Stark
02-08-2010, 09:44 AM
I have been (and still are) reading a lot about the third reich (naturaly since I am German) I have kind of taken a backstep of trying to read it all - there is just too much that was going on in that time frame.
So since a couple of years I am reading every German book (which are the best in my opinion) about the Concentration camps - there are many many good german books out there - first hand accounts and also very sientific books - I just stumbled appon this image and though I share this out.
Gas chamber not sure what Concentration camp but I am trying to find out.
Here is a small account from myself on what I have read – beware some of the below text is very harsh and hard to read:
When the 2000 or so less people were finished taking of their cloth and when finally everybody was in the chamber and the doors were locked a member of the SS (it was always a member of the SS never a prisoner) who arrived in a red cross vehicle with only a few cans of Cyclon B (they never stored them in the close proximity of the Gas chambers and places of kremation) would get on top of the building and open the can with a special too.
He would pour the cyclon B (which is creating a gas when getting in contact with air) into the holes on the roof - which in return fell down the pillars (there were small holes in them) and killed the people standing right beside these pillars straiht away) the gas would be most leathal on the ground and children and would die first - it did take very little time for the remaining people to understand what was going on and they tried to climb on top of each other to escape the gas - after approximately 15 min max everybody in the gas chamber was dead and the Sonderkommando (special commando) which contained mostly greek and other jews would starte the ventilation - a few minutes later - a few members of the special commando with gas masks would open the doors.
Since the gas was still trapped at some places on the ground via gas pockets these members would also be the first to enter the gas chamber.
When all the gas was gone they would start using water to wash down small pockets of gas - and the rest of the commando who was far away (even the slightest contact with the gas would make you cough for weeks) would start using hocks and leather straps to pull the dead people outside (by then most of the cloth shoes and other left behinds have been brought away to a place in the Concentration camp called Kanada) – the removal of the dead was very hard work since (as explained before) they dead were not lined up but in the state of panic tried to climb on top of each other – children the weak woman and the elder were always on the bottom and the strongest were on top.
Due to the pain and suffering most of the deceased also soiled themselves which made it very unpleasant to touch them with bare hands.
The removal took very long (a couple of hours) which is no surprise since at times 2000 or more were killed together, at the beginning removal was easier because the bodies were still warm but as time passes on it became increasingly hard to separate the bodies that in their last moment tried to hold on to their loved once it was so hard that at times they had to break limbs with a special tool.
The bodies were brought to the first floor via a lift to the Krematorium – prisoners would have to take their hair off (which was used as bomb timers) and Dentist prisoners were to take off the gold teeth , when that was done other prisoners had to put two dead beside each other and a third one in the opposite direction on a metal tray.
The metal tray which the bodies lied on was pushed in the flames and with a fork held into place so that the tray was pulled back the bodies fell into the fire – due to the high temperature it took around 20 min to burn three bodies.
All remaining bones were taken to a special place were other prisoners put them through a bone mill.
It is of importance to notice that surviving members of the special commando (they were each killed on average every six month and replaced with new prisoners) testified that they very rarely had to start a fire since they were burning nonstop.
The SS was afraid of the Special Commando since it was very well known to them that they lived on borrowed time – they also never interfered when members of the Sonder commando took cloth and food for themselves – only all other valuables like rings and watches and such things when found had to be dropped off immediately – at times members were caught stealing such items were either shot immediately or even burned alife.
I will write some more later…
So since a couple of years I am reading every German book (which are the best in my opinion) about the Concentration camps - there are many many good german books out there - first hand accounts and also very sientific books - I just stumbled appon this image and though I share this out.
Gas chamber not sure what Concentration camp but I am trying to find out.
Here is a small account from myself on what I have read – beware some of the below text is very harsh and hard to read:
When the 2000 or so less people were finished taking of their cloth and when finally everybody was in the chamber and the doors were locked a member of the SS (it was always a member of the SS never a prisoner) who arrived in a red cross vehicle with only a few cans of Cyclon B (they never stored them in the close proximity of the Gas chambers and places of kremation) would get on top of the building and open the can with a special too.
He would pour the cyclon B (which is creating a gas when getting in contact with air) into the holes on the roof - which in return fell down the pillars (there were small holes in them) and killed the people standing right beside these pillars straiht away) the gas would be most leathal on the ground and children and would die first - it did take very little time for the remaining people to understand what was going on and they tried to climb on top of each other to escape the gas - after approximately 15 min max everybody in the gas chamber was dead and the Sonderkommando (special commando) which contained mostly greek and other jews would starte the ventilation - a few minutes later - a few members of the special commando with gas masks would open the doors.
Since the gas was still trapped at some places on the ground via gas pockets these members would also be the first to enter the gas chamber.
When all the gas was gone they would start using water to wash down small pockets of gas - and the rest of the commando who was far away (even the slightest contact with the gas would make you cough for weeks) would start using hocks and leather straps to pull the dead people outside (by then most of the cloth shoes and other left behinds have been brought away to a place in the Concentration camp called Kanada) – the removal of the dead was very hard work since (as explained before) they dead were not lined up but in the state of panic tried to climb on top of each other – children the weak woman and the elder were always on the bottom and the strongest were on top.
Due to the pain and suffering most of the deceased also soiled themselves which made it very unpleasant to touch them with bare hands.
The removal took very long (a couple of hours) which is no surprise since at times 2000 or more were killed together, at the beginning removal was easier because the bodies were still warm but as time passes on it became increasingly hard to separate the bodies that in their last moment tried to hold on to their loved once it was so hard that at times they had to break limbs with a special tool.
The bodies were brought to the first floor via a lift to the Krematorium – prisoners would have to take their hair off (which was used as bomb timers) and Dentist prisoners were to take off the gold teeth , when that was done other prisoners had to put two dead beside each other and a third one in the opposite direction on a metal tray.
The metal tray which the bodies lied on was pushed in the flames and with a fork held into place so that the tray was pulled back the bodies fell into the fire – due to the high temperature it took around 20 min to burn three bodies.
All remaining bones were taken to a special place were other prisoners put them through a bone mill.
It is of importance to notice that surviving members of the special commando (they were each killed on average every six month and replaced with new prisoners) testified that they very rarely had to start a fire since they were burning nonstop.
The SS was afraid of the Special Commando since it was very well known to them that they lived on borrowed time – they also never interfered when members of the Sonder commando took cloth and food for themselves – only all other valuables like rings and watches and such things when found had to be dropped off immediately – at times members were caught stealing such items were either shot immediately or even burned alife.
I will write some more later…