THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORThowever never even approximately achieved.The cramming together of large number of people in the most restrictedareas of the camp, the sanitary infrastructure of which was justbeing developed, caused serious health problems in all camps of theThird Reich. Both inmates and hundreds of civilians working in thecamps could introduce all sorts of parasitic insects into the camp, inparticular lice and fleas. Lice are the chief carriers of epidemic typhuswhich was a widespread disease in Eastern Europe. Therefore, thecamps were equipped with hygienic installations, including extensivedisinfestation installations, in which the clothing and personal effectsof newly arriving inmates were disinfested, for instance with the insecticideZyklon B (a porous carrier material soaked with liquid hydrogencyanide), a product frequently used for this purpose. The inmatesthemselves were given a haircut 96 and were made to shower thoroughly.Since the camp was at times insufficiently equipped with disinfestationinstallations and materials, also aided by the carelessnessduring disinfestation on the part of civilians working in the camp, typhusepidemics broke out repeatedly killing large numbers of inmatesas well as guards.Due to the high mortality rate, these camps were equipped withcremation facilities. After a devastating typhus epidemic during thesummer of 1942, during which more than 300 people died per day inpeak times, plans were made to build four cremation facilities at Birkenauin the hope of being able to cope with the amount of corpses. Ofthese four crematoria, however, two were severely damaged shortlyafter they were put into operation. Since it turned out that the capacityof the four Birkenau crematoria was much higher than needed, the twodamaged crematoria were not repaired but were allowed to remain idle.The main camp in Auschwitz possessed only one crematorium installationwhich was put out of operation with the opening of the installationsat Birkenau.Historians today usually assume that the above mentioned cremationinstallations were not only used for the purpose initially planned,i.e., the incineration of inmates having died of natural causes, but werelater misused for the mass extermination of the Jews, among others.According to these historians, the term “arbeitsunfähig” (unfit for la-96In the Third Reich, hair cut to a certain length is alleged to have been collected for industrialpurposes, after previous delousing, see note 75.54