As stated earlier, forensic samples of brick, mortar, concrete and sediment were selectively taken from sites in Poland.108 Cyanide and cyanide com-pounds may remain in a given location for long periods of time109 and, if they do not react with other chemicals, may migrate around in brick and mortar.110
Thirty-one samples were selectively removed from the alleged gas chambers at Kremas I, II, III, IV and V. A control sample was taken from delousing facility #1 at Birkenau.111 The control sample was removed from a delousing chamber in a location where cyanide was known to have been used and was apparently present as blue staining. Chemical testing of the control sample
105 This is true, as the oven doors were too small to introduce multiple corpses (60 cm × 60 cm, with a circular arch at the top and rollers for the corpse stretcher at the bottom, reducing the usable height even further). Not even an average coffin would have fitted through these doors.
106 The gas generators (fire places) of the Auschwitz ovens were designed to produce only the heat required to incinerate one corpse per muffle. That would still allow to place more than one corpse into each muf-fle, but the initial heat required to evaporate the body water could not be delivered by these generators, hence the muffles would cool down, which in turn slows down the cremation process. Also, once the body water has evaporated, the excess heat created by several corpses burning in one muffle would su-perheat those muffles and subsequently the flues and chimneys, potentially damaging them.
107 Based on the assumption that coke ovens do not only have to be shut down, cleaned, and refired every day, but also that maintenance and repairs reduce the real operation time further. Leuchter’s assumption of only 44% operation time is somewhat theoretical, but as shown by Mattogno’s study (note 101), it is not unreasonable.
108 The way Leuchter took his samples has been criticized. For some footage of his sample taking, see Errol Morris’ VHS video Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter (VHS: Universal Studios 2001;
DVD: Lions Gate Home Entertainment, 2003); cf. William Halvorsen, “Morris Shines a Light on Fred Leuchter,” The Revisionist, no. 3, 2000 (www.vho.org/tr/2000/3/tr03leuchter.html). For example, in one cases Leuchter picked up a brick fragment out of a water puddle in the collapsed morgue 1 of Krema II.
Neither are bricks likely to form long-term stable iron cyanide compounds, nor can safely be said what the exact origin and history of the brick fragment is Leuchter fished out of the puddle.
109 This is particularly true for iron cyanide compounds of the type called Iron Blue, also often referred to as Prussian Blue, Berlin Blue, Turnbull’s Blue, among others. They are basically indestructible. See the long-term stability test conducted by J.M. Kape, E.C. Mills, Transaction of the Institute for Metal Fin-ishings, 35 (1958), pp. 353-384; ibid., 59 (1981), pp. 35-39; for more details on the stability of these compounds see my expert report, op. cit. (note 60), pp. 170-180.
110 It is true for the precursors of Iron Blue: alkaline and alkaline earth metal salts of ferro- and ferricya-nides. The effects of this migration can bee seen in Zyklon B delousing chambers, where these com-pounds accumulated at certain spots of the wall’s surface and eventually turned into the blue Iron Blue, see the illustrations in my expert report, ibid., color inserts, as well as the discussion on pp. 258-268.
111 Leuchter means the Zyklon B delousing wing of building BW5a in construction sector BAIa of Birke-nau. There is another similar building BW5b in construction sector BAIb.
#32 showed a cyanide content of 1050 mg/kg, a very heavy con-centration. The conditions at ar-eas from which these samples were taken are identical with those of the control sample, cold, dark and wet. Only Kremas IV and V differed,112 in that these locations had sunlight (the
build-ings have been torn down) and sunlight may hasten the destruction of uncom-plexed cyanide.113 The cyanide combines with the iron in the mortar and brick and becomes ferric-ferro-cyanide or prussian blue pigment,114 a very stable iron-cyanide complex.109
The locations from which the analyzed samples were removed are set out in Table 3.
It is notable that almost all the samples were negative and that the few that were positive were very close to the detection level (1 mg/kg);115 6.7 mg/kg at Krema III; 79 mg/kg at Krema I.116 The absence of any consequential readings at any of the tested locations, as compared with the control sample reading 1050 mg/kg, supports the evidence that these facilities were not execution gas chambers. The small quantities detected would indicate that at some point these buildings were deloused with Zyklon B – as were all the buildings at all these facilities.117
Additionally, the areas of blue staining show a high iron content,118 indicat-ing ferric-ferro-cyanide, no longer hydrogen cyanide.119
112 Since the origin of the building material of the re-erected wall fragments of Krema IV and V is un-known, these samples cannot be interpreted (see note 76).
113 Sunlight has only a very marginal effect on the destruction of Iron Blue, but environmental influence does hasten the reaction from precursor compounds to the extremely stable Iron Blue, see my expert re-port, op. cit. (note 60), pp. 176f., 258-265.
114 On the exact mechanism for this, including excess cyanide as a necessary agent to reduce FeIII-cyanide (ferrocyanide) to FeII-cyanide (ferricyanide), see my expert report, ibid., pp. 159-170, 180-189.
115 The detection level of 1 mg/kg for this method was determined for liquid samples. Because building material samples are solid and usually contain large amounts of carbonates (mortar, cement, concrete), which can disturb the method, the detection level is probably considerably higher than 1 mg/kg. Re-peated analysis of mortar and concrete samples showing result of lower than 10 mg/kg have shown this to be true, since the results could not be verified. It is therefore most appropriate to state that test result of solid samples under 10 mg/kg cannot be interpreted properly and ought to be considered zero. See my expert report, ibid., pp. 253, 258.
116 It should be noted that Leuchter’s sample no. 28 (1.3 mg cyanide per kg) was accidentally taken at a location that was not part of the morgue during the war, which is claimed to have been a homicidal gas chamber. Rather, this wall was part of the washing room, where no application of Zyklon B is claimed to have occurred. This emphasizes the importance and correctness of my previous note.
117 Considering the impossibility to interpret these small values, the proper evaluation would be that they do not conclusively prove the use of Zyklon B in these rooms at all.
118 The iron content analyzed in this sample is not noticeably higher than in other samples with lacking blue staining (see my expert report, op. cit. (note 60), pp. 254f.). Building materials like bricks, concrete, and mortar naturally have an iron content of this order of magnitude (1 to 3 percent). It stems from the
in-Table 3: Locations of Analyzed Samples Auschwitz I:
Krema I: samples #25 through #31 Birkenau (Auschwitz II):
Krema II: samples #1 through #7 Krema III: samples #8 through #11 Krema IV: samples #13 through #20 Krema V: samples #21 through #24
Sample #12 is a gasket sample from the Sauna at Birkenau Sample #32 is the Control Sample obtained from Delousing Facility #1, Birkenau
One would have expected higher cyanide detection in the samples taken from the alleged gas chambers (because of the greater amount of gas allegedly utilized there120) than that found in the control sample.121 Since the contrary is true, one must conclude that these facilities were not execution gas chambers, when coupled with all the other evidence gained on inspection.
Evidence as to Krema function is non-existent since Krema I’s oven has been completely rebuilt, Kremas II and III are partially destroyed, with com-ponents missing and Kremas IV and V are gone.122 At Majdanek, one Krema is completely gone and the second Krema has been rebuilt, except for the ov-ens. Visual inspection of the memorial ash heap at Majdanek shows ash of a strange beige color. Actual human-remains ash (as per the author’s own inves-tigations) is oyster gray. There may be some sand in the mixture at the memo-rial at Majdanek.
Additionally, the author will discuss the alleged burning (cremation) pits in this section.
The author personally inspected and photographed the burning pits at Birke-nau. Most remarkable about those pits is a high water table – perhaps as high as 1.5 feet from the surface. The historical description of these pits is that they were 6 meters (19.55 feet) deep.123 It is not possible to burn corpses under water, even with the use of an artificial accelerant (gasoline). All pit locations officially designated on museum maps were inspected and as anticipated, since Birkenau was constructed on a swamp, all locations had water within 2 feet of the surface. It is the opinion of this author that no burning pits existed at Birkenau.124
gredients clay (for brick), cement and sand (for concrete and mortar), which have an iron oxide content of up to 5%. See my expert report, op. cit. (note 60), pp. 180f., 183, 185.
119 Hydrogen cyanide, being a highly volatile and chemically rather unstable liquid, could not be expected to be found some 50 years after its application. It should read: “no longer less stable cyanide salts.”
120 The few witnesses who made statements about the amount of Zyklon B used claimed similar amounts as used during disinfestations; see my expert report, op. cit. (note 60), p. 211. However, the brief execution times claimed by many more witnesses, in connection with the technical features of the alleged gas chambers, suggest that the applied poison gas must have been considerably higher than what was used during disinfestations; see my expert report, op. cit. (note 60), p. 208-216; see also chapter 4.3. of this section.
121 Leuchter jumps to conclusions here. In order to expect higher concentration in homicidal gas chambers than in disinfestations, not only the applied amount of poison gas must be considered, but also the time, during which the walls were exposed to the gas, as well as the kind of physical and chemical condition of the wall material, which can have drastic effects on the amount of long-term stable cyanide residues formed. See chapter 4.3. for more details.
122 With the help of the detailed documentation available about the Auschwitz cremation facilities and other similar facilities of Third Reich Germany, the function of the Auschwitz crematoria can very well be es-tablished, see chapter 4.4. for more details.
123 Witness statements for Auschwitz vary between 1.50 m and 3 m. S. Dragon: 3 m (J.-C. Pressac, op. cit.
(note 35), p. 171.); M. Nyiszli: 3 yards (ibid., p. 177.); M. Benroubi: 2.50 m (ibid., p. 162); F. Müller: 2 m (Filip Müller, Sonderbehandlung, Steinhausen, Munich 1979, p. 207.); M. Garbarz: 1.50 m (J.-C.
Pressac, ibid., p. 164).
124 This was confirmed by two scientific studies on the question whether or not the groundwater table was that high during the war as well; see Michael Gärtner, Werner Rademacher, “Ground Water in the Area