THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZhave to have been rendered impossible for the victims on the inside toget anywhere near the introduction hatches, since otherwise they couldhave simply pushed the SS man off the ladder while he was throwingthe Zyklon B into the chamber; they could then have attempted to escape.A U-shaped, solid steel grid construction anchored in the floorand in the masonry of the walls with steel hoop anchors spread out intodovetails would have been necessary to keep the victims on the insideat arm’s length from the hatches. The concrete floors of these roomssurviving today, however, make it clear that nothing of the sort wasever anchored in the floor.5.4.3. Farmhouses 1 and 2According to eyewitness accounts, there are supposed to havebeen two farmhouses (sometimes referred to as bunkers 1 and 2), locatedwest-north west of the Birkenau camp, which were convertedinto homicidal ‘gas chambers’. Their location and construction are not,however, exactly described. Pressac mentions contradictory eyewitnessreports in this regard. 294 Relating to the testimony of P. Broad, for example,he writes.: “[…] not exploitable […], since it has been rewrittenby and for the Poles […]”, and: “It is impossible to make a synthesisof all these accounts”. Höß’s report relating to the characteristicsand location of these buildings is only superficial. 295 According to remarksin the judgment to the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, 296 the homicidalmass gassings are supposed to have taken place in a manner similarto those in the chambers of crematoria IV and V, described above.This procedure is clarified by the testimony of Richard Böck, 297 and, toa certain extent, by Milton Buki, 298 Rudolf Höß, Szlama Dragon, MauriceBenroubi, Moshe Maurice Garbarz, Johann Paul Kremer (at theFrankfurt Auschwitz trial), and André Lettich. 299Pressac has published a photograph of what are alleged to be the294 Ibid., pp. 161ff.295 R. Höß, in: M. Broszat (ed.), Kommandant in Auschwitz, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart1958.296 Judgment of the so-called Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, ref. 50/4 Ks 2/63, p. 99; see note 83.297 Interrogation of the eyewitness R. Böck during pre-trial investigations for the so-called FrankfurtAuschwitz Trial: Staatsanwaltschaft beim LG Frankfurt (Main), Strafsache beim SchwurgerichtFrankfurt (Main) gegen Baer und Andere wegen Mordes, ref. 4 Js 444/59, sheets6878ff. Quoted: sheet 6881f.298 J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), p. 163.299 See also J. Graf, Auschwitz. Tätergeständnisse und Augenzeugen, op. cit. (note 43).139