On Tue, 14 Jun 1994 18:52:55 -0700 Abigail Miriam Feder said: >> >> My impression was that the showers at the death camps were not connected >> to water at all; they were for the exclusive use of gassing people. (I >> wish I could quote a source, but oh well...) The inclusion of that shower >> scene for dramatic purposes undercuts the fact of the death camps, in my >> opinion. I assume there were "real" showers in the labor camps, but in >> this film, which was not about the labor camps, they only cloud the issue. >> >> >> Marti *** [log in to unmask] *** Film Studies Program >> > >I, too, was appalled by this scene. But then I asked a survivor of Auschwitz > and she told me that those who were not killed immdiately were showered and > deloused. This she said because the Germans abhored filth. At the same time, > I still think the scene left open a place for revisionists to say the gas > chambers masking as showers did not exist. > >Abigail Feder Northwestern University > e-mail: [log in to unmask] One of our Professors, Robert Jan van Pelt has been working with the archives of the Architects' Office from Auchwitz. When the Soviet Army reached the camp the Germans tried to destroy the evidence but for some reason forgot the architects' office files. These files include the blurprints for the camps, the barracks, crematoria, gas chambers, and the industrial complex at Birkenau. As well as the working drawings and finished blueprints, there were weekly progress reports that have also survived. The gas chambers were originally designed as autopsy rooms attached to the crematoria and built partly underground so that bodies of people killed else where (mainly by shooting at that time) could be slid down a ramp for processing (removal of gold teeth, hair, etc) before burning. When Himmler decided that shooting was too inefficent and too hard emotionally on the executioners the SS looked for a 'better' way to kill. The Zyklon B gas that was used for pest control and delousing was tested and adopted. The autopsy rooms, because they had a good ventilation system to extract the gas, were redesigned to become killing chambers, the slide for dead bodies was replaced with stairs for living victims, as well as other modifications. The Zyklon B came as a pellet that only became a gas at a certain temperature and was poured in through hatches in the roof. The pellets became gas due to the heat from the prisoners bodies. In winter more people had to be packed in to raise the temperature high enough. Those not scheduled for death were packed into wooden barracks, there were real showers in buildings built for the purpose. You can tell which they were because they were built away from the crematoria, amongst the barracks and had windows. When the Germans retreated they tried to destroy the evidence by blowing up the gas chambers and crematoria, but with the blueprints you can see from the remains how everything worked. Dr van Pelt just finished a BBC HORIZON documentary called THE ARCHITECTURE OF GENOCIDE and has just finished shooting a segment for NOVA who are versioning the BBC program for broadcast on PBS (probably for the fall season). It is very fascinating. He is just starting to work on the documents and plans relating to the industrial complex, a synthetic rubber plant, pharmacutical plant, synthetic fuel, coal mines. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Mark Ritchie | Tel: (519) 888-4070 Media Librarian | Fax: (519) 888-6197 Audio-Visual Centre | University of Waterloo | Internet: [log in to unmask] "I was just out of college and still believed in classifications and categories" - Jean Renoir -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-