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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leuchter report | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuchter_report | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:22:18.136628+00:00 | kb-cron |
Leuchter incorrectly assumed that the gas chambers were not ventilated. The basement gas chambers of Crematoria II and III were mechanically ventilated via motors in the roof space of the main crematorium structure capable of extracting the remaining gas and renewing the air every three to four minutes. When ventilation was not used such as in Crematoria IV and V (although a ventilation system was later installed in Crematorium V in May 1944), Sonderkommando prisoners wore gas masks when removing the bodies. When presented in court with a document by the chief Auschwitz architect SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Bischoff, Leuchter misconstrued aeration (Belüftung) and ventilation (Entlüftung) as part of the furnace blower systems, when they were actually in reference to the ventilation channels in the walls that straddle the gas chambers. These are visible on blueprints, and can still partly be seen in the ruined east wall of the Crematorium III gas chamber.
==== Body disposal ====
Leuchter was also prepared to act as expert witness regarding crematoria ovens despite admitting during cross examination that he had no expert knowledge. Leuchter presented his own estimate of 156 corpses as the total daily incineration capacity of the installations at Auschwitz. During cross-examination, he was presented with a letter written by the Auschwitz Central Construction Office (Auschwitz Zentralbauleitung) of June 28, 1943, from SS-Sturmbannführer Jahrling to SS-Brigadeführer Hans Kammler stating that the five crematoria installations had a collective daily capacity of 4,756 corpses. Leuchter conceded that this was quite different from his own figure, and that he had never seen the document in question before. A patent application by the makers of the ovens, (both of which were made during the war) and two independent testimonies confirmed the capacity of the crematoria. The 4,756 figure is evidence of the Nazis equipping a camp of a maximum of 125,000 prisoners with the facility to cremate 140,000 of them per month. Critics of Leuchter explain that this reveals extermination was the true purpose of Auschwitz: a camp with the capacity to reduce its entire population to ash on a monthly basis was not merely a benign internment camp. At various times (such as in the summer of 1944 when the crematoria couldn't keep up with the extermination rate), bodies were burnt in open-air pits. Accordingly, the capacity of the crematoria was never a limiting factor, and the pits yielded practically no limit to the number of corpses that could be burnt.
== See also == Jean-Claude Pressac Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
== References ==
== Bibliography == Lipstadt, Deborah. Denying the Holocaust – The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. Free Press, 1993, ISBN 0-02-919235-8
== External links == The Leuchter Report by Fred Leuchter Rebuttal of The Leuchter Report at the Nizkor Project