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

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266 J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR<br />

cries emerging from the gas chambers, when the people realized that<br />

they had been tricked and were persuaded that they had been<br />

brought there not to bathe but for their destruction, could not be<br />

heard.<br />

In the building with gas chambers there was a wide corridor, on<br />

one side <strong>of</strong> which were 4 chambers. In the four chambers the floor,<br />

ceiling, and walls were <strong>of</strong> concrete; they had 4 special shower-heads<br />

that were intended not to supply water, but for the entry <strong>of</strong> exhaust<br />

gases, through which the people in the chambers were killed.<br />

Each chamber had two doors: internal on the corridor side<br />

through which the people would enter the chamber and external that<br />

opened outwards and through which the bodies would be removed.<br />

The doors – the internal and the external – were closed hermetically<br />

and fitted with rubber strips that did not allow the gas to escape<br />

from the chamber.<br />

Behind the rear wall <strong>of</strong> the building was located on a base, under<br />

an awning, a strong motor that would begin to work the moment the<br />

chambers were full and the doors were closed hermetically.<br />

From the motor led a pipe that went through the ceiling <strong>of</strong> the<br />

building corridor with the gas chambers. From the pipe would<br />

emerge into each chamber a metal pipe, ending with a shower head<br />

that was used in bath-houses for the supply <strong>of</strong> water. Through this<br />

system the exhaust gases from the motor would be led into the<br />

chamber.”<br />

Razgonayev’s layout <strong>of</strong> the building – a small number <strong>of</strong> chambers<br />

placed in a row – corresponds to that commonly alleged for the first gas<br />

chamber building, although the number <strong>of</strong> chambers, four, is not mentioned<br />

by any other witness, either in connection with the first or the<br />

second building. 798 In the long interrogation protocol there is no mention<br />

whatsoever <strong>of</strong> the gas chamber building being replaced or enlarged,<br />

yet the witness states that the Ukrainian guards were posted along the<br />

way to the gas chambers, and he even affirms: 283<br />

“During the time <strong>of</strong> my service as a guard and afterwards as an<br />

chief guard at the Sobibór camp, I saw the process <strong>of</strong> extermination<br />

<strong>of</strong> people with my own eyes.”<br />

798<br />

There can be no doubt that Razgonayev is speaking <strong>of</strong> four chambers in total, as later in<br />

the interrogation he mentions that the funneling <strong>of</strong> victims into the gas chamber building<br />

“would continue until all 4 chambers were full.”

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