Chelmno. A German Camp in History and Propaganda
Carlo Mattogno
C helm no
A German Camp
in History and Propaganda
THE BARNES REVIEW P.O. Box 15877, Washington, D.C. 20003, USA November 2011
HOLOCAUST HANDBOOK SERIES— Volume 23:
Chelmno: A German Camp in History & Propaganda
Originally published in Italian in 2009 as // campo di Chelmno tra storia e propaganda, by Effepi, Genoa.
First U.S. edition by The Barnes Review: November 201 1 By Carlo Mattogno
Translated from the Italian by Albert Richardson & Santiago Alvarez
ISBN: 978-1-59148-101-0 ISSN: 1529-7748
Published by THE BARNES REVIEW
Copyright 201 1 by Carlo Mattogno and The Barnes Review
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Set in Times New Roman
ON THE COVER: Top: A photo of the remains of the Waldlager Crematoria at the Chelmno camp. It is alleged that tens of thousands — if not over a million — Jewish prisoners were gassed to death and their bodies burned in cremation ovens. Left, a plaque pays homage to those who died at Chelmno (photo © by Carlo Mattogno). Right, a memorial to the "forest victims." This forest location near the prison is also alleged to be a site of mass murder. Panorama at bottom shows the city of Chelmno.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno 5
Contents
Page
Introduction 7
1. The Orthodox "Gas Van" History 9
2. The Alleged Hitler Order, Zyklon B & CO 17
3. The Construction Order for the Chelmno Camp 23
4. "Gas Vans" in Chelmno? 32
5. The "First Systematic Extermination of Jews in the Warthegau" 47
6. The First Testimony: The "Szlamek" Report 51
6. 1 . Origin of the Report 5 1
6.2. General Characteristics of Report 52
6.3. Structure and Function of a "Gas Van" 53
6.4. The Color of the Corpses 55
6.5. The Mass Graves 56
7. Postwar Witnesses 59
7.1. TheSS 59
7.2. The Inmates 61
7.2.1. Mordechai or Mordka or Mieczyslaw Zurawski 6 1
7.2.2. Shimon Srebrnik 63
7.2.3 . Michal or Mordka Podchlebnik 67
7.2.4. How Many and What Kind(s) of "Gas Vans"
Operated in 1944? 69
7.2.5. The "Testament" of the Last Prisoners of Chelmno 70
8. The Cremation of the Bodies of the Alleged Victims 73
8.1. The Purpose of Cremation 73
8.2. The Alleged Mission of Blobel at Chelmno 74
8.3. Hoss's Visit to the Aktion Reinhardt Field Ovens 76
8.4. Did Hoss Visit the Chelmno Camp? 78
8.5. "Bone Mill" or "Ball Mill"? 79
9. The Chelmno "Crematoria" 83
9.1. Construction and Operation 83
9.2. The Oven's Capacity and Wood Requirement 89
9.3. Contradictions Surrounding the Activity of the Crematoria 89
9.4. The Chelmno "Crematoria" and "Field Ovens Aktion Reinhardt" 91
6 Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
10. Excavations and Archaeological Findings 95
10.1. Investigations of Judge Bednarz and the Konin Museum 95
10.2. The Map of the Camp 97
10.3. Investigations of 2003-2004 99
10.4. The Results of the Investigations 101
11. The Alleged Number of Victims 107
12. Jewish Deportation Transports to Chelmno 113
12.1. Transports from Warthegau to the Lodz Ghetto 113
12.2. The Deportations to Chelmno 114
12.3. Who Was Evacuated and Why? 117
12.4. Operations Ceased in 1943 and Resumed in 1944 - Why? 121
13. The Alleged Gassings in 1944: Chelmno and Auschwitz 123
14. The Alleged Murder of Gypsies and the Children of Lidice 131
14.1. The Gypsies 131
14.2. The Children of Lidice 134
15. The Destination of the Deported Jews 137
16. The Value of the Content of the Court Verdict 143
17. Conclusions 147
18. Appendices 149
18.1. Lodz Ghetto Children Deported from Auschwitz to Stutthof... 149
18.2. Documents 151
18.3. Abbreviations 179
18.4. Bibliography 181
18.5. Index of Names 187
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
1
Introduction
The alleged extermination camp at Chelmno (German: Kulmhof), a town in Poland in the region of Warta, called Warthegau by the Ger- mans during the Second World War, is of major importance in orthodox Holocaust historiography, because it is claimed to be the first "death camp" built to serve the genocidal agenda of which the Germans are ac- cused. Unlike other camps established afterward, it is not said to have been equipped with stationary gas chambers, but with "Gaswagen" (gas vehicles), mobile gassing trucks which allegedly used engine exhaust gas to kill human beings. The camp is said to have operated, with occa- sional periods of inactivity, in two phases: from 8 December 1941 - the day it opened - to 7 April 1943, and again from April 1944 to January 1945, killing a total of 152,000 to 340,000 people (Jackel et al, vol. I, p. 280; see chapter 1 1).
Documentation about it is almost nonexistent, which is why the pic- ture outlined by orthodox Holocaust historiography is based almost ex- clusively on court records, which is to say, it is in practice based on tes- timony. But even these data are rather limited: they have only permitted the preparation of the odd leaflet by some Polish historians and a few articles by Western historians. As Israeli historian Shmuel Krakowski, who is currently the world's leading Holocaust expert of the orthodox persuasion, wrote (Krakowski 1995, p. 55):
"Research on the extermination camp at Chelmno upon Ner oc- cupies a very small place in Holocaust historiography. " His 2007 study of this camp, despite its stated intention to "expand the state of knowledge" and to "try to complete what has not been taken into account in the existing literature" (Krakowski 2007, p. 10) actually reflects the total historical-documentary inconsistency of the orthodox Holocaust historiography about Chelmno. He reaffirms, among other things, that "sources on the Chelmno camp are extremely few, hence the insignificant number of publications on the topic" (ibid, p. 11). In the revisionist school, the most important historiographic contribution is the 2003 article by Ingrid Weckert "What Was Kulmhof/Chelmno?" These
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
studies have inevitably left many gray areas, and the history of the Chelmno camp is still in many aspects enigmatic.
One of the most important issues, raised in 1999 by Bertrand Perz and Thomas Sandkiihler, concerns the relationship between Chelmno and "Aktion Reinhardt," but even more important is the relationship be- tween the "field ovens" of Chelmno and cremation at Auschwitz (see Mattogno 2008). The existence of "gas vans" during the Second World War is very controversial and is disputed by Revisionist scholars (see Marais 1994; Weckert 2003; Alvarez 2011). However, the interpreta- tion of documents relating to the alleged "gas vans" (called Sonderwagen, Sonderfahrzeuge, and Spezialwagen) is not the direct ob- ject of this study, which restricts the scope of its investigation to deter- mining whether such vehicles might have actually been used for the purpose of extermination at Chelmno. Yet even in this limited scope, it is important to initially examine the decision-making process and tech- nical development that would be required to lead to the construction of the "gas vans."
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
9
1. The Orthodox "Gas Van" History
In a paper setting out the conclusions of Holocaust historiography on the origins of the "gas van," Mathias Beer notes that the first document on this issue dates from 26 March 1942, so that
"the route of decisions leading to the construction and the opera- tion/usage of these vans remains obscure. " (Beer 1987, p. 404; all subsequent page numbers from the German version unless stated otherwise)
He claims that the well-known trials held since 1945 can remedy this lack of documentation, although he warns {ibid.):
"However, the historian is not entitled to use court verdicts with- out examining them, because justice and historiography pursue dif- ferent ends. For him [the historian] primarily witness testimonies are important, because they help to fill the gaps in the sources. But due to their peculiarities testimonies can be treated on an equal footing with documents, for example, and be used profitably by historical research only if certain principles are observed. The basic require- ment is not to abandon the link between witness statements and doc- uments which have been subject to thorough sources criticism, that is to say, to always connect the probable with a certain fact. [But] even in this way we cannot respond satisfactorily to every question. " As there are no documents which can be used as a basis of compari- son, this means that for Chelmno the testimonies cannot constitute his- torical sources, so that there cannot even exist a genuine historiography for this camp.
Beer follows the technical development of a euthanasia "gas van" through the intermediate stage of the "Kaisers-Kaffee-Wagen" ("Kai- ser's Coffee Cart" (p. 404f):
"Testimonies exist which report that during the evacuation of nursing homes for the mentally ill in Poland in 1939-1940, a hermet- ically sealed trailer was used with the words "Kaiser's coffee shop" [Kaisers-Kaffee-Geschdft] on it, which was towed by a tractor. In the trailer sick persons are said to have been killed with pure carbon
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
monoxide (CO) injected from steel cylinders. Precisely because there are no documents, the origin of this vehicle cannot be clari- fied. However, there are indications that allow us to answer the question whether there is a link between 'Kaiser's coffee' van and gas vans. "
Then he sets out the Holocaust thesis on euthanasia (p. 405):
"In a letter dated 1 September 1939, Hitler authorized his per- sonal physician Dr. Karl Brandt and Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler of the Fuhrer fs Chancellery ' to carry out the 'euthanasia. ' The Insti- tute for Criminological Technology (Kriminaltechnische Institut, KTI) in the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) was charged with testing suitable killing methods, which concluded that the most appropriate method was killing with CO. After an experimental gassing was conducted in early 1940 in the former prison of Brandenburg/Havel - mentally ill persons were killed using CO in an airtight room - this procedure was also used in all other 'euthanasia ' institutions. The Fuhrer 's Chancellery re- ceived the necessary CO under the cover of the KTI on the basis of a conversation between Head of the Office [Viktor] Brack and [Al- bert] Widmann, head of section V D 2 (chemistry and biology). On the orders of [Arthur] Nebe, head of the Amt V (crime fighting unit) of the RSHA, SS-Untersturmfuhrer [August] Becker collected the steel cylinders at the IG Farben plant in Ludwigshafen and brought them to individual institutions. "
It must be emphasized here that the reconstruction regarding the use of carbon monoxide bottles for homicidal purposes is based exclusively on testimonies (note 14-18, p. 405), which moreover were made rather late.1 But since, as M. Beer rightly points out, justice and historiography pursue different ends, these legal testimonies have no historiographic value due to the total absence of documents. In fact, there is no docu- mentary evidence:
1) that the euthanasia centers were equipped with carbon monoxide gas chambers,
2) that cylinders of carbon monoxide were used for homicidal purposes by the euthanasia centers,
3) and that the IG-Farben plant in Ludwigshafen supplied bottled car- bon monoxide to the euthanasia centers.
The sources are statements made by German defendants in 1959 andl960 in connection with investigations by the Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen in Ludwigsburg.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
11
In addition, there is no documentary evidence either that the KTI, the Institute for Criminological Technology, had experimented with killing procedures, that it had chosen carbon monoxide as a means of killing and that at the beginning of 1940, in the former prison of Brandenburg upon Havel, an experiment was carried out with a CO gas chamber. M. Beer then returns to the "Kaiser's coffee" vans (p. 405f):
"The 'Kaiser's coffee' vans operated on the same principle as the gas chambers of the 'euthanasia' institutions. In a trailer CO was released through pipes from a steel cylinder placed in the tow- ing vehicle. Hence it was a gas chamber on wheels. Testimonies state that from December 1939 on mentally ill persons in nursing homes in Pomerania, East Prussia and Poland were killed in these vehicles by the Sonderkommando Lange. The name of the Komman- do derived from its leader SS-Obersturmfuhrer and police adviser Herbert Lange. The letter from Higher SS- and Police Leader [Wil- helm] Koppe to SS-Gruppenfuhrer [Jakob] Sporrenberg explains the use of this Kommando at Soldau:
'The so-called Lange Sonderkommando for special tasks sub- ordinated to me was seconded to Soldau, East Prussia, during the period of 21 May to 8 June 1940 in accordance with the agreement made with the RSHA, and in that time has evacuated 1,558 patients from the Soldau transit camp. ' Lange brought along one of these vans either from the RSHA (as is implied by the statements of Gustav Sorge and the important role of the Group II D, technical matters, within the RSHA in the pro- gressive development of the gas van), or he himself had it manufac- tured in collaboration with the RSHA. "
Beer expressed the suspicion that Lange had "the task of field- testing this vehicle" and adds that immediately after this task his Soldau Sonderkommando was disbanded, and from this moment "there are no more reports on the use of such vehicles." (p. 406)
The connection between the alleged "Kaiser's coffee" vans and the alleged CO gas chambers at the euthanasia institutions is in fact totally inconsistent, since there is no documentary evidence that either actually existed. Koppe 's letter quoted above neither demonstrates the existence of a "Kaiser's coffee" van nor its homicidal use. And strictly speaking it doesn't demonstrate either that the Lange Sonderkommando had killed 1,558 persons, because it speaks simply of an evacuation from a transit camp.
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Before describing the alleged technical development from "Kaiser's coffee" vans to the "gas van," it is necessary to explain the decision- making process that would have motivated it. In this connection M. Beer writes (p. 407):
"On 15 and 16 August 1941 Himmler was in Baranovichi and Minsk and witnessed a shooting in the area of Einsatzgruppe B. The Higher SS- and Police leaders of Central Russia, von dem Bach- Zelewski, who was present, later reported that Himmler was visibly shaken. Then Himmler visited a nursing home for the mentally ill and subsequently ordered the head of Einsatzgruppe B, Nebe, to seek ways to end as soon as possible the suffering of these people, because after experiencing the shooting he had concluded that 'shooting was certainly not the most humane way. ' He was to submit a 'report' on this. Himmler turned to Nebe, because the KTI, which answered to Amt V, had already distinguished itself in experimenting with killing methods in the context of 'euthanasia, ' so that now its experience could be utilized. "
But no document exists for this anecdote either. Its sole support al- legedly comes from former SS Obergruppenfuhrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski in a statement published on 23 August 1946 in the New York Jewish newspaper Aufbau and repeated in 1960 by Karl Wolff, Himmler's adjutant (note 30, p. 407). It concerns an interrogation rec- ord drawn up for the Nuremberg trials. Before introducing the story, the German official declared that the extermination of the Jews "had been deliberately planned before the war by Heinrich Himmler" and that "Himmler had consequently focused on war in order to fulfill his plans" (Bach-Zelewski, p. 1). These are nonsensical claims to which not even the most obtuse intentionalist would subscribe. This is followed by a description of the alleged Jewish shooting, without even an indication of the year! (Bach-Zelewski, p. 2)
M. Beer's narrative continues (p. 407):
"Nebe was at the same time head of Amt V of the RSHA. In this
function he sent Widmann to Minsk with explosives and two metal
hoses in early September. "
They allegedly used the explosives to blow up a bunker which the mentally ill were forced to enter, but the result was not satisfactory, so a gassing experiment was carried out in a nursing home in Mogilev by cutting two holes into the wall of a sealed room, to which two vehicles were hooked up using the metal hoses. Beer concludes (pp. 408f):
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
13
"The two experiments convinced Nebe that the only feasible idea was killing by exhaust gas, which most probably is to be attributed to him. But for the Einsatzgruppen, for whom the new 'more hu- mane' killing method was sought, a stationary gas chamber, in which people could be killed with exhaust gas, was of no use. In or- der to fulfill its purpose, it had to be mobile. Based on these consid- erations and the experience so far gained, the KTI project to build gas vans was born. Nebe and [SS-Sturmbannfiihrer, head of the KTI Walter] Heess suggested such a proposal to their superior Heydrich, head of the Security Police and Security Service. " Here we need to examine the account by Widmann, on which M. Beer relies, in order to examine the reliability of these later anecdotal sources. The premise of the two killing "experiments" mentioned above is that it was not possible to transport cylinders of carbon monoxide (CO) to Russia. Why was it not possible? Widmann does not explain this. He received from Nebe, through his deputy Werner, an order to procure 250 kg of explosives. In an excess of zeal, Widmann bought 400 kg. To say the least, an exorbitant amount for a killing "experi- ment," certainly more suitable for a mass extermination. The idea of the "experimental" gassing allegedly came to Nebe, who is rumored to once have fallen asleep in his car in the garage (with the engine run- ning!) and thus had nearly died! Widmann then also obtained two metal hoses. With these materials he went to Minsk. The first "experiment" was performed in a forest near the city, where there were "two shelters" 3 m x 6 m. In one of the two, explosive charges were placed, and the mentally ill persons brought from a mental hospital in Minsk were made to enter. Then the charges were detonated. Since not all were dead after the first time, they reloaded more explosives and pulled the trigger once more. Result: 250 kg of explosives used to kill 18 people, but un- fortunately their body parts had been scattered all over the place, some of them hanging in the surrounding trees! Smart as the Germans were, they subsequently concluded that blowing up people was messy and in- efficient.
Widmann then moved to Mogilev. In a mental hospital, among other buildings, a laboratory was chosen to carry out the gassing. The win- dow was walled up, leaving two holes for inserting two metal hoses. In- itially only one was inserted into a hole and was connected to the ex- haust pipe of a car. Then 5 to 6 mentally ill persons were made to enter the room. At this point, "Nebe entered the building, where the inside of
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
the laboratory could be seen through a glass window in the door." So a room with a door and with a "glass window" had been chosen as a "gas chamber"!
Because after 8 minutes no effect could be observed, Widmann and Nebe came to the conclusion that the gas flow was insufficient, so the second hose was inserted into the hole and connected to a truck; after "a few minutes," the victims became unconscious. Widmann says nothing about the type of engine of the two motor vehicles. Leaving aside the absurdity of the "5 -meter-high flames" which came out of the chimney of the crematorium of the Pirna euthanasia institute (which in his opin- ion was caused by the fact that too many corpses were cremated togeth- er),2 I note only that such massive disorganization, such ridiculous in- competence, such gross carelessness is utterly irreconcilable with the procedures of the Institute for Criminological Technology of the RSHA. Hence the testimony is totally unbelievable, the witness utterly untrust- worthy.
Let's go back to Beer's story. In October 1941 Heydrich allegedly turned to SS-Obersturmfuhrer Walter Rauff, head of Group II D 3, technical issues (Technische Angelegenheiten), whose section II D 3a, Automotive Division of the Security Police (Kraftfahrwesen der Sicher- heitspolizei), was directed by SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Friedrich Pradel, who, according to Beer (p. 410),
"gave [Harry] Wentritt [head of Section II D 3 a, repair work- shop] the task of verifying whether it was possible to inject the ex- haust gases in the enclosed body of a van. After Wentritt had con- firmed this, Pradel ordered Rauff to get in touch with Heess. They explained to him how such a truck had to be modified in order to work. Then, on Rauff s orders, Pradel and Wentritt visited the Gaub- schat company in Berlin-Neukolln, who specialized in the construc- tion of van coachworks, pretending to need vehicles to carry away the bodies of victims of typhus epidemics. "
As soon as the first van was ready, it was taken to the workshop of the office II D 3 a, where it was allegedly converted into a "gas van" by connecting a metal hose to the exhaust pipe, which piped the exhaust gases into the van's cargo box. This "gas van" was then brought to the KTI, where analyses of the exhaust gas taken from the van's cargo box were carried out. Beer continues (p. 41 1):
2 Interrogation of Albert Widmann on 1 1 January 1960. ZSL, Az. 202 AR-Z 152/59, pp. 44-53.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
15
"A short time later an experimental gassing took place at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (where the KTI had a work- shop), which also involved SS officers in addition to Heess and the two chemists Leiding and Hoffmann. "
In this way, according to Beer, the prototype of the "gas van" was built and tested. Regarding their use, he states (p. 412):
"If we start from the time of the experimental gassing in Sach- senhausen and given the time required for the modification of vehi- cles, between eight to fourteen days or so, plus the time required to drive the vehicles to their operational area, it seems that the first gas van could have been used only starting in late November early De- cember 1941. The first use of a gas van can be documented in the operational area of Einsatzgruppe C at Sonderkommando 4a at Pol- tava. "
The conclusion of this labored story takes us to the specific theme of this study {ibid.):
"The use of gas vans is attested to for 8 December [1941] at
Chelmno by the previously mentioned Sonderkommando Lange. "
In this reconstruction, nothing is documented: the experimental gas- sing at Mogilev, the transformation of a van into a "gas van," the exper- imental gassing in Sachsenhausen, the first use of gas vans; all that is left to mere testimonies.
In conclusion, of the origin of the "gas van" of orthodox Holocaust historiography, in documentation, nothing is known.
As noted by Friedrich Paul Berg, in the years between the two world wars and in particular during the World War Two, so-called "producer- gas" vehicles were in use in many European countries. In Germany the- se vehicles were called " Generator gaswagen" (producer-gas vehicles) or simply "gas van" (Gaswagen). Although such gas generators, fired with wood or coal, produce a mixture rich in CO - from 18 to 35% - the CO content emitted by a gasoline engines is usually less than 10%. Oddly enough, the evidence does not suggest that the KTI ever thought of using gas generators for homicidal purposes (Berg 2003, pp. 459f).
According to a document first mentioned by Christian Gerlach in 1997 but which has apparently remained unpublished - the "Report on
Beer recently had a new, slightly shorter paper published on the same topic, which does not contain any new information relevant in this context (Morsch/Perz/Ley 201 1, pp. 154-165). I discuss this paper in my study Confronting Revisionism, which is scheduled for publication in early 2012.
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
the activities and the situation of Einsatzgruppe B for the period 16 to 28 February 1942" of 1 March 1942, this unit had received two "gas vans" (Gaswagen) (Gerlach 1997, p. 68, and note 83, p. 77). But con- sidering the above-mentioned wartime terminology, I opine that these were Generatorgaswagen rather than homicidal "gas vans," a term, moreover, which does not appear in any other wartime document and which began to circulate as a designation for homicidal vehicles using exhaust gases only after the war.4
The "gas vans" were allegedly created primarily to facilitate the homicidal activities of the Einsatzgruppen and were then deployed pre- cisely for this purpose. According to Beer, of the six alleged "gas vans" of the "first series" (Diamond brand or some generic "small" van) con- verted in 1941, one was assigned to Einsatzgruppe C, one to Einsatz- gruppe D, two to Chelmno (p. 413); also in 1942, thirty other "gas vans" of the second series (Saurer brand) were designed, 20 of which had already been delivered by April 1942 (p. 415), one to Chelmno, the rest apparently to the Einsatzgruppen. It should be noted that the Einsatzgruppen have left an enormous quantity of documents on their activities. The "Ereignismeldungen UdSSR" (Information on events in the USSR) amounted to "more than 2,900 typewritten pages" (Kraus- nik/Wilhelm 1981, p. 333). "There are 195 numbered reports ranging from 23 June 1941 to 24 April 1942 {ibid., pp. 650ff). The "Meldungen aus den besetzten Ostgebieten" (Communications from the Occupied Eastern Territories) are 55 weekly reports numbered from 1 May 1942 to 23 May 1943 {ibid., pp. 652f). Finally there are 11 "Tatigkeits-, Lageberichte der Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD in der UdSSR" (Reports on the Activities and Situation of the Einsatz- gruppen of the Security Police and Security Service in the USSR) that are dated from 31 July 1941 to 31 March 1942 {ibid., p. 654).
In spite of this huge volume of documents, in these reports "gas vans" never appear (with the one exception mentioned above) and no victim is ever listed as killed with a "gas van." Apparently no one has addressed this enormous contradiction so far.
Although the term "gas lorries" appeared in an article of the British weekly News Review on 16 July 1942 (Sharf 1963, p. 187), and "gas lorries" as well as "gas vans" were one main focus of the Krasnodar show trial in 1943 (The Peoples ' Verdict 1944, pp. 49f., 53, 65, 78, 89f., 1 10). On the document mentioned by Gerlach see also my elaborations in my upcoming study Confronting Revisionism (2012).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
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2. The Alleged Hitler Order, Zyklon B & CO
Orthodox Holocaust historiography attributes to the Chancellery of the Fiihrer not only the design of the "gas vans" but also of the alleged eastern extermination camps. In 1976, Ino Arndt and Wolfgang Scheff- ler noted in this regard (Arndt/Scheffler 1976, p. 1 14.):
"The successful testing of human extermination by carbon mon- oxide, and 'experience ' therein acquired by the staff in relation to the technical apparatus of mass destruction, formed the immediate background to, and a precondition for, the killings of incomparably greater size (for which the aforementioned definition of mass exter- mination has become customary) that began immediately after the end of 'Action T4' outside the Reich in the territories of occupied Eastern Europe, especially the 'Final Solution of the Jewish ques- tion, ' which was carried out in the gas chambers of the extermina- tion camps and gas vans used by the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and Security Service. "
This thesis has become a kind of dogma of Holocaust historiog- raphy.
Heinz Peter Longerich, in his report in support of Deborah Lipstadt in the libel trial of David Irving (January-April 2000), reaffirms in this regard (Longerich 1999, chapter III.B):
"1. Parallel to the beginning of the deportations, the transfer of gas-killing technology into the Eastern European region was begun. This technology had been under development in the context of the 'euthanasia' programme since 1939.
2. This transfer was initiated after the programme of 'euthana- sia ' had been stopped on 24 August 1941. [. . .] Only a few weeks lat- er, the first preparations can be documented for the construction of gas chambers in Eastern Europe.
3. The decision to build the first extermination camp in Belzec was made in mid-October. The killing was to proceed by means of exhaust from a permanently installed motor. Construction started at
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
the beginning of November, and the killing experts of Operation T4 were ordered to Belzec in December 1941."
Such a transfer would of course also have involved Chelmno (ibid.): "9. Around the same time, from October/November 1941 on- ward, the gas vans were also deployed by the SK Lange in the Warthegau to murder of Jews. On 8 December, the killing began in Chelmno, where a permanent location of gas vans was established - that is, a further variant of an extermination camp. " But this primary function of the killing system using engine exhaust gas contrasts sharply with that allegedly adopted at Auschwitz.
Longerich mentions this contradiction almost as matter of duty of record, without however attempting to explain it (ibid.):
"10. While the mass murders were being prepared or already ex- ecuted in Belzec, the Warthegau, and in the occupied eastern territo- ries with the help of exhaust fumes, the Commandant of the Ausch- witz concentration camp took another course. In September or De- cember 1941, 600 Soviet prisoners of war, as well as a selected 250 sick prisoners, were murdered in the basement of Block 11 of Auschwitz by means of a high concentration of the extremely poi- sonous disinfectant Cyclon B. At a later point, in December 1941, a further 900 Soviet POWs were murdered by means of gas.
11. In his writings from the Krakow prison after the war, the former Commandant of Auschwitz Hofi described how he had dis- cussed the question of the most suitable poison gas to be employed, on the occasion of a visit by Eichmann. The date of this visit is still not certain - some of his comments indicate the autumn of 1941, others point to a later date somewhere in early 1942. Hofi further states that during the time that he was not in Auschwitz himself, his deputy used Cyclon B to kill Soviet POWs on his own initiative. " The question is actually even more complex than it appears at first sight, because here comes into play not only the agent of killing - Zyklon B as against CO - but also the hierarchical path of the alleged extermination order. On this point, in fact, orthodox Holocaust histori- ography has an irresolvable dichotomy: on one hand the path Hitler — > Fiihrer's Chancellery —> KTI (Technical Criminal Institute) —> euthana- sia — > "gas vans" — > the alleged extermination camps in Chelmno and
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
19
the east, and on the other the path Hitler — > Himmler — > Eichmann — > Hoss — » Auschwitz —> Majdanek.5
In his manuscript "Die Endldsung der Judenfrage" ("The Final So- lution of the Jewish Question"), completed in November 1946 in Kra- kow, Hoss explained the origin of the alleged extermination of the Jews at Auschwitz as follows (Broszat 1981, pp. 157-160):
"[Hoss] In the summer of 1941 - at the moment I cannot say the exact date - 1 was suddenly summoned to Berlin to the Reichsfuhrer [Himmler], through his adjutant office. ^6 ]
[Himmler] The Fuhrer has ordered the final solution of the Jew- ish question, and we - the SS - must carry out that order. [...] You will learn further details from Sturmbannfuhrer Eichmann, of the RSHA, who will come to you during the next time. [...] You are to maintain absolute silence regarding this order, even with your supe- riors.
[Hoss] 'Shortly thereafter Eichmann came to me to Auschwitz.^ He apprised me about the plans for the operations in the individual countries. [...] Furthermore we talked about implementing the ex- termination. Only gas would be an option [...]. Eichmann wanted to inquire and then inform me about a gas which could be procured easily and which did not require any special devices. We drove into the area in order to determine the suitable location. We considered the farmhouses [the future Bunker I] to be suitable which were lo- cated at the northwestern corner of the later construction sector III [at] Birkenau. [...]
Eichmann drove back to Berlin in order to report to the RFSS [Himmler] about our conversation. [. . .]
At the end of November a conference of the entire section on Jews took place at the Eichmann office, to which I was called as well. [...]/ could not yet find out about the beginning of the opera- tions. Also Eichmann hadn 't managed to locate a suitable gas yet.
According to orthodox historiography, the camp Lublin-Majdanek was equipped with a homicidal Zyklon B gas chamber since October 1942. Marszalek 1986, p. 140. See in this regard Graf/Mattogno 2003. The claim is not confirmed by any document.
Eichmann' s visit to Auschwitz is not confirmed by any document. At Nuremberg Hoss declared that this visit was "about 4 weeks after having received that order from the Reichsfuhrer" (IMT, vol. 1 1, p. 399), i.e. in July 1941, given that the meeting with Himmler had taken place in June. Hoss' affidavit of 5 April 1946 (PS-3868), p. 2.
20
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
In the fall of 1941, by means of a secret special order, the Gesta- po separated all [Soviet] political commissars and special political functionaries in the PoW camps and sent them to the closest concen- tration camp for liquidation. Smaller transports of that kind arrived continuously at Auschwitz, which were killed by shooting in the gravel pit close to the Monopoly building or in the courtyard of Block 11. On the occasion of a business trip, my deputy, Haupt- sturmfuhrer Fritzsch, had used gas on his own initiative for the kill- ing of these Russian PoWs; he did this in such a way that he cram- packed the individual cells located in the basement with Russians and threw in Cyklon B [Zyklon B] while using gas masks, which caused immediate death. [...]
During Eichmann 's next visit I told him about the use of Cyklon B, and we decided to use this gas for the future mass extermination.
[...]
/ cannot say anymore at what time the extermination of the Jews began. Probably still in September 1941, but maybe only in January 1942. "
So here is involved a direct line Hitler — ► Himmler — > Eichmann — » Hoss, which, precisely because it implies a presumed general order by Hitler for the extermination of the Jews, of which Hoss was to be the main executor, precludes the parallel line via the Chancellery of the Fiihrer, unless you assume a kind of schizophrenia in the top Nazis in charge of the implementation of the alleged extermination of the Jews.
Raul Hilberg unintentionally exacerbates this contradiction by de- scribing the genesis of the alleged homicidal gas chambers as follows (Hilberg 1995, p. 951):
"During the summer of 1941, when Himmler began to consider the physical destruction of the Jews throughout Europe, he consulted the chief SS doctor (SS- und Polizei Reichsarzt), the Gruppenfuhrer Dr. [Ernst Robert] Grawitz, to find out what the best way would be to carry out this mass extermination. Grawitz advised the gas cham- ber. "
He refers to the affidavit of Konrad Morgen of 13 July 1946, which says (IMT, vol. 42, p. 559; document SS-65):
"In order to implement the mass extermination as ordered by Hitler, Himmler asked him [Dr. Grawitz] at that time to suggest a
A former building of the Polish Tobacco Monopoly, later incorporated into the camp.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
21
killing method which would be both painless and would spare the victims any fear of death. Hence one had chosen a method which left the victims in complete ignorance of their fate up to the moment of the unexpected application of a fast acting, highly volatile gas. " The initiative in finding the most appropriate system of extermina- tion was therefore assumed by Himmler through Grawitz, not by the Chancellery of the Fiihrer through the Institute for Criminological Technology. But even with this in mind, it is absolutely incredible that, while the Institute for Criminological Technology would carry out the alleged experiments referred to above, Himmler, instead of ordering killing experiments with a" fast acting, highly volatile gas," would have delegated it to Eichmann, whose performance was so dismal that at the end of November 1941, four months after he was sent to Auschwitz, he had still not found the most appropriate gas, which is instead said to have been found without great effort at Auschwitz by a simple SS cap- tain and then used on large scale.
Yet the choice was pretty simple. During the First World War both sides used aggressive chemicals of all kinds.9 At that time, the aggres- siveness of the various substances was indicated by the product of mor- tality or toxicity index that is derived from the Haber equation and giv- en in "milligrams of toxic substance per m to be inhaled in one minute to obtain the death of the individual."
The most toxic substances found are given in Table 1. As is clear from this table (Izzo, pp. 45f):
"The most dangerous war gas, according to the Haber index, is phosgene, followed soon after by diphosgene. " It is noteworthy that CO, with its high index of 70,000, was consid- ered the least effective gas: 150 times less effective than phosgene, from 17.5 to 70 times less effective than hydrocyanic acid: Who would have ever chosen it for mass extermination?
Here is the list for the curious reader: chlorine, bromine, phosgene (carbon oxychloride), thiophosgene (carbon sulphochloride), hydrogen cyanide, cyanogen chloride, cyanogen bromide, methyl chloroformate, monochloride chloroformate, dichloride chloroformate, trichloride chloroformate (diphosgene), ethyl iodoacetate, bromoacetone, iodoacetone, bromomethyl ethyl ketone, dimethyl sulfate, methyl chlorosulphate, ethyl chlorosul- phate, chloropicrin (trichloronitromethane) dichloro methyl arsine, dichloro ethyl arsine, vinyl chloride dichloro arsine, ethyl sulfide dichloride, acrolein (allyl aldehyde), benzyl chloride, benzyl bromide, bromo benzyl cyanide, phenylimino phosgene (carbil phenyl amine chloride), chloroacetophenone, chlorinated diphenyl arsine, cyan diphenyl arsine, amino diphenyl chloro arsine, N-ethyl carbazole. See Izzo, "Principali aggressivi chimici," table outside of text.
22
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Table 1: Toxicity of poison gases used in WWI
|
SUBSTANCE |
TOXICITY INDEX1 |
||
|
nhoscrene |
4S0 |
MostBtoxic |
|
|
dir)hosi?ene |
SOD |
||
|
mustard 111 vl O LCI 1 VI |
1 SOD |
||
|
ethvl io do -acetate |
1 SOD |
||
|
chlonmicrin V111V/1 V-/ Ulvl AAA |
? ODD |
||
|
chloro ethvl sulfate |
? ODD |
||
|
hvdroj?en cvanide* |
1 000-4 000 |
||
|
ethvl bromo-acetate |
3,000 |
||
|
perchloro methyl mercaptan |
3,000 |
||
|
chloro acetone |
3,000 |
||
|
bromo acetone |
4,000 |
||
|
xylene bromide |
6,000 |
||
|
chlorine |
7,500 |
||
|
carbon monoxide |
70,000 |
Least |
toxic |
using the Haber toxicity equation; * depending on the concentration
At that time Germany was at the forefront of chemistry, and these data were in any reference book, such as Schddliche Gase, Dampfe, Ne- bel, Ranch- und Staubarten, Ferdinand Flury and Franz Zernik, one of the best, which had appeared as early as 1931.
The story of the origin of the alleged homicidal gas chambers is therefore not only documentarily unfounded, but also internally incon- sistent.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
23
3. The Construction Order for the Chelmno Camp
On the design of the alleged extermination camp at Chelmno, Kra- kowski stated the following (1983, p. 110):
"A letter, written on 16 July 1941 by SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Rolf- Heinz Hoppner, on the staff of the Hoherer SS- und Polizeifuhrer in the Warthegau, to SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Adolf Eichmann, men- tions for the first time that 'the Jews [must] be eliminated with some quick-acting poison. "'
In his book published in 2007, Krakowski sees in this letter a wider and more systematic murderous intention (p. 21):
"By this memorandum, as well as by events that happened on the ground, we can assume that already at this early stage there were debates on the extermination of the Jews of the Warthegau, although the manner and pace of implementation of this massacre had not yet been decided upon. "
The text of the letter, as we shall see later, belies this interpretation, which extrapolates and emphasizes a proposal that is at odds with a general policy of extermination.10 This document is part of the National Socialist policy of Jewish deportation to the east, which renders ex- tremely problematic the orthodox claim of a planned extermination of the Jews and the setup of the alleged extermination camps, beginning with Chelmno, which is said to have been the first to enter operation.
In another study I have documented this policy, which resulted in the deportation of more than 56,000 Jews from the Altreich (Old Reich), the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Ostmark (Austria) to the eastern territories (Riga, Kaunas, Raasiku, Minsk, Baranov, Maly Trostinec) and more than 69,000 Jews from those three countries and Slovakia to the Lublin district (Mattogno/Graf 2004, chap. VI). Ausch- witz had an important role in this policy of deportation because - as
The quote is furthermore inaccurate, as the original text does not say "by some quick act- ing poison (durch irgendein schnell wirksames Gift)" but "by some quick acting sub- stance" {durch irgendein schnellwirkendes Mittel). See below.
24
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
was established on 15 September 1942, at a meeting between the Minis- ter Albert Speer, SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Oswald Pohl and other offi- cials of the Reich - this area was the center for the assembly of forced labor units that were selected during the deportation of Jews to the east- ern territories, referred to in the "Ostwanderung" document (Mattogno 2001, pp. 67-69):
"The Jews fit for work destined for migration to the east will
therefore interrupt their journey [at Auschwitz] and shall have to
perform armaments work. "
Gotz Aly has documented that from January 1941 onward the SS planned to transfer to the ghetto of Lodz in the General Government^1 1] the majority of Jews unfit for work, who would be replaced by Jews fit for work (Aly, pp. 264f). He then sums up the plans of the SS (ibid., p. 267):
"In the spring of 1941 officials in the RSHA dealing with Jewish affairs and in the General Government considered employing Jews fit for work in 'work columns '; due to new forced labor projects they would have to create 'space ' in the ghettos of the General Govern- ment, into which Heydrich, Eichmann and Hoppner wanted to de- port Jews unfit for work from the regions of Lodz, Dombrowa and Zichenau. "
Aly notes that the Jews were divided into two groups - those fit and those unfit for work - who were to be treated differently (ibid., pp. 267f). These measures, however, were regarded as temporary only in view of an impending "total solution (Gesamtlosung) of the European Jewish question," which in the spring of 1941 took account of the future "possibility of the east" (ibid., p. 268).
In this respect, Aly makes it clear - adding to his alleged intention of extermination - that the plans of the SS in early 1941 were to concen- trate Jews unfit for work in reservations or ghettos for the elderly on the eastern outskirts of the General Government and to transfer them later, after victory, to Soviet territories bordering the marshes of eastern Po- land and present-day Belarus, while Jews fit for work reclaimed these marshes starting in the summer of 1941 (ibid., p. 273).
The General Government (German: Generalgouvernement, Polish: Generalne Guberna- torstwo) was the German term for the part of Poland not incorporated into the Reich or annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II. It was governed by a German occu- pational administration.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
25
Aly later documents that "the plan to deport the Jews to the Pripyat marshes, which used to be located in eastern Poland but later were part of White Russia," was taken very seriously by the SS, and in this con- text he mentions, among other things, two studies that appeared in De- cember 1941 and June 1942 in the Zeitschrift fur Geopolitik (Journal for Geopolitics) entitled "Die Pripjetsumpfe als Entwdsserungsproblem" authored by Richard Bergius, and "Pripjet-Polesien, Land und Leute" by Hansjulius Schepers {ibid., pp. 275f). On 19 July 1941, the Gover- nor General of Poland Hans Frank, in a paper to Hans Lammers, head of the Reich Chancellery, suggested the annexation of the "swamp lands of Pripyat" into the General Government (i.e. wartime Poland) in order to move there "elements of the population (especially Jews)" in order to use them for productive activities useful to the Reich {ibid., p. 317).
Into this context fits the activity report allegedly written by SS- Sturmbannfuhrer Rolf-Heinz Hoppner on 16 July 1941, of which I provide a translation and the German text:13
"The L HO/S Posen, 16 July 1941
File Memo Subject: solution of the Jewish question.
In meetings [held] at the provincial government of the Reich, the solution of the Jewish question in the territory of the Warthegau has been addressed from various aspects. The following solution is pro- posed:
1. All the Warthegau Jews will be assembled in a camp for 300,000 Jews which will be built in the form of barracks as close as possible to the railway line carrying coal and which contains equipment for industrial workers, tailors, cobblers and so on.
2. Into this camp will be brought all the Jews of the Warthegau. Jews fit for work, on request, can be organized into working groups and allowed outside the camp.
3. Such a camp, in the opinion of SS-Brigadefuhrer Albert}14^ can be guarded by much smaller police forces than is now the case. Moreover, the danger of epidemics, which in Litzmannstadt [=L6dz]
Adalbert Riickerl wrote in this regard (1979, p. 257, note 38): "In both the criminal pro- ceedings before the District Court of Posen and subsequently in a preliminary investiga- tion against him by prosecutors in Bonn Rolf H.[6ppner] denied that the letter to the Reichssicherheitshauptamt and the note attached to the documents had reached him." Reproduction of the document in Leszczyhski 1977, pp. 60f. Wilhelm Albert was head of the police (Polizeiprasidenf) in Lodz.
26
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
and other ghettos is always present for the surrounding population, is limited to a minimum.
4. This winter there is a danger that not all Jews can be fed any longer. We must seriously consider whether the most humane solu- tion is not to eliminate the Jews by some substance with rapid effect insofar as they are unfit to work.
5. For the rest a proposal was made to sterilize all the Jewesses in this camp who can still be expected to bear children so that with this generation the Jewish problem will indeed be solved completely.
6. On this matter the Reichsstatthalter has not yet ruled. One gets the impression that RegierungsprasidenP5^ Ubelhor does not want the Litzmannstadt ghetto to disappear, as he has a lot to gain from it. As an example of how much profit can be made from the Jews, I was told that the Reich Ministry of Labor pays 6 RM from a special fund for every Jew employed in work, but the Jew only costs 80 Pfennigs.
SS-Sturmbannfuhrer. " The proposal attributed to Hoppner is therefore not consistent with a plan of systematic extermination. That conclusion was also reached by Aly on the basis of an activity report from Hoppner for Eichmann on 2 September 1941 (1995, p. 339):
"So Hoppner from early September stated for a fact that 'the fi- nal solution of the Jewish question ' was a first essential part of the general program of evacuation of all Jews who were 'under German influence. ' He did not yet consider that systematic murder had been decided upon "
This is incontrovertibly confirmed by the rest of the letter from Himmler to Arthur Greiser, governor of Warthegau, of 18 September 1941:16
"The Fuhrer wishes that the Old Reich and the Protectorate be emptied and cleared of Jews from west to east as soon as possible. For this reason I have worked hard to transport, possibly even this year, the Jews of the Old Reich and the Protectorate, primarily as a first step, into the new eastern territories obtained two years ago by the Reich, and to expel them farther east in the coming spring.
President of the administrative district.
Letter from Himmler to Greiser of 18 September 1941. BAK, NS 19/2655, p. 3; repro- duction in Witte 1995, p. 50.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
27
/ propose to shelter for the winter about 60,000 Jews from the Old Reich and the Protectorate in Litzmannstadt ghetto, which, in my view, has the space to accommodate them.
I beg you not only to understand this decision, which will certain- ly create difficulties for your Gau, but to support it with all your strength in the overall interest of the Reich.
SS-Gruppenfuhrer Heydrich, who has to carry out this Jewish emigration, will approach you in due course directly or through SS- Gruppenfuhrer Koppe. "
While this document reflects perfectly the guidelines of the National Socialist policy of Jewish emigration, Holocaust historian Peter Witte found a way to twist the sentence claiming that its further transfer to the east contains
"already, in its essentials, the death sentence of the Jews to be deported, regardless of the fact that at that time there were not yet any death camps ready to receive Jews and that their construction had not yet been ordered, although the ground for the extermination had already been prepared, [. . .] " (ibid., p. 53) where the last sentence refers to Hoppner's alleged letter of 16 July 1941!
Unexpectedly - and mysteriously - a few weeks after the above- mentioned letter, in October 1941, Himmler allegedly ordered the con- struction of the "killing fields" of Chelmno and Belzec.
However, the documents continued to speak of evacuation to the east. I have cited many of them in a previous work (Mattogno/Graf 2004, pp. 183-189). Aly also mentions others (1995, p. 274):
"On 23 September 1941, Heydrich assured Goebbels, who ap- proached him in his capacity as Gauleiter of Berlin, that, once the military situation would allow it, the Jews would have to be sent to the Communist camps on the Arctic Ocean. Immediately after the Wannsee conference, Heydrich returns to the 'Arctic Ocean ' option: there they wanted to 'get hold of the Russian concentration camps '; the territory - which, despite what one might suppose to the contra- ry, had a sound, concentrated agriculture and an excellent base of raw materials - was an 'ideal future home for the 11 million Jews of Europe. In 1946, Frank's secretary of state, Josef Buhler, during his interrogation at Nuremberg, declared that Heydrich had told him
This refers to a secret speech by Heydrich in Prague on 4 February 1942.
28
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
at the beginning of 1942 that Himmler had the order from the Fuh- rer to gather all the Jews of Europe and evacuate them to the north- east of Europe, to Russia. "
The Jewish deportations to Minsk and Riga began on 8 and 15 No- vember 1941, respectively (Mattogno/Graf 2004, p. 249), but these were temporary locations only, because, as Heinrich Lohse, the Reichs- kommissar des Ostlandes (Imperial Commissioner for the Eastern Lands18), wrote on 9 October 1941, to Alfred Rosenberg, Reichsmini- ster fur die besetzten Ostgebiete (Imperial Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories), that "the camps for Jews are to be moved consider- ably farther east" (ibid., p. 245) which is also consistent with the Arctic Ocean option.
The use of former Soviet prisoner-of-war camps to imprison Jews followed a general directive issued in Galicia as early as August 1941: 19
"In almost all towns of some size in the district of Galicia there are said to be prisoner-of-war camps set up by the Russians. These are said to be equipped with the necessary facilities and are said to be especially well-suited to serve as camps for Jewish forced labor- ers. All existing camps are to be surveyed and immediately reported. At the same time their capacity and their condition is to be deter- mined. "
But then suddenly, just when the policy of deportation to the east began to be realized, for mysterious reasons the SS began to build not transit camps, but "extermination camps." But what about the subse- quent documents that continue to speak of deportation to the east? All that is left to orthodox Holocaust historiography is the loophole of "coded language," under which the sources allegedly document the cre- ation of the alleged extermination machine since October 1941. Here, for example, as Aly addresses these difficulties of interpretation (p. 358):
"The minutes of the meeting in Prague on 10 October 1941 doc- ument how little difference there was in these days and in these weeks between the ideas of murderous deportation and immediate extermination, with as little fuss as possible, of the European Jews, as the term 'evacuation ' became synonymous with killing. "
18 The territories of the Baltic countries, Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine temporarily occu- pied by the Germans.
19 Letter of the Oberst der Schutzpolizei und Regiments kommandeur Worm to Police Batal- lions 315, 133 and 254 as well as to the Kommandos der Schutzpolizei in Lemberg, Tar- nopol, Stanislau of 14 August 1941. RGVA, 1323-2-292b, p. 158.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
29
But the document of 10 October 1941 speaks explicitly of deporta- tions to the east and reception of the deportees in the appropriate
20
camps:
"Because of the evacuation, difficulties arose. It was planned to begin with it roughly on 15 October 1941, in order to let the trans- ports take off one by one until 15 November, up to the number of some 5,000 Jews - from Prague alone. For now, one still has to be considerate of the Litzmannstadt [Lodz] authorities. Minsk and Riga are to obtain 50,000. [...] During the following weeks the 5,000 Jews are now to be evacuated from Prague. SS-Brif. [Brigadefiihrer] Nebe and Rasch can include the Jews in the camps for communist inmates in the area of operation. According to SS-Stubaf. Eichmann this has already been initiated. "
Theresienstadt was considered to be a "provisional assembly camp (vorilbergehenden Sammellager), albeit with a high mortality, from which evacuation was then to continue "to the eastern territories" (in die ostlichen Gebiete; ibid.). Nothing in this document suggests any inten- tion on the part of the SS to exterminate the Jews.
About the genesis of the Chelmno camp, Krakowski states (2007, p. 27):
"It is neither known when exactly the decision was made to es- tablish the Chelmno camp, nor at which moment and under which circumstances the respective orders were issued. " He repeatedly asserts that it was inaugurated on 8 December 1941 (ibid., pp. 31-32, 35), but does not provide any documentary evidence, not even a single testimony.21 Despite this, he even claims that "on that
8 December 1941 the gas vans made their awful journey three times" (ibid., pp. 34f), but this statement too is devoid of any documentary ev- idence. This applies also to the connection which Krakowski sees be- tween the camp's alleged date of opening and the original date of the Wannsee Conference. He notes that the latter was initially convened for
9 December 1941, but was later postponed to 20 January 1942, because of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent entry of the U.S. into the war, and he concludes (ibid., pp. 3 If.):
Notizen aus der Besprechung am 10.10.41 uber die Losung der Judenfrage. T 37/299. Transcription in Kryl 1983, pp. 38-41.
According to the testimony of Andrzej Miszczak, the first transport of inmates (700 Jews from Kolo) arrived at the camp on 9 December 1941: Blumental 1946, p. 241. This is a simple claim without any documentary confirmation.
30
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
'While the conference date was postponed, the opening date of the Chelmno extermination camp was not changed, and the massa- cre commenced- as planned - on 8 December 1941." But that unfounded conjecture does not turn this purely fictitious date into reality.
Furthermore, the guidelines set out by Heydrich at the Wannsee Conference are in sharp contrast to the alleged establishment of a death camp at Chelmno in early December 1941. Krakowski is forced to completely distort them. He writes (ibid., p. 77):
"[...] already during this conference it was agreed to leave a small percentage of Jews alive in order to use their strength for forced labor. Working conditions would then gradually bring about the killing of all the forced laborers, according to the Nazi program called 'extermination through work. "'
The truth is, however, that at the Wannsee Conference Heydrich an- nounced the change in the National Socialist policy toward the Jews which had evolved a few months earlier:
"In the meantime the Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police [Himmler] had prohibited emigration of Jews due to the dan- gers of an emigration in wartime and due to the possibilities of the east. Another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i.e. the evacuation of the Jews to the east, pro- vided that the Fuehrer gives the appropriate approval in advance. " That here was a genuine plan to deport the Jews to the east is admit- ted even by Hilberg, who comments (1995, p. 428):
"Heydrich explained what would be done with the evacuees: they were organized in huge labor columns; by using their labor, many of them would no doubt 'perish due to their physical weakness' (wobei zweifellos ein Grossteil durch natiirliche Verminderung ausfallen wird). The remainder (Restbestand) of this process of 'natural se- lection ' - that is, the more resistant core of the Jews - would have to be 'treated accordingly' (wird entsprechend behandelt werden miissen), since history had shown how these Jews carry within them the seeds of a new Jewish revival. Heydrich does not dwell on this 'according' treatment, but based on the language of the Einsatz- gruppen reports we know that he alluded to their death sentence. "
NG-2586-G, p. 5 of the original.
The expression "durch natiirliche Verminderung" does not mean "due to their physical weakness," but instead "by natural attrition," that is: by natural mortality.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
31
But Hilberg himself distorts the final destiny of the remaining Jews, omitting the words "in case of liberation" (bei Freilassung), which cat- egorically excludes both the "death sentence" he posits and the gradual "extermination through work" alleged by Krakowski, making clear that "entsprechend behandelf probably simply meant that these Jews were
9zl
not to be released.
But if, as late as 20 January 1942, the National Socialist policy to- ward the Jews still provided for a genuine evacuation of the Jews to the east, then how can this be reconciled with the establishment of a camp at Chelmno?
In this context Chelmno could only have been a transit camp for the evacuation of Jews from the Warthegau to the east. Greiser's letter to Himmler of 1 May 1942, from which Krakowski infers that the Nazis intended "giving up - at least for a certain period of time - the total ex- termination of the entire Jewish population of the Warthegau in order to admit a certain percentage of them for the implementation of forced la- bor" (2007, p. 78) should be interpreted precisely in this sense.
The passage of the document relied upon by Krakowski says: "Reichsfuhrer!
The operation of special treatment of some 100,000 Jews in my governmental area, as approved by you in agreement with the Head of the Imperial Security Main Office, SS-Obergruppenfuhrer Hey- drich, will be finished within the next 2-3 months. " This "special treatment" was merely an extension to the Jews in Warthegau of the order that Hitler had sent to Greiser on 28 September 1941, concerning the expulsion of the Jews of the Reich proper and the Protectorate via the ghetto of Lodz during "next spring," that is, spring 1942.
But if the alleged establishment of the Chelmno "extermination camp" remains inexplicable and contrary to the sources, the report of the first alleged systematic extermination in this camp, as discussed in chapter 3, is likewise contradictory and inexplicable.
As in the Madagascar project, the deported Jews were under the supervision of the SS in
the eastern settlements as well.
NO-246.
32
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
4. "Gas Vans" in Chelmno?
According to Holocaust historiography, the alleged extermination of the Jews at Chelmno was carried out solely by means of "gas vans."
The only document that links vehicles called "Spezialwagen" to Chelmno is a file memo (Vermerk) of 5 June 1942 apparently from the Refer at II D 3 a of the RSHA 8. This is said to be an official document drawn up in a very peculiar "'unique-est' copy" ("einzigste Ausferti- gung"), although in German, the superlative of the adjective einzig does not exist (just as in English with its translation "unique"). It concerns "technical changes to the special vehicles [already] in service and which are [still] in production" and opens with an incomprehensible "for ex- ample":
"For example 97,000 were processed since December 1941 with 3 deployed vehicles without any defects in the vehicles becoming ap- parent. "
The reference that we are interested in is in the following sentence:
"The known explosion at Kulmhof [=Chelmno] has to be as- sessed as a single case. "
But the document in question contains so many anomalies and ab- surdities that Ingrid Weckert, Pierre Marais and Santiago Alvarez, who have researched it carefully, came to the conclusion that this is a predat- ed fake along the lines of the memo from the Chief of Police and Secu- rity Service of 23 June 1942, addressed to the Fahrzeugewerke Gaub- schat company in Berlin, to give the latter a criminal significance which it does not have.27
To assess the validity of this interpretation just one observation is sufficient. The memo of 23 June 1942, in paragraph 1 says:28
"The cargo box is to be shortened by 800 mm in length. The pro- trusion at the door is omitted. The objection is herewith acknowl- edged that the shortening would result in a disadvantageous weight distribution. The Gaubschat company will not be held liable for any disadvantages resulting from this. "
And here is how it is interpreted in the memo of 5 June 1942:
Reproduced in: Alvarez 201 1, pp. 318-322; Kogon et al. 1983, pp. 333-337; Riickerl 1971, document appendix outside of pagination.
Weckert 2003, pp. 231-235; see in particular also Alvarez 201 1, chapter 2.2.4; Marais 1994, pp. 44-78; Walendy 1979, pp. 29-31; Weckert 1985, pp. 23-28. Facsimile of the document in: Alvarez 201 1, pp. 323-325.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
33
"The vans ' load usually amounts to 9 to 10 per m [10 sq ft]. Alt- hough no overloading occurs thereby for the spacious Saurer spe- cial vehicles, utilization in that form is not possible, because their off-road capability is highly reduced by this. A reduction of the load area appears to be necessary. This will be achieved by shortening the body by approximately 1 m [39"]. The above difficulty is not to be solved, as has been done so far, by reducing the number of units [of payload]. This is because a reduction in the number of units ne- cessitates a longer operation time, since the empty spaces [left by omission of the payload units] also have to be filled with carbon monoxide. In contrast to this, a substantially shorter operation time suffices in case of a shorter loading area and a completely filled loading space, since free spaces are absent. [29] " According to the note of the RSHA on 27 April 1942, the cargo box- es of these special vehicles were 5.8 m long and 1.7 m high, and their
on
load capacity was 4,500 kg. Since the normal load was allegedly nine to ten - we assume people - per square meter, if the truck's floor was 2.5 meters wide (see further below), this would result in an area of 14.5 m and a volume of 24.65 m . In this case, it would have held no more than (4,500 kg ^ 14.5 m2 =) 310 kg/m2. Hence the permissible average weight of each person would have amounted to (310 kg/m2 ^ [9 to 10 m" ] =) 34.4 to 31.0 kg, an unrealistic value for groups in which adults had to be relatively numerous. For the alleged gas chambers at Birke- nau, Robert Jan van Pelt took a more reasonable average weight of 60 kg per victim (van Pelt 2002, pp. 470, 472).
In other words: Loading nine to ten average people of 60 kg into such a truck would have amounted to (14.5 m2 x [9 to 10 m" ] =) 7.8 to 8.7 metric tons, which is almost twice the permissible load of 4.5 metric tons. Hence the above-quoted memo's claim is utterly wrong that "no overloading occurs."
The memo's claim that merely reducing the number of payload units led to "a longer operation time, since the empty spaces also have to be filled with carbon monoxide" is just as ridiculous. Even though shorten- ing the loading area by 1 m (or 17%) while maintaining the load density would reduce the air volume accordingly, reducing the load density in- stead has hardly any effect on the air volume. To show this, I assume first of all that the vehicle's maximum load of 4,500 kg (~ 4.5 m3 of
German: "weil freie Rdume fehlen" This is awkward German as well. Facsimile of the document in Alvarez 201 1, pp. 299-305.
34
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
bodies) was not exceeded. That would amount to (4,500 kg ^ 60 kg) 75 persons, or 5.2 persons (or 310 kg) per square meter. We now reduce the payload by as many persons as would result from shortening the box by one meter. This amounts to (1 m x 2.5 m x 310 kg/m2 =) 775 kg or roughly 13 people, or an additional air volume of 0.775 m3. Hence de- creasing the load by 775 kg would increase the empty volume merely from (24.65 m3 - 4.5 m3 =) 20.15 m3 to (20.15 m3 + 0.775 m3 =) 20.925 m , or just 3.7%. Even if we assume a higher load density as suggested by the memo, this would still not be more than a 7.2% in- crease in air volume. And if, as stated in the verdict of the Bonn Jury Court of 30 March 1963, the death of the victims occurred within about nine to ten minutes after starting the engine,31 this marginal increase of free space would have resulted in an equally marginal change of the ex- ecution time, which would have been in the order of 20 to 40 seconds. This shows that the analysis presented in this memo of 5 June 1942 is ludicrous.
This memo also claims that, according to the company that was to carry out the work, the shortening of the body would have had a nega- tive effect on weight distribution, resulting in an overload of the front axle of the vehicle:
"In a discussion with the manufacturer it was pointed out by the latter that a shortening of the cargo box would result in a disadvan- tageous weight displacement. It was emphasized that an overloading of the front axle occurs. In fact, however, an unintended balancing in weight distribution occurs, because during operation the load striving toward the back door always predominantly lies there. Due to this an additional load on the front axle does not occur. " In other words, the victims would move toward the door of the "gas vans" and their weight on the rear axle of the vehicle would offset the overload on the front axle due to shortening of the vehicle body and re- balance the vehicle. This "solution" ignores the fact that the load of the "gas vans" is said to have been nine to ten victims per square meter and that just to maintain this density they wanted to shorten the box. But with such a packing density, the victims could not have move at all.
3 1
Riiter et al. 1979, pp. 232, 279; during this trial eleven defendants who had been officials of the Chelmno/Kulmhof camp were accused of various acts of homicide. It started on 26 November 1962 and lasted until 30 March 1963. After a partially successful appeal the case was retried and ended with a final verdict on 23 July 1965. Three of the defendants received 13 years, one 7 and one 8 years, and three others 13V2 months of imprisonment. Cf. Alvarez 201 1, chapter 3.7.4.1.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
35
Besides, the "special vehicles" described in the memo of 27 April 1942 could not have been homicidal "gas vans," as has been stressed by the revisionist authors mentioned above. This becomes clear from the fact that in relation to the design of an extractable grate to be installed in the cargo box this document states:
"In order that the load does not fall over the last grate [section]
toward the rear wall of the driver's cab, it is to be equipped with an
angled gridwork of 3 - 400 mm height. "
But if the load consisted of people, standing nine to ten per square meter in the cargo box, how could a trellis just 30-40 cm [V to T4"] high prevent the dying victims or their corpses, after the gassing, from falling or resting against the cab? Such a device could possibly be com- patible with the transport of corpses, loaded and arranged neatly in the cargo box, but not with the transport of living people who became corpses inside the cargo box.
Apart from the reference mentioned above, the only documentary evidence of the use of a gassing van at Chelmno for homicidal purposes would be two photographs taken in 1945. The first photo, the best known, is on display at the Chelmno Museum. The second depicts the same alleged "gas van," which was in 1945 at the former Ostrowski company in Kolo, a town located about 10 km northeast of Chelmno.
The photograph on display at the Chelmno Museum was published in 1982 by Gerald Fleming with this caption:34
"Mobile gas chamber in which Jewish men were murdered in the
Chelmno (Kulmhofi extermination camp and at Konitz (Archives of
the Polish Ministry of Justice). "
This "gas van" was, however, not recognized as such by witness Bronislaw Falborski, who was interrogated at Kolo on 11 June 1945 by the investigating judge Wladyslaw Bednarz. In his deposition he stat- ed the following:36
See documents 1, la. The photograph's Polish caption reads: "Vehicle found after the war at Kolo on the grounds of the Ostrowski factory." Supprisingly, whether this was in fact a "gas van" and how it would have operated is left to the visitor's immagination. See document 3, taken from
http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/pic/bigChelmnovan.jpg. Fleming 1982, between pp. 128 and 129; see document 2.
The investigation of Judge Bednarz is archived in the collections "Ob-271" (9 volumes) and "Ob- 19" (2 volumes) of AGK.
Deposition by Bronislaw Falborski of 1 1 June 1945. Facsimile of the original text in Al- varez 201 1, appendix 9.
36
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"During the German occupation I worked as a mechanic for the German company 'KRAFT' in Kolo, Asnyk street. I worked for said company from April 1942 to 1943. 1 don 't remember the exact dates. Our company repaired vehicles of the SS Sonderkommando from Culmhof. Once I was ordered to repair a vehicle which served to poison with gases. I cannot exactly remember when this happened. I think that it was in the summer of 1942. The vehicle was roughly 2.50 m high. Its length was 6 m, but its widthP7^ probably 2.50 m. The vehicle 's color was black and had the shape of a box. The roof was flat and perpendicular to its walls. I believe that it was lined with sheet metal, but I am not certain about it. I did not look at the engine, and I have not paid attention to the make of the vehicle. The vehicle 's doors could be locked with latch and keys. " After the description of the vehicle, the witness spoke of repairs:
"The repair consisted of replacing a part between the elastic part of the exhaust pipe and the part which led into the vehicle 's interi- or.
He pointed out that the exhaust pipe consisted of three parts, of which the middle one was "elastic, like a hydraulic hose," and added that it
"could be connected to a pipe located in the floor of the vehicle, with the result that the exhaust gases flowed into the vehicle 's inte- rior. "
But the most important part of his deposition is this:
"Immediately before my employment at the 'Kraft' workshop I had been a driver at the forester Maj. In that connection I was fre- quently in the forest of Chelmno. In that period of time I frequently saw vehicles driving into the Chelmno forest and back. These were vehicles like those which I repaired later on in the Kraft' workshop. I had the impression that there were only two vehicles of the same size which encountered each other on their way. [...]
Three times I saw a converted moving truck van [z wozu meble- wego] which is currently in the courtyard of the former 'Ostrowski' company. Once I had already seen this vehicle in the forest, the se- cond time on the road and the third time when it was just coming out of the courtyard of the Chelmno castle. This was in spring 1943. I saw this vehicle repeatedly at intervals of several days. Recently I
The text reads "wysokosc" - "height," but as height has been mentioned before, this is evidently an erroneous replacement for "szerokosc" - "width."
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
37
saw this truck in the courtyard of the Ostrowski factory, and I am absolutely certain that it is the same vehicle (size - shape - color). " The two photographs mentioned above come from the Commission of Inquiry into the German Crimes in Poland, which, apparently, in- spected the vehicle, including transcribing everything written on it (see document 4):
"on the back door: Otto Kohn Spedition /Ruf 516 Zeulen da i Th on the left door: 40 km on a metal plate on the engine: 'Humbodt-Deutz AG' Magirus-Werke 'Ulm / Donau Baujahr 1939 Lieferdat 739 Abn-Stempel Fahrgestell Nr. 9282/38 Nutzlast kg 2700 Fahrgestell-Baumuster 023. Eigengewicht 4980 kg. Motor-Baumuster FoM 513 zul. Ges. Gew. 7900 Leistung P.S. 105 cm3 7412 Zuldssige Achsendrilcke vorn kg 2400 hinten 5500. "
From a comparison of the two photographs we see that they portray the same vehicle from different angles and on two different dates. With regard to the position of the vehicle, in both photographs we see on the left a dome- shaped shed with a window that appears in perspective at the same height as the top of the vehicle windows; on the right, in the Fleming photo, we see a low building of which in the Ostrowski photo- graph we see a part of the wall and its shadow. The vehicle has the same shape and details (e.g. the metal plate fixed on the hood between the two windows, the white disc [containing the characters "40 km"] drawn on the left door, the two parallel bars in relief on the same door between the disk and the window).
Regarding the alleged "gas vans" Chelmno, Jerzy Halbersztadt, a member of the faculty of the University of Warsaw and of the Holo- caust Museum in Washington, wrote a note of interest:
(<The case of Chelmno death camp was investigated by the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland (it was the commission 's name at the beginning of its existence) start- ing from May 1945. The commission received the information that in the town KOLO (ca. 12 km from Chelmno) in the former factory of Ostrowski there was a van which, according to the witnesses, was
J. Halbersztadt, "Enquires on the Killing of the Gombin Jews," in: http ://ds s .ucsd. edu/ -lzamosc/ chelmOO .htm.
38
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
used in the death center at Chelmno. The van was found, photo- graphed and researched.
The photos taken then are available in the Main Commission's Archives in Warsaw (signatures 47398, 47396, 47397, 47399; the best one is 47398). The captions of these photographs are still to- day: 'a car for killing people by the exhaust fumes at Chelmno. ' One of these photos was reproduced in the Fleming's book 'Hitler and the Final Solution ' with the information that it is a photograph of a 'gaswagon ' used in Chelmno.
Despite of their captions, the photographs do not show the gas van used in the Chelmno death camp. It is clear from the testimonies of Polish witnesses kept in the same archives of the Main Commis- sion (collection 'Ob,' file 271 and others). Witnesses to whom the van photographed in Kolo was shown did not confirm that it was one of those used in Chelmno for killing people. Some of them only said that it was similar to those described in their testimonies, but not the same. The most common answer was: T didn ft see this one. '
The inspection of the van in Os trows ki factory, done on 13 No- vember 1945 by the judge J. Bronowski, did not confirm the exist- ence of any elements of system of gassing of the van 's closed plat- form. The witnesses called this van 'a pantechnicon van' (a van to transport furniture). It was produced by 'Magirus-Werke' with a diesel type engine of 'Deutz. ' The plate on the engine stated: 'Hum- boldt-Deutz A.G. 'Magirus-Werke' Ulm (Donau) Baujahr 1939 Lie- ferdat739 Abn-Stempel. Fahrgestell Nr. 9282/38 Nutzlast kg 2700 Fah[r]gestell-Baumuster 023. Ei[ge]ngewicht 4980 kg. Motor Bau- muster FoM 513 zul. Gesamt gew. 7900 Leistung P.S. 105 cm 3 7412. Zulaessige Achsendruecke vorn kg 2400 hinten 5500. ' The thickness of the car's wooden body was 7 cm, of the door - 8 cm. The walls, door, ceiling and floor were covered from the inside with the 2 mm sheet iron. The car was painted in grey-lead color. Under this paint the inscription was seen on the door of the cab: 'Otto Koehn Spedition Ruf 516 Zeulen... da i.TH. '
I cite all these details to make possible the further comments to the story of this van. It is my feeling that there are some unclear points in this story. Nobody explained for what purpose this van was used. Its door was tightened with an impregnated canvas. What for? Some witnesses had seen this car in the area of the forest of Chelm- no starting from the spring of 1942. It is possible that it belonged to
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
39
the SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof too. I came across a version that this van was used for a disinfection of victims ' clothes but there are no grounds for it.
In 1945 the prosecutors came to the conclusion that this van was not a gas van of Chelmno. The van was left incomplete and not ser- viceable in Ostrowski's factory at least till 1950. The last known documents (a correspondence between the Association of Combat- ants 'ZBoWiD' in Kolo and the Main Commission) of April 1950 in- form that there was an idea to move this van to the museum in Auschwitz or Majdanek (till 1990 there was no museum in the Chelmno forest; [the] first monument was erected there in 1964). Those plans were not accomplished and the van was scrapped, probably.
Thus, there is no reliable graphic illustration of the gas vans used in Chelmno. However, the testimonies of witnesses contain many important data on these vehicles. In 1945 and later Polish au- thorities examined some Poles who stayed in the area of Chelmno after the removal of the vast majority of the Polish population to the GG in 1939-1940. The witnesses were able to identify gas vans very well. They declared that there were three or four gas vans, one of them was a bit bigger. All of them were black. The cars ' bodies were boxes made of boards. The length of a biggest vehicle was 5.5-6 m. It was ca. 2.5 m high and 2.5 m wide. Each vehicle was guarded all the time (even during the repair in the local factories) by two watchmen, who did not give anybody the access to the van and, es- pecially, to the chassis and the closed box (platform).
However, at least three witnesses were able to see the vehicles from the short distance. Mr. Jozef Piaskowski (b. 1908) was em- ployed in the Reichsstrassenbauamt in Kolo (former Ostrow ski fac- tory). In the winter 1941/42 he was ordered to repair the damaged cooler in the biggest of Chelmno vans. Piaskowski was an experi- enced driver. He declared later that he has never seen the motor of this type. (The motor was a bit odd. ' It was enormous. ' The most in- teresting [thing] in his report is the description of the exhaust sys- tem. He has noticed that the exhaust pipe was divided into three parts. First and third were done of metal as in normal cars. But the central part was done of the elastic, 'hydraulic' pipe which could join both standard tubes or could be screwed to the hole in the van fs floor. After the repair of the cooler, when the motor was tested, so
40
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
much exhaust fumes were produced that the air in the garage (size 30 m x 12 m) started immediately to be blue. The German bosses or- dered to open all windows and doors. The workers who spent a very short time in the polluted air have got headache. The witness heard later their comments that the motor of this car uses 75 liters of pet- rol per 100 km, so twice more than normal motors do. Piashowshi stated that he had seen two military type gas-masks in the driver's cab. PiaskowskVs colleague, Mr. Bronislaw Mankowski (b. 1882) confirmed his story and added that he had seen the van when the middle part of the exhaust tube was joined] to the hole in the car's floor. Mankowski declared that he looked inside the box when the watchmen left their posts for a while. He had seen a hole covered with a perforated sheet [of] iron in the middle of the wooden floor.
Another witness, Mr. Bronislaw Falborski (b. 1910), was em- ployed in the 'Kraft' company in Kolo, where the vehicles of the SS- Sonderkommando Kulmhof were repaired, starting from 1942. In summer 1942 he received the order to repair one of the gas vans. His description of the exhaust pipe is in general the same as done by witnesses cited above. The only (but important) difference is the de- scription of the connection of elastic pipe with the hole in the car 's floor. According to Falborski (who made even a picture) they were joined] by two fasteners tightened by four screws. It seems that this connection was permanent, quite difficult to change and only op- tionally substituted by the standard connection of both metal parts of the exhaust pipe as in normal cars. Falborski 's report seems reliable as his task was to make this connection air-tight by the change of the packing between two fasteners.
The cases of the repair of gas vans in the local workshops of Kolo seem to be rare and exceptional. Probably it happened only in necessity when it was impossible to use military- or SS-motor ser- vices.
The Chelmno death center stopped to operate many months be- fore the liberation of this site. The gas vans were very easy to move from the area of Chelmno-Kolo and to change into standard vans with very little signs of their previous function. It is very difficult to think that [the] SS murder[Qr]s (who tried to destroy all evidences of genocide, like crematoria, camps, corpses, etc.) could simply forget a gas van near to Chelmno or elsewhere. "
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
41
J. Halbersztadt states that the Central Commission of Inquiry into German Crimes in Poland inspected the vehicle which was located at the former Ostrowski company on 13 November 1945 and confirmed that it was not a "gas van." Nevertheless, according Halbersztadt the Polish authorities decided in 1950 to transfer the vehicle in question to the Museum of Auschwitz or Majdanek, apparently to show it as a real "gas van." However, this vehicle was traveling regularly between Chelmno palace and the forest, because it necessarily belonged to the
3 9
SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof.
In his report of 7 January 1946, the investigating judge Bednarz wrote as follows (1946d, p. 5):
"The camp 's Sonderkommando didn 't have a car repair shop, so that vehicles requiring repairs were brought very quickly to the workshop of the company Kraft- und Reichsstrassenbauamt in Kolo. Eight Polish mechanics of this workshop described these vehicles ' technical design as follows: the vehicle's dimensions were 2.5 to 3 m in width and 6 m in length; the smallest were 2.3 to 2.5 meters wide and 4.5 to 5 m long. The cargo box was made of narrow boards bolted together. Inside the vehicle was covered with sheet metal. The door was airtight, so any flow of air from the outside was absolutely impossible. The vehicles were dark gray. The exhaust pipe was un- der the vehicle and was placed in the middle of its length [in the middle of the back]. The opening of the exhaust pipe inside the vehi- cle was fitted with a perforated sheet which prevented the tube from clogging. On the floor of the vehicle was a wooden grate. The engine was probably from the Sauer company. The driver 's cabin bore the inscription 'Baujahr 1940 - Berlin ' (built in 1940). Near the driver's seat were gas masks. "
This description - except for the words "Baujahr 1940 - Berlin" al- so fits the Ostrowski vehicle well (even though Magirus trucks never had Saurer engines). Its picture shows clearly that "the body was built with narrow planks bolted together," and in particular in the part of the body above the windows of the cab, where some boards had been re- moved. The presence of gas masks in the cab refers to the deposition of one witness ("Piaskowski declared that he saw two military-type gas masks in the cab").
Only one vehicle of the SS-Sonderkommando was permitted to move freely in the off- limits area.
42
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
At that time two types of masks against carbon monoxide existed in Germany: the CO-Degea mask produced by the Auer company and the CO-Draeger mask. Because the adsorbents used in the filters absorbed humidity from the air, the filters had to be stored in airtight boxes in or- der to prevent their premature breakdown due to moisture (Izzo 1935, pp. 181-187). There is no evidence that the masks allegedly seen by witnesses were masks for carbon monoxide and not the normal gas masks issued to the army, which in Auschwitz members of the SS had to have with them even when they were admitted to the SS infirmary (SS-Revier)\40
As far as the alleged "gas vans" are concerned, any use of masks against CO would be entirely unnecessary if the manufacturers of these alleged gas vans had taken the elementary precaution of installing a sealable opening to the front of the body, above the cab, whereby, after the alleged homicidal gassing, by opening this and the back door and by driving the vehicle at low speed, a stream of air would have been pro- duced in the body that would have eliminated the toxic gas in a few minutes. But, as is well-known, this would be asking too much of Ger- man "technical genius"!
In a revised edition of the report mentioned above, W. Bednarz add- ed further details on the issue of the Polish mechanics (Bednarz 1946a, pp. 23f):
"Three vehicles operated at Chelmno. The largest had a capacity of about 150 people. (The witness Ross stated that he had heard someone say to a man of the Sonderkommando that 150 people fit into the vehicle, but with the whip ' 1 75 people. The witness Kozan- ecki said the vehicle contained 150 adults (or 200 children). The two smaller vehicles contained 80-100 people (according to similar statements by other witnesses). Some witnesses also spoke of a fourth vehicle. As for the possibility that there was a fourth vehicle of a similar shape (which is currently in the former Ostrowski facto- ry at Kolo) and which was used to disinfect clothing or which was a closed vehicle for transporting Jewish workers to the forest, the statements that a fourth gassing vehicle had allegedly existed should be considered with some skepticism, as it is possible that there is an error due to the reasons mentioned above.
Standortbefehl Nr. 19/44 of 14 July 1944, in: Frei et al. 2000, p. 469; see also p. 49 {Kommandanturbefehl Nr. 13/41 of 13 June 1941) and p. 353 (Standortbefehl Nr. 46/43 of 14 October 1943).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
43
The [gas] vehicles were often damaged, and the Sonderkomman- do made the mistake of not having their own repair shops. So the ve- hicles, including the gas vans}AX^ officially called by them [the SS] 'Spezialwagen, ' had to be brought to the workshops at Kolo (of said Kraft- und Reichsstrassenbauamt), whose staff was composed almost entirely of Poles. This enabled simple mechanics such as Piaskowski - card 16}42^ Falborski - card 28, Rossa - card 43, Mankowski - card 30, Fojcik - card 222, Junkiert - card 320, Lewandowski - card 189, Jankowski - card 117, to get to know the configuration of the vehicles.
All these witnesses were examined at different times and even in different locations. Each of them made a sketch with their own hand of the exhaust pipe and of its entrance to the inside of the vehicle. " From the above, these are some clear conclusions:
1) The Ostrowski vehicle was not a "gas vans."
2) No photograph of a "gas van" exists.
Precisely because it was not a "gas vans," the Ostrowski vehicle - the only one documented - raises doubts regarding the existence of "gas vans" at Chelmno. Since it certainly belonged to the Kulmhof Sonder- kommando and was seen to travel between the palace and the forest, yet obviously without any homicidal purpose, why then would the other two or three similar trucks necessarily be "gas vans"? Everything is down to testimonies. I will deal with these in detail in Chapter 7. Here it is important to note that according to the defendant Bruno Israel, an ethnic German police officer who was transferred to Chelmno in July- August 1944,43 in addition to two gassing "special vehicles" at the camp "there was also a third vehicle that was used to fumigate clothes." He pointed out in this regard (Bednarz 1946a, p. 72):
<(The photographs shown to me (the accused was shown the pho- tographs on pages 397 and 398 of the documents) precisely depict the vehicle described by me. "
But the only existing photographs of a vehicle used in Chelmno were those of the vehicle that was found in the former Ostrowski works in Kolo.
"Komory gazowe" literally "the gas chamber."
Reference to card numbers of the respective depositions within the investigation, refer- ence no. Ill 13/45 NT (Bednarz 1946a, p. 12, footnote).
Krakow ski writes that B. Israel was tried and convicted in October 1945, but soon was back at large (2007, p. 177).
44
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Incredibly, Krakowski believes that this vehicle was a real gas van. Criticizing Poles for their anti-Semitic attitude after the war, he states (2007, p. 194):
"No one thought it necessary to keep one of the gas vans that the Germans had left behind in their flight. Thus an important object and many traces disappeared that attested to the existence of an ex- termination camp in the village of Chelmno. "
As pointed out by Weckert (1985, pp. 14f), while the alleged use by the Germans of Saurer trucks as the "gas vans" is at least understanda- ble, because this company, although Swiss, had a branch in Vienna, which in 1941 was part of Greater Germany, the choice of Diamond trucks is absolutely inexplicable, since it was an American company that, after Pearl Harbor, about the time of the alleged entry into service of Chelmno, obviously no longer supplied trucks or spare parts to Ger- many.
In 1941 the Diamond company produced two series of army trucks, Models 967 and 968. The second was designed in 1939, adapted for production in 1940 and produced from 1941 to 1945. This vehicle was 6.83 meters long and 2.44 wide, powered by a Hercules RXC 6-cylinder 8,668 cm3 gasoline engine.44 The body of the vehicle was not much longer than the cab, which is less than 4 meters (see document 4a). The Diamond truck was therefore not the most suitable vehicle for special use as a "gas vans," but it is more likely that, if the Chelmno Sonder- kommando had one, it was used for normal purposes like the truck that was found in the courtyard of the Ostrowski company.
As part of the documentary evidence on the alleged gassings at Chelmno, the height of absurdity is reached by the famous work Fa- schismus - Getto - Massenmord, published by the Jewish Historical In- stitute in Warsaw. Here is published an invoice of Kopernikus-Apotheke (Copernicus Pharmacy) of Posen dated 31 March 1942 "to the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of the German National Character" (fur den Beauftragten Reichskommissars des fur die deutschen Fes- tigung Volkstums) for 1,641 kg of "chlorinated lime" (Chlorkalk). The document bears the stamp in the lower-left of the administration of the Litzmannstadt ghetto (Getto-Verwaltung Litzmannstadt; see document 5). And here is the incredible caption that accompanies it (Jiidisches Historisches... 1960, p. 279):
"Diamond T968 - 1943," in: http://www.moody.se/diamond.html.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
45
"Chloride of lime was strewn inside the wagons which served to
transport the Jews to the Kulmhof death camp. "
Clearly reminiscent of the propaganda stories of Jan Karski about Belzec! (See Mattogno 2004b, pp. 22-33)
Another alleged proof is an invoice from the Heyne Motors compa- ny (Heyne-Motoren) of Leipzig addressed to SS Sonderkommando X for the attention of the SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Police Detective Both- mann, Kulmhof (an das SS-Sonderkommando SS-X (z. H. Herrn SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer Krim.-Kom. Bothmann Kulmhof) concerning "1 used diesel engine guaranteed operational" (7 Stck. gebrauchter be- triebssicherer Dieselmotor) amounting to RM 1,400 (see document 6). The book's caption accompanying the document is an outrageous lie (Jiidisches Historisches... 1960, p. 282):
"Supply of a diesel engine to the SS Sonderkommando Bothmann
for the gassing of Jews in the death camp of Kulmhof "
Here the commentator has forgotten that, according to the official thesis, the gassing took place using "gas vans" and not by means of a stationary diesel engine, a method of extermination that Holocaust his- toriography attributes instead to the camps of Belzec, Sobibor and Tre- blinka.
It is all too obvious that the "chloride of lime" was used for the pur- pose of disinfection and the diesel engine was to drive an electricity generator.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
47
5. The "First Systematic Extermination of Jews in the Warthegau"
G. Aly writes (1995, pp. 354f.):
"Already on September 26 [1941] Krumey [45] had sent 900 Jew- ish women and children at a time from the Lodz ghetto via Leslau (Wloclawek) by rail. Three days later there was another transfer from the same location with more than 1,000 persons - 'again al- most exclusively women and children. ' And a third transport fol- lowed. [...]
The first systematic extermination of Jews in the Warthegau fits into this context also. Neither the exact date nor the instrument of extermination is known - gas vans or shooting? However, there is agreement on the fact that it took place in late September/early Oc- tober.
If we consider the principles upon which Hoppner, Krumey and the like acted, this crime took place exactly when it was certain that, after the ghettoization of the Jews of Loslau and Lodz, further depor- tations would be impossible because of the resistance of the local authorities. According to the report of Isaiah Trunk}46^ the following happened:
'(Then) the entire Jewish population of the Konin district, about 3,000 persons, was concentrated in Sagurawe (Hinterberg in Ger- man). First, all men between 14 and 60 years and all women be- tween 14 and 50 years had to undergo a medical examination and pay four marks each for this. In this way, as it is said, suitability for work was determined. Finally the transfer began, which is claimed to have been by truck to the nearby city of Koil and thence by rail to Lodz. In fact, the people, 60 at a time on a truck, were taken out into the nearby woods at Kazimierz (Biskup), where they were killed. '"
Hermann Krumey, SS-Obersturmbannfiihrer, official at the Litzmannstadt station of the State Police.
That is a report quoted by I. Trunk. See below.
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
The alleged "agreement" of the sources, which supposedly ascertain this alleged crime of which "neither the exact date nor the instrument" is known, is actually a single source, which for the most part was con- cocted by Isaiah Trunk. This source is a clandestine report called "Mass executions of Jews in the district of Kolo" dated 25 March 1942, from which we have this passage from Trunk:47
"In October 1941 the whole Jewish population of the district of Konin - about 3,000 people - was concentrated in Zagorow (Hin- terberg). First they had to pay a poll tax' of 4 RM per person and undergo a medical examination - the examination included men from 14 to 60 years and women from 14 to 50 years and was appar- ently intended to establish suitability to work, after which the so- called 'transfer' began. The Jews were transported in trucks, 60 at a time, and each could take a package of 1 kg. The journey ended in the Kazimierz woods on the outskirts of Zagorow, where the Jews got out and were taken into the woods. From that moment all trace of them was lost, and nothing is known; neither inquiries in writing nor by messengers sent either to the Reich or to the General Gov- ernment yielded any results.
Halfway through December, a similar 'transfer' took place in the Kolo district (Wartebrucken). The destination was the village of Chelmno (Kulmhof). The entire Jewish population of Kolo (2,000 persons) and Dqbie upon Ner (1,000 persons) was sent there (also after payment of a tax of 4 RM and after medical examination), then in early January, in succession, the Jews of Klodawa (January 2 and 4), of Izbica Kujawska (January 6 and 9), and of Bugaj (January 9)."
A later report in the Oyneg Shabbos (clandestine archive of the War- saw Ghetto, also known as the Ringelblum archive), clearly derived from the aforementioned source, says with regard to this (Sakowska 1993, p. 186):
"In the second half of November 1941, in the city and district of Kolo (district of Warthbrucken), news began to spread that the en- tire Jewish population of these areas had been transferred to the re- gion of Pinsk or to Eastern Galicia. The German authorities im- posed a poll tax of 4 RM on the entire Jewish population, and all men aged 14 to 60 years and women up to 50 years underwent a
Report entitled "Masowe egzekucje Zydow w pow. kolskim" (mass execution of the Jews of the Kolo district) of 25 March 1942, in: Tyszkowa 1992a, p. 52.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
49
medical examination to ascertain their suitability for work. Con- cerned by these facts, the Jewish community endeavored to obtain information on the matter of the transfer, but their efforts were in vain. All that can be established is the fact that, after this prelude, the Jewish community of Zagorow in the Konin district was trans- ported by truck to the Kazimierz woods, located near the city, where all trace of it was lost. "
Hence neither report claimed that the deported Jews had been killed. But the most surprising thing in this story is that the SS would have made a "selection" in reverse (men 14 to 60 years, women 14 to 50 years) in order to exterminate those able to work - after a medical ex- amination to confirm their ability to work! Maybe the SS were afraid of killing any Jew incapable of work? - while at the same time they sent the transport of Jews unable to work to the Lodz ghetto!
Krakowski states that Jews from the district of Konin were killed in two places, the Niestusz-Rudzica woods and the Wygoda woods. He then reports a long testimony given on 27 October 1945 by the Polish veterinary surgeon Mieczyslaw Sekiewicz on the alleged massacre in the Wygoda woods. The Germans had allegedly prepared two pits in those woods and had forced the Jews to strip naked and get down into the larger pit, whose bottom was covered with lime (Krakowski 2007, p. 24):
"Then - the witness continues - a truck appeared on the side of the road which stopped on the path at the edge of the clearing. I no- ticed that there was something on the truck, like tubs for washing. The Germans then started up a small engine, which was clearly a pump, and connected it via a tube to one of the tubs. Two Gestapo agents held the pipes and began to sprinkle the Jews herded into the pit with a liquid. I think it was water, as it appeared to be, but I can- not be sure. During the pumping operation they connected the tubes to each of the other tubs. People began to cook while still alive, and this was certainly due to the boiling fresh lime. [...] This all went on for two hours. "
A truly original execution system: Death by showering with water and a disinfectant! To be sure, by the 1940s the vast majority of the eastern European population had never seen a shower in their lives, so the witness's consternation is comprehensible. But how could the more cosmopolitan western historians interpret this as a method of extermina- tion?
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6. The First Testimony: The "Szlamek" Report
6.1. Origin of the Report
Krakowski wrote in this connection (1983, p. 131):
"Only a few Jews managed to flee from the 'Arbeitskommando ' (labor squad). The first was Jakov Grojanowski, who then contacted Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum in the Warsaw ghetto, who was director of the clandestine archive 'Oneg Shabbat, ' and was able to deliver to him in 1942 a report written in his own hand on the Kulmhof death factory. Grojanowski died in the ghetto, but his report was found in the ruins of the ghetto among Ringelblum 's documents. " This report is a long document written in Yiddish and allegedly based on the account of a Jew from Izbica Kujawska known as "Szla- mek," whose identity is uncertain.48 Ruta Sakowska rejects the name of Yakov Grojanowski (or Jakub Grojnowski or Yakov Grojanowski) and identifies it with Szlojme Fajner, one of the three who escaped from Chelmno,49 stating (Sakowska 1993, p. 184):
"In the catalog of the archive of the ghetto that was drawn up af- ter the war on the basis ofHersz Wasser's information, his report is also registered under the name of Jakub Grojnowski, but it is un- known whether this is the real name of the author; the narrator fig- ures in the text as 'Szlojme' ('Szlamek' is a diminutive of this name), not as Jakub. "
Krakowski writes that Jakov Grojanowski was a pseudonym and considered it likely that the person in question was Schlomo Winer, an alleged fugitive from Chelmno. However, he makes no mention of the name "Szlamek" (Krakowski 2007, pp. 6 If).
A German translation of the report can be found in Sakowska 1993, pp. 159-182, enti- tled: "[Februar] 1942, Warschau, Ghetto. Als Totengrdber im Vernichtungs lager. Augen- zeugenbericht ilber die Ermordung von Juden und Zigeunern in der Gaswagenstation Chelmno am Ner vom 5. bis zum 19. Januar 1942, mitgeteilt von 'Szlamek, ' der von dort fliehen konnte [aufgezeichnet von Hersz Wasser]"; an English translation can be found in Gilbert 1985, pp. 252-279. Gilbert attributes this report to Yakov Grojanowski. The other two, who survived the war, were Abram and Michal Roj or Mordka Podchleb- nik; see chapter 7.2.3.
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
It is unclear whether the report was written by "Szlamek" personally or by Hersz Wasser, secretary of Oyneg Shabbos, based on the state- ments of the witness. What is certain is that Wasser later, on 25 March 1942, drew up a summary of the report "on the basis of what Szlamek said."50
Both reports come from the archive Oyneg Shabbos.
6.2. General Characteristics of Report
The witness affirms that he was arrested on 5 January 1942 and that he worked from 6 January until the day of his escape, 19 January, at Chelmno, where, as we shall see, Jews and gypsies were allegedly mur- dered by "gas vehicles." The report is drawn up as a diary in which events are recorded each day with an extraordinary wealth of detail when you consider that the witness wrote down or recounted these events from memory. I summarize, as an example, the entry for 9 Janu- ary. We should first note that, as soon as they arrived at Chelmno, the "diggers," including "Szlamek," had to hand over "all money and valu- ables" (Sakowska 1993, p. 160), and therefore watches {ibid., pp. 169- 171):
"On Friday, 9 January, at seven o 'clock in the morning we were again brought some bitter coffee. [...] At eight o'clock the SS ar- rived. [...] The courtyard was already surrounded by 20 policemen with submachine guns. [...]/« the courtyard we saw two open trucks full of gypsies. [...] We were in the front of the vehicle and behind were seven policemen armed with submachine guns ready to fire.
[...]
[...] another eight persons were selected [...]. An hour later the first truck arrived with gypsies, and forty minutes later the next one. [...] Among them [the 8 grave diggers] were: Abram Zielinski from Izbica, 32, Brawman from Izbica, 17, Zalman Jakubowski from Izbi- ca, 55 and Gerszon Praszker from Izbica.[. . .]. Around three [in the afternoon], when there was not much work [...]. That day we had lunch at one thirty [...]. That day eight and a half transports of gyp- sies were buried. We finished work at five thirty [...]. In the Chelm- no castle, we saw to our painful surprise a new group, possibly
50 Sakowska 1992, p. 23. Polish text in Tyszkowa 1992a, pp. 52-54. German translation in Sakowska 1993, pp. 186-189.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
53
grave diggers: 16 men from Izbica and 16 men from Bugaj. Among the men from Izbica were: Mojsze Lepek, about 40; Awigdor Po- lanski, about 20; Sztajer, about 55; Krol, about 45, Icchak Prajs, about 45, Jehuda Lubinski, 31, Kalman Radziejewski, 32, Menachem Arcichowski, about 40, and from Bugaj my companion and friend Izbicki, 33. Twenty old grave diggers and five new ones, 25 in all, were pushed into another cellar, a little smaller than the earlier one. We found bed linen, personal linen, shirts, jackets and basic food- stuffs (bread, sugar and lard). "
The story goes on and on like this - indeed, even more detailed - for fifteen days: a truly prodigious memory.
6.3. Structure and Function of a "Gas Van"
The witness provides this detailed description of a "gas van" (ibid., pp. 162f.):
"The vehicle had a special design. It looked something like this: It was as large as a normal truck, of gray color, but at the back it was closed hermetically with two doors. Its interior was lined with sheet metal, it had no seats, on the floor was a wooden grate, like in a bathroom, and on it was a straw mat. Between the cargo box and the cab were two small windows through which, with [the help of] a light bulb, it was checked whether the victims were already dead. Under the wooden grates were two 15 cm thick pipes leading to the cockpit. They were connected to the openings through which the gas flowed. The gas apparatus was in the cab, in which only the driver was sitting, who was always the same, in uniform with the SS skull. He was maybe 40 years. There were two vehicles of this kind. When a truck arrived, he stopped about five meters away from the ditch. The head of the group of guards, a high-ranking SS man, was a sad- ist and a refined gangster. He ordered the eight men to open the doors of the vehicles. Immediately we were struck by a deep and pungent smell of gas. They had killed gypsies from Lodz. Their be- longings were still in the vehicle: harmonicas, violins, duvets, even watches and gold jewelry. After about five minutes of waiting with open doors, the SS man shouted: 'You Jews, inside and throw out everything! "'
The witness gave further details (ibid., p. 166):
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"As the companions of the eight grave diggers told us, there is a special device with buttons in the driver's cab that is connected by two tubes to the interior of the cargo box. The driver (there were two for the two execution vehicles, always the same persons) pressed a button and got out of the vehicle. Then you could hear screams from the vehicle, desperate cries and banging against the outside wall. This lasted about 15 minutes; then the driver got into the cabin, where a light bulb illuminated the interior through an opening, in order to see whether the people were already dead, and then he ap- proached the pit with the truck up to a distance of about five meters. After another five minutes, 'Nerbodibue' [literally: bull's penis] or- dered four grave diggers to open the doors. A strong smell of gas came out. After waiting another five minutes, he shouted: 'You Jews, you go to put tefillin ' - meaning to throw out the corpses. They lay clinging to each other in the dirt of their excrements. " And here is what happened then (ibid., p. 167):
"Four grave diggers threw out the corpses, of course encouraged by beatings and screams. The corpses were thrown together in a pile; two other [prisoners] dragged the corpses to the grave and threw them in there. Down there were two more who piled the corpses on the instructions of an SS man. When the vehicle was emp- ty, the grave diggers started cleaning up the excreta and other dirt. The straw mat and wooden grate were taken out of the truck and [they] cleaned them with their shirts [sic] before putting the grate and the mat back in place. The exterior double door was hermetical- ly sealed with a bolt. "
How did these vehicles of death work? And did these "gas vans" op- erate with engine exhaust gas? It is not known. What is certain is that the description of the witness is in stark contrast to the official version on two essential points. First, according to this official version, the vic- tims were loaded into the "gas vans" at Chelmno castle and murdered on the way to the camp, whereas the testimony reviewed here claims that the assassination was carried out directly at the camp in a hermeti- cally closed "gas van" and even in the absence of the driver. Second, according to the orthodox version it was necessary to connect the ex- haust pipe of the engine with a special flexible pipe to the interior of the cargo box, an operation that was performed outside the vehicle. This witness, however, speaks of a "gas system" equipped with "buttons" that was "in the cab" and was linked to "two 15 cm thick pipes" that ran
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
55
along the floor of the cargo box "under the wooden grates." In order to inject the gas into the body of the truck, all that was needed was to press a "button" of the "gas apparatus." It remains undetermined whether the engine was switched on or off and whether the killing was done by means of engine exhaust gas or another gas. The first hypothesis is in contradiction with the statement about the "gas apparatus," because it was not possible, simply by pressing a "button" in the cab, to tightly connect a pipe or hose to the exhaust pipe which would have connected it to the two pipes that were allegedly located in the vehicle's cargo box.
The witness further stated that the two rear doors were "hermetical- ly" sealed and that, when the van was opened, he smelled "a strong smell of gas." Now, in the history of the "gas vans," if one thing is cer- tain it is that the system of piping engine exhaust gases into a hermeti- cally sealed cargo box cannot work, because the pressure inside the sealed cargo box would either shut down the engine or burst the cargo box (see Alvarez 2011, chapter 1.3.2.). Hence the witness could not have described a real fact.
6.4. The Color of the Corpses
About the corpses the report states:
"What was the appearance of the corpses? They were neither burned nor black. The complexion of their faces was unchanged. Almost all the dead were lying in their excrement. " (Sakowska 1993, p. 163)
"It seemed that they were only put to sleep; their cheeks were pale, and they maintained their natural skin color. " (ibid., p. 166) The color of a corpse of a person dead by asphyxiation from carbon
monoxide is known to be "cherry red" or "pink" (Berg 2003, p. 439,
esp. note 22).
Charles D. Provan has challenged this finding, citing some examples of medical literature which also mention a bluish color in cases of car- bon monoxide poisoning. Provan cites a medical source in 1970 on a group of suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning which had the follow- ing colors: 51 normal color; 7 bluish, 14 red, 5 cherry pink, 4 pale. An- other group of people poisoned accidentally had the following colors: 44 normal color, 5 bluish, 3 red, 4 cherry pink, 2 pale. According to
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
these examples the prevailing color is normal, but another medical source proffered by Pro van explains (2004, pp. 160-162):
"At autopsy the most striking appearance of the body is the color of the skin, especially in areas of post-mortem hypostasis. The clas- sical 'cherry-pink' color of carboxy-hemoglobin is usually evident if the saturation of the blood exceeds about 30%. Below this, familiari- ty and good lighting are needed and below 20%, no coloration is visible. "
So the color "cherry pink" usually manifests itself when the car- boxy-hemoglobin level in the blood "exceeds 30%." Since the "gas vans" supposedly were instruments of murder which killed the victims in 20 minutes (Sakowska 1993, p. 166), the victims must have had a much higher percentage than 30% of carboxy-hemoglobin in their blood (ibid., p. 166). According Flury and Zernik, in fact, a percentage of 40- 50% produces "headache; a state of confusion; in case of stress, col- lapse and fainting," and a percentage of 60-70% "loss of consciousness, for prolonged exposure respiratory arrest" (Flury/Zernik 1931, p. 202; see also Berg 2005; Kues 2008).
A study on the forensic autopsy reports of 182 bodies of people who died accidentally from carbon monoxide poisoning in Vienna between 1984 and 1994 resulted in (Risser/Bonsch/Schneider 1995, p. 596):
"We found a strong association between the carboxyhemoglobin level and the cherry-coloring of pink livor mortis. In 98.4% of unin- tentional carbon monoxide-related deaths livor mortis were clearly cherry-pink. " The study confirmed that
"fresh corpses with carboxyhemoglobin levels greater than 31% show a clear cherry-pink coloring of livor mortis. " So the alleged victims of "gas vans" murdering with carbon monox- ide should normally have a "cherry-pink" color, but, as we have seen, according to the witness, they had a "natural skin tone."
Therefore, if the witness described a reality in this case, the corpses he witnessed had not died of poisoning by exhaust gas.
6.5. The Mass Graves
The corpses of the alleged victims were buried in very peculiar mass graves which the witness describes as follows (Sakowska 1993, p. 170):
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
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"We took up hoes and spades and began to work. The pit bottom was about one and a half meters wide; the hole became wider at the top, reaching a width of five meters at the surface, and it was five meters deep. The mass grave proceeded as a long line. When a tree was an obstacle, it was cut down. "
And here is how the burial of corpses took place {ibid., p. 163):
"A layer contained 180-200 corpses. After three trucks had ar- rived from time to time, twenty grave diggers were employed to bury the bodies. At first they had to fill two graves each time. Then, when the number of vehicles grew to nine (nine times 60 corpses at a time) we had to fill three graves a day. "
According to the first description (entry of 9 January 1942), there was only one pit with a cross section of a regular inverted trapezoid with a lower, smaller width of 1.5 m, a height of 5 m and an upper, larger width of 5 m. The length is not given because the pit, which looked like a "long line," was extended from day to day. In the course of this work, if there was a tree on the route of the trench, it was "cut," which is not very rational, because the roots had to be uprooted (which the witness does not mention). The second description cited above (en- try of 7 January) instead presupposes the presence of several graves - we must assume of the shape indicated above.
According to the witness, in these pits there was "a layer containing 180-200 corpses," and every day three pits were filled. Here the term "layer" should not be understood in the strict meaning (in which case the sentence would make no sense), as is clear from the term that ap- pears in the English translation of the report presented by Martin Gil- bert: "batch" (1985, p. 256). This means that each grave contained 180- 200 bodies. From the measurements given by the witness, assuming a load of eight bodies per cubic meter, a section of a mass grave is of 13.5 m (assuming a depth of 4.5 m, with a layer of 0.5 m of soil on top of the corpses), 200 corpses occupy 25 m , so the length of a pit is (25^13.5 =) 1.85 meters. It was therefore quite an unusual pit, both in shape and size. The testimony suggests that the pits were dug by hand by "grave diggers," because it says, "We took up hoes and spades and began to work," and suddenly afterward it talks about a pit. However, leaving aside the difficulties of digging a pit by hand in the shape men- tioned above, the work would have a much more serious impediment. In fact, the witness says (January 9): "The cold reached 20 degrees [be-
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
low zero]" (Sakowska 1993, p. 170) and confirmed on 13 January, "we worked until six in the afternoon in intense cold" (ibid, p. 176).
The ground was therefore frozen, so how could they dig by hand three pits (or sections of pits) per day?
No less problematic is what the witness adds about the state of the corpses (ibid., p. 179):
"On Friday [16 January] they began to sprinkle the graves with
chloride of lime, because the rotting corpses gave off a strong
smell. "
But if the temperature was 20 degrees below zero, how could the bodies decompose?
Here too, then, the witness could not have been describing a real fact.
In conclusion, the report "Szlamek" cannot correspond to reality and is therefore totally unreliable.
Perhaps that is why Krakowski, in his 2007 book (pp. 62-64), pre- ferred not to mention it at all, merely referring generally to its content according to the story of Yitzchak Zuckermann, a member of Oyneg Shabbos.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
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7. Postwar Witnesses
7.1. TheSS
Krakowski quotes a report written by SS-Hauptscharfuhrer Walter Piller (Chelmno camp Deputy Commander in 1944) "during his Rus- sian imprisonment in May 1945" in which, in relation to the second phase of the camp, he wrote (Krakowski 1983, pp. 138f.):
"I think it was at the beginning or end of May when the extermi- nation of the Jews of the Lodz ghetto began, and it lasted until mid- August 1944. [...] According to my calculations, the number of ex- terminated Jews amounted to 25,000. I am unable to state the exact figure. But the number of Jews above or below this figure should be small. To arrive at this figure I use the following calculation: Each transport of Jews from the Lodz ghetto contained 700 people (some were fewer, even 300). But I want to take 700 as a base. Each week three transports arrived, making 2,100 people a week. The Kom- mando worked continuously month by month as follows: two weeks in May, in June and July continuously, therefore eight weeks, and in August another two weeks. This results in a total in 12 weeks of [12 x 2100 =] 25,200 Jews. In mid-August the ongoing transport of Jews was stopped completely. "
However, as Adalbert Riickerl writes, the first Jewish transport sup- posedly sent from the Lodz ghetto to Chelmno left on 23 June 1944 (Riickerl 1979, p. 284), not in mid-May. The deportations stopped "in July 1944" {ibid., p. 283), more precisely on 14 July (ibid., p. 293), not in mid- August. On the other hand, as discussed in chapter 13, the Bonn Jury Court admitted only 10 transports for 1944 instead of 36, which means that there is not even a vague indication in favor of Piller' s alle- gations; moreover, these 10 transports left one per day for 10 consecu- tive days, but Piller said that three transports came to Chelmno each week. His testimony is therefore absolutely unreliable.
Bruno Israel, as I mentioned earlier, was assigned to the Chelmno police in July/ August 1944. On 29 and 30 October 1945 he was interro-
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
gated as a defendant by Judge Bednarz, who published the interrogation (Bednarz 1946a, pp. 67-74.). He stated that during his stay at the camp two transports arrived from Lodz of 700-800 Jews each. The victims came from Kolo to Chelmno in a train of 15-17 train cars, two of which were loaded with luggage; they were transferred by truck to the camp into a large shed where they were selected. The Jews were transported to the camp in three covered trucks, with which carrying 40-50 people. Each vehicle made two, three or maybe four trips per day, and in some cases only half of the transport was killed and the other half was killed the next day. The activities began at 7 a.m. and stopped at 4 p.m. The Jews transported to Chelmno undressed in a shack which bore the in- scription Durchgangslager (transit camp), men and women separately, then climbed into a "Spezialwagen." They were told that they had to take a bath, and soap was also given to them. How the SS could have hoped that the victims would confuse the back of a truck with a shower system remains a mystery. Then the doors were closed (ibid., pp. 70f): "Before starting the engine, the exhaust pipe was secured to the pipe that went to the engine [sic]. / noticed that the exhaust pipe went through the floor to the center of the vehicle, so that, after the engine started, the exhaust gases went inside the vehicle poisoning those present. "
Here we have instead the description of Walter Piller (Krakowski 1983, p. 141):
"During the trip the driver Laabs opened a valve through which
streamed the gas that killed the occupants in 2-3 minutes. "
Therefore, for Bruno Israel the gas was injected before the departure of the vehicle using two tubes; according to W. Piller, on the other hand, it was carried out while the vehicle was moving by activating a "valve," which brings us back to the fanciful claims of "Szlamek."
After a few minutes the "special vehicle" moved off in the direction of the ovens. On arriving in front of them, it stopped, the doors were opened, and the corpses were thrown into the ovens. The bodies burned "quickly" (szybko), which is nonsense (see chapter 9.2.).
About the crematoria, Bruno Israel declared (Bednarz 1946a, p. 71): "The shorter tracks formed the grid, but the longer ones were
used to mask the crematoria [making them invisible] to aviators. "
But he added (ibid., p. 73):
"Rags, paper and photographs were burned in a pit dug at the
end of the park. They were burning day and night. "
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This pit was clearly visible from an aircraft, but why then were the ovens camouflaged?
Bruno Israel furthermore stated (ibid., p. 72):
"In December 1944 the liquidation of the camp began. The crematoria were demolished. The bricks were taken away, I do not know exactly where. A special commission arrived that monitored whether the works were carried out accurately. It was noted that the reinforced concrete of one of the ovens had remained in the pit; it was ordered to be thrown away. Currently there is no trace of the furnaces. "
But the book itself which contains Bruno Israel's deposition has two photographs of the alleged ruins of a crematorium that belie this asser- tion (ibid., pp. 8f.; see documents 7 & 8).
Two other testimonies of former SS men will be discussed in chapter 9.3.
7.2. The Inmates
The only self-styled survivors of Chelmno who have testified re- garding its alleged exterminating activities in 1944 are Mordechai or Mordka or Mieczyslaw Zurawski, Shimon Srebrnik and Michal or Mordka Podchlebnik. At the 65th hearing of the Eichmann trial in Jeru- salem, which was held 5 June 1961, the prosecutor, referring to these three people, said (State of Israel 1993, p. 1194):
"There are no other survivors of the extermination camp at
Chelmno. "
This is also confirmed by Krakowski, who writes (1983, p. 145):
"Mordechai Zurawski, along with Michel Podchlebnik and Shimon Srebrnik, was one of three survivors ofKulmhof. "
7.2. 1 . Mordechai or Mordka or Mieczyslaw Zurawski
Zurawski was questioned by Judge Bednarz on 31 July 1945. In ad- dition, on 5 June 1961 he was also heard as a witness for the prosecu- tion at the 65th hearing of the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem.
Before Judge Bednarz he testified that in 1944 he was in the Lodz ghetto and worked at Radogoszcz station, from where Jewish transports
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
of 700-1,000 persons left for an unknown destination. In one of these transports he himself was deported (Bednarz 1946a, p. 61): "On 10 May 1944 1 went with the seventh transport" During the Eichmann trial the witness said instead (State..., p. 1194):
"Judge Halevi: You arrived at Chelmno in 1944? Witness Zurawski: In 1944, approximately in July. " From the Lodz ghetto the transport was sent by rail to Kolo and from there by a narrow gauge railway to Chelmno. Upon arrival, six men were selected, including the witness, who was sent to the "Waldkom- mando" (forest team) to collect wood from another forest for the "cre- mation ovens." Then he was assigned to a crematorium and was alleg- edly able to observe from a distance of 200 meters how the extermina- tion of the Jews took place.
With regard to the transports, Zurawski said (Bednarz 1946a, p. 63): "10 transports came to Chelmno in 1944. These transports con- tained from 700 to 1,000 persons. When a transport arrived with 700 people, it was completed using small transports by truck, so that a total of 10,000 people were killed at Chelmno. Heffele [Hafele] spoke of this. "
At the Eichmann trial the witness stated as follows (State..., p. 1193):
"While I was there, three transports of one thousand persons each came. Before that, some seven thousand persons had arrived. I heard this from the people who were there before me. All these per- sons were burned. "
The name Zorawski Mordka indeed appears in the seventh evacua- tion listing for the Lodz ghetto, which is dated 7 July 1944. 51 But that does not necessarily mean that the transport in question was actually sent to Chelmno, much less that the deportees were exterminated there. Indeed, as we shall see in Chapter 13, the story of the 10 aforemen- tioned transports being sent to Chelmno is not only unsupported by documentary evidence, but it is unreasonable and contrary to the Na- tional Socialist policy of preserving Jewish labor.
Zurawski also provides a detailed description of the crematoria, which was then taken up by the Judge Bednarz (see chapter 9.1.). In that regard, the witness pointed out (Bednarz 1946a, p. 63):
"Zur Arbeit aus Litzmannstadt-Getto am 7. 7.1944 ausgereistr APL, PSZ, 1309, p. 80.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
63
"In one layer (the lowest) you have 12 people. On the corpses were placed more pieces of firewood and then ^[nother] layer of corpses. In this way, the pyre could hold 100 corpses at a time. As the bodies burned, space was created at the top that was filled with successive layers of wood and corpses. The corpses burned quickly. After about 15 minutes they were already burned. " In chapter 9.2. I will show that these claims are unsustainable. I will
return to this witness in chapter 7.2.4. in order to complete the picture
of Zurawski's reliability.
7.2.2. Shimon Srebrnik
Srebrnik was interrogated by Judge Bednarz on 29 June 1945 at Kolo. He stated that had been arrested and sent to Chelmno in March 1944 (Srebrnik 1945):
"Up to March 1944 I had been in the Lodz ghetto, from where I was then driven off to Chelmno. In Lodz I worked in the ghetto in the so-called metal department. In March 1944 the Germans organized a round-up. They caught me while I was on a street car and led me to Balucki Square where there were some cars from Chelmno. " But during the 66th day of the Eichmann trial (6 June 1961) he claimed to have been captured in the summer of 1 943 in the Lodz ghet- to and that he was brought to Chelmno, at the age of thirteen years (State..., p. 1197f):
"Q. In the summer of 1943, you were in the Lodz Ghetto? A. Yes. [...]
Presiding Judge: How old were you at the time? Witness Srebrnik: Thirteen. [...] Judge Halevi: On what date did you reach Chelmno? Witness Srebrnik: In 1943, close to the year 1944. " It is unclear why the attorney general asked the witness the specific question about the summer of 1943, if this was not the date of his de- portation; if it was only the date of his capture, it is not clear where the witness was from the summer of 1943 to the end of that year. What is certain is that there was at that time no one in Chelmno. Indeed, Riickerl writes about this (1979, p. 283):
"In April 1944 Bothmann, with some ex-members of his Sonderkommand, left the SS 'Prince Eugene ' division and returned to Chelmno. "
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
The witness even claimed instead that the first Jewish transport had come to Chelmno two or three months after his arrival, namely in Feb- ruary-March 1944 (State..., p. 1198):
"Attorney General: When did transports of Jews reach Chelmno, after your arrival?
Witness Srebrnik: About three months after my arrival. Perhaps it was two months after, I don't remember exactly.
Q. What did you do during those two or three months? A. We put up huts, we put up tents, there was work in the Waldkommando and in preparing the crematorium. " He pointed out that these first transports came "from Lodz"! So the witness's story is entirely invented. On the other hand, how can you se- riously believe that a child of thirteen years was first assigned to the Waldkommando, then the Hauskommando (internal team) and survived for at least 13 months in the "death camp"? Judge Raveh also had some doubts, since he asked the witness (ibid., p. 1201):
"Judge Raveh: You said you were thirteen years of age. When were you thirteen? When you came to Chelmno?
Witness Srebrnik: When I came to Chelmno. " The presiding judge of the court also expressed some doubt, primari- ly about Bothmann's rank (ibid., p. 1 199):
"Obersturmbannfuehrer Hans Bothmann, he did it on the Sab- bath...
Presiding Judge: Obersturmbannfuehrer [Lieutenant Colonel] or Obersturmfuhrer [Lieutenant] ?
Witness Srebrnik: Obersturmbannfuehrer.
Presiding Judge: That is a very high rank.
Attorney General: Are you sure of his rank?
Witness Srebrnik: I once heard him speaking on the telephone, and he answered 'Obersturmbannfuehrer. '
Q. Is that how you know?
A. Yes.
Q. Actually, he was of a much lower rank, as far as is known to us. Please continue. "
Bothmann was in fact an SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer (captain). But anoth- er more important point of this silly lie puzzled the presiding judge: the number of victims. The public prosecutor asked the witness how many people were taken to Chelmno for extermination from the start of the transports, and he replied (ibid.):
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
65
"About 1,000-1,200. Q. Every day? A. Yes. "
Judge Raveh then asked the witness (ibid., p. 1201):
"I understood that there were exterminations for about nine
months while you were there?
A. Yes, but I don't remember exactly.
Q. You said that you arrived there at the beginning of 1944, and that you left at the beginning of 1945, and that they had ceased the extermination three months before that. According to this, I make it nine months. Is my calculation correct?
A. Correct. "
Accepting the correctness of this calculation, the witness denied he had said shortly before that the gassing had begun two or three months after his arrival in Chelmno, that is, as we have already seen, in Febru- ary-March 1944, so that the total would be reduced to six or seven months.
Subsequently, the presiding judge returned to the question (ibid., p. 1201):
"Did they put 1,200 people to death every single day?
Witness Srebrnik: That was more or less every day. Sometimes they would have a break of one day, in order to grind the bones.
Q. From this it follows that they exterminated many tens of thou- sands there?
A. Yes, they exterminated many.
Q. One of the witnesses who preceded you gave much lower fig- ures. Are you sure of your facts? A. Yes.
Presiding Judge: Thank you, Mr. Srebrnik, you have concluded your testimony. "
The reference was to the witness Zurawski, who had spoken of 10,000 victims in total. Instead, according to the statements of Srebrnik, in the alleged nine months' activities of the camp the number of victims would have been (9x30x1200=) 324,000!
Obviously, the presiding judge dropped any further inquiries; other- wise he would have had to accept the inevitable conclusion that the wit- ness was a base impostor.
In contradiction to this Srebrnik had stated in 1945 (Srebrnik 1945):
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"Transports arrived in Chelmno every second day. Each transport carried from 700 to 1,000 people. I estimate that in 1944 alone 15,000 Jews were brought to Chelmno. However, I did not count them - my assumption is based on what the policemen had said before the transports arrived. That is why I claimed that in 1944 15,000 Jews were killed in Chelmno. "
The difference between 324,000 and 15,000 is not irrelevant. In an undated Deposition No. 102 made immediately after the war before the Central Commission for Jewish History the witness, who then called himself Szymon Srebrny, claimed (Blumental 1946, p. 244):
"The whole time of my stay in the 'death factory ' I worked cut- ting trees, with my legs shackled with chains to the belt so that I could not escape. I [also] had to extract gold teeth or crowns from the jaws of the murdered people with pliers; I had to remove rings from their hands; I arranged the piles of logs and corpses; I was present at the burning of the bodies; and I broke up the human bones with a hatchet. "
It is very unlikely that the SS entrusted to a thirteen-year-old tasks such as extraction of gold teeth, the arrangement of bodies in the pyres and crushing bone residue, and in fact at the Eichmann trial the witness did not dare to repeat such statements. In fact, already during his depo- sition in front of Judge Bednarz of June 1945 Srebrnik did not claim that he had been assigned to the Waldkommando, but to the Hauskom- mando (Srebrnik 1945).
At the end of this interrogation Srebrnik demonstrated that he is a false witness. In fact, he "recognized" the vehicle parked on the grounds of the Ostrowski company as the "gas van" he claims to have seen. (ibid.):
"The Jews' clothes were stored in the other barracks in the woods. They had to be carried to the barracks rapidly before anoth- er truck arrived. (Here, the witness was shown a van found in the Ostrowski factory in Kolo). This is the van used in Chelmno for gas- sing. This is the vehicle I mentioned in my testimony with the word 'Otto ' on its door. "
But as we have seen earlier, the Central Commission of Inquiry into German Crimes in Poland, which had inspected this vehicle, had estab- lished that this was not a "gas van."
The witness lies also regarding the cremation facilities (see chapter
9).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
67
7.2.3. Michal or Mordka Podchlebnik
This witness appeared at the 65th day of the Eichmann trial in Jeru- salem on 5 June 1961 under the name Michael Podchlewnik. He claimed he was arrested by German police and taken along with thirty people to Chelmno in 1941 (State... 1993, p. 1189). After a couple of days he was sent to work in the woods {ibid., p. 1191):
"In the forest, the pits were being dug. There were twenty-five
men, and all were digging pits. We went out at half past six in the
morning in winter; this was two days before the New Year, at the
end of 1941."
The witness is said to have arrived in Chelmno on 27 December 1941. He told the film director Claude Lanzmann that he was captured "at the end of 1941, two days before New Year," that is 29 December, and the next morning, 30 December, was brought to Chelmno (Lanz- mann 1985, p. 93). In a statement immediately after the war to a com- mission of the Jewish Historical Institute he claimed instead that he was taken to Chelmno on 3 January 1942 along with 40 people (Blumental 1946, pp. 239f). Then he was sent to work in the woods, where he was used for the excavation of mass graves measuring 6 m x 8 m. While he was at work, he saw the trucks ("gas vans") which brought about 80 corpses, which were buried in mass graves {ibid., p. 240).
During his interrogation by Judge Bednarz on 9 June 1945, Pod- chlebnik confirmed having arrived at Chelmno "in early January of 1942" and to have witnessed the unloading of various trucks. Here's how he described the corpses (Bednarz 1946a, pp. 42f):
"The external appearance of the corpses was normal. I did not
notice that the corpses had their tongues out; rather their teeth were
gritted in an unnatural way. The bodies were still warm. I did not
notice any characteristic smell of gas. "
As we have seen above, "Szlamek's" report also said that the color of the corpses was normal, which is impossible for a carbon monoxide poisoning carried out under the conditions claimed. The absence of any smell is rather contrary to that report, in which we read (see chapter 6.3.):
"Immediately we were struck by a deep and pungent smell of gas. [. . .] A strong smell of gas came out. "
The witness also provided a detailed description of the mass graves and burial of corpses {ibid., p. 43):
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"The corpses were placed in such a way that they lay alternately with the head next to the legs of the next corpse. The corpses were bunched tightly face down. The bodies had not been stripped of their clothes. Each grave was six meters deep and about 6-7 meters wide (above). In the lowest layer the bodies of four or five people were laid, in the final top layer were placed up to 30 bodies. The corpses were covered with a layer of sand about a meter thick. I saw several times that at night, the sand was displaced and that, here and there, bodies surfaced which had been buried the day before. Apparently then, the site was not guarded at night. When we worked, the length of the excavation could be fifteen meters. In the course of a day some 1,000 people were buried. This quantity of corpses occupied 4-5 me- ters of excavation. "
As in "Szlamek's" report, Podchlebnik also speaks of a grave with the regular section of an inverted trapezoid, but with different dimen- sions: height 6 meters (instead of 5), the longer leg 6-7 meters (instead of 5) and smaller leg about 1.20 meters. In his statement to the Jewish Historical Institute he mentioned instead a depth of 8 meters and a width of 6 meters.
In practice, the pit(s) would have had the cross section of a large funnel, with steeply sloping walls, and it would have been very difficult to dig them manually, especially in winter with the ground frozen: Five meters in length of such a trench would have corresponded to 120 cubic meters of soil. But above all, it would have had no advantage over a normal rectangular pit, which would have been even easier to dig and would have held more.
At the Eichmann trial, the witness expounded in the following way the extraordinary story of his escape (State... 1993, p. 1191):
"Then there was New Year, and we did not work on those days. We started to think, some of my companions and I, how to get away from there. Anyhow, we could not stand it any longer. We thought we must try - either we would succeed in escaping or not. On the first day after the holiday, we went to work, after New Year. " That was precisely the day of the escape, 2 January 1942. The wit- ness stated that he stayed at Chelmno for 10 days, but this cannot be reconciled with the dating of his arrival at the camp which he gave at the Eichmann trial: 27 December 1941. In this case his stay at Chelmno
This measure is derived as follows: 30 corpses are claimed for the larger base of up to 7 m, which equals 1.20 m for the five corpses claimed for the smaller base.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
69
would have been a mere six days. Not to mention that in his statement to the Jewish Historical Institute Podchlebnik said he had arrived at the camp only on 3 January 1942, so he would have arrived at Chelmno on the day after his escape!
And after his escape, instead of alerting the local Jewish community and preparing a report on the alleged extermination camp, Podchlebnik remained totally silent for more than three years and spoke out only in June 1945. Yet his testimony does nothing but to repeat propaganda themes which were essentially taken from "Szlamek's" report, and hence it is equally implausible.
7.2.4. How Many and What Kind(s) of "Gas Vans" Operated in 1944?
Regarding the basic question of the number and type(s) of "special vehicles" allegedly used in 1944, the essential evidence is contradictory. Witness Podchlebnik said (Bednarz 1946a, p. 43):
"The truck in which the people were poisoned by gas held 80-90 people at a time. During my stay in Chelmno two trucks were used simultaneously. There was also a third larger truck, which was de- funct and was at Chelmno in the yard (I saw a wheel removed). " Witness Zurawski stated the following {ibid., p. 62):
"They were operating two trucks: a larger one, which could hold about 130 people, and another smaller one, which could hold 80- 90. "
The defendant Bruno Israel finally said (ibid., p. 72):
"There were two death trucks at Chelmno. During the time I was at Chelmno essentially [zasadniczo] a single truck was used. The se- cond, smaller one with a capacity of 80 people was a spare vehicle at Chelmno. These two trucks were sent to Berlin. " According to the defendant, a third disinfestation truck existed be- sides these two, which "had the wheels removed" (ibid.).
It is important to note that these three people were in Chelmno dur- ing the same period.
According to Podchlebnik, two small "special vehicles" were operat- ing, while a third, larger one, was inoperable. Zurawski said two trucks were in operation, a large and a small one. Finally, according to B. Isra- el, a single small truck was in operation, while another large truck was inoperable, whereas the third truck was a disinfestation vehicle. It is in- teresting to note that according to Podchlebnik the third "special vehi-
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
cle" was missing a wheel and that according to B. Israel the third vehi- cle, which was used for disinfestation, had all wheels missing. Now, in the first photograph of the vehicle that was in the courtyard of the for- mer Ostrowski company, the left front wheel is seen to be missing in- deed, while in the second picture it can be discerned that all four wheels are missing (which were removed by the Poles). It is therefore clear that Podchlebnik and B. Israel, to whom these photographs were shown dur- ing Judge Bednarz's investigation, identified the Ostrowski vehicle with the third "special vehicle," the other with a disinfestation vehicle.
7.2.5. The "Testament" of the Last Prisoners of Chelmno
This title is given a 17-page booklet originally written in Polish and translated into Russian by a certain Soviet individual named Eiseman, an interpreter of the 7th Section of the Central Political Bureau of the 1st Byelorussian Front. Apparently the original is missing. The Polish text by Krakowski (Krakowski 1996, pp. 45-57) is a retranslation from Russian. Together with Ilya Altman, Krakowski has also edited an Eng- lish translation. The booklet is a collection of writings by some of the last 47 prisoners at Chelmno, including Zurawski and Srebrnik, who have both authored short notes. In the introduction to the publication mentioned above, Krakowski and Altman provide valuable material for judging the value of this journal. With reference to these two witnesses they write (Krakowski/ Altman 1991, pp. 107f):
"In July 1945 both testified before the Commission chaired by the Polish Judge Wladyslaw Bednarz, who was investigating Ger- man crimes at Chelmno. Subsequently they testified at the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem. For some reason they do not mention the docu- ment written shortly before the killing of Chelmno fs last forced la- borers. "
The final date of the diary is in fact 9 January 1945. This is just the first puzzle. Krakowski and Altman list others (ibid., p. 108):
"The circumstances surrounding the composition of this docu- ment under the harsh regime of the camp remain a mystery. It is im- possible to explain how its authors had found pieces of paper, a pencil and a place and time to quickly write their messages. We do not even know the identity of the persons who found the document and handed it over to a Soviet soldier who later passed it on to the headquarters of the First Belarusian Front. There it was translated
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
71
into Russian with a preface of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in Moscow. "
Logically, the people who delivered the booklet to the Russian sol- dier cannot possibly have been the only two survivors of that group of 47 prisoners, that is Zurawski and Srebrnik; but why then do they not mention it during their interrogation by Judge Bednarz?
Apart from a list of garbled names of SS men allegedly present at Chelmno,53 the booklet superficially deals with the ostensible extermi- nation, digressing largely into personal matters. The first item recorded refers to a group of Jews from Lodz being sent to Chelmno on 15 Sep- tember 1944. Next follows a description of the alleged extermination process (Krakowski/Altman 1991, pp. 11 Of). But according to orthodox Holocaust historiography, the last convoy of Jews gassed at the camp allegedly arrived there on 14 July.
Then the book speaks of prisoners "belonging to the so-called 'Waldkommando'" who "went into the forest to gather firewood for the ovens where people were burned" (ibid., p. 112). But who could be cremated after 15 September 1944?
Another gassing is said to have occurred on 31 August (ibid., p. 113), and yet another "in August 1944" (ibid., p. 120). From the few lines written by "Sewek Srebnik," but signed by "Srebnik Shmuel, Srebnik Sewek," presumably Shimon Srebrnik, we gather only that the author worked at Chelmno "as a shoemaker" (ibid., p. 117). The record made by "Zurawski Mordke," that is Mordka Zurawski, says among other things (ibid., p. 119):
"In July 1944 I was sent to 'Leipzig and Munich, ' along with
7,000 people. I was picked out by the camp commander, and that
day I worked there. All the [other] people of this transport who had
left with me were wiped out. "
The dispatch of transports to "Leipzig and Munich" (allegedly a "camouflage" for Chelmno)54 was never mentioned by the witness in his statements afterward, and this also applies to the "testament." On the other hand, of the 65,000 Jews who were in the Lodz ghetto in early August 1944, some 22,500 were deported to Auschwitz and the remain- ing 42,500 to labor camps in Germany (see chapter 10). Hence the des- tination "Leipzig and Munich" is perfectly consistent for one or more of
Out of 28 names listed, 22 are garbled; see Krakowski 1996, pp. 55-57. About the destination of Munich see chapter 13.
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
the 10 transports "for labor" (zur Arbeit), with which the about 7,000 Jews mentioned above were deported from the ghetto.
Krakowski and Altman say that many of the 47 final prisoners at Chelmno (ibid., p. 107)
"were transferred from the Lodz ghetto during the months of
May -June 1944. Consequently, they witnessed the entire process of
mass murder of the Jews from the Lodz ghetto in gas vans during the
period between 23 June and 14 July, "
that is, the Jews of the 10 transports mentioned above. Apparently the "Testament" was written just to give credibility to this story. If the 10 transports had gone to labor camps in Germany, how could they hope to make the world believe in the almost total extermination at Auschwitz of the Jews from the ghetto of Lodz? Given this, the surpris- ing fact is readily understandable that none of the notes, allegedly writ- ten by at least 12 Jews, had been written in Yiddish.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
73
8. The Cremation of the Bodies of the Alleged Victims
8.1. The Purpose of Cremation
As to the timing of the first cremation activity at Chelmno, Holo- caust historiography presents two opposing and irreconcilable scenari- os. One is essentially linked to the so-called "Aktion 1005," allegedly carried out by SS-Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel on the orders of Gesta- po chief Heinrich Miiller. Concerning this Hilberg writes (1995, p. 392):
"In June 1942 [Himmler] gave the order to SS-Standartenfuhrer Paul Blobel, head of Sonderkommando 4a, to 'destroy the traces of the Einsatzgruppen 's executions in the east. ' In this regard Blobel formed a special task force with the code name '1005, ' which had the task to excavate the graves and burn the corpses. " The link with Chelmno would consist in the following fact (ibid., p. 1039; see next chapter):
"Hence Blobel and his 'Kommando 1005' went to Kulmhof in order to see there what could be done with the graves located there. He built numerous pyres and primitive ovens and even used explo- sives. "
According to this interpretation, the first cremation at Chelmno re- sulted from the desire of the SS to remove the traces of their crime. Krakowski presents it as follows (2007, p. 1 19):
"Meanwhile the Germans in the camp focused primarily on the destruction of the traces of their murders, cremated the bodies and scattered the ashes of the murdered. These activities were directed by Paul Blobel, the commander of 'Aktion 1005, ' who had special- ized in eliminating the traces at massacre sites. Blobel chose Lodz as the seat of his office so that it would be as close as possible to the operations center, the Chelmno camp. "
Judge Bednarz knew nothing of all this. In his investigation, he simply established that the two crematoria were constructed in the
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
spring of 1942. He explained in 1946 that the cremation of corpses be- gan in the summer of 1942 as a result of an outbreak of typhus caused by the fumes of the corpses (see chapter 9.1.).
In this regard the verdict of the Bonn Jury Court pointed out (Riiter etal. 1979, p. 279f):
"In summer 1942 a strong smell of decomposition became no- ticeable coming from the mass graves in the forest. It grew increas- ingly strong and covered the entire area. The corpse gases penetrat- ed the covering soil, which was merely half a meter thick and plant- ed with broom for camouflage reasons. Thereupon an incineration oven was erected which consisted of a pit of a circumference of 4 x 4 m and a depth of 2 m, several iron railway tracks as a grate and an air duct cut horizontally into the soil. "
This interpretation attributes the beginning of cremation at Chelmno to sanitary needs, so that there is no place in this version for Blobel and his "Aktion 1005." Indeed, in this perspective, Blobel's mission at Chelmno becomes pointless.
Jens Hoffmann tries to reconcile the two contradictory arguments by writing (2008, p. 1 1; also p. 81):
"During the summer of 1942 Blobel was frequently busy in the Chelmno Waldlager' in order to test procedures for the cremation of corpses. Even the local camp staff was interested in Blobel 's ex- periments, who had learned something about flamethrowers and in- cendiary bombs already in World War I as an army engineer P5^ Due to the summer heat, the bodies of victims buried in mass graves had become a hygiene problem. The murderers were concerned about the quality of groundwater, some of them considered aesthetically unacceptable odors and liquids that escaped from the graves. "
8.2. The Alleged Mission of Blobel at Chelmno
Hilberg writes (1995, pp. 1039f):
"In 1942 the corpses were buried in mass graves at Kulmhof in the camps of the General Government and in Birkenau. [...] Consid- erations of the same kind led the head of the Gestapo, Midler, to in- struct Standartenfuhrer Blobel, commander of Einsatzkommando 4a,
But that training did not turn Blobel into an expert on corpse cremation.
This chapter briefly summarizes what I have documented elsewhere (Mattogno 2008).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
75
to destroy the graves in the occupied territories in the east. Hence Blobel and his 'Kommando 1005' went to Kulmhof in order to see what could be done with the graves located there. He built numerous pyres and primitive ovens and even used explosives. In addition to these techniques, Kulmhof had a special device - a bone mill (Knochenmuhle) . On 16 July 1942 the deputy chief of Gettoverwal- tung [administration of the ghetto], Ribbe, sent a letter to the 'Jewish elder' Rumkowski asking him to look for a mill in the Lodz ghetto, 'hand-cranked or electric. ' He added in no uncertain terms: 'The Sonderkommando of Kulmhof is interested in this machine. ' The ghetto evidently did not have such a mill, since a few months later Biebow sent a requisition to the Gestapo in Lodz regarding the pur- chase of a bone crusher from the Company Schriever & Co. in Hamburg. Biebow asked the Gestapo to keep the purchase docu- ments. 'For some reason ' he did not want to keep them. When Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz, visited Kulmhof, Blobel promised that he would send a mill for substances. ' But Hoss preferred that the remains of the bones be destroyed with hammers. " But if two properly operating crematoria had already been built at Chelmno for sanitary reasons (see chapter 9.1.), what would have been the point of Blobel' s experimental cremations? And what sense was there in assigning them specifically to him?
The problem of mass cremation for sanitary reasons due to epidem- ics or battles had been discussed by German specialists since 1875, when Friedrich Kuchenmeister wrote about a project by Friedrich Sie- mens (the creator of the first hot-air crematorium) conducted at his spe- cific request regarding a mass cremation installation for the corpses of soldiers fallen on the battlefield. The project was called "Feldofen Leichenverbrennung System fur Friedrich Siemens" (Field oven for cremation of corpses, Friedrich Siemens system; Kuchenmeister 1875, pp. 82f).
By the end of the nineteenth century several scientific works on cremation contained discussions on mass cremation ovens for the dead from contagious diseases and in case of war. In November 1901, dur- ing a convention of the Chamber of Physicians for the province of Brandenburg, Dr. Weyl proposed cremating the victims of a typhus epi- demic that was raging in the region. He turned to engineer Hans Kori (a
One of the first was Pini 1885, pp. 151-157.
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
future competitor of the Topf company for the supply of crematoria to concentration camps), who, on 10 February 1902, proposed "the con- struction of temporary or portable ovens" which could be assembled in 36 hours.58
The First World War rekindled the interest of German specialists to the extent that an apparatus for mass cremation was even patented.59 The oft-cited patent application for a "continuously operating cremato- rium oven for mass use" {Kontinuierlich arbeitender Leichen-Verbren- nungsofen fur Massenbetrieb) which Topf chief engineer Fritz Sander filed on 26 October 1942 and then revised on 4 November 1942 arose from that tradition of research into mass cremations.
On the other hand, the engineer Kurt Prtifer, of the Topf & Sons company of Erfurt, at that time supervisor of the construction of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau, was one of Germany's leading ex- perts on cremation. So why then would Gestapo chief Miiller have as- signed a layman like Blobel to carry out experiments in the field of cremation without even consulting a specialist like Prtifer or Sander?
The only certain fact is that the alleged activity of Blobel at Chelm- no is not confirmed by any document, but only by a single testimony, that of Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz (confirmed, long af- ter the fact, by one of the architects of the Auschwitz crematoria, Walter Dejaco).
8.3. Hoss's Visit to the Aktion Reinhardt Field Ovens
On 17 September 1942 SS-Untersturmfuhrer Walter Dejaco wrote the following "Report on the Mission to Lodz" (Reisebericht uber die Dienstfahrt nach Litzmannstadt):60
"Purpose of Journey: Inspection of a special installation Departure from Auschwitz was on 16 Sept. 1942 at 5 a.m. by car of the headquarters of Auschwitz concentration camp.
An den Deutschen Reichstag. Eingabe vom 20.Februar 1902 wegen Verbrennung von Pestleichen, attachment II.
Deutsches Reich. Reichspatentamt. Patent no. 331628; class 24d. Issued on 1 1 January 1921. Adolf Marsch in Gera, Reuss. "Schachtofen zur gleichzeitigen Einascherung einer grosseren Anzahl von Menschenleichen oder Tierkadavern" German patent valid fron 30 September 1915.
RGVA, 502-1-336, p. 69; see document 9.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
11
Participants: SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Hoss, SS-Untersturmfuh- rer Hossler and SS-Untersturmfuhrer Dejaco.
Arrival at Lodz at 9 am. A visit to the ghetto took place, followed by a trip to the special installation. Inspection of the special installa- tion and discussion with SS-Standartenfuhrer Blobel about the de- sign of such an installation. The construction material ordered by special directive Staf. Blobel from the company Ostdeutsche Bau- stoffwerke, Posen [Poznan], Wilhelm Gustloffstr., are to be delivered immediately to Auschwitz concentration camp. The order results from the attached letter of the W. V.H.}61^ and the request and alloca- tion of the ordered materials is to be effected immediately by the lo- cal Central Construction Office in agreement with Ostuf. Weber of Office C V/3. The required number of waybills is to be sent to the above company.
With reference to the discussion of SS-Staf. Blobel with the com- pany Schriever & Co., Hannover, Biirgermeister Finks tr., the re- served ball mill for substances which has already been reserved is to be delivered to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Return on 17 Sept. [19]42, arrival at Auschwitz at 12 o 'clock.
Dejaco
SS-Ustuf. (F)
Attachments:
1 carbon copy
1 sketch. "
The two enclosures have been lost, and we know nothing of such a "special installation" at Auschwitz.
And here is the text of the relevant Fahrgenehmigung (travel permit) of the vehicle for the trip to Lodz:62 <(Copy.
Radio message no. 52 Arrived: 15 Sept. [19]42 1 744 Sender: To
W. V.H.A Auschwitz concentration camp Re.: travel permit
Reference: Local application of 14 Sept. [\9]42
WVHA, Wirtschafts- Verwaltungs-Hauptamt, the economic and administrative main de- partment of the SS.
AGK, NTN, 94, p. 170; see document 10.
78
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Travel permit for passenger car from Au. to Litzmannstadt [Lodz] and back for inspecting the experimental station for field ov- ens Aktion Reinhardt is granted herewith for 16 Sept. [19]42.
The travel permit is to be given to the driver.
The Head of Office Group D
sgnd. Gliicks SS-Brigadef. & Major General of the Waffen-SS, Head of the Office in the rank of a Lieutenant General of the Waf- fen-SS.
Certified correct
sgnd. Selle
Radio station supervisor Certified true copy Mulka
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer and Adjutant"
8.4. Did Hoss Visit the Chelmno Camp?
No document exists certifying that the "special installation" was in Chelmno; this is based only on Hoss's notes (Broszat 1981, pp. 161f.): "I drove with Hossler to Culmhof for an inspection. Blobel had ordered several improvised ovens to be built, and he incinerated with wood and petroleum refinery byproducts}6^ He also tried to destroy the corpses with explosives, but this succeeded only very in- completely. After having been pulverized in a bone mill [Knochen- miihle], the ashes were scattered in the expansive forest area. " As I have noted elsewhere (Mattogno 2004c, pp. 17-25), the general context in which the Auschwitz commandant makes this claim is de- monstrably false. This also applies to the specific point at issue, about which Hoss made contradictory statements. He said in fact (Broszat 1981, p. 162):
"During the visit at Kulmhof I also saw the extermination instal- lations with the trucks, which were adapted for killing with engine exhaust gases. However, the local commander did not consider this method as reliable, because the gas is formed in a very irregular fashion and often did not suffice at all to kill. " In contrast to this, Hoss said elsewhere (ibid., p. 170):
In German: "Benzinruckstdnden" e.g. kerosene and naphta.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
79
"I personally have seen only Culmhof and Treblinka. Culmhof was no longer in operation. "
But if Hoss had visited Chelmno on 16 September 1942, the camp was still in operation; if, however, it "was no longer in operation," the visit would have taken place after 7 April 1943 (see chapter 12.4.).
On the other hand, the travel permit mentioned above refers to a journey to Lodz and back. Dejaco's report says that the Auschwitz SS came to Litzmannstadt (Lodz) and visited the local ghetto before the "trip to the special installation," where they had a "discussion with SS- Standartenfuhrer Blobel": if this was at Chelmno, why did the SS stop at Lodz and visit the ghetto first? And why does the travel permit not mention the alleged destination of "Kulmhof and back"? Chelmno is in fact about 60 km northwest of Lodz. Moreover, as reported by Gerald Reitlinger(1965,p. 170),
"during his interrogation in Nuremberg, Blobel described the
site with great delicacy as 'an abandoned Jewish cemetery near
Lodz, "'
confirming that Hoss did not visit the Chelmno camp on 16 Septem- ber 1942, so the "field ovens Aktion Reinhardt," whatever their function may have been, were not located in or near this camp.
Holocaust historiography claims that these "field ovens" were at Chelmno and were built by Blobel under the mysterious mission which Gestapo chief Miiller had allegedly given him in June 1942 in order to remove the mass graves in which the victims of German shootings were buried (Spector 1990). The above documents, however, show that the allegations regarding both an extermination at Chelmno and the so- called "Aktion 1005" are completely unfounded, which I have also doc- umented elsewhere (Mattogno 2008).
8.5. "Bone Mill" or "Ball Mill"?
In his famous documentary collection on the Lodz ghetto, Artur Ei- senbach published the transcript of the two documents relating to Chelmno offered by Hilberg as evidence of the criminal activity of the camp in connection with Dejaco's report of his trip to Lodz on 17 Sep- tember 1942 (Eisenbach 1946, p. 279):
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"To the
Oldest of Jews^
Litzmannstadt
Ghetto letter no. 10195
027/2/Lu/R 16 July 1942
Re.: Machines in the ghetto
I ask to determine immediately whether there is a bone mill in- side the ghetto, either with engine or hand-cranked. On behalf of (Fr. W. Ribbe[65])
The special command Kulmhof is interested in this mill. " On the same page Eisenbach also published the transcript of the se- cond document, which does not explicitly mention "bone mill": "To the
Secret State Police
c/o Mr. commissar Fuchs
Litzmannstadt
027/1 /BUSi 1 March 1943
Re. : Purchase for the special command Kulmhof Attached I send back to you the documents about the purchase from the company Schriever & Co., Hannover. The matter has been regulated in the meantime, but for certain reasons I do not want to keep this file in my administration, and ask it to be taken into stor- age there.
On behalf of: Attachment: 1 file (Biebow^) head of department. " Ribbe's request of 16 July 1942 for a "bone mill" is recorded only in Eisenbach 's transcript, without even an archival reference. No one has ever seen the original document. In addition, Biebow's letter of 1 March 1943 makes explicit reference to Schriever & Co. of Hannover, which is also mentioned in Dejaco's report, but relating to a "ball mill."67
Hence until proven otherwise - which means as long as the original document is not produced - it is more than legitimate to assume that the "special command Kulmhof had requested a simple "ball mill," a ma-
"Altesten der Juden" office held by Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Friedrich Wilhelm Ribbe, deputy chief of the Lodz ghetto administration. Hans Biebow, chief of the Lodz ghetto administration.
A ball mill is a type of grinder usually using steel balls in order to grind solid materials into fine powders.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
81
chine which it subsequently actually received. In support of this a fur- ther argument can be made.
The "bone mill" was a machine that was designed to obtain fertilizer from animal bones. A similar machine still exists in Germany as a his- torical artifact:68
"In 1870 the value of bones as fertilizer was known. The bone mill was invented at the end of the nineteenth century, but it was not a proper grinder, but a mere crusher. The bone particles produced with it are indeed still relatively large, but already useful as fertiliz- er. If they had to become even smaller, they were then placed in a drum full of stones that further pulverized the bones. " The "bone mill" was normally used in industrial equipment for the exploitation of animal carcasses.69 Hence, if the "special command Kulmhof," which certainly was not involved in the production of ferti- lizers from animal bones, had asked the Jewish Council of the Lodz Ghetto, of all possible addressees, for just such a "bone mill," it would surely have raised serious suspicions.
Finally, the fact that it could also have been hand-cranked (Handbe- trieb) does not fit well with the alleged grinding of bone residues from tens of thousands of corpses (for more see Mattogno 2008, pp. 37-40).
Die Knochenmiihle von Miihlhofe, in : http://www.meinerzhagen.de/Knochenmuehle- Muehlhofe.255.0.html.
Heepke 1905, p. 156, drawing of a "Anlage fur Cadaververnichtung" (facility for carcass elimination) with "Knochenmuhle" (bone mill).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
83
9. The Chelmno "Crematoria"
9.1. Construction and Operation
Not a single document exists on the alleged Chelmno crematoria; all we know about them is a simple summary of evidence compiled by Judge Bednarz. And even this merely applies to the second phase of the camp, because there were no witnesses to the first phase. In his first re- port on the camp he wrote (Bednarz 1946d, p. 6):
"Until spring 1940 [should be: 1942] the bodies were buried in huge mass graves, one of which was 270 meters long, 8.10 wide and 6 deep. In the spring of 1942 two ovens were built. As of this time all corpses were cremated. The corpses already buried earlier were cremated as well. We have no precise data about these furnaces, as the preliminary investigation could not rely on any witness who, in the years 1942 to 1943, had worked in the woods where the bodies were cremated. Witnesses living near the forest saw two chimneys located in a fenced-in area which were smoking all the time. During the first deactivation of the camp the furnaces were blown up by the camp authorities on 7 April 1943. " In a later report Bednarz remarked (1946a, p. 20):
"In summer 1942 the large amount of rotting corpses that had accumulated led to a typhus epidemic. In addition, the odor was so intense as to render the admission of new transports impossible. It was therefore necessary to find means of mitigation. They then be- gan to cremate the bodies. Subsequently the numerical strength of the Waldkommando was increased (testimony of witness Kozanecki, card 82) and new transports ceased to be admitted [in a note: proba- bly in June and July 1942]. Two crematoria were built, whose chim- neys towered above the forest (deposition of witnesses on cards 13, 57, 61, 67 and others). However, in order to accelerate the crema- tion process of the accumulated corpses, timber was transported from the nearby forest of Koscielec, since the wood on site was not enough. Huge pyres were prepared, and the corpses were cremated
84
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
on them. Working conditions were terrible. When a special commis- sion came from Berlin to check the work status, the police said laughingly that (die Herren aus Berlin ' [the gentlemen from Berlin] could not stand the atmosphere and had already passed out after 5 minutes (witness statement by Rozalia Peham, wife of a member of the Sonderkommando, card 160).
The ashes were dumped in trenches 4 meters deep and 8-10 me- ters wide. They were then covered with earth. On that site a stand of partly conifers and partly birches was planted. The bones were crushed with wooden pestles on a cement base prepared specifically for this purpose. For a certain time the bones were probably crushed by a machine for grinding (mill). The investigation has ascertained only the fact that this machine, coming from the Zawadka mill, was brought into the area of the Sonderkommando, and the fact that it was returned after having been disinfected (deposition by witnesses Sokolnicki, card 143, and Kruszczynski, card 413). " The crematoria of the camp's second phase, however, are extensive- ly described by several witnesses. Bednarz summed up their statements as follows (1946d, p. 6):
"2 new furnaces were built in 1944, during the period when the camp resumed its activities. Witnesses Zurawski, Srebrnik and the policeman in custody Bruno Israel, who had seen the reconstructed furnaces, described them as follows: the ovens were built into the ground and did not protrude above ground level. They had the shape of a cone with a base of equal angles and its apex in the ground. At the top the oven measured 6 x 10 meters and had a height and a depth of 4 meters. At the bottom, where a grill was located, the oven measured 1.5 x 2 meters. The grate was made up of railway rails. A channel through which air flowed and which at the same time served to remove the ashes and bones led to the ash compart- ment. The walls of the furnace were made of refractory bricks and cement. Alternating layers of wood and corpses were placed in the oven in order to speed up the combustion process. The cremation capacity of the oven was a hundred corpses at a time. When the bod- ies fell down [through the grate] during the combustion process, more could be added on top of them. Bone ash and debris removed from the ash compartment were placed in a pit after being crushed
According to Szymon Srebrnik, who claims to have seen them, the ovens "were approx- imately three metres (10 feet) tall. The width was about the same" (Srebrnik 1945).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
85
by a pestle, and then, in 1943, the bones and ashes were taken se- cretly at night to the village of Zawadka and were thrown into the river from the bridge. "
And here is the description given by Bednarz in his second report on Chelmno (1946b, pp. 22f.):
"According to the investigation's results, the crematorium of 1944 looked like this: It was built in such a way that it did not pro- trude from the ground. At the top it had the shape of a rectangle of 10 x 6 meters. The oven tapered off like a funnel toward the bottom and ended with grates made of railway rails. The hearth had a di- mension of 1.5 x 2 m. The oven was 4 meters deep, the walls were brick covered with a layer of refractory cement. The ash compart- ment was under the stove, from which a narrow channel had been excavated. Through this channel the ashes were extracted}71^ They used a custom-built poker in order to pull out the ashes. This work was so hard that the workers who performed it died after a few days (card 342). (Note: After a few days they were so exhausted that they were killed as unfit for work.) When the furnaces were not in opera- tion, they were camouflaged for fear of air raids, so that they could not be seen from above. On the oven fs opening railway rails were placed of some 15 meters in length, and on top of them plates and branches were put (Bruno Israel, card 394). Alternating layers of corpses and wooden logs were put into the oven. They were ar- ranged in such a way that they did not touch one another or hinder the airflow to successive body layers. 12 bodies were put in the low- er layer. The oven was ignited through the channel to the ash com- partment. The corpses were not moistened with gasoline or other flammable substances. They burned rapidly, more or less within 20 minutes (cards 342, 170). As they burned, the layers of corpses sank toward the [bottom of the] pit, which made it possible to add a new load. An oven contained up to 100 corpses. Thus, a transport carried by the gas chamber truck was instantly cremated in a furnace. " The system described by the witnesses (particularly by M. Zurawski) is nothing other than the so-called Feist apparatus, an oven for burning carcasses of animals which have died of infectious diseases. It was de- veloped by veterinarian Georg Feist in the second half of the nineteenth century. A book on cremation from the turn of the century explains its
7 1
The witness Srebrnik stated that "there was neither a chimney nor a special trench for better draught." (Srebrnik 1945)
86
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
structure and operation with the aid of a drawing (de Cristoforis 1890, pp. 125-128; see document 11):
"This apparatus was originally designed by Dr. Feist for the sole hygienic purpose of destroying the carcasses of animals which had died of infectious diseases, but it is easy to understand that, with the desired modifications, it can also be used to incinerate human re- mains in the case of a significant mortality, such as in case of war or during an epidemic, when the number of victims, the lack of time or money does not permit a crematorium to be built, and finally in all the circumstances that captain Rey has seen when he conceived his mobile crematorium.
The veterinarian Georg Feist had the idea of using cremation in order to render harmless the animal carcasses affected by a conta- gion; he was convinced that a burial would serve only to create a diffusive hotbed of the contagion in the area where it already raged, a contagion which at the same time was the economic ruin of the country. The idea of Dr. Feist was immediately approved by his vet- erinary colleague Zundel and by the local authorities. The Stras- bourg authorities granted permission to build a special furnace in each of the larger departments affected by the contagion, i.e. Jo- haness-Rohrbach and Canton Saaralben.
The first Feist furnace was built on the principle of the lime kilns situated on a hill just 20 km from the village Rohrbach. The wind came primarily from the east-south-east; the mouth of the chimney opened in this direction. The vertical space for the carcasses is per- fectly round: it is 1.75 m high and has a diameter of 1.60 m at the top and 0.90 m at the bottom at the level of the second grate. In this space at first some straw with dry branches and wood chips is intro- duced, then coal, to a total thickness of 40-50 cm. Next the carcass is introduced and the spaces between the carcass and the walls are well filled with coal; the space which may remain at the top is filled with more straw and kindling. Finally the whole is doused with 5-10 liters of oil.
On top of this a funnel of white sheet metal, 2 mm thick, is locat- ed; then the fire is lit with a suitable medium at the lower grate, which is about 65 cm above the ground. Under the oven there is a trough of sheet metal in which the substances which may seep through due to the heat are absorbed by the ash. The complete com- bustion takes 5 to 6 hours for small animals and 8 to 9 for bigger
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
87
ones, which weigh 250 to 500 kg, which amounts to 4-8 corpses of an average weight of 60 kg each. At this time, moreover, everything is reduced completely, leaving an ash residue of 1 to 2.5 kgP1^
The employee responsible for conducting the cremation receives 20 Swiss francs per carcass, but is obliged to provide all the fuel, and thus earns about half the sum. Fuel consumption is about 500- 600 kg of coal, 5-10 liters of oil and about 75 hundredweight of straw and firewood. "
In summary, the Feist apparatus had the shape of a truncated invert- ed cone and a hearth grate of 90 cm in diameter with a surface area of (7ixr2-) 0.64 square meters; in eight to nine hours it could incinerate an- imal carcasses weighing some 250 to 500 kg, which is equivalent to four to eight corpses of 60 kg, while consuming about 500 to 600 kg of coal and five to ten liters of gasoline. Assuming average values, this re- sults in 375 kg of organic matter (the equivalent of six corpses) inciner- ated in 8.5 hours using 550 kg of coal. In 24 hours, therefore, the cre- mation capacity of the oven was 1,050 kg of organic matter (the equiva- lent of 18 corpses) consuming 1,550 kg of coal.
In contrast to this, the Chelmno ovens are said to have had a rectan- gular cross section and were allegedly equipped with a grate of 1.5 m x 2 m = 3 m2. A system of this kind therefore would have had a combus- tion capacity (3-K).6=) 5 times higher, therefore (18 x 5 =) 90 corpses in 24 hours, while consuming 7,750 kg of coal.
Zurawski's claim that a layer of 12 corpses burned in 15 minutes is therefore crazy. In such a case, one oven alone would burn 1,152 corps- es in 24 hours, which is absurd. Instead, the theoretical capacity of the two incinerators at Chelmno would have been 180 corpses in 24 hours. But in practice, since the two ovens were fuelled with green wood ac- cording to witnesses, which has a calorific value much lower than that of coal,74 the actual combustion capacity would have been considerably lower.
The real quantity should rather be 10-25 kg. This is probably a printing error. See quote on p. 63; W. Piller "confirmed" this absurdity by also asserting that the corps- es were cremated within some 15 minutes (Krakowski 2007, p. 144); Srebrnik confirmed no less absurdly: "The capacity of one furnace was more or less the same as one van. [...]. It took approximately one hour for the corpses to burn." Since he claimed that the smaller "vans" had a capacity of 100-120 persons, the oven in turn could allegedly cre- mate at least this amount of corpses within an hour (Srebrnik 1945). Coal has a calorific value between 15 MJ/kg (moist lignite) and 34 MJ/kg (anthracite); www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-higher-calorific-values-d_169.html. The values for wood are between 8 MJ/kg (green) and 16 MJ/kg (dry), van Loo/Koppejan 2008, p. 40.
88
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
But even the theoretical maximum capacity of 180 corpses in 24 hours was inadequate even for an ostensible extermination camp like Chelmno with its relatively limited influx of victims. This is particular- ly true for the claimed first phase of camp's activities.
According to orthodox Holocaust historiography, Blobel began his cremation experiments at Chelmno in June 1942. By mid-September he had developed a cremation system so satisfactory that his "field ovens" were visited by Rudolf Hoss and considered a model for Auschwitz. Hence for the SS authorities their efficiency would have been indisput- able. So when these authorities, in the second phase of the camp, are said to have had to reconstruct the two ovens which had previously been dismantled, they apparently built the same oven model as devel- oped by Blobel. This is stated explicitly by Konnilyn G. Feig, who
76
writes:
"Blobel finally discovered an efficient method of body disposal. He constructed a vast pyre of iron rails and wooden sleepers, built in the form of furnaces. They were laid deep in the ground so they did not project above the surface. The furnaces measured at the top 6 by 10 meters and were 4 meters deep. A channel to the pit below facilitated the removal of ashes and bones. " But in this case, cremation of the 145,301 alleged victims of 1942
would have required (145,301-^180=) about 807 days (2 years and 2lA
months)!
Archaeological excavations carried out by the Poles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, disproved the report accepted by Judge Bed- narz: they found only the ruins of a single crematorium, which had a maximum surface area of 6 m x 5 m, not 6 m x 10 m (see chapter 10), and therefore had a grate in proportion of 1.5 square meters and a cre- mation capacity of 45 corpses per 24 hours. This fact completely de- molishes any claim that Chelmno was an extermination camp. Never-
In reality Hoss inexplicably is said to have introduced crude "cremation ditches"; see chapter 9.4.
Feig 1981, p. 271. The few pages dedicated to the events at Chelmno are utterly incon- stistent ("Chelmno/Kulmhof: The Secret Camp," pp. 266-274).
The number of Jews who, according to the Korherr Report, "wurden durchgeschleust ... durch die Lager im Warthegau" ("were tunneled. . . through the camps in the Warthegau"; NO-5194, p. 9) and who, according to orthodox historiography, were gassed in Chelmno. For instance, the Bonn Jury Court determined its minimum death toll of "at least 145,000" for the camp's first phase based on the Korherr Report (Riiter et al. 1979, pp. 285f.).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
89
theless, in the following section I will continue discussing Bednarz's report to show a fortiori its inconsistency.
9.2. The Oven's Capacity and Wood Requirement
The data calculated in the previous chapter - the cremation of 90 bodies in 24 hours with a consumption of 7,750 kg of coal - are valid for corpses with an average weight of 60 kg, which is that of the alleged victims of gassing (see Graf/Kues/Mattogno 2010, pp. 130-133.). As we have seen, the calorific value of coal varies from 7,300 to 8,000 kcal/kg, so the average value is 7,650 kcal/kg; freshly cut wood has a calorific value of 2,000 kcal/kg {ibid., pp. 142f), equivalent to about (2,000-7,650x100=) 26% of that of 1 kg of coal.
Hence, cremating a body of about 60 kg requires (550-6-0.26=) some 350 kg of fresh wood. Thus, in order to cremate the minimum number of alleged victims - about 152,000 bodies (see chapter 11) - (152,000x350-) 53 million kg or 53 thousand metric tons of wood would have been required. In the woods around Chelmno we can as- sume a timber production of about 200 tons per hectare, as in the region of Lublin (ibid., p. 144). Therefore 53 thousand tons of wood would have required the logging of about (53,000-200=) 265 hectares of for- est. In chapter 10 we will see what consequences follow from this data.
9.3. Contradictions Surrounding the Activity of the Crematoria
Krakowski writes in his article about Chelmno (1983, p. 142):
"In August 1944 the Lodz ghetto was liquidated within three weeks, and the 70,000 Jews there were deported to Auschwitz- Birkenau to be gassed. The capacity of Kulmhof would not have suf- ficed for killing tens of thousands of people in a very short time. The Sonderkommando Bothmann remained in Kulmhof for a little while in order to erase all traces that could have been created by the mas- sacre. Hauptscharfuhrer Walter Burmeister said before the investi- gating judge:
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
'During the last few months before we left Kulmhof transports no longer arrived at the camp. In this period the corpses were merely exhumed and burned. '
This statement was confirmed by Alois Hafele: '[...] In April 1944 a telegram arrived in Weimar from Bot\\\\- mann in Posen according to which we again were required at the ex- termination camp Kulmhof. We headed for Kulmhof. Here Bothmann greeted us and told us that this time, by order of the Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler, it was necessary to remove all traces at Kulmhof. The mass graves of the Waldlager [forest camp] were opened. The corpses found in these pits were cremated with the help of Jewish work details in a crematorium that had been built before. "' But if the bodies of the camp's first phase were cremated in a first pair of ovens and those of June/July 1944 in the second pair (in two ov- ens, not one as claimed by Hafele), which mass graves were reopened in 1944?
In Krakowski's 2007 book these contradictions are even more evi- dent (pp. 122f):
'After the liquidation of the ghettos in the Warthegau and the 'closure ' days of the Lodz ghetto, transports to Chelmno were sus- pended. Throughout the autumn of 1942 and during the months of winter 1942/1943 the camp staff was busy removing the traces of their murder, a work which had begun already in the spring of 1942. In September 1942 these activities were further accelerated under the supervision of Paul Blobel. The Germans built two corpse cre- mation plants in a clearing. The mass graves were opened, and work details were forced to exhume the bodies and to carry them to the crematoria. "
He then states that in March 1943 it was decided to liquidate the camp and to assign its staff (the Bothmann Sonderkommando) to the SS Division "Prinz Eugen" which operated in Yugoslavia {ibid., p. 123), adding (ibid., p. 125):
"On 7 April 1944 the men [the Jewish detainees] blew up the
crematorium and a part of the castle which had been used to receive
the victims prior to their murder. "
But in November 1943 the SS staff was sent back to the camp "to complete activities in order to conceal the massacre that had been car- ried out" (ibid., p. 127).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
91
When the Bothmann Sonderkommando returned to Chelmno in April 1944 in order to resume the extermination activities, "two identical crematoria were built in the forest for the cremation of corpses" (ibid., p. 133). All the corpses of the alleged victims from the camp's first phase (1941-1942) who had been buried in mass graves were exhumed and then cremated in the old crematoria; all the corpses of the second phase (1944) were cremated in the new ovens. In contradiction to this, Krakowski states that in the fall of 1944 Jewish prisoners in the Wald- lager were forced "to pull out the corpses of the dead from mass graves" (ibid., p. 161) and explicitly reiterates:
'Incomparably worse was the situation of those prisoners who were brought daily to Waldlager in order to open up the mass graves and to cremate the corpses of the murdered. " (p. 162)
"The work to conceal the massacre continued until October 1944 - the corpses were pulled from the mass graves and burned, their bones crushed, the ashes scattered, the land cleared. " (p. 164) These contradictions perfectly reflect the testimonies. In fact, they provide conflicting data also about the mass graves, which - it should be made clear - were used only during the first months of the camp's activity, until the first two crematoria were built.
Krakowski tells us in this regard that three clearings existed in the Waldlager; the largest of them contained two pits 30 m x 10 m and 2 m deep; the middle-sized clearing had a single pit of a similar size, and in the smaller clearing there was a pit of 12 m x 10 m, 3 m deep (ibid., p. 34). However, with reference to another testimony he subsequently mentions a pit measuring 200 m x 5 m, another 50 m long and a third 150 m long (ibid., p. 60). Another witness, Johann I. (his last name is not given) refers to two pits 20-30 m long, 6-8 m wide and 4 m deep (Riickerl 1979, p. 272).
9.4. The Chelmno "Crematoria" and "Field Ovens Aktion Reinhardt"
I have stated above that, according to orthodox Holocaust historio- graphy, the "field ovens Aktion Reinhardt" had been built by Blobel in Chelmno after several attempts as a result of his cremation experiments in connection with the alleged "Aktion 1005." The explanations I have
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provided in the previous sections allow the reader to judge to what ex- tent this assumption is based on historical fact.
Jean-Claude Pressac summarized Dejaco's witness statement about his report of 17 September 1942 during the hearing of 20 January 1972 in the Vienna trial, where he was charged together with his former col- league Fritz Ertl. Pressac commented (1993, pp. 57f):
"According to Dejaco, the installation resembled a large circular charcoal kiln with a diameter of 4 to 6 meters, and backfilled on its periphery. Blobel insisted on arranging the corpses and the wood in layers, which always had to be alternated. Blobel was of the opinion that his installation was not convenient for a fast incineration, given that the combustion was slow. Nevertheless, the principle (alternated stacking) was to be preserved. [...] BlobeVs installation was not re- produced in Birkenau, but its principle was applied: combustion of layers of wood and corpses stacked alternately on vast grates, con- sisting of railroad rails supported by small brick pillars. " The cremation facility at Auschwitz described by Pressac is not based on reality or on documents or testimonies,78 so it is pure conjec- ture on his part. Besides, it would also have been technically very diffi- cult, since large piles of alternating layers of wood and corpses burn un- evenly. Hence the pile would sooner or later lean to one side or the oth- er and would ultimately topple over, spilling burning wood, embers and corpse parts off the grate.
According to Hoss, in fact, the outdoor cremation of corpses was carried out in a completely different way from what he had allegedly observed at Chelmno (Broszat 1981, p. 161):
"We started with the cremation only toward the end of summer; first on a pile of wood with about 2, 000 corpses, then in the pits with the exhumed corpses from earlier. First the corpses were doused with oil refinery byproducts,^ and later with methanol.^ Crema-
Witnesses of open air incinerations in Auschwitz usually talk about one layer of wood at the bottom of a trench (or pyre), followed by huge piles of corpses or alternately added layers of wood and corpses, on occasion sprinkled with corpse fat allegedly collected from the burning corpses. Railway grates are not part of the Auschwitz lore (cf. Mat- togno 2005, pp. 13-23). In German: "Olruckstanden. "
The only known Auschwitz document which mentions methanol (methyl alcohol) is the Standortbefehl (garrison order) no. 30/44 of 11 December 1944, with which the camp commander forbade the SS man to purchase vodka from Poles, because it contained methanol which had caused cases of blindness and death among the acquiring SS men (Frei et al, 2000, p. 519).
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tion in the pits went on continuously, hence day and night. By the end of November all mass graves had been emptied. The number of corpses buried in the mass graves was 107,000. This figure does not only include the transports of exterminated Jews from the beginning up to the time when they began the cremations, but also the corpses of prisoners who had died in Auschwitz in the winter of 1941/42, when the crematorium next to the hospital was out of operation for a long time. All the prisoners who died in the Birkenau camp are in- cluded as well. "
This process has no resemblance to the "field ovens" allegedly used by Blobel for cremations, nor did a "ball mill" exist at Auschwitz to crush the cremation residues. So what brought Hoss to Chelmno? And if simple pyres or simple pits sprinkled with refinery byproducts or methanol sufficed to easily cremate tens of thousands of corpses, why did the RSHA order Blobel to carry out cremation "experiments" at Chelmno?
Dejaco's statements further complicate the story: the "experiments" carried out by Blobel would in fact lead to the creation of a "charcoal kiln" (Kohlenmeiler) which was, by its own creator's admission, totally inefficient for mass cremation!
As for the "principle" of the system - alternating layers of wood and corpses - allegedly brought to Auschwitz from Chelmno: it was a very primitive technique of cremation; the true "principle" of Blobel' s sys- tem was instead specified as a "charcoal pile," which has never been tried or even suggested in the history of modern cremation, and for good reasons. The purpose of such a pile is indeed to produce charcoal by incomplete combustion of wood, therefore carbonization, not crema- tion or incineration (complete combustion), so it is trivially obvious that such a system was quite inefficient for mass cremation of corpses, to put it mildly.
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10. Excavations and Archaeological Findings
10.1. Investigations of Judge Bednarz and the Konin Museum
In 1945 the Chelmno camp was examined by Judge Bednarz, who briefly described the material findings (1946a, pp. 20f):
'When the pits into which the ashes and crushed bones had been dumped were reopened in the course of the investigation, ashes, hair, traces of chlorine - apparently thrown in for the purpose of disinfection - bones and bone fragments as well as small objects were found, such as combs, buttons, purses, etc. (document of the protocol of investigations, card 530). It should also be noted that, because of soil fertilization with human ashes, the vegetation in this area is much more lush and green in color. "
Further archeological surveys were conducted in 1951 and in 1986- 1987. The latter, sponsored by the District Museum, at that time head- ed by Lucja Nowak, were summarized as follows by Janusz Gulczyhski (1991, pp. 91-93):
"In the former camp in the woods of Rzuchow the Museum of Martyrdom is located, which is a branch of the museum district of Konin. Upon its initiative various works were undertaken in relation to the layout of the terrain. Investigations have been carried out to obtain the largest possible number of artifacts linked to the crime scene, in general to the martyrdom of the Jewish population during the last war. [...]
In 1986, archeological-documentary work began in the clearings of the Rzuchow forest by a group of staffers of the museum district of Konin. The purpose of the excavations was to extract from the earth any artifacts and to validate all things where possible in order to de- velop information about Chelmno in relation to the years 1941- 1945. The point of departure of the work was the data derived from interpretation of aerial photographs taken by the army in 1958. Pho- to interpretation allowed locating within the boundaries of the forest
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area the contours of mass graves, of four barracks and also of trenches whose function was not very clear. Another purpose was to verify the photo interpretations of and to discover the remains of a crematorium. Five excavations were carried out with a total surface area of 208 square meters. It was clear that the traces of the bar- racks were not preserved. They were probably removed during de- velopment in the sixties and seventies. It was found that burned hu- man bones, in addition to being scattered around the Warta region, were also scattered in the woods. Even now they emerge on the sur- face. The function of one trench has been established: it probably served the Hitlerites to burn the victims' personal belongings which were unsuitable to be sent to the Reich. Thus from the probing trench dug during this survey a large number of objects was re- trieved - studded handbags, purses, suitcases, shoes, belt buckles, knives, clothes pins, prosthetic fittings, dentures, buttons - including those from Soviet uniforms - casings of rifle cartridges, pistol, etc.
Partial remains of one of the crematoria were identified. It is shaped like a big hole with dimensions of about 17 x 17 m with sloping walls. The oven is filled with sand of a light gray color with ashes and a huge amount of crushed human bones. At a depth of2m under the excavation walls blocks of broken concrete and bricks were found, which are the remains of the blown-up crematorium. It was observed that the cement had been reinforced with parts of baby carriages. On each of the oven 's walls a system of drainage pipes [sic] was discovered which probably led air into the oven. These da- ta are contained in a report by the archeological section of the mu- seum district of Konin, archeological excavations, Chelmno upon Ner, 1986. Research continued the following year. This time atten- tion focused on two excavations. More debris of the crematorium was discovered: concrete blocks, broken bricks, etc. Within the ven- tilating drainage tubes a black layer was observed, like soot: traces of the smoke from cremating corpses. Everywhere minute human bone fragments were found, especially ashes and bone dust. At a depth of 3 meters the surface of one excavation trench was covered with a mass of tiny bones. All this made a particularly gruesome im- pression.
In the second excavation, where concrete debris, bricks and drainage pipes were also discovered, other artifacts were found: the soles of shoes, broken prostheses, buckles, spoons, forks, etc. There
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were no human bones and bone dust, at least not in large amounts, in comparison with the excavation carried out at the location of the crematorium. The hypothesis was confirmed last year: that place was probably used to burn various items of no value, hence inap- propriate for sending to the Reich. "
In late November of 1988, the Konin District Museum sent to the In- stitute of Forensic Medicine of the Medical Academy of Poznah a par- cel containing four bags filled with earth mixed with ashes and bone fragments taken from the Chelmno camp. The Konin Museum asked for a report on the samples sent in order to determine whether these frag- ments contained bones and human ashes and what their percentage was. The Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed on 5 December 1988 that the bone fragments and ashes were human, adding that the percentage of residual bone in the material sent could be estimated "na kilka pro- cent" - at a few percent.
10.2. The Map of the Camp
In 1989 Zdzislaw Lorek, on behalf of the Konin District Museum, produced a Map of the former Chelmno camp with a precise indication of the excavations and archeological findings,83 which was updated in 1996, using the most recent findings.84 Before analyzing this, it should be noted that the dimensions of the crematorium mentioned by Gulczyhski -17mxl7m - are clearly wrong, as the current architec- tural reconstruction of the oven measures roughly 6mx5m (see doc- uments 17-20). A plaque in Polish informs the reader:
"In this place the foundations of an oven were discovered in which thousands of bodies of murdered Jews were cremated. Its con- tours have been reconstructed on the surface with authentic frag- ments of the oven. " (See document 21.)
This is confirmed by a photograph of yore showing the archeolog- iccal excavation relating to the oven (see document 14).
The plan divides the above-mentioned camp into four quarters (Kwatera I to IV). Sector I (see document 12a) is located behind the en-
The indefinite pronoun "kilka" means "some," "several." Letter reproduced in Gulczynski 1991; appendix outside of text. The map was published in ibid.
This map can be found in Krakowski 1996, outside of text; see document 12.
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trance of the camp (see documents 22f.). The memorial for the victims and the small museum are located there. The irregular trapezoid that appears above the words "Kwatera F represents an excavation carried out in 1951. The small circle on the left with an inverted black triangle inscribed is the "presumed location of the fuel storage in 1944." Below this, on the right, the oblique H-shaped design with the inscription "w.s. I. II. Ill, 1991 r." indicates three excavation surveys carried out in 1991 ("w.s." stands for "wykopy sondazowe" excavation survey).
Sector II (see document 12b ) is defined as "location of killing and burial of the first group of Jews." From top to bottom, they show "the burning of old wood / June 1942," the symbol of the flames, the "Lapi- darium" (see document 24), the "symbolic grave of the children of Li- dice" represented by the parallelogram with crosses inside (see chapter 14.2.). On the left, the rectangular shape covered with "T"s, is a "mass grave discovered by the archeological survey." But the surveys, indicat- ed by a dot accompanied by the initials "w.s.," are only 5 in number and very far apart: the nearest is about 14 meters away, and between the first and last is a distance of about 48 meters. The circle inscribed with a black triangle above the rectangle bears the inscription "[Here] were unearthed skulls and long bones of the murdered victims"; the circle underneath the parallelogram has this inscription: "[Here] were un- earthed belongings of the murdered victims." Under the circle, the in- scription "w.IV/86" indicates excavation no. IV carried out in 1986.
Sector III (see document 12b ) contains a very narrow long rectangle with "T"s inside. The related caption for this symbol says, "Uporzqdko- wane mogily zydowskie" namely "arranged Jewish graves." It alludes to the fact that these areas were framed by a concrete wall and filled with sand (see document 25) in what constitutes the "arrangement" men- tioned above. But, as we shall see below, the "arrangement" has an al- ternative significance. Based on the scale of the map, the pit is approx- imately 190 meters long. The small circle at the bottom with the black triangle inscribed indicates "fragments of brick and/or slag." The shad- ed rectangle to the left indicates the "traces of an oven / floor plan of 1951."
Sector IV (see document 12c ) is that of the alleged mass extermina- tion. A concrete wall is dedicated "to the memory of Jews killed at Chelmno 1941-1945" (see document 27). On the map it is called "sci- ana pami§ci" "wall of remembrance." Under "Kwatera IV is the in- scription: "(1951 - outlines of three pits 150 m x 5 m and in the SE part
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a field crematorium)." The three pits are the three long narrow rect- angles with the "T's inside, designated in the caption, "arranged Jewish graves" (see document 26). At the northern end of the central pit is a Star of David. According to the caption, the shaded shapes are the "pre- sumed location of buildings or other objects" according to the interpre- tation of aerial photographs. An "a" indicates the two ovens from 1942; the remaining symbols have the following meanings: "b": "probably the wooden shed for the motorized mill to grind the un-
burned bones to powder"; "e": "probably field crematoria, circular pits with a diameter of 4 me- ters with stone cladding, 1942"; "f: "probably 'undressing' cabins inscribed ' Durchgangslager' and storage for clothes of the murdered victims, 1944." The significance of the figure corresponding to "g" is not indicated. The caption states instead that these interpretations are based on witness statements.
At the bottom, in front of the "wall of remembrance," two black rec- tangles identified by the symbols "A/86" and "B/87" signify two exca- vations carried out in 1986 and 1987, like the symbols "wI/86," "WII (/ 86)" and "wV/87." The caption provides this explanation:
excavation I: negative result
excavation II: remainders of a cremation oven
excavation III: negative result
excavation IV: mass grave
excavation V: pit used to burn belongings of victims In the caption is also a rectangle with a double border as a kind of frame with the following explanation:
"Cremation oven from 1944 located during archeological inves- tigations. "
It is located between the two black rectangles mentioned above and is mostly covered by them.85
10.3. Investigations of 2003-2004
The Konih District Museum carried out further archeological inves- tigations in 2003-2004. The results have been summarized on the relat-
Julet Golden has also written about the first archeologiccal survey, but his account is very superficial (2003, pp. 50-53).
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ed website by Lucja Pawlicka Kaminski (Pawlicka Nowak). A thorough examination of these investigations will be possible only when a scien- tific study is published like that of Prof. Andrzej Kola on archeological investigations carried out in the former Belzec camp (Kola 2000).
In Sector IV of the camp, the most important with regard to the al- leged extermination activities, a mass grave 174 m long and 8 m wide was allegedly identified, plus a second, parallel pit, 182 meters long and 10 m wide, and furthermore 1 1 pits of varied dimensions between 9 m x 7.5 m and 8.5 m x 15.5 m, located alongside the second pit, 2-3 meters apart. The pits are said to have been discovered "by random testing and drilling," but it is not explained what criteria were used. The map which shows the new findings (see document 12e ) is not clear: it seems, for example, that for the first pit (174 m long) only four sample drillings were carried out (numbered VI to IX), which were very far apart, and maybe two unnumbered others in the final section at the bottom. For the second pit there are seven indications that could be drill sites. The map shows that the area of the first pit and the series of 11 pits partially overlaps that of the outer pits (B and D) indicated on the earlier map of Lorek (see document 12 c), while the second pit is adjacent to the cen- tral one (C). In practice, the new surveys have confirmed the three ear- lier arbitrarily-defined pits, and it could not be otherwise.
Moreover six cremation sites have been detected, indicated in the map above with the numbers 2/03, 3/03, 4/03, 5/03, 20/03 and 21/03.
A comparison with Lorek' s map shows, however, that the findings 2/03, 3/03, 4/03 and 5/03 had already been examined before, but at that time they had not been considered to be cremation sites so that here on- ly the interpretation has changed. But for the findings 20/03 and 21/03 the function as a cremation site is only alleged. For good reason Paw- licka Kaminski (Pawlicka Nowak) concluded that "the results of the ar- cheologiccal investigation described above will not answer all questions and all doubts; the question of the crematoria remains particularly un- certain" (Pawlicka Nowak). The alleged cremation sites mentioned above were in fact temporary facilities (which are, moreover, not attest- ed to by witnesses) and are unrelated to the two actual brick ovens, the first of which - according to Pawlicka Kaminski (Pawlicka Nowak) - was discovered in 1986-1987, while the second was not found even in the course of subsequent investigations.
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10.4. The Results of the Investigations
The only mass grave found in the first phase of archeological inves- tigations is that in Sector II. However, as I said above, it was identified basically only by five drillings, which I have numbered from 1 to 5 in an enlargement of the map (see document 12d). From this it can be seen clearly that Drill Sample no. 3 was taken from outside the area of the al- leged mass grave, which is about 20 meters wide and about 60 meters long. This huge area was then allegedly identified on the basis of four drillings made at a great distance from each other. This is neither scien- tific nor can it be taken seriously. Apart from the width of the trench - about 20 meters - it contradicts the testimony of "Szlamek" and Pod- chlebnik, who speak of 5 meters and 6.7 meters, respectively. I remind the reader that Sector II was the alleged "killing and burial place of the first group of Jews," i.e. of the first Jews to arrive at the camp, among whom also these two witnesses are said to have been.
The three long 150m x 5 m "arranged" pits do not derive, in fact, from archeological surveys. In 1964 Edward Serwahski published a map of Chelmno in which next to Sector D (= Sector IV of Lorek's map), referred to as "clearing with traces of the crematoria," is Sector C, which is explained as follows: "polana z symbolicznymi mogilami pomordowanych Zydow" that is: "clearing with symbolic graves of murdered Jews." So the three graves in question are merely "symbolic" - just like the common grave of the Lidice children - and the same goes for the alleged mass grave in Sector III. These graves are therefore "uporzqkowane" "arranged" in the sense that they are a symbolic mu- seum reconstruction.
The second phase of archeological investigations (2003-2004) is said to have confirmed the presence of a grave in Sector II (8 to 3 m wide and 62 m long), a rectangular pit 254 meters long in Sector III, and es- pecially the three graves in Sector IV mentioned above, all matching Lorek's map precisely. Thus the symbols were made reality.
Pawlicka Kamihski (Pawlicka Nowak) refers to the "aerial photo- graph of Chelmno of May 1942, very important in the search for graves" (see document 13), asserting that "it shows both clearings [sec- tors II and III]; the pits were probably camouflaged," or else do not ap- pear at all in the photograph, although they should have been present on the site since December 1941. Another aerial photograph of October 1944 allegedly shows clearly "the clearings with the pits and the place
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where the wood was burned during the experimental cremation of corpses with thermite incendiary bombs during the first phase of the [murder] center" (Pawlicka Nowak). But despite its obvious im- portance, this aerial photograph was never published.
Excavations revealed the remains of only one crematorium (see doc- ument 14). Because of its underground structure with a reinforced con- crete base, it was extremely difficult to remove all the debris after it was destroyed using explosives. For this precise reason, the Poles have found many remains of this oven. But of the other three, there is no cer- tain archeological trace. Yet the so-called eyewitnesses - Zurawski, Srebrnik and Podchlebnik - should have been able to indicate easily the precise spots where they were. From this flows the hard-to-deny con- clusion that there was only one crematorium at Chelmno.
The alleged extermination area, sector IV, has the shape of an ir- regular trapezoid with sides - clockwise from the north - of around 130, 190, 170 and 250 meters. The most interesting thing arising from Lorek's map is that this sector is surrounded on all sides by woods da- ting from a period prior to the creation of the camp; it is in fact bordered on the north by a pine forest (las sosnowy) dating from 1929, on the west by a pine forest from 1927, on the south by a pine wood from 1929 and on the west by a pine forest from 1927. To the south, across the road which leads to Majdany, extends another pine forest dating from 1932. The rest of the camp is also surrounded by pine forests from be- fore the war: to the north of Sector II, there is a small pine forest dating from 1919, where the museum has been built, and in front of it an even smaller pine stand from 1929; over the road, which marks the northern boundary of the field, there is a large forest of spruce and pine from 1919 stretching over 450 meters; south of Sector II, between Sector III and the camp's eastern boundary, extending for about 550 meters from north to south and about 250 from west to east, are three small pine woods from 1929 and a forest of spruce and pine also from 1929. Two other pine woods dating from 1929 and 1927 lie north of Sector III (see document 12). So in 1944 the oldest woods were 17 years old.
Within the grounds of the camp, Lorek's map shows four small areas of reforestation: the first ("stand of spruce and birch / about 1942- 1943") is located west of Sector II, the second ("spruce and birch stand / approx 1942") is located south of Area II and the third ("pine forest with admixture of birch / about 1942-43") is located at the southern end of Sector III, and the fourth ("pine forest / about 1945") is in the south-
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ern sector IV. The total area of these woods is about one hectare. From the dates it is clear that these woods (except perhaps the last) were planted by the SS, who apparently had previously cleared the respective areas.
Assuming that the felling had been carried out in order to obtain timber for the cremation of corpses of the victims, from this hectare of pine forest less than 20 years old, the SS would have produced about 200 tons of timber, enough to cremate (200,000-^350=) about 600 bod- ies. However, as we saw above, to cremate the bodies of the minimum number of alleged victims would have required clearing 254 hectares of forest. To get an idea of such an area, it is enough to consider that - as indicated in the key to Lorek's map - the actual surface area of the Chelmno camp is 8.92 hectares, so that the area to be cleared would have been more than 28 times larger than the entire camp! Because no witness said that the wood came by rail, we might suppose that it had been cut near the camp. But the logging of an area of over two and a half square kilometers (2.54 km2) around the camp would not have gone unnoticed, and Judge Bednarz would certainly have submitted it as evi- dence for the cremation of the bodies of the victims. However, he never mentioned any such thing.
On the other hand, as can be seen in the aerial photograph of the area of the camp from May 1942 (see document 13), which shows a rectan- gle of about 1,200 x 1,900 meters (= 228 hectares, less than the area to be cleared!), there was a lot of treeless, agricultural land around the wooded area of the camp. Hence the SS would have had to fetch the wood from even further away, using teams of inmate loggers and trucks. In order to transport 53 thousand tons of wood needed for the cremation of corpses, more than ten thousand trips of a 5 ton truck would have been required. This coming and going of trucks full of wood directly to the camp would have been noticed by the local Polish population, but Judge Bednarz does not say anything in this regard. On this Krakowski notes (1983, p. 123):
"Trees from the surrounding woods were used for firewood. The Pole Michal Radoszewski was one of those forced wood suppliers. According to his testimony, the supplied timber was unloaded in the area of the crematorium by Jewish forced laborers. Having their feet shackled, they could move only in small steps. The Germans beat them incessantly, goaded and mistreated them. Radoszewski also re- ported the smell of smoke that hovered over the area. "
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The Jury Court in Bonn ascertained that "the Jewish Kommandos working in the camp consisted at each instance of about 50-60 people altogether" and (Ruter et ah 1979, p. 280):
"The major part of the Jewish inmates, some 30 men, worked as Waldkommando ' in the Waldlager [forest camp] and had to empty the gas vans, rough-clean them, and put the corpses into the pits. " Krakowski records the statements of witness Walter Piller according to whom (2007, p. 161)
"In the fall of 1944 there were 80-90 Jewish inmates in the Chelmno camp who were divided into two groups. A small part of them was brought to the forest camp each day, where they were forced to pull out the corpses of those murdered from the mass graves, to work at the crematorium and ultimately to dismantle these crematoria in order to erase the traces of this massacre. " So a "Holzkommando" (wood-gathering detail), which would have been absolutely essential for the cremation of corpses, is not even men- tioned. It could be formed only from some of the 30 prisoners men- tioned above, at most a few dozen prisoners, most strikingly with their feet shackled. They would have had to cut trees for 53,000 tons of wood (and load and unload a truck more than ten thousand times) in a period of five months86 or 150 days, averaging about 350 tons (or 70 full trucks) a day!
The cremation of 152,000 corpses would have produced at least 456 tons of human ashes, or approximately 940 cubic meters (Davies/Mates 2005, p. 134).
As Judge Bednarz established (see chapter 9.1.):
"The ashes were dumped in trenches 4 meters deep and 8-10 me- ters wide. They were then covered with earth. On that site a stand of partly conifers and partly birches was planted. " Let us assume that the soil analyzed by the Institute of Forensic Medicine of the Medical Academy of Poznah was taken from one of these pits. The analysis shows, however, that the soil contained only small proportions of human bone fragments and ashes. This, too, con- tradicts the thesis of mass cremation.
According to the orthodox version transports arrived at the camp during nine months, in- cluding December 1941; the two ovens are said to have been built in the spring of 1942, therefore not before March, hence they cremated over no more than five months.
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The alleged cremation of 152,000 corpses has therefore no docu- mentary basis and no support from material evidence.
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1 1 . The Alleged Number of Victims
The first official Polish surveys on the number of alleged victims of Chelmno contradict each other. On 20 May 1945 the Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, a delegation of the Cen- tral Commission for Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, fixed this number at 1,300,000! (Gulczyhski 1995, p. 31 & p. 40, note 50.)
The witness Andrzej Miszczak was more precise (Blumental 1946, p. 242):
''After an exact and precise calculation, the number of people murdered by the Hitlerite cannibals amounted to 1,300,097"! The Polish War Crimes Office, however, while not mentioning a precise figure, advocated a much lower order of magnitude: a few tens
on
of thousands. In its report we read:
"The first transport was in December 1942 [should be: 1941], when the district of Kolo was purged of Jews: so the Germans de- ported about 2,000 Jews from Kolo and about 1,000 from around D§bie. Starting in mid-January 1943 [sic], even tens of thousands of Jews from the Lodz ghetto were brought to the Chelmno camp. " These data were then included in the report of the Polish Govern- ment for the Nuremberg trials submitted to and accepted by the Soviets as Document USSR-93, which dedicated to Chelmno the few lines that follow:88
"This camp was a receiving station for Jews arriving from the Reich and the incorporated territories. The first transport arrived there in December 1942. At that time 2,000 Jews from Kolo and about 1,000 Jews from Dgbie were murdered. " At the end of 1945 Judge W. Bednarz carried out a preliminary in- vestigation into the camp. In his report, dated 7 January 1946, he devot- ed a whole chapter to the number of victims (Bednarz 1946d, pp. 7f):
Report by Dr. J. Litawski, Officer in charge of the Polish War Crimes Office, 1945. AGK, MSW Londyn, 1 13, p. 626. USSR 93, p. 84 of the English translation.
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"There is no way of determining the number of those murdered in Chelmno, neither on the basis of the camp's reports nor based on reports relating to Jewish rail transports, because the camp authori- ties destroyed all documents, and all tickets were taken away during the evacuation. Regarding direct transports to Chelmno the prelimi- nary investigation had to restrict itself to testimonies. Because it wished to investigate the number of victims as accurately and au- thoritatively as possible, it interrogated the witnesses who were at various locations through which the transports of the Reich passed (Lodz, Kolo, Powiercie, Zawadki, Chelmno). The testimonies are based on tickets seen (and other statements by the witness Lange, employee at the Kolo train station), on personal observations (counted transports), and on figures given by German members of the Sonderkommando regarding the transports.
With regard to the number of Jews in each transport, the wit- nesses agree: the number was at least 1, 000 people per train. There were periods when the number was higher, but in general it must be concluded that the number of about 1,000 is reliable, because it was constantly repeated by the witnesses at different stages [of the camp's history].
As this figure does not include transports with motor vehicles, the preliminary investigation has therefore all the more reason to take the minimum figure of 1,000 victims a day.
Transports with vehicles were particularly numerous during the liquidation of ghettos in small towns. If one considers the number of Jews throughout the territory, the number of victims who were brought to Chelmno in vehicles must have been considerable. So far precise calculations are still impossible, because until now no statis- tics exist about the population killed by the occupation authorities. When asked how many trains were brought to Chelmno during the time o/[its activities], the preliminary investigation provides the fol- lowing answer:
The activities of mass murder in Chelmno lasted from 8 Decem- ber 1941 to 7 April 1943. (In the period from April 1943 until the complete liquidation of the camp in January 1945 the camp was vir- tually inactive. In this period only 10 transports arrived, which are approximately 10,000 victims). Let us now consider the period from 8 December 1941 to 7 April 1943, that is a period of 480 days, of which we can subtract an interruption of two months in the spring of
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
109
1942, when no transports arrived, as well as short interruptions due to technical difficulties, i.e. 70-90 days in all. The camp had to work on Sundays and holidays, for example, the maximum activity there was during Pentecost 1942. So from the 480 days we want to sub- tract 130-150. The number of 330 days of activity of the extermina- tion camp Chelmno thus corresponds to reality. Assuming that each day 1,000 people were killed, we arrive at 330,000 murdered during the period of 330 [active] days of the death camp. To this number must be added the 10,000 Jews who were killed in 1944. Overall one has to assume a minimum figure of 340,000 victims murdered at Chelmno - men, women and children (even infants). " This became the official number of alleged victims for half a century and as such appeared in the authoritative Bulletin of the Central Com- mission for investigation of German Crimes in Poland (Bednarz 1946b, p. 157). At the hearing on 27 February 1946 of the Nuremberg Tribunal the Soviet High Councilor of Justice Smirnov read an extract from the document USSR-340 containing the figure of 340,000 victims.89
The Encyclopedic Informer, published in 1979 by this Polish Com- mission (which meanwhile had changed its name), indicated a total of 310,000 victims, using Bednarz's calculation method, but with an un- explained reduction in the range from 330 to 300 days: 300 x 1,000 + 10,000 = 310,000 (GlownaKomisja... 1979, pp.l29f).
During the penal trial against former members of the Chelmno Sonderkommando, the Bonn Jury Court settled for an alleged minimum death toll of 152,000, consisting of 145,000 victims during the camp's first phase and 7,000 during its second phase. The court based its as- sumptions for the camp's first operational phase on the figure given in the so-called Korherr Report for Jews led "through the camps of the Warthegau... 145,301." Korherr even appeared as a witness to confirm this number (Riiter et al. 1979, pp. 285f). The figures of the camp's se- cond phase are based on deportation lists compiled by the "Statistical Department of the Oldest of Jews in the Ghetto of Litzmannstadt," ac- cording to which 7,176 Jews were deported from the ghetto in summer 1944, although with no destination given {ibid., p. 286). Hence the court assumed a minimum death toll of 145,000 for the first and 7,100 or 7,000 for the second phase (ibid., pp. 235, 241, 263, 286).
IMT, vol. 8, pp. 330f. Bednarz's name is misspelled there as "Wladislav Bengash," the camp as "Helmno."
110
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Polish historiography was subsequently adjusted to this order of magnitude. In 1995 Julian Baranowski wrote (1995, pp. 23f.):
"As a result of this process [of mass extermination], which lasted from 10 December 1941 to 12 September 1942, more than 134,000 inhabitants of the ghettos in the region of Warta and more than 10,000 Western European gypsies were murdered in the Chelmno camp. Among them, sharing this fate, were over 4,000 gypsies from the Austro-Hungarian border region. The second phase of the liqui- dation of Jews in the Chelmno camp began in June 1944. The vic- tims of this action were the inhabitants of the last European ghetto - the ghetto of Lodz. Until its closure on 14 July 1944, 7,200 more Jews perished in this camp. The tally of the extermination of the Jewish population in the Warta region and of the Jews deported from Western Europe to be liquidated comes close to 151,000. Even if adding approximately 4,000 gypsies and assuming a figure of some 3,000 Jews from the labor camps liquidated by the Lodz dis- trict government, the death toll of the Chelmno extermination camp is far in short of figures given so far. In light of the figures contained
Table 2: Victims of the Chelmno camp per Baranowski 1995, p. 24
|
Districts |
Number |
Dates of |
Number of |
Number |
|
of Jews |
Extermination |
Murder |
Deported |
|
|
December |
Victims |
to Lodz |
||
|
1941 |
Ghetto |
|||
|
Lodz city |
167,540 |
I-Vand IX 1942 |
70,672 |
/ |
|
VI- VII 1944 |
7,196 |
|||
|
Ciechocinek |
1,580 |
IV 1942 |
1,580 |
/ |
|
Gostynin |
about 4400 |
IV 1942 |
about 4400 |
/ |
|
Kalisz and city |
1,449 |
III 1942 |
972 |
522 |
|
Kolo |
3,830 |
XII- 1941 -II |
3,830 |
|
|
1942 |
||||
|
Kutno |
about 13,000 |
III-IV 1942 |
about 10,700 |
|
|
Lask |
21,734 |
VI- VIII 1942 |
15,859 |
5,875 |
|
L^czyca |
10,528 |
V-VIII 1942 |
8,760 |
1,767 |
|
Lodz surround- |
6,203 |
V 1942 |
2,423 |
3,780 |
|
ing area |
||||
|
Sieradz |
11,731 |
VIII 1942 |
9,589 |
2,142 |
|
Turek |
3,432 |
XII 1941 -VII |
3,342 |
190 |
|
1942 |
||||
|
Wielun |
10,490 |
VIII 1942 |
9,498 |
992 |
|
Woclawek |
5,639 |
IV-V 1942 |
2,557 |
3,082 |
|
Total |
261,556* |
/ |
151,378** |
18,350 |
In the original erroneously 261,558; ** In the original erroneously 151,380
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
111
in the attached table, the data about the extermination of 200,000
and even more than 300,000 victims alleged in these publications
are far from the truth, are highly exaggerated. "
The data of the table in question, entitled "The extermination of the Jews from the territory of Warthegau and Western Europe at Chelmno upon Ner during the period December 1941 to July 1944," is given in Table 2.
Hence the number of alleged victims posited by today's orthodox historians, including Polish historiography, is less than half the figure put forward by Judge Bednarz in 1946.
In this context it is perhaps interesting to note that the order of mag- nitude of the future alleged total death toll of the Chelmno camp was al- ready anticipated in late November 1942. At that time the clandestine Polish periodical Ziemie Zachodnie Rzeczypospolitej (Western Territory of the Republic) wrote (Chrzanowski 1985, p. 100):
((From December 1941 to October of this year 250,000 to 300,000 Jews, mainly from the Lodz district and partly from Germa- ny, have so far gone to this camp and have not returned. "
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
113
12. Jewish Deportation Transports to Chelmno
12.1. Transports from Warthegau to the Lodz Ghetto
The first three Jewish transports to arrive in the ghetto of Lodz from the Warthegau were made up as follows:
First transport: 937 Jews from Leslau; second transport: 762 Jews from Lubraniec and 316 from Chodecz; third transport: 399 Jews from Brzesc Kujawski and 668 from Kowal, a total of 3,082 Jews.90 Concern- ing the third transport there is a report by the head of the Hygiene Sec- tion {Gesundheits-Abteilung) of the ghetto dated 10 October 1941 :91 "Re. Children.
Among the [668] Jews admitted on 9 October 1941 are 374 Children.
All those admitted from Kowal had been housed in a church since 29 September 1941 together with their children, where many children have suffered through the measles. A measles epidemic raged in Kowal.
Right now 193 children are incubating the measles, and the mea- sles will most likely break out on 11 or 12 Oct. 1941.
Since no case of measles exists here in the ghetto, a strict and ab- solute isolation of the admitted children is necessary in order to pre- vent spreading the measles. "
After referring to cases of other infectious diseases among these children, the report continues: "Re. :Adults: intensely louse-infested, several cases of blindness, one pneumonia,
"Eingesiedelte im Jahre 1941 aus dem Altreich, Wien, Prag, Luxemburg und aus Leslau und Umgebungr APL, PSZ, 863, p. 81.
"Bericht des Vorsitzenden der Gesundheits-Abteilung, HerrnDr. Miller, vom 10. Okto- ber 1941 ilber den Zustand der am 9. Oktober 1941 aus Leslau und Umgebung eingewie- senen Juden." APL, PSZ, 1570, p. 1. At the end the report bears the stamp of Ch. Rum- kowski, "Der Alteste der Juden in Litzmannstadtr
114
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
one open tuberculosis, 74 geriatrics,
Then also scabies and less severe skin diseases. " In the first half of 1942 7,649 Jews were transferred to the Lodz ghetto from Warthegau in the following transports:
> from Zgierz: a transport (January) of 84 persons
> from Pabianice: 4 transports (17 and 18 May) of 3,652 people
> from Lowenstadt: 4 transports (19 and 20 May) of 2,927 people
> from Osorkow: a transport (22 May) of 741 persons
> from Belchatow: a transport (13 June) of 1 15 persons
> from Zelow: a transport (13 June) of 96 persons
> from 14 unspecified cities: 1 transport (24 June) of 34 persons.
The total number of persons transferred included 1,436 children un- der fourteen years (including two infants born in 1941) and 171 older than sixty years (including 2 of 89).
12.2. The Deportations to Chelmno
From the "Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto" the following picture of the deportations of Jews from Lodz to Chelmno results, but is never mentioned:
|
Month |
Resettled (ausgesiedelt) |
Source* |
|
January |
10,003 |
vol. I, p. 401 |
|
February |
7,025 |
vol. I, p. 426 |
|
March |
24,687 |
vol. I, p. 445 |
|
April |
2,349 |
vol. I, p. 495 |
|
May |
10,914 |
vol. II, p. 7 |
|
September |
ww 15,685 |
vol. II, p. 278f. |
|
Total: |
70,663 |
Dabrowska/Dobroszycki 1 965 ;
* The deportations took place on 1,2, and 7 to 12 September
A report from the ghetto's Statistical Office of 30 June 1942 shows the number of evacuees by date of birth, sex and "stages":
"Eingesiedelte aus dem Warthegau 1. 1.-30. VI. 1942T APL, PSZ, 863, pp. 86f. "Ausgesiedelte aus dem Getto 1.I.-30. V1.1942r APL, PSZ, 863, pp. 57-59.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
115
|
Stage |
Period |
Number of |
Number |
|
Transports |
Deported |
||
|
i |
1 6 to 29 January |
14 |
10,003 |
|
ii |
14 February to 2 April |
40 |
34,073 |
|
in |
4 to 15 May |
12 |
10,914 |
|
Total: |
66 |
54,990 |
Some transports are known in detail from the railway documents that have been preserved. For the period from 16 March to 2 April 1942 we can derive the following numbers:94
|
DAY |
EVACUATED - |
Day |
EVACUATED - |
|
"AUSGESIEDELT" |
"AUSGESIEDELT" |
||
|
1 6 March |
637 |
25 March |
1,000 |
|
17 March |
768 |
26 March |
1,001 |
|
1 8 March |
1,001 |
27 March |
1,000 |
|
19 March |
1,000 |
28 March |
1,001 |
|
20 March |
1,001 |
29 March |
1,000 |
|
21 March |
1,041 |
30 March |
965 |
|
22 March |
303 |
3 1 March |
883 |
|
23 March |
797 |
1,049 |
|
|
24 March |
1,000 |
2 April |
1,301 |
|
Total: |
9,200 |
The trains left from the station at Widzew-Radegast (Lodz) and ar- rived at Przybylow and Warthbrucken (Kolo) traveling the following distances:
> Widzew-Radegast-Przybylow =147 km
> Warthbrucken- Widzew-Radegast =146 km.
The guards of the first four transports traveled up to Przybylow, the others to Warthbrucken. There were always 13 guards, regardless of the number of deportees.
For the period of 4 to 15 May 1942 we have the following data:95
"Nachweis der in der Zeit 16.3 - 2.4.42 abgefertigten Juden - Sdz" in: Hilberg 1981, pp. 145f.
"Nachweis der in der Zeit 4.5 -15.5.42 abgefertigten Juden - Sdz" in: Judisches Histori- sches... 1960, p. 281.
116
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
|
Date |
Evacuated - |
Expelled - |
|
"AUSGESIEDELT" |
"AUSWEISUNG |
|
|
4 May |
1,008 |
1,002 |
|
5 May |
914 |
909 |
|
6 May |
1,000 |
1,000 |
|
7 May |
952 |
952 |
|
8 May |
954 |
949 |
|
9 May |
952 |
952 |
|
10 May |
1,005 |
950 |
|
11 May |
949 |
949 |
|
12 May ^ TTTTTTTTT M |
947 |
947 |
|
13 May |
1,000 |
999 |
|
14 May |
706 |
706 |
|
15 May |
606 |
599 |
|
Total: |
10,993 |
10,914 |
These trains also left from the Widzew-Radegast station and traveled up to Warthbriicken. The escort was always 13 guards, except 4 May (12 guards).
The table below summarizes the data of orthodox Holocaust histori- ography concerning evacuations to Chelmno from individual locations each month:
|
Month/ Year |
Lodz |
ClECHOCINEK |
GOSTYNIN |
Kalisz |
SlERADZ |
WiELUN |
Wloclawek |
< N U w |
Lask |
KUTNO |
KOLO |
|
12/'41 |
3,830 |
||||||||||
|
l/'42 |
10,003 |
||||||||||
|
2/'42 |
7,025 |
||||||||||
|
3/'42 |
24,687 |
972 |
10,700 |
||||||||
|
4/'42 |
2,349 |
1,580 |
4,400 |
2,557 |
|||||||
|
5/'42 |
10,914 |
8,760 |
|||||||||
|
6/'42 |
15,859 |
||||||||||
|
7/'42 |
|||||||||||
|
8/'42 |
9,589 |
9,498 |
|||||||||
|
9/'42 |
15,685 |
||||||||||
|
6/'44 |
7,196 |
||||||||||
|
7/'44 |
Totals 77,859 1,580 4,400 972 9,589 9,498 2,557 8,760 15,859 10,700 3,830
Total evacuees: 145,608
"Bevolkerungsveranderungen im Monat Mai 1942 nach Meldungen." APL, PSZ 863, p. 52.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
111
12.3. Who Was Evacuated and Why?
In a report by the Gestapo in Lodz on the deportations of 9 June 1942 we read as follows (Jiidisches Historisches... 1960, pp. 285f):
"On order of the Gauleiter all Jews unable to work are to be evacuated and those fit for work of the entire Gau are to be concen- trated in the Litzmannstadt ghetto. From here larger quantities of Jews are to be deployed for various works (construction of railroads and roads) in the Gau area, and after completion of the work they are to be led back into the ghetto. The Jews remaining in the ghetto are to be deployed for work there without exception. During the formation of the Gau's first ghettos it proved necessary to make room for the Jews to be settled in. For this purpose a larger number of Jews unable to work was evacuated from the ghetto and sent to the Sonderkommando. 44,152 of the Polish Jews have been resettled since 16 Jan. [19]42. Of the 19,848 Jews from the Old Reich, from Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which were admitted to the local ghetto in October 1941, 10,993 have been evacuated, so that by now space for about 55,000 Jews has been created in the ghetto. "
So the Jews evacuated were those unable to work, and the reason for the evacuation was to create space for new arrivals fit for work. A later report, dated 2 July 1942, i.a. fixed the working age limit as follows (ibid., p. 292.):
"Due to the strong decrease in the Jews' hardiness, the work performance has decreased as well. In this context the eldest of the Jews has now brought to work assignments all children over 10 years of age in order to ensure that the delivery dates of Army or- ders are scrupulously met. " The verdict of the Bonn Jury Court stated:
"Since on the one hand emigration had failed, yet on the other hand space had to be created for the ethnic Germans to be resettled, the National Socialist leadership of the Warthegau decided in con- junction with Hitler and Himmler to 'evacuate' (which according to the terminology back then meant: to kill) all Jews unfit for work and to concentrate all those of the entire Gau [district] who were fit for work in the ghetto of Lodz. " (Riiter et al. 1979, p. 275)
"For the most part these were women, children and older men who were no longer fit for work. " (ibid., p. 233; similar p. 281)
118
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
In this context Baranowski stated (1999, p. 94):
"Another tragedy took place between 3 and 12 September 1942: a deportation directed against children under the age of 10 and adults over 65. "
He published three excerpts from a list of "Jews evacuated from the Litzmannstadt ghetto" (Evakuierte Juden aus Litzmannstadt-Getto) dat- ed 7 September 1942 {ibid., p. 93) containing the names of 69 children born between 1939 and 1942 and further states that the Jews of the ghetto in the age group 10 to 65 years were forced to work {ibid., p. 74). If we adopt this figure, the data from 30 June 1942 mentioned above means that of the 54,990 Jews evacuated from the ghetto and allegedly sent to Chelmno, some 46,572, that is almost 85%, were able to work!
Conversely, after the end of the evacuations the number of children under the age of 10 remaining in the ghetto and escaping the alleged gassing at Chelmno was still quite high. From a statistical report called "The population of the ghetto on 1 August 1943 based on year of birth and sex according to dispatches" {Gettobevolkerung am 1. August 1943
97
laut Geburtsjahr und Geschlecht nach Meldungen) we have the follo- wing data:
|
Year |
Male |
Female |
Totals |
Year |
Male |
Female |
Totals |
|
1934 |
549 |
447 |
996 |
1939 |
464 |
439 |
903 |
|
1935 |
460 |
464 |
924 |
1940 |
283 |
279 |
562 |
|
1936 |
405 |
341 |
746 |
1941 |
148 |
112 |
260 |
|
1937 |
582 |
610 |
1,192 |
1942 |
88 |
119 |
207 |
|
1938 |
517 |
471 |
988 |
1943 |
39 |
37 |
76 |
|
Totals |
3,535 |
3,319 |
6,854 |
In addition to these 6,854 children under 9 years old, there were liv- ing in the ghetto 1,400 people older than 65 years, broken down by year of birth and sex as appears in the following table. The oldest person was a woman of 95 years.
APL, PSZ, 863, p. 21.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
119
|
Year |
Male |
Female |
Totals |
Year |
Male |
Female |
Totals |
|
1848 |
0 |
l |
l |
1865 |
12 |
5 |
17 |
|
1850 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1866 |
22 |
18 |
40 |
|
1852 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
1867 |
9 |
1 |
10 |
|
1853 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1868 |
13 |
45 |
58 |
|
1854 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1869 |
13 |
49 |
62 |
|
1855 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1870 |
29 |
25 |
54 |
|
1856 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
1871 |
37 |
83 |
120 |
|
1857 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
1872 |
31 |
57 |
88 |
|
1858 |
4 |
2 |
6 |
1873 |
41 |
114 |
155 |
|
1859 |
6 |
5 |
11 |
1874 |
21 |
74 |
95 |
|
1861 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
1875 |
104 |
176 |
280 |
|
1862 |
0 |
4 |
4 |
1876 |
55 |
107 |
162 |
|
1863 |
10 |
13 |
23 |
1877 |
67 |
117 |
184 |
|
1864 |
10 |
1 |
11 |
Totals |
488 |
912 |
1,400 |
The total number of inhabitants of the ghetto unable to work was therefore 8,254 out of a total of 84,280.
From the last known data on the population of the ghetto, dating back to 1 March 1944, we have a total of 77,679 Jews broken down by age as follows:98
|
Age Range |
Male |
Female |
TOTAL |
|
<8 |
2,248 |
2,247 "^^^^"^^^^^^^^^ |
4,495 |
|
9-14 |
3,373 |
3 313 ._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._i_i_i_i_<i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_i_f |
6,686 |
|
15-20 |
5,670 |
6,308 |
11,978 |
|
21-30 |
5,811 |
11,181 |
16,992 |
|
31-40 |
7,620 |
10,344 |
17,964 |
|
41-50 |
4,443 |
5,950 |
10,393 |
|
51-60 |
2,663 |
3,705 |
6,368 |
|
61-70 |
881 |
1,530 |
2,411 |
|
71-80 |
127 |
242 |
369 |
|
81-86 |
5 |
18 |
23 |
|
Totals: |
32,841 |
44,838 |
77,679 |
Above I noted that on 30 June 1942, of the 54,990 Jews evacuated from the ghetto, 46,572 were able to work. Children under 10 and sen- iors over 65 therefore totaled 8,418. This fact, though incompatible with the thesis of extermination at Chelmno, fits perfectly with the thesis of transfer to the east. The evacuation lists in fact demonstrate indisputably that the deportations took place by family. The undated first list has 710
"Aufteilung der Getto-Bevolkerung per 1. Mdrz 1944." APL, PSZ, 184, p. 13.
120
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
people, including 26 families consisting of five to eight members. For example, the Januszewicz family consisted of Chana (1906), Mordka (1931), Malka (1933), Ester Bajla (1936), Abram (1934), Liba (1939) and Leew (1941);100 the Beremblum family of Szama (1903), Sura (1909), Irena (1906), Beresz (1927), Mendel (1926), Abram leek
(1928) , Roza (1911), and Luzer (1936);101 the Wolch family of Kraut (1900), Sara (1897), Machla (1929), Perla (1930), Esther Gitla (1932) and Nechem (1939).
Another 24 families had 4 members, 38 had 3.
The undated list no. 14 contains 586 persons, including 28 families from five to eight members, 19 of four members, and 50 of three mem- bers. For example, the Piepszynski family consisted of Jadzia (1929), Cerka (1907), Estera (1927), Abram (1937), Rucha (1903), Zlata
(1929) , Menachem (1931) and Bencjon (1935).103 The Zalcsztajn family included Szulim (1896), Chaja (1896), Chana (1921), leek (1922), Ro- jza (1928), Ita (1934) and Moszek (1937).104
List no. 32, also undated, includes 1,000 people, among whom were 45 families consisting of five to seven persons, 45 of four and 62 of three.105 For example, the Cukier family included Zyskind (1903), Tau- ba (1903), Dawid (1925), Juda (1927), Szmul (1933), Niece (1935) and leek (1936),106 and the Ber family, Idel-Lajb (1909), Masz (1906), the twins Fiszel and Kerszel (1934), Chaim (1939), Moszek (1870) and Perla (1874). 107
99 "Transportliste Evakuierter Juden aus dem Getto Litzmannstadt. 1. Transport." APL, PSZ, 1229, pp. 1-25.
100 Ibid., p. 7.
101 Ibid, p. 21.
102 "Transportliste Evakuierter Juden aus dem Getto Litzmannstadt. Transport 14" APL, PSZ, 1229, pp. 272-291.
103 Ibid, p. 281.
104 Ibid, p. 219.
105 "Transportliste Evakuierter Juden aus dem Getto Litzmannstadt. Transportliste XXXII" APL, PSZ, 1229, pp. 86-119.
106 Ibid, p. 90.
107 Ibid, p. 92.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
121
12.4. Operations Ceased in 1943 and Resumed in 1944 - Why?
According to the investigations of Judge Bednarz, the first phase of the camp's existence lasted from 8 December 1941 to 7 April 1943 (Bednarz 1946d, p. 7). On this date the camp ceased its alleged exter- mination operation: the palace was blown up and the crematoria were destroyed. However, as shown in the summary table presented above (bottom of p. 116), the last alleged act of mass murder took place in September 1942, with the result that the camp would be left idle for more than six months. So why was it liquidated only on 7 April 1943?
The reopening of the camp in 1944 is even more incomprehensible. Krakowski writes (1983, p. 136):
"In early 1944 the National Socialists decided to resume the ex- termination activities in Kulmhof due to the impending liquidation of the Lodz ghetto. "
However, after 10 transports allegedly sent to Chelmno, the National Socialists allegedly realized that "Kulmhof s capacity did not suffice for the killing of tens of thousands [of people] in a very short time" (ibid., p. 142). So after a year of operation the SS is said to still have been un- familiar with Chelmno 's extermination capacity?
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
123
13. The Alleged Gassings in 1944: Chelmno and Auschwitz108
Krakowski quotes a letter from Arthur Greiser to Oswald Pohl dated 14 February 1944 in which, among other things, we read (Krakowski 1983, p. 137):
"The reduction will be made by the SS-Sonderkommando Haupt- sturmfuhrer Bothmann, who has worked previously in the Gau. " In a telex to Himmler of 9 June 1944, Greiser reported i. a. as follows (Riickerl 1979, p. 284):
"Since I have finished the preparations for the ghetto 's evacua- tion and as I have carried out the first evacuations of the same, ..." Riickerl comments {ibid., p. 284, note 83):
" Greiser 's statement that the evacuation had already started in early June seems to have been a mere demonstration intended to ex- press the urgency of his request. From other sources it can be in- ferred that the transports from Lodz to Chelmno started only at the end of June 1944. "
In fact, the "reduction" of the ghetto had already begun three months earlier with two transports that departed on 4 and 16 March 1944, one with 750 people and the other with 850. 109 As we learn from Eisenbach on the basis of documents kept in the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, these 1,600 Jews were sent to the arms factories in Skarzysko-Kamienna, a town about 45 km south-west of Radom (Ei- senbach 1961, p. 568). This is confirmed by Krakowski (2007, p. 136). In this regard there is also an essay by Hans Biebow of 18 March 1944 with the subject of "Transfer of 1,500 Jews to the General Government" (Uberfuhrung von 1500 Juden in das Generalgouvernement; Jiidisches Historisches... 1960, p. 461).
The transport list of 4 May was accompanied by a note saying:110
This is a summary of my study Mattogno 2003.
APL, PSZ, 1223, pp. 60-73 and 14-59 (list of names of transport).
APL, PSZ, 1223, p. 74.
124
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"Attached the CP. [^Central Prison] sends a list of persons who have left the CP. on 4 March of this year for work outside the ghet- to. "
And the transport list of 16 March has this header: "For work on 16 March 1944 from Litzmannstadt-Ghetto" (Zur Arbeit am 16. Mdrz 1944 aus Litzmannstadt Ghetto).
In May there were other small transports of Jews "moved away for work outside the ghetto" (zur Arbeit ausserhalb des Ghettos abgereist),
119
for example: 90 on day 4; 50 on day 17; 30 on day 27; 60 on day 30. The bulk of transports, however, began on 23 June. The Lodz State Ar- chives has preserved lists of names from ten Jewish transports - men and women - who left the Lodz ghetto between 23 June and 14 July
1 1 T
1944 according to the following table:
|
Transport |
Date |
Number of Deportees |
|
l |
23 June 1944 |
562 |
|
2 |
26 June 1944 |
912 |
|
3 |
28 June 1944 |
799 |
|
4 |
30 June 1944 |
700 |
|
5 |
3 July 1944 |
699 |
|
6 |
5 July 1944 |
699 |
|
7 |
7 July 1944 |
700 |
|
8 |
10 July 1944 |
700 |
|
9 |
12 July 1944 |
700 |
|
10 |
14 July 1944 |
699 |
|
Total |
7,170 |
These lists also bear the heading "zur Arbeit ausserhalb des Ghettos ausgereist" - moved away for work outside the ghetto.
The verdict of the Bonn Jury Court states in this regard (Riiter et al. 1979, p. 286):
"Although the statistical lists mentioned do not expressly state that these transports left for Chelmno instead of for Auschwitz, for example, as they did starting in August 1944. But this derives from the credible affirmations of the witness Z., who came to Chelmno with the 7th or 8th transport and who has given the total number of all transports carried out to Chelmno with 10 to 12. The Jury Court
111 APL,PSZ, 1223, p. 14.
112 APL,PSZ, 1223, pp. 10-16,
113 APL,PSZ, 1309, pp. 1-225.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
125
is therefore convinced that the ten transports mentioned went to
Chelmno and that therefore at least 7,000 Jewish persons were
killed in Chelmno during the camp fs second phase. "
"Witness Z" was Zurawski, and the Jury Court recklessly based the conviction for exterminating 7,000 Jews at Chelmno on a single, more- over extremely dubious witness!
There is in fact not the least indication that the 10 transports were sent to Chelmno, and this is so evident that even Eisenbach wrote in his famous documentary collection on the Lodz ghetto, with reference to the evacuation of the ghetto (Eisenbach 1946, p. 265):
"The Chelmno camp had already been dissolved, and therefore
the Jews were sent to Auschwitz and other camps. "
In this context he mentioned the first three transports of the table which I quoted above (ibid.). It is therefore clear that he, who had stud- ied the documents available to the Central Jewish Historical Commis- sion (including witnesses), did not even have the slightest hint indicat- ing that the 10 above-mentioned Jewish transports were sent to Chelm- no.
Let us return to the 7,170 Jews transferred between 23 June and 14 July 1944. The lists of names are of fundamental importance in order to understand whether these Jews were actually deported "for work." In these lists, in fact, we have the dates of birth for 6,763 individuals, ranging from 6 to 70 years old, although such extreme ages are excep- tions: there are only 3 children aged 6 years, 4 aged 7 years, 7 aged 8 years, 8 aged 9 years and 9 aged 10 years. In the same way, the lists contain only one person each of the ages 70, 69 and 66 years, 2 of 65 years, 6 of 64 years, 2 of 63 years, 7 of 62 years, 4 of 61 years and 17 of 60 years. The age distribution of the deportees is shown in the follow- ing table:
|
Age Range |
Deportees |
Age Range |
Deportees |
|
<8 |
14 |
31-40 |
1,338 |
|
9-14 |
181 |
41-50 |
915 |
|
15-20 |
1,660 |
51-60 |
341 |
|
21-30 |
2,290 |
61-70 |
24 |
|
Total |
6,763 |
It is therefore evident that the vast majority of the deportees were people capable of work, most of whom had actually worked in various facilities in the ghetto. Numerous documents attest that, on the day of
126
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
deportation, the ghetto administration regularly communicated to indi- vidual companies that they had lost the labor of the transferred Jews who had worked there.114 However, in the hypothetical case of a policy of extermination of Jews unable to work, it would be stupid to extermi- nate all 7,170 Jews, most of whom were perfectly capable of work. It would have been more logical instead to send to the alleged extermina- tion Chelmno camp those unable to work, i.e. the 4,495 children under ten years old and the 392 people over 70 who were still in the ghetto on 1 March 1944.
Another important fact helps us to understand why the transports al- so included small children: even in this case the deportees were not se- lected by age - at least not only by age - but by family, as is clear from the names and addresses of the deportees. For example, one of three six-year-old children, Johanna Dahl, born in 1938, was deported with the third transport along with Greta Dahl, born in 1912, presumably the mother: both had the same address, Krater 25. 115 The second child born in 1938, Dora Gerstel, was deported with the second carriage along with Edith Gerstel, born in 1904; both had lived at Siegfried 14. 116 The third six-year-old child, Moniek Sztycki, was deported in the fourth transport along with Gela Sztycka, born in 1900, who had too lived at Hohen- steiner 13.
In conclusion, the 10 above-mentioned transports of Jews were not sent to be gassed at Chelmno, but to concentration camps "for work."
This also follows from the "Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto." On 16 July 1944 it stated (Krakowski 2007, p. 140):
"In fact this is not about an evacuation of merely 500 people which had to be concealed as a voluntary recruitment, but about numerous work consignments outside the ghetto. It is said that first of all the first group of about 500 people is bound for Munich, where they must perform clearance work [of air raid rubble]. The same week, probably 23 Friday of this month, another group of about 900 people has to leave. Then for three weeks 3, 000 people each have to leave in transports of 1, 000 people each. For each transport, a head of transport, two doctors, medical personnel and security services have to be appointed. The latter may not be formed by the ghetto fs
114 APL, PSZ, 1302 (lists of names).
115 APL, PSZ, 1309, p. 58, nos. 136 & 137 of the list.
116 APL, PSZ, 1309, p. 70, nos. 223 & 224 of the list.
117 APL, PSZ, 1309, p. 201, nos. 589 & 590 of the list
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
111
security services, but be taken from the same transport. We do not know where the large groups are headed. Even for these large transports the same transport rules apply which are referred to in the above-mentioned notice. 15-20 kg of luggage may be brought along, but this baggage has to take up as little space as possible. " An annotation a little later, dated 26 July, said:118
"Today came the first news from the ghetto people who left the ghetto for work during the last evacuation. 31 postcards arrived, all of which had been postmarked on 19 July 1944. From these cards it fortunately results that the people are well and above all that the families are together. One postcard says in simple Yiddish words: We laugh about your soup! ' They are happy in the ghetto and hope- ful that they will soon receive similar reports from other evacuees. It is therefore confirmed that the labor columns have actually been employed in the Altreich. We remember that before the departure of the first carriage it was said that they had to go to Munich. One group has probably arrived there. Also note that, as evidenced by the news, the people are housed in comfortable cabins. " One final observation: As we saw above, according to orthodox his- toriography, the SS used the term Evakuierung (evacuation) in order to camouflage the transfer of Jews to Chelmno for homicidal purposes. In the "Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto" the participle wysiedlono = "dis- placed, evacuated" is used,119 which translates into German as Ausge- siedelte. But here those allegedly gassed in 1944 are no longer re- ferred to as evakuiert or ausgesiedelt but instead as "zur Arbeit aus Litzmannstadt-Getto ausgereist" - moved out of the Lodz ghetto for work. Do we find ourselves faced with an "encrypted" term for murder within an encrypted expression, a kind of double encryption? Who can seriously believe such a thing?
The confirmation of the above conclusions is offered to us specifi- cally by the deportation of the remaining Jews of the Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz. In this regard Krakowski says (1983, p. 142):
"In August 1944 the Lodz ghetto was liquidated within three weeks; the 70,000 Jews there were deported to Auschwitz to be
Hoffmann 2008, p. 226. The author claims that the cards in question were written in Chelmno, but this is only an unproven conjecture. 119 Dabrowska/Dobroszycki 1965, vol. I, p. 495 & passim.
1 20
Ibid., vol. II, p. 477 & passim.
128
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
gassed. Kulmhof's capacity did not suffice for the killing of tens of thousands [of people] in a very short time. "
In fact, of the 65,000 Jews (maximum figure) deported in August 1944 from the Lodz ghetto, no more than 22,500 were sent to Ausch- witz, of whom about 11,500 were then transferred from Auschwitz to Stutthof. Included in the transport of 3 September 1944 were also some forty children from 6 months to 14 years, who should have ended up in the "gas chambers" at Auschwitz, if orthodox "logic" had its way, but who were instead transferred with their mothers to Stutthof and proper- ly registered there (see documents 15, 15a, and Table 3, p. 149).
The two brothers Michael Salomonowicz (born 6 Oct. 1933, no. 1653 on transport list, registered at Stutthof with the number 83620) and Josef (born 1 July 1938, numbers 1654 and 83621 as above) trav- eled with their mother Dora Salomonowicz, born 28 August 1904, number 1652 on the transport list, registered under number 83619 at Stutthof. All three came from the Lodz ghetto, whither they had been deported on 3 November 1941, and all three survived the war (Te-
191
rezinska Iniziativa 1995, vol. I, p. 138). Michael and Josef therefore were 8 and 3 years old, respectively, when they were deported to Lodz, yet in spite of this they survived both the selection for alleged extermi- nation at Chelmno and the selection for the claimed extermination at Auschwitz!
There is no doubt that the remaining children also came from Lodz. The transfer of these children shows that among the Jews of the Lodz ghetto there was no selection for the alleged gas chambers, otherwise why would they have been left alive?
Of about 1 1 ,000 male Jews deported to Auschwitz from the Lodz ghetto, around 3,100 were registered. The fate of the remaining 7,900 is not documented. Yet although their alleged gassing as unable to work cannot be excluded a priori, in such a case the question would arise again, why the children mentioned above would have been left alive? The adults, like all non-registered Jews, were probably sent to the Birkenau Durchgangslager (transit camp), and from there they were probably transferred to other concentration camps.
As I noted above, on 1 March 1944 there were in the Lodz ghetto 4,495 children under 8 years old and 392 persons older than 70 years. In the 10 Jewish transports from the ghetto between 23 June and 14 July
1 Interesting that all three appear in the Yad Vashem "Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names"!
Carlo Mattogno , Chelmno 1 29
1944 there were 14 children under 8 years old and no persons over 70 years old. Since the 1,600 Jews moved from the ghetto in March 1944
122
were all able to work, being aged (with some exceptions) between 1 8 and 45, it follows that the 65,000 Jews moved out of the ghetto in Au- gust 1944 included more than 4,800 inmates unable to work who were not gassed either at Auschwitz or elsewhere.
And if, as claimed by Krakowski, "Kulmhof s capacity did not suf- fice for the killing of tens of thousands [of people] in a very short time," why would the alleged extermination camp at Chelmno have been reac- tivated, since the alleged extermination camp at Auschwitz was availa- ble?
On 15 August 1944 the Head of the Amtsgruppe DIV (KL-Verwal- tung ) of the WVHA, SS-Sturmbannfiihrer Burger, sent to the Head of Amtsgruppe B, SS-Gruppenfuhrer Lorner, a letter relating to a "Hdft- lingsmeldung" (communication concerning prisoners) and "Hdftlings- bekleidung (clothing for prisoners). This says that on 1 August 1944 the population of the concentration camps was 379,167 male and 145,119 female prisoners, to whom were added "angekundigte Neuzugdnge (an- nounced new arrivals). Among them are 60,000 prisoners "aus Litz- mannstadt (Polizeigefdngnis und Getto)" - from Lodz (police and ghet- to prisoners). The list of "Neuzugdnge" (new arrivals), 612,000 prison- ers altogether, was closed with the following comment:
"A major part of the inmates is already en route and will arrive
in the concentration camps during the next days. "
Burger stated that there was not enough clothing for 612,000 new prisoners on arrival and therefore requested the allocation of "special textile quotas." The Amt DIV/4 was indeed responsible for "Beklei- dung" (clothing), so the WVHA genuinely expected these prisoners to arrive in the concentration camps, and therefore also the 60,000 Jews from Lodz, whose evacuation to the concentration camps, which had started on 15 August, had already been under way for several days.
This document shows the claim to be historically unfounded that the Jews from the Lodz ghetto were sent to Auschwitz in order to be gassed there.
122 Two inmates of 17 years, two of 16 and one of 49.
123 Office group D IV (administration of the concentration camps).
124 PS- 1166.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
131
14. The Alleged Murder of Gypsies and the Children of Lidice
14.1. The Gypsies
In his report of 7 January 1946 Judge Bednarz wrote that the Ger- mans had killed 5,000 gypsies at Chelmno, among others (1946d, p. 2). This information was immediately transformed into a certain historical fact and as such was accepted even by the Jury Court in Bonn (Riiter et al 1979, p. 284):
"7b this total figure some 5,000 gypsies have to be added which, according to the credible statements by witness G. (at that time ac- tive as the deputy of the Oldest of the Jews in the administration of the Lodz ghettos) and Fuchs (at that time police detective at the State Police Department Lodz), were evacuated from the Lodz ghet- tos and killed in Chelmno. "
Documentary information about the fate of the gypsies in the Lodz ghetto is very limited. Anton Galihski informs us that the first transport of gypsies - 1,000 people - came from Hartberg to Lodz on 5 Novem- ber 1941, followed by three more transports of also 1,000 persons each: on the 6th from Fiirstenfeld, on the 7th from Mattesburg and on the 8th from Rotenturm; the last transport of 1,007 individuals arrived on the 9th from Oberwart. These 5,007 gypsies consisted of 1,130 men, 1,188 women and 2,689 children (Galihski 1995, p. 76). On the 4th or 5th of November 1941 the first cases occurred of what soon became a terrible typhus epidemic, which eventually led to the liquidation of the gypsy camp (ibid., p. 78). In this respect Galihski writes (ibid.):
((In the absence of documents it is impossible to establish reliable data on the final liquidation of the gypsies in the Lodz camp [i.e. the gypsy camp in Lodz]. The apex of their deportation to the extermi- nation camp Chelmno upon Ner falls in the period between 5 and 12 January 1942. This can be seen from invoices issued by the ghetto administration for the rental of trucks needed by the gypsy camp.
132
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
This is also confirmed by the Jew 'Szlamek' who escaped from the Chelmno killing center. "
In reality no document records that the gypsies were transported to Chelmno. The "Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto" provides the following information on the fate of the gypsy camp. The bulletin of 1-5 Decem- ber 1942 reads (D^browska/Dobroszycki 1965, vol. I, p. 361):
"Mortality in 'gypsy camp. ' Prior to the camp 's liquidation. According to the data of the local funeral section, which, as the bulletin of the first day of last month noted, undertakes the burials of the dead from the 'gypsy camp ' in the area allotted to the Jewish cemetery, during the month of December [1941] 400 people were buried in this area (previously, since arrival [of the gypsies], 213), which is twice the deaths which had occurred among the 250,000 Jews who lived in Lodz before the war. Due to a typhus epidemic raging in the camp area, the funeral section put in place special measures of precaution. Ultimately the dead 'gypsies ' are brought to the cemetery not in hearses, but with a special vehicle built for this purpose, closed with boards and covered with a tarpaulin. For the transportation of corpses special containers are used as well. On this occasion it is worth noting that even an undertaker has fallen victim to his profession, a certain Boms who used to transport the corpses from the camp. As in the doctors' cases, he had probably been infected with typhus. Fortunately, however, a tragic end was avoided, as it had happened to a doctor and an official of the crimi- nal investigation department. After several weeks of treatment, Boms recovered from the infectious disease and left the hospital on the 2nd of December. As affirmed by the inhabitants of the camp 's immedi- ate vicitnity, for 10 days the 'gypsies' have been taken away by truck. This camp will have been completely cleared by the end of this week; that is absolutely certain. Already now the camp is almost un- inhabited. The liquidation of the camp was probably dictated by the necessity to obviate the danger of the typhus contagion. " The bulletin of 1 December 1941 reports that the gypsies, numbering some 5,000, had arrived in Lodz on 8 November 1941, it and confirms the figure of 213 deaths. Therefore the liquidation of the camp took place in early January 1942. This is indirectly confirmed by a letter
The bulletin says that between 1 and 5 January 1 942 the gypsy camp was liquidated with absolute certainly "by the end of this week," i.e. the week ending Sunday, 4 January.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
133
with the header "The Mayor of Litzmannstadt" (Der Oberburgermeister von Litzmannstadt) dated 14 January 1942, which ordered:
"The former gypsy camp has been put under quarantine until 18 Feb. 1942. Hence I prohibit herewith any access to this area. " A previous letter, sent 5 December 1941 by Chaim Rumkowski of the ghetto administration, with the topic "gypsy camp - typhus" (Zigeu- nerlager - Fleckfieber), proposed implementing control measures against the spread of disease:127
"After conferring with my physicians I may suggest to you the following in the above matter:
In order to prevent a transfer of the typhus diseases detected in the gypsy camp to Litzmannstadt and the ghetto, the following might be suggested or recommended:
1. The installation of a bathing facility in the gypsy camp with at least ten showers.
2. Establishing a permanent disinfector.
3. It is necessary that the gypsy corpses are undressed, washed, shorn, shaved and if possible placed in boxes or paper bags prior to being brought to the Jewish corpse cart.
4. The danger of an infection/body louse/ is reduced to a mini- mum, if each gypsy is bathed and moreover his clothes are disinfect- ed accordingly before getting in touch with German authorities or with the ghetto 's health care staff. "
On the other hand already on 12 November 1941 "the Mayor of Litzmannstadt" had ordered several measures to improve the gypsy camp, which included a hospital system and latrines, upgrading the kitchen and the construction of a disinfestation plant. Therefore the liquidation of the gypsy camp was not premeditated, but due to the ty- phus epidemic which had broken out.
Whither were the gypsies evacuated? No known document answers this question. The claim that they were transferred to Chelmno is based almost exclusively on the "Szlamek" Report. Even more explicitly than Galihski, Gulczyhski admits (1995, p. 39, note 30):
"The information on the topic of the gypsies can be found in re- ports of fugitives from the camp, for example AZIH [archive of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw], ring [archive Ringelblum] 7,
APL, PSZ, 110, p. 20. APL, PSZ, 110, p. 42. APL, PSZ, 110, pp. 67-69.
134
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
no. 412 (Szlamek report). This report has been published in: R. Sei- ko w ska... ,A1
In Chapter 4 we have seen, however, that the "Szlamek" Report is totally unreliable. Not only that, but it does not justify the claim of the total extermination of the gypsies of Lodz. In fact it contains only two references to the gassing of gypsies:
> on 8 January 1942: 7 "vehicles" (that is "gas vans")
> on 9 January 1942: 8 or 9 "vehicles."
Since each vehicle is said to have contained 60 people, the total number of gassing victims would be at most [(7+9)x60=] 960 people.
On the other hand, as we have seen above, according to Galihski the extermination of gypsies took place between 5 and 12 January 1942, but for the 5th, 6th and 7th "Szlamek" does not mention any gassings, and for the 10th, 11th and 12th it claims only two gassings of Jews from Klodawa (7 "vehicles" on the 10th and 9 on the 12th), followed by a day of "repose" (11 January). However, 4,365 persons were transferred from the gypsy camp in Lodz, while merely 960 are said to have been gassed according to the "Szlamek" Report. What then happened to the remaining 3,405?
14.2. The Children of Lidice
The story of the children of Lidice is even more nebulous. It was born from the usual rumors collected by Bednarz in the course of his preliminary investigation, but they did not relate at all to the children of Lidice (Bednarz 1946d, p. 3):
"In 1943 four trucks arrived at the camp with children aged from 12 to 14 years (no Jewish star). The witnesses are of the opinion that they were 'Aryan ' children. This happened at a time when the Ger- man government drove out the Polish population from Zamosc, reg- ularly separating the children from their parents. " Hence according to Judge Bednarz, the children who allegedly ar- rived at Chelmno in 1943 were Polish. In the following years these al- leged Polish children were transformed into children of Lidice, but there is still confusion about this in orthodox Holocaust literature. The Polish historian Marek Budziarek writes about it (1995, p. 71):
The reference is to the Polish edition of Sakowska's book (1993).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
135
"Based on collected archival materials we can now say with cer- tainty that in the summer of 1942 a transport of 88 Czech children (aged between 1 and 14 years) from Lidice and Lezak in Czecho- slovakia arrived in the transfer camp, which was located in an old dormitory house of the Albertine Nunnery in Gneisenaustrasse 32 (currently 28 Infantry Regiment Kaniowski). A few days later anoth- er 12 children arrived. "
Seven of these 100 children were Germanized. About the remaining 93 Budziarek claims that they were subject to "special treatment," then adds (ibid.):
"We do not know the final decision of the Hitlerite authorities regarding the last moments of the lives of these small Czechs. How- ever, it can be said with great probability that they were killed at Chelmno upon Ner. This probability was confirmed by the verdict of the Bonn Jury Court (27 [recte: 23] July 1965)}™* which sentenced former SS officers of the Chelmno extermination center. It clearly states that (a transport of about 50-75 children aged 4 to 14 years" arrived at the camp. ' If they came to Chelmno, they were undoubted- ly killed. "
In fact, in relation to 50-75 children, the verdict of the first instance (30 March 1963) states:
"Different than the usual transports of Jewish persons were in addition a transport of some 50-75 children aged 4 to 10, who were better dressed and fed than the Jewish children, [...]" (Riiter et al. 1979, p. 281)
The verdict of the later retrial states tersely (ibid., p. 233):
"Moreover a transport of some 50-75 children aged 4-14 years arrived, ..."
Hence, the verdict handed down by the Bonn Jury Court makes no statements at all about the children's provenance. The word "Lidice" does not appear anywhere in either verdict.
Riickerl commented (1979, pp. 280f, note 76):
"According to Polish research, this transport of children had to be children from the Czech village of Lidice who could not be 'Ger- manized' and whose relatives were killed or deported in retaliation for the attack on Heydrich. In an investigation of the public prosecu- tor in Frankfurt against the former head of the emigration center in
The retrial took place between 5 and 23 July 1965.
136
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Lodz, SS-Sturmbannfuhrer Krurney, a number of reference points turned up for the accuracy of this hypothesis. But so far no certain proof could be developed. "
In reality there is no evidence either that these children were deport- ed to Chelmno: this story, dogmatically accepted as "likely" or "cer- tain" by historians and the courts, is nothing more than the last echo of the rumors collected at the end of 1945 by Judge Bednarz, which, as I may stress once more, related to Polish children sent to the camp in 1943, not to Czech children of Lidice sent to Chelmno in the summer of 1942!
Krakowski writes nevertheless (2007, p. 122):
"As for the Czech children, there are documents that prove their deaths at Chelmno. Their fate is referred to in an exchange of letters between the Reich and its representation in Lodz. In one of these let- ters, dated 12 June 1942, it announces its intention to send 86 Czech children to Lodz who could not be "Germanized. " The camp 's staff members Fritz Ismer and Walter Burmeister, in their statements be- fore the German court, also mention the arrival of three truckloads of non-Jewish children. "
Hence this is not based on documents, but on simple testimonies of the 1960s which inevitably reflected this propaganda theme developed during the preceding years.
A final observation. As seen above, the children of Lidice allegedly transferred to the Lodz ghetto numbered 100, of whom 7 were German- ized. Gulczyhski published a list of 82 names of children with the fol-
ill
lowing header in Czech:
"Children of Lidice who did not return, probably [pravdepodob- ne] gassed - transported to Poland, to Lodz. "
Hence here no certainty either. In a pamphlet representing an update to Bednarz 's booklet, Edward Serwahki claims as well that the alleged event occurred "very likely" (Serwahski 1964, p. 31), which is an ele- gant way of masking the total lack of documentary evidence.
I must add that, if these 82 children "did not return" while the re- maining 18 "returned," hence only 7 were Germanized, how can we ex- plain the survival of the other 11? Did they survive their gassing?
In conclusion, the story about the gassing of the children of Lidice at Chelmno has no historical basis either.
131 Gulczyhski 1991, appendix outside of text. The respective list originates from the Muse- um of Martyrs in Lidice (Gulczyhski 1995, p. 41, note 66).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
137
15. The Destination of the Deported Jews
Reitlinger reports that some Jews who had been deported to Lodz were transferred to an unknown destination with minimal luggage. From a letter of Rosenberg's office of 25 October 1941 we can glean that it was planned to use a greater number of Jews fit for labor for work in the rear of the Eastern Front (Reitlinger 1965, p. 1 15):
"Subsequently rumors had it that the Jews would be transferred from Lodz to the reclamation areas of the Pripyat marshes and the Jewish agricultural colonies near Krivoi Rog, Ukraine. " In a clandestine report entitled "Mass executions of Jews in the Kolo district" of 25 March 1942 one reads:132
"Officially the purpose of this deportation is not revealed to the deportees, but in private the Germans have launched a different ver- sion: a center for the entire district will set up at Chelmno, which will be one stage of the transfer into the region of Pinsk or to Gali- cia.
A report by the Oyneg Shabbos shortly thereafter stated (Sakowska 1993, p. 186):
"In the second half of November 1941 the news spread in the cit- ies of the Kolo district (Warthbrucken district) that the entire Jewish population of this area had to be transferred to the region of Pinsk or to eastern Galicia. "
In 1943 the Canadian demographer Eugene M. Kulischer mentioned the swamps of Pinsk (in the Pripyat) among the destinations of the Jew- ish deportations (Kulischer 1943, pp. 110f):
"Since the summer of 1942 the ghettos and labour camps in the German-occupied Eastern Territories have become the destination of deportees both from Poland and from western and central Eu- rope; in particular, a new large-scale transfer from the Warsaw ghetto has been reported. Many of the deportees have been sent to
Report entitled "Masowe egzekucje Zydow w pow. Kolskim" (Mass Execution of Jews in the Kolo District) of 25 March 1942. Maria Tyszkowa 1992b, p. 52. The report was published in 1943 in: Apenszlak 1943, pp. 115-118.
138
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
the labour camps on the Russian front; others to work in the marsh- es of Pinsk, or to the ghettos of the Baltic countries, Byelorussia and Ukraine. "
As Aly has documented, draining the marshes of Pripyat was a pro- ject that the German administration had begun to seriously discuss in April/May 1941 (Aly 1995, pp. 275-279; see chapter 1). Thomas Sand- kiihler confirmed (1996, pp. 1 10f.):
"Rosenberg's first position pager on the Soviet Union of 2 April [1941] shows that the Pripyat marshes were already under discus- sion in the spring of 1941. [...] Perhaps it was intended to concen- trate the Jews of the General Government temporarily in eastern Galicia, and then push them into the swamps of Pripyat. " The "Chronicle of the Lodz ghetto" contains several clues in favor of this plan. The report no. 6 of 10-13 January 1942 shows the first an- ticipation of the future evacuations (D^browska/Dobroszycki 1965, vol. I, p. 385):
"The transports will comprise 700 people per day. The evacuees may carry with them baggage of 12.5 kg per person. All money pos- sessed by the expellees must be changed to German marks at the as- sembly point. "
The "selection" criterion for the deportees, as we have seen above, was inability to work: Jews unable to work had to be transferred from the ghetto to make room for newcomers fit for work. But the bulletin no. 7 of 14-31 January 1942 describes the procedure as follows {ibid., p. 392):
"The evacuees received their deportation orders in the mail, which called on all the individuals specified (as is known, during the entire period established for the deportation all family members are being evacuated, in certain cases even together with other resident persons [in the same premises] who were not part of the family) to report on the indicated day - more or less within three days after de- livery of the order - at the meeting place, organized in no. 7 Szklane Road. "
So the policy of deportation essentially concerned families and households, rather than those unable to work, and extant evacuation name lists fully confirm this. The same report states that the deportation train consisted of 20 passenger coaches with 55 people per wagon (ibid., p. 393).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
139
The bulletin no. 14 of 10 to 14 April reported as follows about the first news from the deportees {ibid., pp. 457f):
"On 12 April, at Baluchi square, a senior officer of the Secret Police stopped briefly who was the head of the camp in which the deportees from the ghetto were. This is the first reliable source of in- formation about the deportees; to be exact, it is worth adding that the version most persistently spread about [their] whereabouts has been confirmed this time. Hence it has now been irrefutably estab- lished that the camp is located in the outskirts of the town of Kolo, now called Warthbrucken. The camp contains 100,000 Jews, and from this it can be concluded that in addition to the 44,000 deported from the ghetto, Jews from other cities were concentrated as well. Earlier this huge camp had been the place of residence of Germans of Volhynia. Apparently 30,000 people used to live there. They left decently housed barracks and even furniture at the disposal of the Jews. The provisioning of the camp, it seems, is exemplary: those able to work are employed within the camp, for road repairs and for agricultural labor. In the near future workshops will be organized. " The bulletin no. 24 of 1-3 May 1942 states (ibid, p. 497):
"In the ghetto the word goes around persistently that the first two transports of evacuees were directed to occupied France, the other in Bessarabia. "
The bulletin no. 25 of 5 May 1942 informs that the first two trans- ports of western Jews from the ghetto included "even physicians and health care staff (ibid., p. 504).
Jews from Lodz were also sent to the Baltic countries. Herman Kruk, a Polish Jew who fled to Vilnius in 1939 and subsequently be- came an resident of the local ghetto, wrote in his diary on 4 July 1942 (Kruk 2002, p. 319):
"Now I learn from two young people who were taken out of the Lodz Ghetto in March that Lodz has a ghetto. There is no shooting, and mass executions are unknown. The only thing is, people are tak- en off to work. They figure that about 10,000 Jews have recently been sent out of Lodz. [. . .] Both of the young men escaped from such a group [of workers], and after a week of wandering, they were ar- rested in Vilna [and taken to] Lukiszki [a prison] and were released from there only two days ago. Here in the ghetto they were clothed, and soon they will be sent to forest work. " On the same note he added:
140
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"Just received a message from Lodz. For us, Lodz is one of those cities from which you can obtain almost no information. Of course, the rumors from there are crazy and wild, and according to them, it is already certain that there are no Jews in Lodz.
[...] Now the young people know what it is to be sent out to work. They are dragged around from place to place; they don't know where they are or what they are doing. From time to time, groups are pulled out and disappear, and they assume that they are shot. " Avraham Tory, another Jew who lived in the ghetto of Kaunas
(Kovno) and who kept a diary, wrote on 14 July 1942 (Tory 1990, p.
Ill):
"Four Jews from Lodz have been brought to the [Kovno] Ghetto hospital for surgery. They had spent a long time in a labor camp. " And on 30 July he noted (ibid., p. 116):
"The Lodz Jews who had been employed at the construction of the Kovno-Vilna highway and were transferred to Riga will be re- placed by 500 workers from the [Kovno] Ghetto. " In two long reports of 25 and 27 May 1942 addressed to Palestinian Jewish institutions, the Zionist delegate Meleh "Noi" Neustadt con- firmed (Laqueur 1982, pp. 188f):
"Lodz was more or less cut off from the outside world. There was no direct contact but it had been learned that 'unproductive ele- ments ' had been deported from Lodz to Minsk, Kovno and Riga. " On the other hand, there is also a letter to the Gestapo in Lodz dated 1 1 May 1943 which reads:
"Re.: Delivery of iron material to the Sonderkommando K. I have brought the following delivery to the Sonderkommando and request to hand back to me the necessary iron bills. " Among the materials listed there was "1 complete disinfection oven with chimney 2,050 kg" (7. kompl. Desinfektionsofen m. Schornstein 2.050 kg) m
The camp had to be much greater than what orthodox Holocaust his- toriography claims, because already on 27 May 1942 it had 370 railway cars full of clothing:134
T-1298. Cf. State of Israel 1993, vol. Ill, p. 1202.
Letter by Otto Luchterhandt, Deputy Head of the Lodz ghetto, to the Landeswirtschafts- amt Posen dated 27 May 1942, in: Eisenbach 1946, p. 233.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
141
"At the Sonderkommando Lange an estimated 370 railway cars with garments are stored, for the removal of which some 900 trucks with trailers are necessary [...]"
According to the data claimed by orthodox Holocaust historiog- raphy, 79,000 people had been evacuated to Chelmno by May 1942, each of whom was allowed to take along 12.5 kg of luggage in addition to the clothes they wore. This luggage consisted certainly not just of clothes. To have a reference point, 97,000 full sets of clothes for men without underwear, 76,000 equivalent sets for women and 89,000 piec- es of silk underwear filled 34 railway cars; 2,700,000 kg of rags in turn
IOC
filled 400 railway cars.
Based on the latter figure, 340 railway cars would have contained 2,295,000 kg of clothing, so that each deportee would have had to bring along 29 kg of clothing on average! The first figure shows, however, that 76,000 full sets of female clothing occupy less than 34 carriages. Hence it is obvious that the 340 wagons of clothing could not have be- longed merely to the evacuated Jews, but must have come mainly from the clearing of all the ghettos in the Warthegau. As of 23 March 1942, all the property of the deported Jews became the property of the ghetto administration:
"According to the directive of 23 March 1942 by the governor, all valuables such as money, foreign currencies, household goods, merchandise, which are the property of resettled Jews, become the property of the ghetto administration in Litzmannstadt. " Among these goods were also "fabrics, leather and other raw materi- als of all types" (Textilien, Leder und sonstige Rohmaterialen aller Art; Eisenbach 1946, p. 209). It is clear that almost 2,300 tons of clothing could not be stored in the so-called "palace" or "castle" of Chelmno. Hence they had to be stored in storage barracks in the camp. And this certainly was the camp's secondary function.
But the Chelmno camp's main function must be considered in rela- tion to the National Socialist policy of deporting the Jews to the east as I have outlined in Chapter 1 , including the letter from Himmler to Grei-
NO-1257, "Aufstellung uber von den Lagern Lublin und Auschwitz auf Anordnung des SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamts abgelieferten Mengen an Textil-Altmaterial" 6 February 1943.
In the Polish drawing of this area (see document 16) no. 1 1 stands for "Piles of clothing 1941-1943 (15x5x4), and in the years 1944-1945 two sorting barracks and a clothes dis- infestation truck." The volume of the dimensions given is 300 cubic meters, but 340 railway cars full of clothing corresponds to more than 21,000 cubic meters.
142
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
ser of 18 September 1941. In this letter, as we have seen, Hitler ordered the transfer of Jews from the Reich proper and the Protectorate to Lodz as a provisional stage of their subsequent deportation to the eastern ter- ritories. In this context Chelmno was therefore a transit camp for the ghetto. The choice of a village west of Lodz is explained by the need to reconcile the demands of confidentiality and logistics: Chelmno is lo- cated near the major railway line Poznah- Warsaw-Minsk and in a rela- tively quiet area.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
143
16. The Value of the Content of the Court Verdict
In the introduction to the present book I posited that the image of Chelmno as outlined by orthodox Holocaust historiography is almost exclusively based on trial evidence and in practice on testimonies. The moment has now come to explain the significance of this evidence.
On 5 July 1962 the Public Prosecution Office at the District Court in Bonn issued an indictment against 13 former members of the "Sonderkommando Chelmno." The trial started on 26 November 1962 and unfolded in 36 trial days until 30 March 1963, the day when the verdict was announced, which sentenced six of the defendants to prison terms between 3lA and 13 years for "jointly aiding and abetting in mur- der (mass murder)." The case against one defendant was vacated due to his deteriorated health, and with respect to six other defendants, al- though also found guilty of the same offense, the court abstained from meting out a punishment for a number of mitigating circumstances.
Since the appeal of this verdict was successful for eleven defendants, their cases were sent back to the Bonn Jury Court for retrial. This began on 5 July 1965 and ended on July 23 after eleven court days. The pun- ishments meted out this time ranged from 13/4 months to 13 years' im- prisonment for eight of the defendants, while three of them, although found guilty again, once more got away without punishment (Riiter et aL, pp. 227f, 271; Riickerl 1979, pp. 248f; Krakowski 2007, p. 178).
The criminal investigation was started in 1959 with a complaint by the Landskriminalamt of Baden- Wiirttemberg against Kurt Lange. In this document the established "facts" about the Chelmno camp were de- scribed thus:
"In 1946 a book by the Jewish Historical Commission appeared in Lodz entitled 'Documents and Materials, Vol. I, Camps, which in chapter VII under the title 'Chelmno ' contains a collection of testi- monies and documents relating to the construction of the extermina- tion camp and the implementation of the extermination program. " The following statements are extracted from this document:
144
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
"It results from the declaration of Miszczak Andrezej [Andrzej] that at the end of November 1941 members of the Gestapo arrived at Chelmno and seized and occupied the church, the castle, the parish and many private houses. Some 3 km from Chelmno, between Chelmno and Kolo, was an isolated wooded area of about 1 square km. In this area the trees were cut and trenches 6 m wide and ade- quately deep were excavated. In these pits the execution victims were buried who had been executed at the Chelmno castle. The exe- cutions were carried out against people who had been brought to Chelmno in numerous transports until December 1943. In June 1942 the bodies dumped into mass graves were cremated in two ovens in the forest. The witness named the plenipotentiary of the Gestapo in Chelmno, Lange, as the person responsible for the crimes. And Bothmann as his successor. "
According to another document, which in said book is referred to merely as number 104, the story of Chelmno is related as follows:
"First of all the Jews of the Kolo district were taken out of their homes and transported to Chelmno in trucks. They were told that there would be kind of Jewish city ' at Chelmno. The entire Jewish population of Kolo (2,000 souls) and Dabi§ (1,000 souls), including infants, children and the frail elderly, as well as the sick and the bedridden, were brought to Chelmno with trucks in groups of 60 people.
The Jewish communities of Klodawa (1,200 people), Izbica (1,300 people), Bugaj (8,00 people) and Sompolno (1,000 persons) met the same fate.
Upon the transports ' arrival at Chelmno, the newcomers had to leave their luggage in the church located on the left along the main road. About 100 meters away was the Chelmno castle. Then the transports were brought there. The castle was an old dilapidated house on a plain, the remnants of the castle destroyed during the First World War. In the castle a German SS officer and a civilian of 60 years held a speech to the newcomers. On this occasion it was said to the Jews that they - the Jews - had been brought to Chelmno only in order to be ultimately employed in the ghetto Litzmannstadt, where there were work places and lodgments for their use. At
Landeskriminalamt Baden- Wiirttemberg. Sonderkommission Zentrale Stelle. Strafanzei- ge gegen Kurt Lange. Ludwigsburg, 13 November 1959; SL, EL3 1 7IIIBu2 1 5 1 , pp. 11- 14.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
145
Chelmno a bathing facility had been built where they, the Jews, had to get washed. They would also have to get decontaminated and dis- infected. Then those gathered had to undress and go 'to the shower- room. ' In reality they were led through a door onto a ramp from where they were herded into two prepared vehicles. The vehicles had the size of a truck, were gray and sealed hermetically. The back door was locked with an external latch. There were no seats inside. The outer walls were covered with sheet metal, the floor was fitted with small wooden grates covered with straw mats. Under the wood- en grates on both sides, the outlets of the gas pipes of about 15 cm were located, covered by a sieve. The [gas] influx pipe was attached to a gas apparatus fGasapparate^) in the driver's cabin. Then the ve- hicles left the castle and drove to a wooded area about 7 km away from the castle, traveling for about 15 minutes. The wooded area was surrounded by armed police. There was a trench 5 meters wide and deep. When no voices could be heard anymore from within the vehicle, the doors were opened and the corpses taken out from the inside. Usually 20-30 grave diggers were in the wooded area and about 30 members of the SS, the police and the Gestapo. The bodies, which still had their normal face color, were then searched for valu- ables by two civilians. In particular the private parts and the anus were inspected. Then gold teeth were pulled out of the mouths using pliers. Then the corpses were thrown into the pit. Then the vehicle was thoroughly cleaned of dirt and other human excretions and re- turned to the castle. Every day 6-9 transports of corpses were car- ried to the wooded area. Each layer of corpses [in the mass grave] contained 200 bodies. Soil was thrown on each layer of corpses, and starting on 17 January 1942 chloride was also strewn.
According to calculations by investigating judge WL Bednarz, who led the investigation in the case of the Chelmno death camp ap- pointed by the Central Commission of Inquiry into German Crimes in Poland, the number of victims of this camp was some 330,000. " The book on which the Landeskriminalamt of Baden- Wiirttemberg based his findings on the "history of Chelmno" is the oft-cited Doku- menty i materialy (Blumental 1946). It must be pointed out immediately that this work contains only a few German documents, but none of them refers to "construction of the extermination camp and the implementa- tion of the extermination program." And that which is presented as a "document" bearing the number 104 is nothing but the quotation of a
146
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
propaganda story published in New York in 1943, which I already men- tioned in the previous chapter (note 132, page 137), namely pages 115- 118 of Jacob Apenszlak's book The Black Book of Polish Jewry (Blu- mental 1946, p. 244). Not only that, but this story came in turn from the narrative of "Szlamek"!
The Bonn Chelmno trial was therefore bound to proceed along the lines set by Polish propaganda, which had given this Jewish propaganda a legal look, and the defendants had to comply with it or else risk being sentenced to an even more severe punishment, had they tried to derail the trial from those tracks.
This explains perfectly the defendants' "confessions," who restricted themselves to confirming this propaganda which had been taken as offi- cial truth by the court.
The judicial truth is not necessarily identical with the historical truth, and this applies especially to ideological and political trials of this kind.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
147
17. Conclusions
All that is left is to summarize the conclusions arising from this study.
1) The establishment of Chelmno camp fits perfectly into the Na- tional Socialist policy of deporting the Jews to the east.
2) No documentary or material trace exists for the use of "gas vans" in this camp. The truck photographed by the Commission of Inquiry in- to the German crimes in Poland in the courtyard of the Ostrowski facto- ry was used to disinfest clothing or to carry passengers.
3) There is no evidence for the first alleged systematic extermination of Jews in the Warthegau, and no one can specify when or how it was perpetrated.
4) The first witness account about the alleged extermination at Chelmno, the "Szlamek Report," is completely unreliable. Similarly un- reliable and even contradictory are the witnesses of the postwar era.
5) Only one cremation oven has been confirmed archeologically in the Chelmno camp. It would have taken almost nine years to cremate all the bodies of the alleged victims of homicidal gassings in that oven. There are no material traces of the alleged mass cremation.
6) Rudolf Hoss's visit to the "field ovens Aktion Reinhardt" had nothing to do with Chelmno.
7) The camp's claimed death toll number is not based on any docu- mentation. It was set to 1,300,000 by the Commission of Inquiry into the German Crimes in Poland, but later reduced to 340,000 by Judge Bednarz. Polish historiography today assumes a figure of about 152,000 victims, which in practice coincides with the number of Jews who, ac- cording to the Korherr Report, were led "through the camps of the Warthegau... 145,301," plus some 7,000 additional victims for the camp's claimed second extermination phase in 1944.
8) The transports of Jews sent to the Lodz ghetto included a high percentage of people unable to work (elderly and children), only some of whom were evacuated to make room for Jews fit for work.
148
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
9) The Chelmno camp ceased operations in April 1943, which would be inexplicable if it really had been an extermination camp for the Jews in the Warthegau, especially for the Jews of the Lodz ghetto. This is all the more inexplicable because on 1 March 1944 4,495 children under 8 years of age and 392 elderly persons aged over 70 years were still alive in the ghetto.
10) Even more inexplicable, from the perspective of orthodox Holo- caust historiography, is the reopening of the camp in April 1944. The claim that it had to exterminate the Jews of the Lodz ghetto has no doc- umentary support, and there is no evidence that the 10 Jewish transports evacuated from the ghetto "for labor" between June and July 1944 went to, or were gassed at, Chelmno. In fact, the analysis of name lists of the deportations permits us to exclude this possibility.
11) No documentary evidence exists for the alleged extermination at Chelmno of gypsies from the Lodz ghetto.
12) No documentary evidence exists either for the alleged extermi- nation at Chelmno of the children of Lidice.
13) The ultimate destiny of the Jews who passed through the Chelmno camp was not the alleged "gas vans," but the region of Pinsk, in particular the area of the Pripyat Marshes, and partly also the Baltic countries.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
149
18. Appendices
18.1. Lodz Ghetto Children Deported from Auschwitz to Stutthof
Table 3: Children of the Lodz Ghetto Present in the Transport of 3
Sept 1994 from Auschwitz to Stutthof
|
# |
Surname |
First Name |
Born |
Reg.-No. |
|
1588 |
Baude |
Golda |
12 Sept. 1937 |
83555 |
|
1590 |
Brin |
Hala |
23 April 1937 |
83557 |
|
1592 |
Darl |
Dina Sissel |
30 June 1938 |
83559 |
|
1594 |
Borenstein |
Lotte |
14 June 1934 |
83561 |
|
1595 |
Borenstein |
Eva |
14 Nov. 1939 |
83562 |
|
1597 |
Brijmann |
Lilianna |
14 July 1938 |
83564 |
|
1599 |
Chimonovits |
Josef |
22 Nov. 1935 |
83566 |
|
1600 |
Chimonovits |
Mejer |
02 Nov. 1936 |
83567 |
|
1601 |
Chimonovits |
Izak |
19 Oct. 1943 |
83568 |
|
1603 |
Chimowicz |
Eugenia |
06 Nov. 1935 |
83570 |
|
1604 |
Chirug |
Zila |
09 Sept. 1941 |
83571 |
|
1606 |
Chirug |
Ruth |
21 April 1937 |
83573 |
|
1608 |
Czariska |
Sara |
30 June 1932 |
83575 |
|
1610 |
Danziger |
Arjela |
19 March 1937 |
83577 |
|
1611 |
Feinsilber |
Eva |
04 Jan. 1940 |
83578 |
|
1614 |
Fiirstenberg |
Abram Meier |
09 Feb. 1932 |
83581 |
|
1616 |
Gutmann |
Dora |
17 Jan. 1937 |
83583 |
|
1618 |
Gliickmann |
Schmul |
24 March 1935 |
83585 |
|
1619 |
Gliickmann |
Chaja |
12 Aug. 1930 |
83586 |
|
1621 |
Jacob |
Gittel |
06 March 1944 |
83588 |
|
1623 |
Jalanowicz |
Felga |
10 Jan. 1940 |
83590 |
|
1627 |
Kupferschmidt |
Abraham |
- 29 Oct. 1938 |
83594 |
|
1629 |
Kasz |
Bronia |
21 Feb. 1930 |
83596 |
|
1631 |
Frantz |
Noemi |
02 Nov. 1937 |
83598 |
|
1633 |
Lachmann |
Kazimierz |
01 March 1937 |
83600 |
|
1635 |
Neuberg |
Lila |
10 Oct. 1936 |
83602 |
|
1637 |
Potok |
Trunseb |
24 Feb. 1944 |
83604 |
|
1638 |
Rosenblum |
Bronka |
27 Dec. 1931 |
83605 |
|
1641 |
Rotstein |
Regina |
12 Aug. 1932 |
83608 |
150
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
|
# |
Surname |
First Name |
Born |
Reg.-No. |
|
1643 |
Richer |
Tela |
14 June 1932 |
83610 |
|
1645 |
Reingold |
Elchanan |
12 Dec. 1937 |
83612 |
|
1646 |
Steier |
Frema |
25 July 1942 |
83613 |
|
1648 |
Stelowicka |
Ruchla |
01 April 1936 |
83615 |
|
1650 |
Szyper |
Adam |
06 Dec. 1939 |
83617 |
|
1653 |
Salomonowicz |
Michael |
06 Oct. 1933 |
83620 |
|
1654 |
Salomonowicz |
Josef |
01 July 1938 |
83621 |
|
1656 |
Skura |
Estera |
27 Dec. 1933 |
83623 |
|
1657 |
Tabackschmeker |
Jochwet |
25 March 1930 |
83624 |
|
1660 |
Wolman |
Kristina |
25 Sept. 1930 |
83627 |
|
1735 |
Wolf |
Helga |
02 July 1935 |
83702 |
# = running number of the list; Reg.-No. = registration number in Stutthof
Carlo Mattogno , Chelmno 1 5 1
18.2. Documents
Document 1: Illustration board at the Chelmno Camp Museum (pho- to of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Document la: Detail of Document 1. The caption reads: "Vehicle found after the war at Koto on the grounds of the Ostrowski factory."
152
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 2: Photo of an alleged "gas van." (Fleming 1982, appen- dix between pp. 128 & 129)
Document 3: Photo of an alleged "gas van." (www.deathcamps.org/occupation/pic/bigchelmnovan.jpg.)
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
153
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 4a: Photos of a Diamond Truck model T 968. (www.olive-
drab . com/ idphoto/ id_photos_diamondt_96 8 .php)
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
155
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156
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
157
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Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
159
Document 8: Remainders of the cremation oven at Chelmno (Bed- narz 1946a, p. 8).
160
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
i *.
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Document 9: "Report on the business trip to Litzmannstadt" written by SS-Untersturmfuhrer Walter Dejaco on 17 September 1942. (RGVA, 502-1-336, p. 69)
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
161
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Document 10: Travel permit "for passenger car from Au.[schwitz] to Litzmannstadt [Lodz] and back for inspecting the experimental sta- tion for field ovens Aktion Reinhardt" issued by the SS-WVHA on 15 September 1942. (AGK, NTN, 94, p. 170)
Document 11: Feist oven for the destruction of carcasses of infected animal, (de Cristoforis 1890, p. 126)
162
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 12: Map of the Chelmno camp. (Krakowski 1996,
table outside of text)
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
163
Document 12 a: Detail enlargement of the Chelmno camp map, sector I (rotated, see Document 12).
1 64 Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 12 b: Detail enlargement of the Chelmno camp map, sec- tors II-III (see Document 12).
Carlo Mattogno , Chelmno 1 65
Document 12 c: Detail enlargement of the Chelmno camp map, sec- tor IV (see Document 12).
166
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 12 d: Detail enlargement of the Chelmno camp map, sector IV, detail (see Document 12). Numbers 1-5 added by the au- thor; see chapter 10.4.
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
167
Document 12 e: Map of the archeological survey of 2003-2004 drawn by Zdzislaw Lorek. (www.muzeum.com.pl/en/Chelmno.htm)
168
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 13: Air photo of the Chelmno camp of May 1942. (www.deathcamps.org/occupation/pic/bigarie.jpg; erroneously at- tributedto 1941).
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
169
Document 14: Archaeological excavation of the cremation oven of the Chelmno camp. (Gulczyhski 1991, photo outside of text)
170
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
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Document 15: Page 22 of the list of a transport of Jews from Auschwitz to Stutthof of 3 September 1944. (AMS, I-IIC-3)
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
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Document 15a: Page 22 of the list of a transport of Jews from Auschwitz to Stutthof of 3 September 1944; detail (AMS, I-IIC-3; detail)
172
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 16: Map of the Chelmno "castle". (Krakowski 1996, out- side of text)
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
173
Document 17: Ruins of the cremation oven of Chelmno. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Document 18: Ruins of the cremation oven of Chelmno. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
174
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 19: Ruins of the cremation oven of Chelmno. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Document 20: Ruins of the cremation oven of Chelmno. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
175
Document 21: Ruins of the cremation oven of Chelmno. Memorial
stone. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Document 22: Memorial entrance of the Chelmno camp. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
176
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 23: Sector I of the Chelmno camp. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Document 24: The "Lapidarium" of the Chelmno camp. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
111
Document 25: One of the "symbolic" graves of the Chelmno camp. Detail. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Document 26: The three "symbolic" graves in sector IV of the Chelmno camp. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
178
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
Document 27: The "Memorial wall" in sector IV of the Chelmno camp. (Photo of 1997). © Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
179
18.3. Abbreviations
AGK:
AMS:
APL: APMO:
GARF:
IMT:
RGVA:
SL: ZSL:
Archiwum Glownej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu - Instytutu Pamieci Narodowej (Ar- chive of the Central Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish People - National Memorial), Warsaw
Archiwum Muzeum Stutthof (Archive of the Stutthof Muse- um)
Archiwum Panstwowe w Lodzi (Lodz State Archive) Archiwum Panstwowego Muzeum w Oswi^cimiu (Archive of the Auschwitz State Museum)
Gosudarstvenni Archiv Rossiskoi Federatsii (State Archive of the Russian Federation), Moscow Trial of the major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Nuremberg 14. November 1945 - 1. October 1946. Published at Nuremberg, Germany, 1947 Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennii Vojennii Archiv (Russian State War Archive), Moscow. Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg
Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklarung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen, Ludwigsburg
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
181
18.4. Bibliography
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Baranowski, Julian, "Zaglada Zydow z kraju Warty i z Europy zachodniej w Chelmnie
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okr^gowe Konih, Lodz/Konih, 1995. Baranowski, Julian, The Lodz Ghetto 1940-1944. Vademecum. Archiwum Pahstwowe w
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Wydawniczy, Warsaw, 1946a. Bednarz, Wladyslaw, "Oboz zaglady Chelmno," in: Biuletyn Glownej Komisji Badania
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18.5. Index of Names
Included are the names of individuals and companies (in italics).
— A —
Albert, Wilhelm, SS-
Brigadefuhrer: 25 Altman, Ilya: 70-72 Alvarez, Santiago: 8, 32-
35, 55
Aly, Gotz: 24-28, 47, 138 Apenszlak, Jacob: 137, 146 Arndt, Ino: 17
— B —
Baranowski, Julian: 110, 118
Becker, Augus, SS- Untersturmfuhrer: 10
Bednarz, Wladyslaw: 35, 41-43, 60-63, 66-73, 83- 85, 88f., 95, 103f., 107, 109, 111, 121, 131, 134, 136, 145, 147, 158f.
Beer, Mathias: 9-16
Berg, Friedrich Paul: 15, 55f.
Bergius, Richard: 25 Biebow, Hans: 75, 80, 123 Blobel, Paul, SS-
Standartenfuhrer: 73-79,
88, 90-93 Blumental, Nachman: 29,
66f., 107, 145f. Bonsch, Anneliese: 56 Bouhler, Philipp: 10 Brack, Viktor: 10 Brandt, Karl: 10 Budziarek, Marek: 134f. Buhler, Josef: 27 Burger, Wilhelm, SS-
Sturmbannfuhrer: 129 Burmeister, Walter, SS-
Hauptscharfuhrer: 89,
136
— C —
Chrzanowski, Bogdan: 111
— D —
Dabrowska, Danuta: 114,
127, 132, 138 Davies, Douglas J.: 104 de Cristoforis, Malachia:
86, 161 Dejaco, Walter, SS-
Untersturmfuhrer: 76-80,
92f., 160 Diamond, company: 16, 44,
154
Dobroszycki, Lucjan: 114, 127, 132, 138
— E —
Eichmann, Adolf, SS- Obersturmbannfuhrer: 18-26, 29,61-63,66-70
Eisenbach, Artur: 79f., 123, 125, 140f.
Ertl, Fritz, SS- Untersturmfuhrer: 92
— F —
Fajner, Szlojme: 51 Falborski, Bronislaw: 35,
40, 43 Feig, Konnilyn G.: 88 Feist, Georg: 85-87, 161 Fleming, Gerald: 35-38,
152
Flury, Ferdinand: 22, 56 Frank, Hans: 25, 27 Frei, Norbert: 42, 92 Fritzsch, Karl, SS- Hauptsturmfuhrer: 20
— G —
Galihski, Anton: 131-134 Gaubschat, company: 14, 32
Gerlach, Christian: 15f. Gilbert, Martin: 51, 57 Golden, Julet: 99
Graf, Jiirgen: 19, 23, 27f., 89
Grawitz, Ernst Robert: 20f. Greiser, Arthur: 26, 31,
123, 142 Grojanowski, Jakov: 51 Gulczyhski, Janusz: 95, 97,
107, 133, 136, 169
— H —
Hafele, Alois, SS-
Untersturmfuhrer: 62, 90 Halbersztadt, Jerzy: 37, 41 Heepke, Wilhelm: 8 1 Heess, Walter, SS-
Sturmbannfuhrer: 13-15 Heydrich, Reinhardt, SS-
Gruppenfuhrer: 13f., 24,
27, 30f., 135 Heyne- Motor en, company:
45, 156 Hilberg, Raul: 20, 30f,
73f., 79, 115 Himmler, Heinrich: 12, 19-
21,26-31,73,90, 117,
123, 141 Hitler, Adolf: 10, 17-20,
31,38, 96, 107, 117, 142 Hoffmann, Helmut: 1 5 Hoffmann, Jens: 74 Hoppner, Heinz-Rolf, SS-
Sturmbannfuhrer: 23-27,
47
Hoss, Rudolf, SS- Obersturmbannfuhrer: 19f, 75-79, 88, 92f, 147
— I —
Irving, David: 17 Israel, Bruno: 43, 59f, 69f, 84f.
Izzo, Attilio: 21, 42
— J —
Jackel, Eberhard: 7
188
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
— K —
Karski, Jan: 45 Kogon, Eugen: 32 Kola, Andrzej: 100 Kopernikus Apotheke,
company: 44, 155 Koppe, Wilhelm, SS-
Obergruppenfuhrer: 11,
27
Koppejan, Jaap: 87 Korherr, Richard: 88, 109, 147
Kori, Hans: 75 Krakowski, Shmuel: 7, 23,
29-31, 43f., 49, 51,58-61,
70-73,87-91,97, 103f.,
121, 123, 126-129, 136,
143, 162, 172 Kruk, Herman: 139 Krumey, Hermann, SS-
Obersturmbannfuhrer:
47, 136 Kryl, Miroslav: 29 Kiichenmeister, Friedrich:
75
Kues, Thomas: 56, 89 Kulischer, Eugene M.: 137
— L —
Lammers, Hans: 25 Lange, Kurt, SS-
Obersturmfuhrer: 11, 15,
18, 108, 141-144 Lanzmann, Claude: 67 Laqueur, Walter: 140 Leiding, Friedrich: 1 5 Leszczyhski, Julian: 25 Ley, Astrid: 1 5 Lipstadt, Deborah: 17 Litawski, J.: 107 Lohse, Heinrich: 28 Longerich, Heinz Peter:
17f.
Lorek, Zdzislaw: 97, 100-
103, 167 Lorner, Georg, SS-
Gruppenfuhrer: 129 Luchterhandt, Otto: 140
— M —
Mankowski, Bronislaw: 40, 43
Marais, Pierre: 8, 32
Marsch, Adolf: 76 Marszalek, Jozef: 19 Mates, Lewis H.: 104 Mattogno, Carlo: 8, 19,
23f., 27f., 45, 74, 78-81,
89, 92, 123, 151, 173-178 Miszczak, Andrzej: 29,
107, 144 Morgen, Konrad, SS-
Obersturmbannfuhrer: 20 Morsch, Giinter: 1 5 Muller, Heinrich: 73-76, 79
— N —
Nebe, Arthur, SS-
Brigadefuhrer: 10-14, 29 Neustadt, Meleh: 140 Nowak, Lucja: 95, 100-102
— O —
Os trows ki, company: 35- 44, 66, 70, 147, 151
— P —
Pawlicka Kamihski, Lucja:
see Nowak, Lucja Pawlicka Nowak, Lucja:
see Nowak, Lucja Peham, Rozalia: 84 Perz, Bertrand: 8, 15 Piaskowski, Jozef: 39-43 Piller, Walter, SS-
Hauptscharfuhrer: 59f,
87, 104 Pini, Gaetano: 75 Podchlebnik, Mordka: 51,
61,67-70, lOlf. Pohl, Oswald, SS-
Obergruppenfuhrer: 24,
123
Pradel, Friedrich, SS-
Hauptsturmfuhrer: 14 Pressac, Jean-Claude: 92 Pro van, Charles D.: 55f. Priifer, Kurt: 76
— R —
Radoszewski, Michal: 103 Rauff, Walter SS-
Obersturmfuhrer: 14 Reitlinger, Gerald: 79, 137 Ribbe, Friedrich Wilhelm:
75, 80
Ringelblum, Emanuel: 48,
51, 133 Risser, Daniele: 56 Roj, Abram: 51 Roj, Michal: 51 Rosenberg, Alfred: 28,
137f.
Rtickerl, Adalbert: 25, 32,
59, 63,91, 123, 135, 143 Rumkowski, Mordechai
Chaim: 75, 80, 113, 133 Riiter, Christiaan F.: 34, 74,
88, 104, 109, 117, 124,
131, 135, 143
— S —
Sakowska, Ruta: 48, 5 If.,
55-58, 134, 137 Sander, Fritz: 76 Sandkiihler, Thomas: 8,
138
Saurer, company: 16, 33,
41,44 Scheffler, Wolfgang: 17 Schepers, Hansjulius: 25 Schneider, Barbara: 56 Schriever &. Co., company:
75, 77, 80 Sekiewicz, Mieczyslaw: 49 Serwahki, Edward: 136 Sharf, Andrew: 16 Siemens, Friedrich: 75 Spector, Shmuel: 79 Speer, Albert: 24 Sporrenberg, Jakob, SS-
Gruppenfuhrer: 11 Srebrnik, Shimon: 61-66,
70f., 84-87, 102 Szlamek: 5 If, 58, 60, 67-
69, 101, 132-134, 146f
— T —
Tory, Avraham: 140 Trunk, Isaiah: 47f. Tyszkowa, Maria: 48, 52, 137
— U —
Ubelhor, Friedrich: 26
— V —
van Loo, Sjaak: 87 van Pelt, Robert Jan: 33
Carlo Mattogno, Chelmno
189
von dem Bach-Zelewski, Erich, SS-
Obergruppenfuhrer. 12
_ w —
Walendy, Udo: 32 Wasser, Hersz: 5 If. Weckert, Ingrid: 7f., 32, 44
Wentritt, Harry: 14 Widmann, Albert: 10-14 Winer, Schlomo: 51 Witte, Peter: 26f.
— Z —
Zernik, Franz: 22, 56
Zorawski, Mordka: see
Zurawski, Mieczyslaw Zuckermann, Yitzchak: 58 Zurawski, Mieczyslaw: 61- 65,69-71,84-87, 102, 125