An article about the death of Shlomo Venezia in the New York Times, which you can read in full here, gives a lot of details that are included in the book Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz, written by Sholomo Venezia, drawing from his personal experience as one of the Jews whose work involved carrying the dead bodies of Jew out of the gas chambers.
Holocaust revisionists say that there were no holes in the roof of the gas chamber, through which the Zyklon-B gas pellets could have been thrown in. The opinions expressed by revisionists are based partly on the reports of Fred Leuchter and Germar Rudolf, both of whom descended into the ruins of underground gas chamber and found no evidence of holes.
Ruins of the alleged Krema II gas chamber at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Note in the photo above that there appear to be two large holes in the roof of the alleged Krema II gas chamber. It is possible to climb down into the ruins, through the collapsed roof, because the gas chamber was only 5 feet below ground and 3 feet above ground. Both Leuchter and Rudolf climbed down into the ruins and took samples from the walls of the supposed gas chamber. Test results showed that there was not enough residue of Zyklon-B to warrant the claim that the room had been a gas chamber. Krema II is where 500,000 Jews were allegedly gassed, according to Holocaust historian Robert Jan van Pelt, who called Krema II “the Holy of Holies.”
Krema II building under construction in 1942
The photo above shows the Krema II building with the roof of the gas chamber in the foreground on the right. The roof of the gas chamber was 3 feet above ground. When the building was blown up, allegedly by the Germans, the roof collapsed. Elie Wiesel wrote in his book Night that the gas chambers were blown up on January 20, 1945, two days after the Germans marched the prisoners out of the camp.
This quote is from the New York Times article about Sholomo Venezia’s book:
It offers page after page of horrific detail:
¶ “Once they had taken off their clothes, the women went into the gas chamber and waited, thinking that they were in a shower. They couldn’t know where they really were.”
¶ “Finally, the German bringing the gas would arrive; it took two prisoners from the Sonderkommando to help him lift up the external trapdoor, above the gas chamber; then he introduced Zyklon B through the opening. The lid was made of very heavy cement. The German would never have bothered to lift it up himself, as it needed two of us. Sometimes, it was me, sometimes others.”
¶ “Once the gas had been thrown in, it lasted about 10 to 12 minutes, then finally you couldn’t hear anything, not a living soul.”
¶ “When the job of cutting the hair and pulling out the gold teeth had been completed, two people came to take the bodies and to load them onto the hoist that sent them up to the ground floor of the building, and the crematorium ovens.”
About 500,000 people, 90 percent of them Jews, were killed during Mr. Venezia’s nine months at Auschwitz, which ended on Jan. 18, 1945, when thousands of inmates were forced into a “death march” toward Germany. In all, about 2,900 prisoners served as sonderkommandos at the camp. There were about 950 during his internment, only 80 or 90 of whom were not themselves killed.
“We had turned into robots, obeying orders while trying not to think, so we could survive a few hours longer,” he said.
So the lids of the holes were made of heavy cement? Why didn’t the heavy cement lids survive the blast when the gas chamber was blown up? The rest of the roof is intact.
Wikipedia has an entry entitled Criticism of Holocaust denial. This quote is from that page of Wikipedia:
Another claim made by Holocaust deniers is that there were no vents in the gas chambers through which Zyklon B could be inserted.[34] The BBC offers a response showing that this requires disregard of much documentation:
Deniers have said for years that physical evidence is lacking because they have seen no holes in the roof of the Birkenau gas chamber where the Zyklon was poured in. (In some of the gas chambers the Zyklon B was poured in through the roof, while in others it was thrown in through the windows.) The roof was dynamited at war’s end, and today lies broken in pieces, but three of the four original holes were positively identified in a recent paper. Their location in the concrete matches with eyewitness testimony, aerial photos from 1944, and a ground photo from 1943. The physical evidence shows unmistakably that the Zyklon holes were cast into the concrete when the building was constructed.[35]
The photo below shows the blueprint of the Krema II building, which was found in Berlin after the war.
On the blueprint shown in the photo above, the undressing room is on the right. To the left of the undressing room is the above-ground oven room with the ovens designated by 5 squares. The gas chamber is perpendicular to the undressing room. On the blueprint, the gas chamber is labeled L-keller which is an abbreviation for Leichenkeller, which means corpse cellar in English. The undressing room was also called a Leichenkeller on the blueprint. Note that the length of the undressing room is two or three times as long as the length of the gas chamber. Shouldn’t the two rooms have been the same size?
There was an exterior entrance with a staircase on the north side of the building which led to the Vorraum of Krema II so that the SS men could enter Leichenkeller 1, the gas chamber, without going through Leichenkeller 2, which was the undressing room. In case of emergency, the gas chamber could be used as a bomb shelter for the SS men working in the area, since it had a gas-tight air raid shelter door.
The YouTube video below shows a square hole (at 2.32) which, a tour guide is telling visitors, was one of the holes through which the gas pellets were poured into the gas chamber. Note that the hole is near the side edge of the roof and it has a white lid, which is square. The lid does not look heavy enough to require two strong men to lift it. I did not see this hole, nor the lid, when I visited Auschwitz in 2005 and took many photos of the ruins of Krema II. I stood there for a long time, looking at the collapsed roof, but I missed the obvious square hole and the white lid. The YouTube video below was uploaded by Alan Heath on October 16, 2006.
Watch the YouTube video, starting at 3:30 and compare the collapsed roof of Krema II in the video with my photo of the ruins below. Tell me if you see a hole with a square lid in my photo.
Ruins of Krema II, looking North towards the International Monument.
The ruins, as shown in the YouTube video that was uploaded by Alan Heath in 2006, looked to me as if they were under some kind of reconstruction at the south end, which is the section that is out of range in my photo. This reconstruction was also there in October 2005 when I took the photo above.
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Is it so hard for these liars to understand that Zyclon B is a bug killer, NOT CYANIDE! (which makes them look so dumb!) Maybe if they said people were made to EAT it their story would be more believable! Still Zyclon B pellets would have to be dropped into a warm room before it would even work, so holes in the roof or cold weather would make it impossible for proper operating temperature to be achieved -ruining the whole process. I think it was proven that at this camp no gas was ever used right? If they did we could easily see it by its telltale blue stains in the area where it was used.Yet this guy is telling us he just dropped it in a vent like it was so simple to do!
Comment by Jim — July 25, 2016 @ 5:06 am
Shlomo Venezia: “it took two prisoners from the Sonderkommando to help him lift up the external trapdoor, above the gas chamber; then he introduced Zyklon B through the opening.
The lid was made of very heavy cement.
Olga Lengyel: “On the ceiling
of the chamber was a square opening, latticed and covered with glass.”
Shlomo Venezia: “two people came to take the bodies and to load them onto the hoist that sent them up to the ground floor of the building, and the crematorium ovens.”
(Wasn’t it a lift?)
Olga Lengyel: “As a rule, the corpses were so compressed and entangled that it was impossible to separate them.”
Disentangling all entwined bodies (soiled with blood and excrement), sorting them, carrying them to the hoist, lifting them and coming back took, say 5 minutes for each body; it means one full week (=10,080 minutes) was needed to merely emptying the room of its 2,000 corpses, (or 10 days for 3,000) at the condition these two people worked uninterruptedly 24/24.
Comment by Eager For Answers — October 8, 2012 @ 12:22 am
I think the key fact is that there is no evidence that introduction holes existed in the roof of the claimed ” gas chamber” . Some believers claim that the Germans filled these holes in November 1944. Anyone with elementary knowledge of concrete building will know this is absurd as you would still in 2012 be able to find where the holes had been if they had ever existed.
Comment by Pete — October 7, 2012 @ 4:37 pm
“but three of the four original holes were positively identified in a recent paper.”
“suppression of evidence […] the improper hiding of evidence by a prosecutor who is constitutionally required to reveal to the defense all evidence. Such suppression is a violation of the due process clause (5th Amendment, applied to states by the 14th Amendment) and may result in dismissal, mistrial or reversal on appeal, as well as contempt of court for the prosecutor.”
http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=2069&bold=%7C%7C%7C%7C
This “recent paper” would land anyone who attempted to introduce it into a U.S. trial in contempt of court.
There are just two German photos of Krema 2’s Leichenkeller 1. Just the two photos, not twenty, not two hundred, but JUST TWO. Despite this, the “recent paper” built their entire case on one, whilst it excluded the other from their report. As the photo they suppressed, completely, and utterly exposes their lies.
http://forum.codoh.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6801&start=45#p49516
The ink is still wet on that “recent paper”, it’s as dodgy as a $7 note.
Comment by The Black Rabbit of Inlé — October 7, 2012 @ 12:16 pm
So the Germans quite often ‘didn’t know how much gas to use’ and were ‘just teenagers’, we are told in this film. Obviously the systematic methodical organised German is quite a recent invention as they seemed to be nothing more than incompetent inexperienced ditherers when it came to exterminating the Jews
Comment by DB — October 7, 2012 @ 11:51 am
The square hole and lid have been put in place in the last two years no doubt though the guides will be telling visitors that they are original.
much is also made of the Germans blowing up the ” Gas chamber” in January 1945. Actually during their retreat anything of military value was destroyed as part of the scorched earth policy. These were after all underground shelters which could have provided safe storage facilities for an enemy and that is why they were blown up.
Comment by Pete — October 7, 2012 @ 11:46 am
Pete, I appreciate your early warning about being completely unambiguous when posting here, as Herb might once again mistake me for a Defender of the Faith.
But in regard to the destruction of the crematoriums at Birkenau:
The NYT reported in June 1944:
“The report said that the victims were dragged to gas chambers in the notorious German concentration camps at Birkenau and Oswiecim.”
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C1EFD3859147B93C2AB178DD85F408485F9
The Germans would have been well aware that the Allies were claiming they had gassed millions of Jews at the Auschwitz camps. Plus the German had been on the receiving end of a propaganda spanking in the summer of 1944, when the Soviets captured Majdanek at passed off all types of innocuous structures as homicidal gas chambers, with doors that were sealed with mud and slime.
http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/hitler-reacts-to-news-of-his-death-camp.html
http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/100-proof-nazis-gassed-jews.html
The Germans had every reason for destroying the crematoria. They knew American Jewry were claiming these crematoria were gas chambers, and that their brethren in the USSR would fill-their-gruelpropaganda-boots with, if they could get their hands on them. That’s why the Germans destroyed the Birkenau crematoria.
Comment by The Black Rabbit of Inlé — October 7, 2012 @ 12:42 pm
I suspect that the square hole has been put in place recently. The video shows that a sign has been put near the steps down into the undressing room, which forbids tourists from going down the steps. The photos that I took in 2005 do not show that sign. I recall that I went down those steps. So this video was made some time after 2005. The lid for the square hole looks too white to me. After 67 years of exposure to the severe weather in Poland, it is still in pristine condition. I would have noticed it in 2005 because it stands out, due to the whiteness of the lid.
I don’t believe that the Germans blew up the gas chamber buildings. I think they were blown up by the Soviet soldiers who “liberated” the camp.
Comment by furtherglory — October 7, 2012 @ 2:02 pm
The Auschwitz museum probably had those made up recently based on this one:
“Document 46 (Photo by the author) Concrete cover with metal handle, weighing about 20 kg, originally made for the manhole of document 44 and 45, now next to the remains of an opening on the roof of Leichenkeller 1 (the gas chamber) of Krematorium II, through which Zyklon B was poured.”
– Pressac’s Auschwitz: Technique & Operation, p.229
http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/pressac/technique-and-operation/pressac0229.shtml
This is the thing he claims was a cover to one of the Zyklon B chimneys (original on previous page of linked page above):
The Soviet puppet regime in Poland once installed a “belvedere” on the ruins of Krema 2 (document 100).
http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/pressac/technique-and-operation/pressac0262.shtml
That video is made by our old friend Alan Heath. He uploaded it 2006, probably soon after he shot it.
Yeah, I know you believe the Soviets blew up the kremas, I’ve officially given up trying to convince you otherwise. We’ll have to agree to disagree.
Comment by The Black Rabbit of Inlé — October 7, 2012 @ 3:16 pm
Sorry. I’ve misportrayed Jean-Claude Pressac in the above.
Pressac didn’t claim it was a Zyklon B chimney cover, he claimed it was a manhole cover, but the Auschwitz museum had left it on the roof to imply it was a Zyklon B chimney cover.
Comment by The Black Rabbit of Inlé — October 7, 2012 @ 3:24 pm
I am basing my opinion, that the Soviets blew up the gas chambers, on the fact that the Germans abandoned the camp and marched 60,000 prisoners out on January 18, 1945. Then they allegedly came back TWICE and blew up the gas chambers before the Soviets arrived on January 27, 1945 to liberate the camp. We know that the Soviets were in the area on January 17, 1945, and that is why the Germans abandoned the camp on January 18, 1945.
If the Germans had thought it necessary to blow up the crematoria, they would have done it in November 1944 when they allegedly removed the ovens with cranes. The gassing allegedly stopped in November 1944, but the Germans allegedly waited for two months before blowing up the buildings. That is so un-German. The German people are not procrastinators. They plan everything carefully and take great pains to do everything the right way.
If the Germans had waited for two months before blowing up the gas chambers, and then were forced to go back to the camp after marching the prisoners out, they would have brought enough dynamite with them the first time they came back. Going back twice to blow up the gas chambers is so un-German.
Comment by furtherglory — October 7, 2012 @ 4:50 pm
I would again contend that the Germans did indeed blow the crematoria up before they evacuated Auschwitz. They waited until the Red Army was on the doorstep before evacuating the camp. However no sinister implication can be implied as the crematoria with large underground shelters against air raid attack were of military importance. Have a look at this Wochenschau at 10.20 mins. They were blowing up all sorts of things on their retreat if it could be considered of military value.
Comment by Pete — October 8, 2012 @ 2:13 am
I watched the first part of the video before skipping to 10.20 to watch the dynamiting of buildings. In the first part, the Germans are shown picking some kind of leaves in the field. Notice how organized and precise they are in doing this work. Then I watched the dynamiting of buildings of military value, and noticed that everything was blown to smithereens. The Krema II building was not completely blown up. The gas chamber itself was left almost intact, so that it can still be entered today and the roof is almost intact except that the holes are gone. The roof of the undressing room in Krema II is gone, but not the roof of the gas chamber. Since the Germans allegedly came back to the camp twice, why didn’t they do a more thorough job of blowing up the gas chambers?
Comment by furtherglory — October 8, 2012 @ 6:12 am
The so called gas chamber or leichenkeller at krema 2 was underground and made of reinforced concrete to double as an air raid shelter. It would have been impossible to blow it to smithereens rather like the allied attempts to demolish the huge concrete flak bunkers post war in Berlin. However imploding them and making them unusable as shelters was the aim and this was achieved
Comment by Pete — October 8, 2012 @ 7:26 am
The peasants picking are Serbs and the leaves are being dried? tobacco
Comment by Pete — October 8, 2012 @ 7:36 am
“much is also made of the Germans blowing up the ” Gas chamber” in January 1945. Actually during their retreat anything of military value was destroyed as part of the scorched earth policy. These were after all underground shelters which could have provided safe storage facilities for an enemy and that is why they were blown up.”
You need to see the Soviet and Allied anti-nazi propaganda after Majdanek was liberated if you want to understand why the Nazis destroyed their Kremas at Auschwitz. It was a horror propaganda mainly based on pictures of crematory ovens. When they destroyed their Kremas the Nazis destroyed Soviet propaganda weapons used against them. Ironically the only rooms that were only partially damaged in the Kremas were the alleged “gas chambers” and “undressing rooms”. There exists pictures of the interior the partially damaged morgues (the alleged “gas chambers” and ‘undressing rooms”). So the Nazis totally destroyed everything but the only rooms they supposely wanted to hide.
IMO the Nazis knew that the Soviets would say that any room was in fact a former “gas chamber” (they probably didn’t think the Soviet propagandists would be believed during a so long time). In their 1st report after Auschwitz was liberated, the Soviet propagandists located and reported the famous “Nazi gas chambers” of their propaganda in the Eastern part of the Auschwitz complex (Monowitz) and not in the Central and Western parts like it’s said today (Auschwitz I and Birkenau) (See Boris Polevoi’s report in the Pravda).
Comment by hermod — October 13, 2012 @ 8:15 am