Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Chapter 4: Auschwitz
not very important, as the gas chamber can be used for that purpose.
The firm of Topf and Söhne was not able to start deliveries of the installation
in time for aeration and ventilation as had been requested by the Central
Building Management because of restrictions in the use of railroad cars. As
soon as the installation for aeration and ventilation arrive, the installing will
start so that the complete installation may be expected to be ready for use
February 20, 1943.
We enclose a report [not attached to document] of the testing engineer of
the firm of Topf and Söhne, Erfurt.
The Chief of the Central Construction Management,
Waffen SS and Police Auschwitz,
SS Hauptsturmführer
Distribution: 1 – SS Ustuf. Janisch u. Kirschneck; 1 – Filing office (file
crematory); Certified true copy: [Signature illegible] SS Ustuf. (F)”
I interpret this as meaning that, although all work for Crematory II was not
completed, the ovens could be used in January 1943 for cremations, despite the
impossibility of using the Leichenkeller.
On February 12, 1943, Topf wrote to Auschwitz acknowledging receipt of an
order for five three-muffle units for Crematory III, the construction to be completed
April 10. I have not seen any documentation indicating installation of any
ovens in Crematories IV and V, unless a letter of August 21, 1942, from an SS
2nd Lieutenant at Auschwitz, mentioning a Topf proposal to install two threemuffle
units near each of the “baths for special purpose,” should be interpreted as
such. 226 There was, however, carpentry work done on Crematories IV and V. 227
This brings us to the problem of the number of muffles at Birkenau; it is a
problem because it is said that the Germans demolished the crematory buildings
before abandoning Auschwitz. 228 Obviously, we must assume that there were at
least thirty available, fifteen in both Crematory II and Crematory III, sometime in
1943. Evidence for ovens installed in IV and V consists mainly in the appearance
of a labor Kommando assigned to these crematories in what is said to be the Birkenau
employment roster for May 11, 1944 (the same document the Theresienstadt
Jews appear in), plus some witness testimony. The Russians and Poles claimed
that each of these crematories had two four-muffle ovens, and that the other two
had fifteen muffles each: 46 muffles. The WRB report had specified 36 in both II
and III and 18 in IV and V: 108 muffles. 229
Reitlinger claims 60 muffles by assuming that each crematory had fifteen. His
only authority for this is the writings attributed to one Miklos Nyiszli, which we
should not accept on anything, least of all a number. The Nyiszli account purports
to be a record of personal experiences of a Hungarian Jewish doctor deported to
Auschwitz in May 1944. It appeared in French in 1951 in the March-April issues
of Les Temps Modernes, with a preface by translator T. Kremer. Rassinier has re-
226
227
228
229
008-USSR.
NO-4466 in NMT, vol. 5, 624; editor’s note: see C. Mattogno, op. cit. (note 224), for an update.
Friedman, 20, 74, 78; Hilberg, 632.
008-USSR; Central Commission, 88; US-WRB (1944), pt. 1, 14-16; Fyfe, 158; Blumental, 100.
149