to Topf & Sons (September 1942)
During the planning and construction of the Birkenau crematoria, the engineer in charge Kurt Prüfer sent an internal message to his employer on September 8, 1942. He put the capacity of the existing crematorium I with 250 corpses per day, of the crematorium II currently under construction with 800 corpses per day and the eight-muffle ovens branched off from Mogiljow with 800 corpses per day.
The letter is incorrectly reproduced several times with regard to the eight-muffle ovens with a capacity of 400 corpses per day, such as in Jan van Pelt: "The Case for Auschwitz" or in Fritjof Meyer : "New findings through new archive finds". It is not stated whether this “daily output” relates to 24 hours or a shorter period.
On November 15, 1942, after the pot three-muffle ovens had been put into operation in the Buchenwald crematorium, Kurt Prüfer demanded the compensation he had promised by the employer for the use of his free time. He states that the ovens do a third more than he intended. With regard to crematoria II and III, this would mean an increase from the planned 800 to 1067 corpses per day.
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Central Construction Management and WVHA (June 28, 1943)
On June 28, 1943, the local SS-Zentralbauleitung reported to the Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA) that the crematoria in A-Birkenau concentration camp had been completed and that they were working properly. These data are classified by Jean-Claude Pressac in "Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers" as excessive and Nazi propaganda , but are based on performance measurements of the crematoria, which according to a statement by Sonderkommando prisoner Henryk Tauber from March 4, 1943 began in Crematorium II.
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Gusen
Concentration Camp Cremation List Indications of the “efficiency” of the Topf crematoria can also be found outside of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The cremation list of the Gusen I concentration camp contains 28 entries (cremation days) on which a total of 999 corpses were cremated for the period from September 26 to November 12, 1941. This corresponds to an average of 35.7 corpses per day of cremation. On November 7, 1941, it contains an entry of 94 bodies within 20 hours. The furnace installed in Gusen is a pot double muffle furnace, as it was in crematorium I of the main camp. Extrapolated, this would result in 113 corpses per 24 hours or 56.5 corpses per muffle in 24 hours. In relation to the 52 muffles of the five Auschwitz crematoria, this would result in a total output of 2,938 corpses per 24 hours. The specified number of corpses relates to adults, as there were no children in the Gusen I concentration camp in 1941.
The arithmetical capacity of 56.5 corpses burned per muffle and 24 hours corresponds almost exactly with the values (56.6 corpses per muffle per 24 hours) for the structurally identical crematorium in the main camp (Topf double muffle furnace). On June 28, 1943, the SS-Zentralbauleitung reported a total capacity of 340 corpses in 24 hours for crematorium I (three double muffle ovens) after cremation attempts with the corpses of adult men . This results in a mathematical capacity of 56.5 corpses in 24 hours per muffle .
This purely arithmetical comparison shows that the capacity information given by the SS Central Construction Office was actually based on measurements and not - as Pressac claims - was pure SS propaganda. Furthermore, the reliability of the testimony of the Sonderkommando prisoner Henryk Tauber, who reported on these cremation attempts, is thus confirmed. Since a total of 999 corpses, i.e. 499.5 per muffle, were burned, the claim that the muffles were burned out after 300 cremations and had to be extensively repaired is refuted. The Topf crematoria were therefore able to provide the specified “service” as early as 1941.
Fuel requirement
The coke consumption of the crematorium is derived from the calculation by the Central Construction Office of March 17, 1943 . It is specified for a 12-hour shift with 2,800 kilograms each for crematoria II and III. For crematoria IV and V, 1,120 kilograms are specified for 12 hours each.
The new pot ovens used in Birkenau were very efficient for the time. The three-muffle furnace had a furnace on the left and right-hand side , which also supplied the third muffle. The eight-muffle furnace had four firings. This construction was used to save fuel, since the inner muffles do not have their own firing. In addition, the air blown in for combustion is heated by the hot exhaust gases through a so-called recuperator (a heat exchanger ) and the exhaust gas heat is thus recovered. When the corpse is cremated, energy is released. The operating instructions for the pot state that the temperature in the oven rises after each cremation. The furnace must therefore be cooled by blowing air from 1100 ° C (1000 ° C for the three-muffle furnace).
The heat released by the cremation of the corpse can be compared with the heat released by the cremation of pathological waste. This waste is classified as so-called "Type IV" waste and arises, for example, in slaughterhouses or during animal taxidermy. These are body parts and slaughterhouse waste with a maximum water content of 85 percent and a maximum of 5 percent incombustible residual substances. The Incineration Institute of America specifies a calorific value of 2300 kilojoules per kilogram (1000 BTU / pound) for this waste. The manufacturer Simonds specifies the same calorific value for its incinerator for pathological waste. The construction is based on excessive air injection and thus resembles the Topf crematoria installed in Auschwitz. The feeding interval is given by Simonds as 15 minutes.
During continuous operation, a large part of the energy required is obtained from the cremation itself. This explains the low fuel consumption in continuous operation.
special command unit
For example, a report from the “Arbeitsarbeit” department of July 28, 1944 shows that the prisoners of the Sonderkommando worked 24 hours in two 12-hour shifts on that day: 110 prisoners on the day shift and 104 prisoners worked in crematorium I (II) the night shift, in crematorium II (III) 110 prisoners on the day shift and 104 prisoners on the night shift, in crematorium III (IV) 110 prisoners on the day shift and 109 prisoners on the night shift, and in crematorium IV (V) 110 prisoners on the day shift and also 110 prisoners on the Night shift. In addition, 30 prisoners worked unloading wood in crematorium IV (V), where the bodies were also cremated in pits in the open air.
A report from the “Labor Employment” department identified 874 prisoners as “stokers of the crematoria” for all Birkenau crematoria for day and night shifts on September 7, 1944. These were monitored by twelve SS men. This number of personnel shows that a considerable part of the corpses were cremated in the crematoria, although cremation pits were also being operated behind Crematorium V at the time. This refutes Rudolf Höß ' presentation that the corpses were mostly burned in the cremation pits.
Differences from civil crematoria
Compared to a “civilian crematorium”, the crematoria installed in the concentration camps had a much higher efficiency. This was only possible by neglecting cremation laws and regulations . The corpses were cremated in the Auschwitz crematoria like cadavers or garbage and not - as in civilian crematoria - cremated with dignity. The main differences were: cremation of the corpse under direct exposure to flames, simultaneous cremation of several corpses without separating the ashes, blowing in compressed air to accelerate the fire.
Patent from the Topf company
On October 26, 1942, the Topf & Sons company filed a patent for a continuously operating corpse incinerator for mass production with the Reich Patent Office . This stove was designed by Topf engineer Fritz Sander, but was never built or used. However, the patent specification provides certain details about the crematoria that were already in use at the time:
“In the assembly camps in the occupied eastern territories caused by the war and its consequences, with their inevitably high mortality, the burial of the large number of deceased camp inmates is not feasible. On the one hand because of a lack of space and staff, on the other hand because of the direct and indirect threat in the immediate and further vicinity of those who have died from infectious diseases. There is therefore the compulsion to dispose of the constantly accumulating large number of corpses by cremation quickly, safely and hygienically. […] Of course, the Reich German “Law on Cremation” of May 15, 1934 with the supplementary “Ordinance for the Implementation of the Cremation Act” of August 10, 1938 cannot be used. [...] (sic!) It is therefore not possible to cremate only one corpse at a time and the cremation process cannot be carried out without reheating and additional heating. Rather, several corpses must be continuously cremated together at the same time, and during the entire duration of the cremation process the flames and fire gases must act directly on the corpses to be cremated. The ashes of several people who were cremated at the same time cannot be separated; the ashes can only be kept together. It is thus in the devices, which are used to pre-marked disposal of the bodies, not, cremation talk ', but it actually is a dead combustion (sic!), As is also expressed in term of patent-pending object . [...] To carry out this incineration - and even according to the above-mentioned aspects - a number of multiple muffle furnaces have been set up in individual such stores, which are naturally loaded and work periodically. As a result, these ovens are not yet fully satisfactory, because the cremation in them does not yet take place quickly enough to remove the continuously accumulating number of corpses in the shortest possible time. [...] Fritz Sander then went on to explain how his incinerator worked like a conveyor belt. "
The crematoria constructed by the Topf company in the concentration camps did not comply with the Cremation Act of May 15, 1934 and the ordinance of August 10, 1938 based on it. The Topf company was aware of this, and the crematoria were constructed and operated on behalf of the SS against the existing Cremation Act.
Tables
Efficiency
The tables below estimate the performance based on various projections. The first table shows the planned capacity per day according to Ing. Kurt Prüfer from September 1942. The information in the first line on crematorium I relates to the main camp.
| crematorium | Number of muffles | per muffle | total |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | 6th | 41.6 | 250 |
| II III |
15 15 |
53.3 | 800 800 |
| IV V |
8 8 |
100 | 800 800 |
| total | 52 | - | 3,450 |
The next table determines the capacity in 24 hours according to the estimate made by the Central Construction Office in June 1943.
| crematorium | Number of muffles | per muffle | total |
|---|---|---|---|
| I. | 6th | 56.6 | 340 |
| II III |
15 15 |
96 | 1440 1440 |
| IV V |
8 8 |
96 | 768 768 |
| total | 52 | - | 4,756 |
Without the main warehouse, the total is 4,416. The table below shows the projected capacity for 24 hours. These numbers are extrapolated based on the data from the Gusen cremation list :
| crematorium | Number of muffles | per muffle | total | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I. | 6th | 56.5 | 339 | Identical furnace type extrapolation correct |
| II III |
15 15 |
56.5 | 847.5 847.5 |
More powerful three-muffle oven extrapolation too low |
| IV V |
8 8 |
56.5 | 452 452 |
More efficient eight-muffle furnace Extrapolation too low |
| total | 52 | - | 2,938 |
Fuel requirements of the crematoria
The information on coke consumption in this table is based on an invoice dated March 17, 1943 extrapolated to 24 hours.
| crematorium | Number of muffles | per muffle (kg) | Total (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
| II III |
15 15 |
373.3 | 5,600 5,600 |
| IV V |
8 8 |
280 | 2,240 2,240 |
| total | 52 | - | 15,680 |
The maximum amount of fuel of 15 tons of coke per day corresponds to a volume of approximately 18 cubic meters. The entire maximum daily requirement could be brought to the crematoria with three to five truck trips. A room with a square footprint with a side length of 3 meters would be sufficient for a 2-meter-high fill for the storage of a complete daily requirement of the four Birkenau crematoria.
Total bill
The following section estimates the total capacity of the Birkenau crematoria and gas chambers assuming continuous operation.
| crematorium | Cremation capacity (corpses per day) | Used (days) | Total (corpses) |
|---|---|---|---|
| II | 1,440 | 603 | 868.320 |
| III | 1,440 | 517 | 744.480 |
| IV | 768 | 562 | 431,616 |
| V | 768 | 666 | 511,488 |
| total | 4,416 | - | 2,555,904 (2.6 million) |
It should be noted here that these capacities relate to the corpses of adult men. When children or extremely emaciated people are burned, a multiple capacity is possible based on the calculated value. Furthermore, corpses were cremated in cremation pits with theoretically unlimited capacity. This shows that the cremation of the bodies was not a limiting factor in disposing of the 1.1 million bodies.
| Gas chamber | Number of people per gassing | Used (days) | Total (corpses) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crematorium II | 1,680 | 573 | 962.640 |
| Crematorium III | 1,680 | 487 | 818.160 |
| Crematorium IV | 1,888 | 562 | 1,061,056 |
| Crematorium V. | 1,888 | 666 | 1,257,408 |
| Bunker I. | 720 | about 300 | 216,000 |
| Bunker II | 840 | about 800 | 672,000 |
| total |
8,696 (only crematoria II to V: 7,136 ) |
- |
4,987,264 (only crematoria II to V: 4,099,264 ) |
People were gassed several times a day, so that the actual efficiency of the gas chambers is well above these numbers. This table shows that the capacity of the gas chambers was not a technically limiting factor for the gassing of the 900,000 victims by the Nazi perpetrators.
Forms of remembrance
In the trips to Poland offered for young people in Israel , visits to the memorials of the mass murder industrialized by the National Socialists are part of every tour. In Erfurt there is also the Topf & Sons Memorial , which supplied the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with the crematorium ovens.
literature
- BauNetz ( Bertelsmann Fachinformation, Online-Architekturmagazin), Uli Meyer: BAUNETZWOCHE No. 163 - Architecture of Destruction: The Blueprints of Auschwitz , pp. 4–14, section special in the issue of February 26, 2010. (All photos for this article are from According to the author, from an album that the central administration of Auschwitz had created to document the construction phases of the camp.Some of the pictures, taken between 1942 and 1943, were included in a further album, which was reproduced and distributed to high-ranking Nazi officers and the construction sites The plans, which were initially exhibited at the Yad Vashem memorial, come from a bundle of papers that were allegedly discovered during an apartment liquidation in Berlin in 2008 and leaked to the Bild newspaper August 2009 to the Israeli government, which in turn made it available to the Yad Vashem memorial . The article is also available as a PDF and z available for download; a video of the exhibition on the plans in Jerusalem is available at Yad Vashem. There is also a booklet in English .)
- Franciszek Piper : The number of victims of Auschwitz. Auschwitz State Museum, 1993, ISBN 83-85047-17-4 .
- Jean-Claude Pressac : Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers. Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, New York 1989, OCLC 21340496 .
- Jean-Claude Pressac: The Auschwitz Crematoria. The technique of mass murder. Piper-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-492-12193-4 .
- Robert-Jan van Pelt : The Case for Auschwitz. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2002, ISBN 0-253-34016-0 .
- Fritz Bauer Institute and State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): The Auschwitz Trial, tapes, protocols and documents. Digital Library , Volume 101.
- Annegret Schüle : Technology without morals, business without responsibility. In: Irmtrud Wojak, Susanne Meinl (ed.): In the labyrinth of guilt. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-593-37373-4 , pp. 199-229.
- Danuta Czech : Calendar of events in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp 1939–1945. Rowohlt Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-498-00884-6 .
- Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, Volkhard Knigge (ed.): Technicians of the "Final Solution" Topf & Sons - The stove builders of Auschwitz. Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-935598-10-6 . (Accompanying volume to the exhibition)
- Eric Friedler , Barbara Siebert, Andreas Kilian: Witnesses from the death zone - the Jewish special command in Auschwitz. Dtv, 2005, ISBN 3-423-34158-0 .
- Eugen Kogon , Hermann Langbein , Adalbert Rückerl (ed.): National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt 1983, ISBN 3-10-040402-5 .
- Shlomo Venezia: My work in the Auschwitz Sonderkommando. Blessing-Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-89667-365-7 .
Web links
- Memorial and Museum of Auschwitz: The Mystery of the first Gas Chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau solved at last ( Memento from February 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Technician of the Final Solution. Pp. 66-67.
- ↑ Peter Longerich : The unwritten order. Hitler and the way to the final solution. Munich 2001, ISBN 3-492-04295-3 , p. 124: “in September or December 1941” / see Christopher Browning: Die Entfesslung der Finallösung. National Socialist Jewish Policy. Munich 2003, ISBN 3-549-07187-6 , p. 513 f. with notes 205–209; Robert Jan van Pelt: Auschwitz. In: Günther Morsch, Bertrand Perz: New studies on National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-940938-99-2 , p. 201, note 13.
- ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar. P. 118, according to the statements of prisoners Jan Krokowski, Michal Kula and Wieslaw Kielar in the trial against Rudolf Höß. When determining the exact date, Czech adhered to a report of the “High Command of the Association of Polish Armed Resistance” dated November 17, 1941, which states that the cremation will end on September 5–6. In connection with the testimony of witnesses about the duration, September 4th results as the day of the first gassing.
- ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar. P. 119.
- ↑ See Danuta Czech: Kalendarium. Pp. 119, 122 and more often; Sybille Steinbacher: Auschwitz. History and post-history . 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2007, p. 80.
- ^ Robert-Jan van Pelt , Debórah Dwork: Auschwitz. From 1270 until today . Pendo Verlag, Zurich / Munich 1998, ISBN 3-85842-334-3 , p. 400 f.
- ↑ See Danuta Czech: Kalendarium. P. 440.
- ^ Danuta Czech: Calendar. P. 921, 933 and witnesses from the death zone. Pp. 288, 290, 295: Lejb Langfuß dated the last gassing on October 24, 1944. In the calendar this gassing is dated on October 25, 1944 and there are reports of three further gassings. The gassings were stopped on November 2nd according to the de Czech calendar. A handwritten note from the member of the Sonderkommando Lejb Langfuß dates the start of the dismantling of the technical facilities for Crematorium II on November 25, 1944 and then the dismantling of the facilities in Crematorium III. The dismantling of the facilities in Crematorium III probably started on the same day. Aerial photographs from November 21st show that the ceiling of the dressing room was removed (probably by blowing up). Aerial photographs from November 29th show that the crematorium buildings are still standing.
- ↑ Mazal Library: Aerial photograph of the dropping holes in crematorium III (referred to as crematorium II according to the Birkenau census, which does not take into account crematorium I in the main camp).
- ^ Sybille Steinbacher : Auschwitz. History and post-history . 2nd edition, CH Beck, Munich 2007, p. 101; Sybille Steinbacher: The history of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau 1940–1945 . In: Raphael Gross, Werner Renz (eds.): The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963–1965). Annotated source edition . Vol. 1, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 52.
- ^ Robert Jan van Pelt: Auschwitz. In: Günther Morsch, Bertrand Perz: New studies on National Socialist mass killings by poison gas. Berlin 2011, p. 207.
- ^ Martin Broszat : Commandant in Auschwitz. Dtv, Munich 1963, p. 244 (20th edition 2006, ISBN 3-423-30127-9 ) / Andrej Angrick : "Aktion 1005" - removal of traces of Nazi mass crimes 1942-1945: A "secret Reich affair" in the area of tension between Turn of the war and propaganda. Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3268-3 , Vol. 1, pp. 198-220.
- ↑ Gerald Reitlinger : The Final Solution: Hitler's Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe 1939-1945. Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1956, pp. 153-154 (7th edition, ISBN 3-7678-0807-2 ).
- ↑ Eric Friedler , Barbara Siebert, Andreas Kilian: Witnesses from the death zone - the Jewish special command in Auschwitz. Dtv, 2005, pp. 214-217.
- ↑ Eric Friedler, Barbara Siebert, Andreas Kilian: Witnesses from the death zone - the Jewish special command in Auschwitz. Dtv, 2005, p. 184.
- ↑ §% 2031 Tram Construction and Operating Regulations from August 31, 1965 ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Letter of September 8, 1942 Ing. Prüfer to Topf on the Holocaust History Project
- ↑ Letter of November 15, 1942 Kurt Prüfer to Topf regarding compensation for the leisure time used in the construction of the three-muffle ovens
- ↑ Original letter from the Central Construction Office to WVHA from June 28, 1942 on Topf und Sons ( Memento from January 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Copy of the letter Zentralbauleitung to WVHA dated June 28, 1942 from Pressac: "Technique and Operation ..." on the Holocaust History Project
- ^ Statement by Henryk Tauber on the performance tests in Crematorium II at Mazal Library
- ↑ a b Cremation list of the Gusen concentration camp on the Holocaust History Project
- ↑ Coke consumption file note of March 17, 1943 on the Holocaust History Project
- ↑ Operating instructions for Topf three-muffle oven
- ↑ Manufacturer's website with information from the "Incineration Institute of America" for type IV waste ( Memento from June 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Simond's pathological incinerator for type IV waste ( memento of the original from January 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Franciszek Piper: The number of victims of Auschwitz. P. 25.
- ^ Martin Broszat: Commandant in Auschwitz. P. 249: Most of the gassed people were burned in pits behind Crematorium IV.
- ↑ Selfie before ... In: Jüdische-Allgemeine from December 7, 2016 (online)
- ↑ A place of remembrance, Topf & Sons - The stove builders of Auschwitz. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
