TREBLINKA: - Holocaust Handbooks

150 Carlo Mattogno, Jürgen Graf: Treblinka
In the case of the pyre previously described, the flames and the products of
combustion come in direct contact only with the layer of corpses lying directly
on the grate and exert their effects upon any layer lying above that with an intensity
quickly dwindling toward the vanishing point, so that a burning-time
of 2.5 hours per level is totally unrealizable.
Therefore, had the cremation of 860,000 bodies in Treblinka been initiated
at the beginning of April 1943, then under the most favorable conditions it
would have ended in December 1945, and the Soviets as well as His Honor
Judge �ukaszkiewicz would have been able to personally attend the performance!
e. Ashes
If we assume the value determined in our experiment of 160 kg of wood
per 45 kg of organic substance, the quantity of wood necessary for the incineration
of all bodies amounts to (870,000×160=) 139,200,000 kg or 139,200
metric tons. The ashes from combustion resulting from this would have been
(139,200×0.08=) approximately 11,100 metric tons and occupied a volume of
(11,100÷0.34 =) approximately 32,600 m 3 .
The ashes resulting from cremation of a body weigh approximately 5% of
the body weight and have a specific weight of approximately 0.5 g/cm 3 . 441
Thus, from 870,000 bodies having an average weight of 45 kg, a mass of
(870,000×45×0.05÷1,000=) approximately 1,950 tons of ashes results, which
has a volume of (1,950÷0.5=) 3,900 m 3 . The total weight of the wood ashes
and the ashes from incineration of the bodies therefore amounts to
(11,100+1,950=), approximately 13,000 metric tons, which occupy a volume
of (32,600+3,900=) 36,500 m 3 . To what location was this enormous quantity
of ashes brought?
Arad writes: 442
“Ultimately it was decided to dump the ash and bits of bone into the
ditches that had previously held the bodies and to cover them with a thick
layer of sand and dirt. The ash was scattered in the pits in several layers,
interspersed with layers of sand. The top 2 meters of the pit were filled with
earth.”
As explained in Section 9, the excavated earth from the pits took up
130,700 m 3 of space. Had the pits really been filled with ashes – a total of
(130,700 m 3 + 36,500 m 3 =) 167,200 m 3 – then there would still remain
(167,200 - 118,800 =) approximately 48,400 m 3 of earth-ash mixture, which
could not have disappeared in smoke: where was this mass put? The claim of
441 Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1949, under the entry “Cremazione,” vol. XI, p. 5. Cf. also W.
Huber, Die Feuerbestattung – ein Postulat kultureller Entwicklung, und das St. Galler Krematorium,
self-published by the author. St. Gallen 1903, p. 17.
442 Y. Arad, op. cit. (note 72), p. 176.