A consideration of crematories, both old and new, must be made to deter-mine the functionality of the German Kremas at accomplishing their attributed tasks.101
96 The chamber was initially designed and used as a hot air disinfestations chamber, and as such it did not need a ventilation system. See C. Mattogno, J. Graf, ibid., pp. 146, 149.
97 This chamber had an opening in the wall and could therefore not be used for any process where poison-ous gas is released, ibid., pp. 147f., 308.
98 Since its walls have blue staining from iron blue, this proves the use of HCN in this room at some point, although only for the purpose of killing lice, because this room had no opening to insert Zyklon B from the outside; ibid., pp. 144, 307.
99 There is no need to put rooms under pressure in order to reach a certain percentage of CO. It is claimed that the rooms were filled with CO from steel bottles via steel pipes. The latter are still visible in these two rooms (ibid., pp. 293, 307). However, the fact that one of these rooms had an opening in the wall that cold not be closed proves that the steel pipes did not serve to fill the room with anything poisonous.
Also, the steel bottle presented today in this location, which the Majdanek Museum claims to be an original bottle, clearly states “CO2” as its original content. CO2 is not poisonous! Ibid., p. 145.
100 It is not certain whether this depressed walkway is an original feature or if it was added after the war.
However, because HCN – in contrast to most other poisonous gases – is slightly lighter than air, it is not likely that it would accumulate in such a place.
101 For a historical overview of the development of cremation in Germany see C. Mattogno, “The Cremato-ria Ovens of Auschwitz and Birkenau,” in: Germar Rudolf, op. cit. (note 68), pp. 373-412, here pp. 375-378.
Cremation of the dead is not a new concept. It has been practiced by many cultures for many centuries. Although practiced several thousand years ago, it was frowned upon by the Catholic Church and not practiced recently until the Church relaxed its opposition in the latter part of the 18th century.
Cremation was forbidden by Orthodox Judaism. By the early 1800’s Europe was again practicing cremation on a limited basis. It becomes advantageous to control disease, free up much needed land in crowded areas and eliminate the need for storing corpses in winter when the ground is frozen. Europe’s early crematories were coal or coke fired furnaces.
The oven or furnace which is used to cremate corpses is properly termed a retort. Early retorts were merely ovens which cooked all the moisture out of the corpse and reduced it to ash. Bones cannot be burned and must be pulver-ized, even today. The early mortar and pestle has been replaced by a crushing machine, however.102 Modern retorts are mostly gas fired, although some are still supplied for oil. None are still fired by coke or coal in the United States or Canada.
Earlier retorts were simply a drying or baking kiln and simply dried the hu-man remains. Modern retorts of brick-lined steel actually blow fire from a nozzle onto the remains setting them afire, causing combustion and rapid burning. Modern retorts also have a second or afterburner for reburning all the pollutants in the combusted gaseous material. This second burner is a re-quirement set by the various state agencies responsible for air pollution. It should be noted that the human remains are not responsible for the pollution.
It is caused entirely by the fossil fuels used. An electric retort, although cost prohibitive to run, would have no pollutants.
These modern retorts or crematories burn at a temperature of 2000+ degrees Fahrenheit, with an afterburner temperature of 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. This high temperature causes the body to combust and consume itself, allowing for the burner to be shut down. Wooden caskets and paper boxes are burned with the body today, although not in the past, with no added time of burning due to the high temperature. Some European units are operated at a traditional lower temperature of 800 degrees Centigrade (1472 degrees Fahrenheit) and for a longer time period.
At 2000 degrees Fahrenheit or more with a 2500 cfm blowered air supply from the outside, modern retorts will cremate one corpse in 1.25 hours. Theo-retically, this is 19.2 in a 24 hour time period. Factory recommendation for normal operation and sustained use allows for three (3) or less cremations per
102 The organic parts of bones do burn, if the oven temperature is sufficiently high, leaving a very brittle inorganic skeleton behind which decays to mere ashes at the slightest touch, often already by itself.
day. Older, oil, coal and
retort and all controls are electric and automatic. The coal and coke fired fur-naces did not burn at an even temperature (approximately 1600 degrees Fahr-enheit max.) and had to be constantly fed fuel by hand and dampered up and down. Since there was no direct application of flame to the corpse, the blower only fanned the flames and increased the temperature of the kiln. This crude mode of operation probably produced an average temperature of about 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.104
The crematories utilized at the inspected German facilities were of the older type. They were constructed of red brick and mortar and lined with a refrac-tory brick. All of the ovens had multiple retorts, some were blowered
103 This is not correct. In civil crematories, the next corpse – usually placed in a coffin, which slows down the cremation by shielding the corpse from the oven heat for some time – is inserted into a muffle only after the previous one was incinerated completely and its ashes were removed. That procedure was most certainly not followed in Auschwitz during times of emergency caused by raging typhus epidemics.
First, the Auschwitz oven muffles were too small to allow the insertion of coffins. Furthermore, the next corpse could be inserted after most body parts of the previous corpse had fallen through the grill into the post-combustion chamber (ash chamber) underneath the muffle. This process could take considerably less than one hour, depending on the oven design. The ovens in Auschwitz could not quite reach such short cremation times, but with roughly one hour they were still much faster than what Leuchter claims.
For details see the study by. C. Mattogno, op. cit. (note 101). This renders all of Fred Leuchter’s follow-ing calculation irrelevant for Auschwitz and Majdanek.
104 Temperatures could actually reach 1600°F (870°C)
Table 2: Theoretical and Real-time Estimated Maximum 24 Hour Crematory Outputs Krema I: 3 furnaces, 2 retorts each
6 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 40.8 6 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 18 Krema II: 5 furnaces, 3 retorts each
15 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 102.0 15 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 45 Krema III: 5 furnaces, 3 retorts each
15 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 102.0 15 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 45 Krema IV: 2 furnaces, 4 retorts each
8 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 54.4 8 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 24 Krema V: 2 furnaces, 4 retorts each
8 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 54.4 8 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 24 Majdanek I: 2 furnaces, 1 retorts each
2 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 13.6 2 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 6 Majdanek I: 5 furnaces, 3 retorts each
15 retorts × 6.8 corpses ... 102.0 6 retorts × 3 corpses ... ... 45 Total Bodies Cremated in 24 hours
(theoretical)... 469 Total Bodies Cremated in 24 hours
(real-time)... ....207
though none had direct combustion), none had afterburners and all were coke fired except one facility no longer in existence at Majdanek. None of the re-torts inspected and examined at all of the locations were designed for multiple corpse incineration.105 It should be noted that unless specifically designed for a greater bone to flesh to heat ratio, the retort will not consume the materials placed within it.106 Theoretical and real-time107 estimated maximum 24 hour outputs, based on one (1) corpse per retort per cremation are found in Table 2.