THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTstarting in early 1943, the Germans were working on the completion ofa large hygienic complex with a large hot air disinfestation installation(the so-called ‘Zentralsauna’) in the immediate vicinity of these crematoria,and were also anticipating the early use of microwave disinfestationinstallations as promised by Berlin (see chapter 5.2.3.6.).W. Rademacher has remarked that Pressac personally quotes adocument by means of which “210 Gas door anchorings” were orderedin Auschwitz. This document indicates that the term gas-tight(“gasdicht”) does not necessarily constitute a reference to execution ofdisinfestation chambers, since it has never been claimed that there wasa need for roughly one hundred doors for homicidal ‘gas chambers’ atAuschwitz. 290 It is entirely possible that all doors and windows weredesignated as ‘gas tight’ if they were equipped with felt insulation andwere, therefore, sealed off against air currents, a characteristic not at allcommon in windows for inmate barracks in a concentration camp. 291Pressac himself provides yet another item of proof that the term‘gas chamber’ has no criminal significance in Auschwitz documents.One document states: “1 key for gas chamber”. Since all ‘gas tight’doors found at Auschwitz, as well as all surviving photographs of suchdoors, show that these doors had no locks, this document must refer toa door for another type of room, such as a room for the storage of ZyklonB, which truly required storage under lock and key. 292The walls of crematoria IV and V, which were built entirely aboveground, were of simple brick masonry. After they were blown up, bothbuildings were demolished to their foundation walls and concretefoundations. The foundation wall of crematorium V, which is approximately1 m high, is supposed to have been rebuilt. 293 The foundationwall of crematorium IV, which is approximately 50 cm high, isalso supposed to have been rebuilt out of other rubble at a later time. 56Even these ruins can still speak to us, even if, in this case, only theconcrete foundations are authentic, since everything else is probablynot authentic. Another technical precondition for the use of the roomsalleged to have been homicidal ‘gas chambers’ would be that it would(online: www.vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndgcger.html).290 W. Rademacher, op. cit. (note 239), p. 80; J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), p. 451.291 At least the windows of those inmate barracks still accessible today in Birkenau have beeninstalled in a very sloppy way, so that the wind blows intensely through the gaps. It is, however,questionable whether these barracks are authentic or were rebuilt after the war.292 J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), p. 456.293 Ibid., p. 390.138