THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZpossess a ventilation system, regardless of the purpose for which it wasdesigned.In his new book, Pressac leaves these arguments unchanged. 284Since the mass extermination of the Jews was supposed to have beenalready fully underway—particularly, in farmhouses I and II—whencrematoria IV and V were being planned, it is, of course, absurd to believethat these installations could have been incorrectly designed andbuilt. Today, therefore, Pressac assumes a “criminal planning” of thecrematoria. 285 Proof of such criminality is alleged to have been suppliedby various documents, mentioning the “installation of gas-tight[sic] windows”, “pouring concrete floor in gas chamber”, and repeatedmentions of gas-tight doors in various connections. 286As already shown in the chapter on the disinfestation of personaleffects, the German word “Gaskammer” (gas chamber) was the designationcommonly used at that time for the disinfestation of personaleffects. The combination of crematoria and disinfestation installationsin one and the same building was very common practice at that time. 287Indications have since been found leading to the inference that it wasinitially planned to use the rooms referred to in some documents as“gas chambers” for disinfestation purposes. One factor in favor of thishypothesis, for example, is that the ovens for the heating of theserooms had to be heated from the hallway, and that the lamps plannedfor installation in these rooms had be to explosion-proof, and installedin a recess. 288In the case of crematoria IV and V, one must assume that therooms in question here were intended for disinfestation purposes, butnever completed for this purpose, let alone used. In any case, there isno evidence that ventilation systems absolutely necessary for the use ofHCN were ever installed. 289 The reason for this may lie in the fact that284 J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), p. 386.285 Ibid., p. 447.286 Ibid., pp. 406, 442-455.287 For a prominent example, one need only consider Dachau concentration camp, the crematoriumbuilding of which contained a series of DEGESCH circulation delousing chambers, seep. 65.288 A point which suggests that a fundamental danger of explosion must be reckoned with duringfumigations with hydrogen cyanide; see also chapter 6.3.289 J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 90), pp. 89f., alleges, in this regard, that a ventilation installationwas built into crematorium IV only in late May 1944, but his remarks are untenable in this regard;see also Germar Rudolf, “Some Technical and Chemical Considerations about the ‘GasChambers’ of Auschwitz and Birkenau”, in: Ernst Gauss (ed.), op. cit. (note 22), pp. 347f.137