Sobibor - Holocaust Propaganda And Reality - Unity of Nobility ...

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 147
2) One day for the cremation as such.
3) The removal of (230×0.06 439 ×0.35=) 4.8 tons of ash (assuming
that 350 kg of ash was produced per ton of corpses cremated).
Given an average specific gravity of 0.4 for the ash, the ash volume
would have come to (4.8×0.4=) 11 m 3 per day. This means that the
cremation trench with its volume of (10×3×0.9=) 27 m 3 would have
filled up with ash within two cremations.
Even if we assume that operations 1 and 3 above could have been
carried out within a total of 24 hours (one working day), then the pyre
could have incinerated 230 corpses within two days and the cremation
of all alleged victims would have taken (169,000÷230*2 =) ca. 1,450
days, i.e. some 49 months or 4 years and 1 month, thus ending in November
of 1946.
As far as the removal of the ash is concerned, we must also consider
the rate of cooling of the ash. In the experimental cremation of animal
flesh in a small pit carried out by Carlo Mattogno it turned out that 14
hours after the extinction of the flames the ash still had a temperature of
320°C and 160°C after 29 hours. 440 At Sobibór the greater volume of
ash would certainly have needed a day and a half for cooling down to a
temperature at which it could be safely handled – we must not forget,
after all, that the ash is reported to have contained bone fragments,
which had to be crushed by hand. Forced cooling, e.g. by means of water,
would have resulted in a layer of soaked ash and soil in the pit
which would have caused a corresponding loss of heat in the succeeding
cremation due to evaporation of the water.
In mainstream Holocaust historiography the descriptions of the fires
provided above speak of smoke and dust as phenomena which normally
accompanied the incinerations, but this only goes to show, as we have
already noted, that the combustion proceeded poorly.
We must also keep in mind that, while fresh corpses could be arranged
on the grate in a somewhat orderly fashion allowing for open
spaces to be provided for the passage of air, the unearthed corpses were
simply dumped from the excavator, forming vague piles similar to the
shapeless masses of exhumed carcasses seen at Mynydd Epynt which
439
440
The percentage of ash is calculated on the basis of an average weight of 60 and not 41.8
kg, because the loss of water (or body fluids) from the corpse has no effect on its ash
content.
C. Mattogno, op. cit. (note 398), p. 70. The experiment was carried out in February.