THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTFig. 57: Then and today—the unchangedground water state in the Birkenau camp, herein midsummer 1991, in a construction trenchin front of the Zentralsauna, approximately 70cm. Incinerations of corpses in pits manymeters deep, in accordance with witnesstestimony, were not possible.cated outside of thecamp’s drainage system?There are twopieces of circumstantialevidence indicating thatthe water table was notmuch different thenthan it is today. Thefirst evidence is thewell known small pondin the vicinity of crematoriumIV, which issupposed to have existedthe same way duringthe war. If thedrainage system hadlowered the water tableby several meters, thepond next to crematoriumIV, contrary tomany witness statements,would havedried up. This provesthe unchanged watertable from then untilnow. The second evidenceis the subterraneanlocation of the morgues of crematoriums II and III, as well assome of the building sections of the Zentralsauna. They all were constructedby insulating the buildings’ basements from intruding waterwith a waterproof layer of tar, which indicates that there was a need toprotect against such water in the first place. Also, since the drainageditches in the camp are only 1 to 1.5 meters deep, they could not havelowered the water table to less than one meter. This maximum value,though, can only be achieved in the immediate vicinity of the ditches.In complementary studies, Michael Gärtner and Werner Rade-142