THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZWaffen SS and Police at Auschwitz), 94 which are located in Moscow,the files of the Kriegsarchiv der Waffen SS (War Archive of the WaffenSS) in the Military-Historical Archives in Prague, and the files ofAuschwitz concentration camp, which are located at the AuschwitzMuseum, are especially important in this regard. Since there are morethan one hundred thousand documents in these archives, it will be necessaryto wait for several years for the appearance of a seriously documentedwork on the topic. It must be considered certain that such research,which is only just beginning, will lead to a further massive revisionof our image of Auschwitz concentration camp.In the absence of better documentation, in the following—as far asthe brief survey of the history of Auschwitz is concerned—I will relyupon the statements of Jean-Claude Pressac, 67,90 where his statementsare undisputed, since Pressac is continued to be praised as the expertregarding the technique of Auschwitz. 95The installations of the Auschwitz I camp, also known as theStammlager (main camp) and located on the outskirts of the city ofAuschwitz, originally formed part of the barracks of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy (later Poland), and were transformed into a concentrationcamp after the German invasion of Poland in September1939. Camp II, located in the vicinity of the city of Birkenau (knownas Auschwitz-Birkenau), was rebuilt after the start of the Russian campaign,officially as a Waffen SS prisoner of war camp for the receptionof Russian POWs. Both camps belonged to the same complex, withover 30 additional smaller camps in Upper Silesia, intended to supplymanpower, etc., for the chemical works recently built by the Germanson a large scale at Auschwitz, in particular the BUNA works of theGerman industrial giant I.G. Farbenindustrie AG for coal refining (liquefactionand gasification plants for artificial rubber and fuel production),located close to the settlement Monowitz east of Auschwitz, seeFig. 10. Birkenau camp was used, among other things, for the receptionof unfit prisoners. The intended camp capacity of 200,000 to300,000 inmates, according to the final planning situation, was uniqueamong the concentration camps of the Third Reich. This capacity was9495Tsentr Chranenija Istoriko-dokumental’nich Kollektsii (hereafter TCIDK); see also the documentsin the Gosudarstwenny Archiv Rossiskoy Federatsii.Cf. Manfred Köhler, “Pressac und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit”, in: Herbert Verbeke, op. cit.(note. 43), pp. 19-30 (online: www.vho.org/D/anf/Koehler.html); Engl.: “Pressac and theGerman Public”, online: www.vho.org/GB/Books/anf/Koehler.html53