THE RUDOLF REPORT

5. AUSCHWITZmates of the entire camp; [204] therefore it is clear that the ‘bath facilitiesin crematorium II and III’ in the ‘questionnaire’ quoted above, were intendedfor the prisoners of the entire camp as well. This means that itwas planned to convert the crematoria II and III into hygienic centers.The purpose of such centers was to cleanse the inmates and theirclothing, i.e., to free them from dirt and disease-carrying parasites. Butthis necessarily included a disinfection or disinfestation installation. Theexpansion of the crematoria was not however completed because workhad already begun in the meantime on the central sauna which was bettersuited for this purpose. The documents cited here nevertheless provea temporary intent on the part of the Zentralbauleitung to perform cremation,inmate cleaning and the disinfestation of clothing in the samebuilding.Now I think that it is not irrelevant to note here that in this projectthe water heating system for the showers was connected to the garbageincinerator and not to the crematorium oven, as for example in the fivemuffleoven of the Lublin KL. In my opinion, the reason for that decisionwas the fact that the crematorium ovens did not ensure a continuity ofuse to be able to provide sufficient hot water throughout the entire day;in other words, the crematorium ovens were not used enough to ensureefficient operation of the water heating system.That the VEDAG-Invoice [203] indeed refers to the hot-air disinfestingchambers installed in the Zentralsauna, is definitely proven by a VEDAGsingle invoice which has the same date and the same contents as the firstinvoice noted above, but it refers to the ‘BW 32 = disinfestation facility’,that is to say, precisely in the Zentralsauna. [cf. Fig. 31, 205 ] But for whatreason does the invoice have as its subject: ‘Auschwitz-crematorium’?This heading has an obvious relationship to the aforesaid Topf ‘itemization’of April 13, 1943, concerning ‘2 Topf disinfestation heaters forCrema II’ which were then installed in the Zentralsauna. In any case, thetwo documents establish the correlation crematorium–disinfestation andportray the expression of a plan or at least of a Zentralbauleitung intentionto combine cremation and disinfestation within the same edifice.”Since, as shown in chapter 5.2.2., the installation of hygiene centerswith showers, disinfestation, undressing and dressing rooms andadjacent crematoria is not at all unusual, the “traces” adduced by Pressacand van Pelt may be seen to have been incorrectly interpreted.204 Inventory of the delivery negotiations relating to the “Desinfektions- und Entwesunsanlage”(Zentralsauna) of 22. January 1944. TCIDK, 502-1-335, p. 3.205 TCIDK, 502-1-316, S. 430.99