THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZdemics. This cellar is designated as an “Infektionsleichenkeller” (infectioncorpse morgue) in the technical literature. Fig. 26 is the groundplan of morgue 1 (alleged ‘gas chamber’) of crematorium II, whichwas designed mirror symmetrically to crematorium III. Fig. 27 showsthe cross section through morgue 1. 180 As may be seen from the crosssection,these morgues, for the most part, are located below ground.The long and slender type of construction, the underground location, aswell as the lack of contact with the cremation rooms result in an even,cool temperature in these areas. This corresponds to their having beenplanned as morgues, which is how they are designated in the buildingplans.The planning of such large cellars is not astonishing, furthermore,when one considers that several hundred corpses a day had arrived duringthe worst periods of the epidemics raging in Auschwitz, and thatthese corpses had to be stored somewhere. The compelling interpretationof the non-criminal planning of these rooms as harmless morguesis shared even by Pressac.The documentation reproduced by Pressac shows that this installationwas derived from an earlier 1941 plan for a new crematorium inthe main camp. 181 The access street to the crematoria in Birkenau waslocated on the side of the chimney wing (see Fig. 29). The originalplan for the main camp, however, provided for an access street on theother side of the building. Moreover, the high water table of the terrainin Birkenau did not permit location of the morgue quite underground. 182 The cellars were therefore raised so as not to swim on top ofthe ground water. Together with the layer of earth on top of the cellars,these were insurmountable for vehicles and carts. Direct access to thecellars from the outside was therefore blocked. For this reason, an additionalflight of stairs was incorporated to the offices of morgue 3 aswell as a flight of stairs at the end of morgue 2 (see Fig. 29).Possibly as a result of the dramatically altered military situationafter the German defeat of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43, all constructionplans were reduced in costs and required manpower wherever180 J.-C. Pressac, op. cit. (note 67), pp. 319-329. Plans for crematoria II and III.181 Ibid., p. 183, on the non-criminal planning of crematoria II and III, see, in particular, p. 264.182 See also Michael Gärtner, Werner Rademacher, “Grundwasser im Gelände des KGL Birkenau(Auschwitz)”, VffG 2(1) (1998), pp. 2-12 (online: www.vho.org/VffG/1998/1/GaeRad1.html);Engl.: “Ground Water in the Area of the POW camp Birkenau”, The Revisionist, 1(1) (2003),pp. 3-12 (www.vho.org/tr/2003/1/GaertnerRademacher3-12.html).93