GASKELLER DOCUMENT SETTLES OUTSTANDING PROBLEMA document, long known and long sought by revisionists, was published in a brochure by a Holocaust memorial group in Germany in preparation to a public exhibition shortly before David Irving was arrested and imprisoned in Austria. The document clearly supports the contention, made by Arthur Butz, and several others, including David Irving, that the basement morgue of a crematorium at Auschwitz was intended to serve as a gastight bomb shelter. The document was made available in a brochure in 2005 prepared for an exhibition on Topf & Sons in Germany, within the context of a Holocaust memorial exhibition at the Berlin Holocaust Museum, which took place from January to April in 2006.
The document has been known since the fall of 1996. An
article titled "Une critique sur le fond" was published in L'Autre
Histoire no. 6, date 16 october 1996, p. 9-14. The article
was anonymous but has always been attributed to Jean Claude Pressac.
At one point in the article, which is a rebuttal to
Roger Garaudy,
we read as follows: "Dans les caves de l'ex-entreprise Topf, a été retrouvé récemment une note de Sander du 17 février 1943 relatant un appel téléphonique de Karl Schultze, l'ingénieur de la division B de la Topf (ventilation et climatisation) venant d'Auschwitz. Shultze se plaignait que la soufflerie d'aération de la Gaskeller ("cave à gazage") manquait. Il parlait de la "cave à cadavres 1" du crématoire II de Birkenau. Cette note fut contresignée par un des deux directeurs de la firme Ludwig Topf, son secrétaire de direction Max Machemehl, l'ingénieur Fritz Sander, le directeur d'exploitation Gustav Braun et le chef du service des achats, Florentin Mock. Quand ce document sera publié, il ne pourra s'agir bien sûr que d'un faux. On en arrive à se demander si le faussaire dénoncé par les révisionnistes ne serait pas un ancien employé de la Topf!" Roughly translated, the article describes the document, and identifies
the "Gaskeller" as a "gassing cellar." The author notes the extensive
countersigning by employees and executives at Topf, and concludes,
inter alia, "When this document is published, no one will be able
to call it a forgery." "My proposal is that the Vergasungskeller was a gas shelter. It need not have been located within Crematorium II, but I believe it most likely was, on account of the fact that Crematoria II and III, with their large concrete cellars, were obviously ideal for adaptation as air raid shelters. Indeed, when this problem is looked at from the point of view of defense against air raids it seems there was no better choice at Auschwitz. The German authorities responsible for providing air raid shelters would have insisted that the necessary embellishments be made to these structures, which were far more suited to such purposes than, e.g., Crematorium I at the Stammlager, which despite being above ground was converted to an air raid shelter after it was taken out of service as a crematorium in July 1943.[689] My reading of some of the relevant chemical warfare literature convinces me that Crematoria II and III were conceived of by the Germans as having this additional role. The document was never published by Pressac in his lifetime (Pressac died in 2003). Moreover, Pressac repeatedly refused requests by revisionists for a copy of the document. However, it was sufficiently well known that the contents could be summarized by Samuel Crowell in 2000 as follows: "February 17, 1943 A Reference to "Gaskeller" at Topf & Sons Nothing in the presentation of the document in the brochure contradicts these comments. The document is now in the Thuringian archives in Weimar. The brochure makes it rather clear that the document was obtained
from Pressac's estate. In what might be described as an "enormous
gaffe" the brochure considers the document prima facie evidence
for the use of Morgue 1 of Crematorium II as a gas chamber. The
problem is that a "Gaskeller" is a gas shelter, that is, a bomb shelter
designed to provide protection from poison gas attack. ( In addition,
a gas shelter will typically have showers and/or laundries to decontaminate
people and their belongings after a poison gas attack.) An J.A Topf & Söhne ******* To J.A Topf & Söhne The document looks back to previous correspondence in November, 1942,
concerning a "Sonderkeller" to be equipped with ventilation, and also
to the late January 1943 "Vergasungskeller" document. This shows
that the intent to use the Morgue 1 of Crematorium II as a "Gaskeller"
goes back at least to the fall of 1942.
The back of the document The verso has been located and further fails to support the extermination hypothesis. The first paragraph reads: 3) Ferner fehlen für die Abluft-Anlage im Sezier- und Aufbahrungsraum die Lüftungsgitter, ausserdem die Düsen fuer die Rohrleitung in L-Keller. It may be translated as follows: 3) Furthermore, the ventilation grating for the air exhaust in the Dissection Room and the Lying in State Room are missing, as well as the nozzles for the pipes in the "L-Keller." "L-Keller" is normally translated as "Leichenkeller" by students of the subject, however, that makes no sense in the above, since all three of the rooms were "Leichenkeller", that is, they were morgues. However, "L-Keller" is sometimes also encountered as an shortening of "Luftschutzkeller" (normally, "LS-Keller"), in other words, a bomb shelter. Also, "Düsen" normally means "jets" in the usual sense. However, in connection with piping, it normally refers to the nozzles for hoses or showers. The document, as it stands, clearly supports the gas shelter/bomb shelter interpretation of Morgue 1 of Crematorium II, confirming Dr. Butz' hypothesis, as well as the interpretation of David Irving, Fritjof Meyer, Wilhelm Stäglich, Fritz Berg, Samuel Crowell, and several other revisionists. We await further developments. |
