The homicdal gas chamber at Auschwitz are not gas chambers

Pro raises an important topic. Most DDO members are bound to run into Pro's arguments, if they have not done so already. Doubt over the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz began after the War. Historians had not systematically collected physical evidence, testimony, or documents proving the existence of the gas chambers and establishing how they were used. Doubters seized upon inconsistencies in early accounts. The full and accurate account was not assembled until the late 1980s. Pro and others rely upon claims now conclusively disproved. "At Auschwitz seven buildings existed which were used as gas chambers. In addition, two other sites were also used as gas chambers but only for a few gassing actions: the cellar of Block 11 in the Stammlager, where the first test gassings were carried out in August 1941, and a delousing barrack at the Main Economic Area near the Stammlager, called "Kanada I", where 200 members of the Sonderkommando were killed with "Zyklon B" gas on 23 September 1944." [1] Pro has focused on the gas chamber reconstructed after the War. "The gas chamber was installed in the mortuary of the crematory, and could contain between 700 and 800 persons (17 x 4.5 m). The Zyklon B was poured into the gas chamber through openings in the roof. This gas chamber had no dummy shower fittings on the ceiling. The use of the mortuary had an additional benefit in that it possessed a strong ventilation system, in contrast to the cellar of Block 11. The gas chamber was put into operation in autumn 1941. The last killings were carried out in December 1942 when the Sonderkommando, which had removed the corpses of the first mass graves in Birkenau, was gassed. ... "The number of victims who perished in this gas chamber is unknown. Filip Mï¿½ller, who belonged to the Sonderkommando of Crematory I for about one year, estimated the number of victims at some ten thousand while Jean-Claude Pressac calculated a maximum of 10,000. "After its use as a gas chamber the SS used the building as an execution site. Following completion of the four large crematories at Birkenau the gas chamber was used for other purposes, and in 1944 it was converted into an air-raid bunker. "After the liberation of Auschwitz the building was partly re-constructed into its original state. So today's visitor sees a re-construction with original parts. [1] Pro is correct, in part, that the last use of this gas chamber was an air raid shelter. It was originally built as a mortuary, with plumbing for that purpose. The rebuilt structure is fitted with an air raid style door. The gasketed gas chamber doors are described in recovered documents. Zyklon B is basically potassium cyanide. Pro introduced the notion that any exposure of a surface to cyanide gas produces an indelible blue stain. In fact, the amount of stain depends upon the concentration of gas, the duration of exposure, the nature of the surface, and subsequent exposure to weathering. The fundamental error made by Pro and his sources is in assuming that the delousing chambers at Auschwitz provide an example of standard use of the gas. Delousing chambers were used to kill bugs in clothing. Bugs are much more resistant to cyanide than humans. The delousing process used high concentrations of gas for 24 hours. Humans die with low concentrations in at most twenty minutes. Consequently 95% of the Zyklon B used at Auschwitz was for delousing. "Zyklon B was used in the concentration camps also for delousing to control typhus. The chemical used in the gas chambers was deliberately made without the warning odorant. In quantitative terms, more than 95% of the Zyklon B delivered to Auschwitz was used for delousing and less than 5% in the gas chambers." [2] Killing 10,000 people in the subject gas chamber would require 20 mass killings at 20 minutes each, less than seven hours of exposure to low-concentrations of cyanide. A single delousing cycle took three times the the time of the total exposure of the subject gas chamber. There were probably hundreds of cycles of the delousing chamber. Factoring in the gas concentration, the exposure of the delousing was at least a thousand times that of the gas chamber. Clearly, the claim that the gas chamber should be stained like the delousing chamber is unfounded. The gas chamber residues were studied scientifically by the Institute for Forensic Research, based in Poland. The subject gas chamber is the basement of Block 11. "Systematic research, involving most sensitive analytical methods, undertaken by the Institute confirmed the presence of cyanide compounds in all kinds of gas chamber ruins, even in the basement of Block 11 in Auschwitz, where first, experimental gassing of victims by means of Zyklon B had been carried out. The analysis of control samples, taken from other places (especially from living quarters) yielded unequivocally negative results." [3] The Institute carried out experiments to determine the levels of residue and staining to be expected, and the levels that were observed were consistent with the experiments. Understand that the other gas chambers at Auschwitz were demolished, but traces of cyanide were found in the remnants of rubble. Additional evidence for the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz is contained in an important book by Jean-Claude Pressac. The book is posted on the web [4] with this introduction: "Although Pressac was at one time a revisionist, and associated with the denier Robert Faurisson, he saw the light after undertaking an in-depth examination of almost everything to do with Auschwitz. He tells the story of his conversion in a Postface beginning at page 537 of his book. Pressac's analysis is at once exhaustive and convincing. It is based on primary documents and testimonies, original architectural plans, photographs, drawings, worksheets, and schematics. A particularly powerful analysis is found in Chapter 8 of Part Two, entitled "One proof ... one single proof". Thirty nine criminal traces, beginning at page 429. Pressac's book is a definitive proof of the use of poison gas to murder Jews at Auschwitz and it is based on primary sources from the Nazis. There is no doubt." 1. The seven Gas Chambers at Auschwitz http://www.deathcamps.org... 2. Zyklon B http://en.wikipedia.org... 3. Study of the Cyanide Compounds Content In The Walls Of The Gas Chambers in the Former Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps by Jan Markiewicz, Wojciech Gubala, Jerzy Labedz, Institute of Forensic Research, Cracow http://www.holocaust-history.org... 4. AUSCHWITZ: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers A systematic study of the delousing and homicidal gas chambers of Bunkers 1 and 2 and of Krematorien I, II, III, IV and V of the former KL Auschwitz Birkenau, and an investigation of the remaining traces of criminal activity.ï¿½http://www.holocaust-history.org...