THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZ5.2.3.6. Short-Wave Delousing FacilityPerhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of Auschwitz concentrationcamp is the installation of a stationary short-wave installation,the world’s first technological predecessor to the microwave ovens incommon use today. This technology was invented by Siemens in thelate 1930s and developed to mass-production readiness during the war.This was a by-product of the powerful radio tubes built for the televisiontransmission of the Berlin Olympics in 1936, the energy-rich radiowaves which killed the insects in the vicinity of the antenna. The developmenttook place with financial assistance from the Wehrmacht,which hoped to achieve a perceptible improvement in the struggleagainst the epidemics raging in the east. Since the inmates assigned tothe armaments industries in the concentration camps were particularlyvaluable towards the end of the war, the Reich leadership decided notto put the first installation into operation at the front for the disinfestationof soldiers’ clothing, but rather, in the largest Labor complex inthe Reich, in Auschwitz. Due to Allied bombing attacks, however,there was a one-year delay in the completion of this installation, whichprobably cost the lives of tens of thousands of inmates. The Auschwitzcamp administration had anticipated its installation as early as 1943and had therefore postponed other delousing projects. This facility, putinto operation during the summer of 1944, proved in fact to be of revolutionaryeffectiveness, both quick and cheap: personal effects weremoistened and placed on one end of a conveyor belt and emerged atthe other end a few minutes later, completely free of vermin and sterile.1535.2.4. Disinfestation Installations BW 5a und 5bThe only buildings remaining intact in Auschwitz-Birkenau today,possessing a wing for the disinfestation of personal effects with ZyklonB, are buildings (Bauwerk, BW) 5a and 5b in building sections B1aand B1b, respectively. Both buildings were planned as mirror imagesof each other. The west (resp. east) wing of these buildings were used,153 See also, in this regard, H.-J. Nowak, op. cit. (note 97); H. Lamker, “Die Kurzwellen-Entlausungsanlagen in Auschwitz, Teil 2”, VffG 2(4) (1998), pp. 261-272 (online:…/1998/4/Lamker4.html); an English summary appeared by Mark Weber, “High FrequencyDelousing Facilities at Auschwitz”, JHR, 18(3) (1999), p. 4. (www.ihr.org/JHR/v18/v18n3p-4_Weber.html)73