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From: mvanalstnot@home.com (Mark Van Alstine)
Newsgroups: alt.revisionism
Subject: Re: Remarkable Nonsense -- 'Instantaneous' Two-Day-Long Gassings
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References: <377F8FB5.F309EE7C@corax.org>
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In article <377F8FB5.F309EE7C@corax.org>, raven@corax.org (Greg "Hitler
was a great man" Raven) wrote:

[snip]

> "3. The Duration of the Gassing
>
> "Rudolf Höss declared that, on the occasion of the first gassing 
> accomplished by his deputy Fritzsch, the Zyklon B provoked 'the
> immediate death' (den sofortigen Tod) of the victims. (fn 20) 
> The article in the Polish Fortnightly Review reports instead that
> 'all the prisoners died during the night. All night the rest of the 
> camp was kept awake by the moans and screams originating from
> the shelter.' Finally, the Polish Investigation Commission asserts 
> that 'next afternoon' some prisoners were still alive, 'therefore
> further cyclon was poured out and the doors again tightly closed, 
> to be reopened the next evening, when all the prisoners were
> dead.' Therefore, all the victims died immediately, or during the night, 
> or two days later."

  

August [1941] [1]

Rudolph Höss takes part in a conference of the Jewish Section, IV-B-4, of
the RSHA in Berlin, whose director is Adolf Eichmann. At this conference,
problems concerning the planned extermionation of the Jews in Auschwitz
are discussed. Eichmann's deputies in the individual region report on the
state of the operation and on difficulties in carrying it out, e.g.,
accomodations for prisoners, availablility of trains for transports,
scheduling, etc.

August [1941] [2]

In Hoss's absence, Camp Commander SS Captain Karl Fritzsch used the gas
Zyklon B to Kill Russian POW's. 

[...]

September 3 [1941] [3]

After the success of the experimentral killing of a small group of Russian
prisoners of war with gas, ordered by Karl Fritsch a few days earlier, the
camp admnistration decides to repeat the experiment in the cellar of Block
11. This no doubt has to do with the news that the Gestapo is planning to
send a large transport of officers, Peoples Commissars, and Russian
prisoners of war for liquidation. In this connection, Camp Doctor SS
Captain Dr. Siegfried Schwela orders a selection in the prisoner's
infirmary, in which about 250 inmates are selected. The attendants are
instructed to take the selected prisoners to the bunker of Block 11 and to
bring a few of them there on strechers. In the bunker they are crammed
together in a few cells. The cellar windows are blocked up with earth.
Then about 600 Russian POW's, officers and people's commissars are driven
into the cellar. They have been chosen in the camp's prisoner-of-war
section by the Gestapo commandos. As soon as they are pushed intoi the
cells and the SS men have thrown in the Zyklon B gas, the doors are locked
and sealed. [4] This operation takes place after the evening roll call,
after announcemnet of a so-called camp curfew, during which prisoners are
forbidden to leave the blocks and move around the camp.

September 4

In the morning Roll Call Leader Gerhard Palitzsch, protected by a gas
mask, opens the doors and discovers that one of the POW's is still alive.
More Zyklon B is poured and the doors are closed once more.

[...]

In the afternoon all the doors of the bunker in Block 11 are opened and
unsealed after it is certain that the second dose of Zyklon B has killed
the Russian POW's and the Polish prisoners. There is a wait until the gas
has evaporated. After evening roll call, another camp curfew is ordered.

In the eveing Roll Call Leader Palitzsch summons twenty prisoners from the
Penal Company in Block 5a as well as all the hospital orderlies and two
prisoners, Eugeniusz Obojski and Teofil Bansiuk, who are put to work as
corpse bearers. They are given two carts to thransport the bodies to the
morgue and the crematorium. All are taken to the courtyard of Block 11.
They are told in advance that they haver been put on a special work detail
and are not to tell anyone what they see, under the penalty of death. At
the same time they are promised they will recieve larger portions of food.


In the courtyard of Block 11, SS officer Fritzsch, Naier, and Palitzsch,
the Camp Doctor Schwela, and the SS men who occupy positions as Block
Leaders are already there. Prisoners Obijski and Bansiuk recieve gas masks
and go with Palitzsch and the SS men, who also wear gas masks, to the
cellar of Block 11. They return from the cellar without gas masks to show
that the gas has evaporated. The prisoners are divided into four groups.
One group, with gas masks, hauls the bodies of the murdered men out of the
cellar to the ground floor; the seconf group strips the bosies; the third
group carries the bodies to the courtyard of Block 11, where they are
loaded onto the trucks by the foutth group. The Russian prisoners of war
are dressed in uniforms; in the pockets are documents, family photos,
money, and various trinkets, and cigarettes. In the courtyard, under the
supervision of the SS men, seven dentists extract gold crowns and teeth
from the corpses. The prisoners pull the cart loaded with the bodies of
the prisoners of war and the Polish prisoners from the courtyard of Block
11 to the crematorium, accompanied by Onojski and Bansiuk under the
supervision of the SS men. Among the murdered are also the bodies of the
10 inmates who were locked in the bunker and condemned to death by
Fritzsch on September 1 in retaliation for the escape of Jan Nowaczek. The
bodies of the prisoners selected in the hospital are in underwear. The
hauling, stripping, searching, and transporting of the bodies lasts until
dawn and is not finished.

September 5

[...]

After evening roll call, a camp curfew is ordered. The same prisoners who
were detailed the night before march into the courtyard of Block 11 to
complete the transporting of the bodies to the crematorium. There the
corpses are laid in a big, long hall [5] which is already half full. The
crematorium unit cannot keep up with the cremation of corpses. It is a few
more days before all the bodies are incinerated. [6]

September 16

[...]

900 Russian POWs are killed with gas. This takes place in the morgue of
the crematorium because the use of the cellar in Block 11 would be too
complicated. [7]



Source: Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, pp.83-87, 89-90.

1. "Höss writes in his memoirs that this discussion took place at the end
of November: 'I didn't hear anything about the start-up of the operation.
And Eichmann hadn't obtained any suitable gas.' This discussion must have
taken place before the gas Zyklon B was used at Auschwitz, thus the end of
August." (cf. Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.83fn.) 

2. "Following Hitler's order of March 30,1941 and the guidelines worked
out by the High Command of the Armed Forces for the treatment of political
commissars of June 6, 1941 (NO-1076), and on the basis of operational
order No. 8 issued by the Head of the RSHA Heydrich on July 17, 1941,
small groups of political functionaries are sent to Auschwitz by the
Gestapo in August. They are selected in the POW camp to be liquidated. The
time of admission and the size of this group cannot be ascertained because
of the lack of documents. In his autobiography, Rudolf Höss writes: 'In
accordance with a secret order issued by Hitler, these Russian _politruks_
and political commissars were searched out in all the prisoner-of-war
camps by special Gestapo commandos. When identified, they were transferred
to the nearest concentration camp for liquidation... The political
officials of the Red Army thus identified were brought to Auschwitz for
liquidation. The first, smaller transports were shot by execution
commandos. While I was away on duty, my deputy, Fritzsch, the Protective
Custody Commander, first tried gas for these killings. It was a
preparation of prussic acid, called Zyklon B, which was used in the camp
as an insecticide and of which there was always a stock on hand. On my
return, Fritzsch reported this to me, and the gas was used again for the
next transport." In the notes titled by Höss "The Solution to the Jewish
Question in Auschwitz Concentration Camp," he writes the following: 'In
the autumn of 1941 a secret order was issued instructing the Gestapo to
weed out the Russian _politruks_, commissars, and certain political
officals from the prisoner-of-war camps, and to transfer them to the
nearest concentratio camps for liquidation. Small transports of these
prisoners were continually arriving at Auschwitz and they were shot in the
gravel pit near the Tobacco Monopoly buildings or in the courtyard of
Block 11. When I was absent for on duty, my deputy, Captain Fritzsch, on
his own initiative used gas for killking those Russian prisoners of war.
He crammed the underground detention cells with Russians and, protected by
a gas mask, discharged Zyklon B gas into the cells, killing the victims
instantly' (Höss, _Commandant in Auschwitz_, pp.123ff, 159). Höss mentions
neither the number of the murdered Russian prisoners of war nor the place
where Zyklon B was used." (cf. Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.84-85fn.) 

3. The date comes from an analysis of the statements of former prisoners
and of the Bunker Register, in which between August 31 and September 5 no
entries occur regarding admission of prisoners into the bunker. (cf.
Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.85fn.) 

4. "In his autobiography Rudolf Höss s writes: 'The gassing was carried
out in the detention cells of Block 11. Protected by a gas mask, I watched
the killing myself. In the crowded cells death came instantaneously the
moment the Zyklon B was thrown in. A short, almost smothered cry, and it
was all over" (Höss, _Commandant in  Auschwitz_, p.126)." (cf. Czech,
_Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.86fn.) 

5. "The morgue is later changed into a gas chamber. Prisoners are also
shot there." (cf. Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.87fn.) 

6. "The news of the death of about 600 Russian POW's and some 250 Polish
prisoners by gas leaks out. On November 17, 1941, in _Informator biezacy_,
the underground bulletin of the high command of the Federation for Armed
Struggle, a notice about it appears. 'The night of September 5 to
September 6" is given as the date, i.e. the day on which the transport of
the bodies to the crematorium is completed (CA KC PZPR, 202/III-7,
Documents of the Delegation of the Polish Government in Exile, p.12)."
(cf. Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.87fn.) 

7. "This probably happened in September, for Höss writes in autobiography,
'During this first experiance of gassing people, I did not fully realize
what was happening, perhaps because I was too impressed by the whole
procedure. I have a clearer recollection of the gassing if nine hundred
Russians, which took place shortly afterward in the old crematorium, since
the use of Block 11 for this purpose caused too much trouble. While the
transport was detraining, holes were pierced in the earth and concrete
ceiling of the mortuary. The Russians were ordered to undress in an
anteroom; they then quietly entered the mortuary, for they had been told
they were to be deloused. The whole transport exactly filled the mortuary
to capacity. The doors were then sealed and the gas shaken down through
the holes in the roof. I do not know how long this killing took. For a
little while a humming sound could be heard. When the powder was thrown
in, there were cries of 'Gas!' then a great bellowing and the trapped
prisoners hurled themselves against both doors. But the doors held. They
were opened several hours later, so that the place might be aired. It was
then that I saw, for the first time, gassed bodies in the mass... I must
even admit that this gassing calmed me, for the mass extermination of the
Jews had to start soon, and at that time neither Eichmann nor I had any
idea how these killings were to be carried out in the expected mass... Now
we had discovered the gas and also the method.' (Höss, _Commandant in
Auschwitz_, pp.126ff)." (cf. Czech, _Auschwitz Chronicle_, p.90fn.) 

For a compendium of Mr. Raven's scurrilous Holocaust denial, Nazi apologia
and lies, please peruse Deja.com and visit the Nizkor Project at:

http://www.deja.com/
http://www.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi?people/r/raven.greg

Mark

-- 
"Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and
 evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between
 political parties--but right through every human heart--and all 
 human hearts." -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, "The Gulag Archipelago"

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