AUSCHWITZ: PLAIN FACTS - Holocaust Handbooks

98 Germar Rudolf (ed.), Auschwitz: Plain Factspressionable and sensitive, asked nothing more. […] once back in Berlin,he informed Ernst Grawitz, the chief of the SS physicians, a pretentiousand aggressive fool, who turned up on the 25 th at Auschwitz where his idioticadvice [etc.].” (p. 59)“Holick’s and Koch’s return to Erfurt certainly caused a serious stir inthe firm. Belonging to Prüfer’s department, they made their report to himand mentioned the blazes of Birkenwald. If the engineer knew what was goingon there from hearsay, he had never seen its result. Made ill at ease bythe account, he must have advised them to be quiet and to hurry home toenjoy Christmas. Holick, who had already become acquainted, at Buchenwald,with the concentration camp world, which he perceived as hard andimplacable, could not imagine that Hitler’s diatribes against the Jewsmight materialize into horrors that he had witnessed with Koch. A Topf letterof early March 1943 implies that the two men talked. They did so eitherat the factory, perhaps after having been questioned by the Topf brotherson their stay at Auschwitz, or at home with family members or friends, whohastened to ‘confide’ their statements to the heads of the firm. As soon asthe story leaked, Prüfer must have been summoned by the Topfs and orderedto explain himself. That interview would seem to have occurred inearly January 1943. It was all too easy for Prüfer to inquire politely ofLudwig Topf if he had had as good a Christmastime as the year before withthe charming Miss Ursula Albrecht, to add that this young woman must berelieved and happy that the Director was no longer a soldier, then to convinceErnst-Wolfgang Topf, who had approved the first Auschwitz dealsand signed with pride the contracts for the sale of ten triple-chamber ovensfor crematories II and III, that if the ‘Krematoriumsbau’ department hadnot landed those sales, the competition, the Heinrich Kori or the Didier-Werke firms in Berlin would have taken care of them. In addition, the Topfovens had not participated in the Birkenwald atrocities and only had asanitary purpose, that of destroying pathogenic germs by fire. If Ernst-Wolfgang Topf accepted Prüfer’s biased explanations, Ludwig Topf, neutralized,did not reject them either, for having signed, after his return fromthe army, the estimate for the ventilations of crematory III, he implicatedhimself most heavily by signing nine months later that for the airing-outapparatus of crematoria IV and V, which were distinctly criminal.” (p. 65)“[Prüfer] noted with a feigned sadness that the guarantee of crematoryIV’s oven had expired […].” (p. 79)“Topf furiously opposed this detachment of vaults […].” (p. 81)“[…] he denied it vehemently.” (p. 82)“[During a visit by Himmler] The convoy of cars crossed the bridgeover the train stations, stopped at the goods station to see the new potatostorehouses, abutting on the ramp where the Jews were sorted (document49), and departed at high speed towards Birkenau. The passage in the re-