Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Supplement 5: Vergasungskeller
Auschwitz and employed the pesticide Zyklon B, which releases HCN gas (hydrogen
cyanide). Pressac also believes the Vergasungskeller was LK 1, but he interprets
it as a gas chamber employing Zyklon B. Under my theory, he is then
right on location but wrong on function. LK 1 had the basic features of a gas shelter.
Pressac admits that the air exhaust (at the bottom) and air intake (near the top)
systems of LK 1 were misplaced for a gas chamber employing HCN. 694 Although
HCN is only slightly lighter than air, there are various practical reasons why gas
chambers employing it normally expel the gas from the top when the gassing
process is completed. 695 Carbon dioxide is much heavier than air and is most naturally
expelled from the bottom of the relevant space. Moreover, preferred German
practice of the time used a circulatory system for disinfestation gas chambers that
employed Zyklon B, rather than a simple system of intake/exhaust. Another feature
of any serious Zyklon gas chamber, lacked by LK 1, was a heating system,
required to accelerate the development of HCN gas from the Zyklon carrier material
(usually gypsum). LK 1 had whatever temperature the elements gave it, 696 a
tolerable situation for an air raid/gas shelter. For explanations, see Supplement 4.
The construction of LK 1 was exactly that of a gas shelter. One must stand on
one’s head to interpret it as a gas chamber.
The reader should understand that here I am only considering the physical details
of the construction of LK 1 that oblige us to interpret it as a gas shelter rather
than gas chamber. There is much more evidence that LK 1 was not a gas chamber.
The purpose of this note is only to interpret the word “Vergasungskeller” as used
in one document.
Why would the author of NO-4473 not refer to a Leichenkeller as a Leichenkeller
I don’t think a slip is involved. We normally do not consider ourselves
bound to use only formal designations. More commonly, we refer to things according
to their function or in any case the function that happens to be in mind at
the time. The gas shelter features of LK 1 were its principal structural distinction
from LK 2, and those features were being taken into account in the construction at
the time. It was natural that LK 1 might be referred to as the gas shelter.
As another example of a use of terminology suggested by function, the engineers
Jährling and Messing referred to LK 2 of Crematoria II and III, during construction,
via the terms “Auskleideraum” and “Auskleidekeller” (undressing room
or cellar), another one of what Pressac considers “slips” that betrayed a criminal
purpose. 697 This has been another point raised by those who would put a homi-
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Pressac (1989), 224, 274, 289ff, 322, 338.
Puntigam, op. cit..
Pressac (1989), pp. 221, 223, 230, notes that at one point consideration was given to “preheating”
LK 1, but the idea was dropped 3 weeks later. LK 1 was not heated. I have an idea on
the purpose imagined for the pre-heating, but it would be premature to present it. In any case,
heat was not considered vital to the function of LK 1. The notion that a crowd of people in LK 1
would provide the necessary heat for efficient gassing is a fig leaf that doesn’t work, because they
would not generate that much heat, and because according to the legend the Zyklon would have
been strewn about the floor, thus assuming a temperature close to that of the floor.
Pressac (1989), pp. 223, 373.
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