THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZUndressing room‘Dirty Side’Shower/SaunaDressing room‘Clean Side’Disinfestation/Disinfection/LaundryFig. 15: Schematic organization of a hygiene complex Clothing pathway; Inmate pathwayIt was not uncommon for a crematorium to be installed in thesame building complex, as may still be seen at Dachau concentrationcamp today (near Munich), in which the new hygienic installation possessesa series of DEGESCH circulating air installations for the disinfestationof clothing, with an undressing and redressing room to theright and left of the inmate showers, as well as a crematorium. (Theroom described as a “gas chamber” at Dachau today is actually theinmate shower, which is indispensable in the above schema, and whichhas been intentionally mislabeled by the Museum.)The applicable concentrations during the disinfestation of clothingmight be very different according to the type of vermin and exteriorconditions, and usually ranged from 5 to 30 g of hydrogen cyanide perm 3 of air. The application time varied just as greatly, from under twohours up to ten hours and more. In the more modern installations withheating (higher than 25°C) and circulating air/ventilation installations,good results could be attained with concentrations of 20 g per m 3 , alreadyafter 1 to 2 hours. Disinfestation in ordinary rooms, on the otherhand, could last up to 24 hours or more.5.2.3. Epidemic Control in Auschwitz5.2.3.1. Terminology Used and ResponsibilitiesWe shall use the technical terms established in the 1939 GermanArmy Regulations (Heeresdienstvorschrift 194), 127 since these determinedhow the personnel, i.e., the physicians and those who disinfectedthe camps, were to proceed:“DisinfectionDisinfection means […]: destroying the disease-(epidemic-)causingagents on objects, in rooms, in excretions and on the bodies of infectiouspersons.65