Ernst
Zündel Replies:Rebuttal # 42:
Ernst
Zündel Replies:I have done extensive research to inform myself first-hand on that question.
Have you?
I started my research by consulting one of Toronto's most modern crematories,
then went on to study the entire history of cremation through the ages.
I consulted especially the Encyclopedia Brittanica, going back over 120
years relating to the evolution of cremation.
I next obtained copies of all the German patents of crematory equipment
and ovens - pre-war, wartime and post-war - in preparation for my trials.
Here is the story of the concentration crematories:
Most crematories, even today, still require 2 1/2 to 3 hours for the entire
process. The size of the body, the type of container that holds the body,
and the type of crematory affect the cremation time, depending on the efficiency
of the furnace, moisture content, bulk, weight and size of the cadaver
to be cremated.
Additionally, speed of cremation depends on such things as necessary cooling-down
periods for the actual oven, called a retort, between individual cremations,
rebuilding and re-bricking of crematoria, breaking-in periods of new crematoria
etc.
One important point is that if a corpse is prematurely inserted into an
improperly cooled-down retort, the body will literally explode from the
intense heat and damage the very fragile, special refractory brick, causing
the shut-down of the entire crematorium.
In other words, the entire crematoria story stands and falls on technology.
And here it is important to note that the cremation technology in the 1940s
was virtually the same as it is today.
Nizkor claims that ". . . more recently, the Holocaust-deniers have
begun to rely on the testimony of Ivan Lagace, who apparently said at the
Zundel trial and later in print that it takes six to eight hours per body.
. . "
Lagace
said no such thing. Lagace gave highly expert testimony. Lagace had overseen
the burial or cremation of 10,000 corpses in his career as the director
of the Calgary, Alberta crematorium. Nizkor should have started with Lagace,
whose testimony, summarized precisely, can be found at http://www.webcom.com/ezunde/english/dsmrd/dsmrd26lagace.html
As stated before, Carlo Mattagno of Italy has compiled an extensive
bibliography which is available to anybody serious about finding answers
to highly technical questions pertaining to cremation. Additionally, anybody
interested in this macabre topic should go to the trouble of consulting
any good Encyclopedia or the local crematory in their city or region. They
will be in for an awakening and be shocked how they have been lied to by
the Holocaust propagandists.
This rebuttal is not the place to cite such information extensively, but
it is available and can be checked and double-checked for all those truly
interested. Write to Granata Publishing, P.O. Box 2145, Palos Verdes, CA
90274.
Below, I will just quote a few passages to give Nizkor a feel for the core
and substance of the argument, as taken from "The Crematories of Auschwitz"
by Carlo Mattagno, a 1995 copyrighted Granata publication.
Here is Mattagno, in his own words, speaking of Auschwitz-Birkenau in his
rebuttal of the Pressac claims:
". . . if, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, there really had been a mass extermination of Jews and others whose bodies were cremated, then the weapon of the crime, the homicidal gas chamber, must have had an indispensable accessory, namely the crematory oven.
After long years of research in German libraries, we have collected an extensive bibliography comprising practically all of the technical articles concerning cremation that appeared in Germany from the 1920s through the 1940s.
Moreover, in the archives of the Auschwitz State Museum in Poland, we examined photocopies of unpublished documents from the Moscow archives concerning the crematory ovens manufactured during the war by the Topf Company of Erfurt, Germany.
In addition, we made on-site studies of the Topf crematory ovens still in existence at the concentration camps of Dachau, Mauthausen, Gussen and Buchenwald.
We also studied the crematory ovens made by the Kori company of Berlin at the concentration camps at Dachau, Mauthausen and Majdanek . . .
The demonstrative procedures and conclusions of this work have been examined by a group of German engineers who have confirmed their scientific value.
A scientific study. . . must confront and resolve two fundamental thermal-technical problems: cremation capacity and coke consumption.
The Topf ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which were designed and constructed to hold one corpse at a time, required an average of approximately one hour to cremate each corpse. In fact, because of their limited heat potential, it was not economically feasible to cremate two or more bodies together, from the point of view both of duration and of coke consumption.
A simultaneous cremation . . . was therefore thermo-technically impossible."
Furthermore,
"
. . . practical considerations significantly lower the actual cremation capacity. First, proper functioning of the ovens requires a break of at least four hours each day to clean coke slag from the furnace grilles.
Second, the ovens were programmed to function for twelve hours per day.
Moreover, past experience with the two-chambered ovens at the Auschwitz main camp crematory had shown that these installations wore out rapidly and were subject to frequent breakdowns.
Therefore, they could not have been expected to function continuously, or to be better than other ovens of that era."
Additionally, to come back to the claim made in previous Q/As regarding
burning of bodies in pits,
". . . the aerial photographs. . . do not show the least indication of this alleged mass extermination. No smoke, no cremation pits (burning or not), no traces of the earth that would have to have been dug out of the pits; no piles of wood to fuel the pits; no traces of vehicles, or of any activity in the critical zone . . . These photographs provide irrefutable proof that the story (is) historically unfounded."
Mattagno concludes:
I have done extensive research to inform myself first-hand on that question.
Have you?
I started my research by consulting one of Toronto's most modern crematories,
then went on to study the entire history of cremation through the ages.
I consulted especially the Encyclopedia Brittanica, going back over 120
years relating to the evolution of cremation.
I next obtained copies of all the German patents of crematory equipment
and ovens - pre-war, wartime and post-war - in preparation for my trials.
Here is the story of the concentration crematories:
Most crematories, even today, still require 2 1/2 to 3 hours for the entire
process. The size of the body, the type of container that holds the body,
and the type of crematory affect the cremation time, depending on the efficiency
of the furnace, moisture content, bulk, weight and size of the cadaver
to be cremated.
Additionally, speed of cremation depends on such things as necessary cooling-down
periods for the actual oven, called a retort, between individual cremations,
rebuilding and re-bricking of crematoria, breaking-in periods of new crematoria
etc.
One important point is that if a corpse is prematurely inserted into an
improperly cooled-down retort, the body will literally explode from the
intense heat and damage the very fragile, special refractory brick, causing
the shut-down of the entire crematorium.
In other words, the entire crematoria story stands and falls on technology.
And here it is important to note that the cremation technology in the 1940s
was virtually the same as it is today.
Nizkor claims that ". . . more recently, the Holocaust-deniers have
begun to rely on the testimony of Ivan Lagace, who apparently said at the
Zundel trial and later in print that it takes six to eight hours per body.
. . "
Lagace said no such thing. Lagace gave highly expert testimony. Lagace
had overseen the burial or cremation of 10,000 corpses in his career as
the director of the Calgary, Alberta crematorium. Nizkor should have started
with Lagace, whose testimony, summarized precisely, can be found at http://www.webcom.com/ezunde/english/dsmrd/dsmrd26lagace.html.
As stated before, Carlo Mattagno of Italy has compiled an extensive bibliography
which is available to anybody serious about finding answers to highly technical
questions pertaining to cremation. Additionally, anybody interested in
this macabre topic should go to the trouble of consulting any good Encyclopedia
or the local crematory in their city or region. They will be in for an
awakening and be shocked how they have been lied to by the Holocaust propagandists.
This rebuttal is not the place to cite such information extensively, but
it is available and can be checked and double-checked for all those truly
interested. Write to Granata Publishing, P.O. Box 2145, Palos Verdes, CA
90274.
Below, I will just quote a few passages to give Nizkor a feel for the core
and substance of the argument, as taken from "The Crematories of Auschwitz"
by Carlo Mattagno, a 1995 copyrighted Granata publication.
Here is Mattagno, in his own words, speaking of Auschwitz-Birkenau in his
rebuttal of the Pressac claims:
". . . if, at Auschwitz-Birkenau, there really had been a mass extermination of Jews and others whose bodies were cremated, then the weapon of the crime, the homicidal gas chamber, must have had an indispensable accessory, namely the crematory oven.
After long years of research in German libraries, we have collected an extensive bibliography comprising practically all of the technical articles concerning cremation that appeared in Germany from the 1920s through the 1940s.
Moreover, in the archives of the Auschwitz State Museum in Poland, we examined photocopies of unpublished documents from the Moscow archives concerning the crematory ovens manufactured during the war by the Topf Company of Erfurt, Germany.
In addition, we made on-site studies of the Topf crematory ovens still in existence at the concentration camps of Dachau, Mauthausen, Gussen and Buchenwald.
We also studied the crematory ovens made by the Kori company of Berlin at the concentration camps at Dachau, Mauthausen and Majdanek . . .
The demonstrative procedures and conclusions of this work have been examined by a group of German engineers who have confirmed their scientific value.
A scientific study. . . must confront and resolve two fundamental thermal-technical problems: cremation capacity and coke consumption.
The Topf ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which were designed and constructed to hold one corpse at a time, required an average of approximately one hour to cremate each corpse. In fact, because of their limited heat potential, it was not economically feasible to cremate two or more bodies together, from the point of view both of duration and of coke consumption.
A simultaneous cremation . . . was therefore thermo-technically impossible."
Furthermore,
". . . practical considerations significantly lower the actual cremation capacity. First, proper functioning of the ovens requires a break of at least four hours each day to clean coke slag from the furnace grilles.
Second, the ovens were programmed to function for twelve hours per day.
Moreover, past experience with the two-chambered ovens at the Auschwitz main camp crematory had shown that these installations wore out rapidly and were subject to frequent breakdowns.
Therefore, they could not have been expected to function continuously, or to be better than other ovens of that era."
Additionally, to come back to the claim made in previous Q/As regarding
burning of bodies in pits,
". . . the aerial photographs. . . do not show the least indication of this alleged mass extermination. No smoke, no cremation pits (burning or not), no traces of the earth that would have to have been dug out of the pits; no piles of wood to fuel the pits; no traces of vehicles, or of any activity in the critical zone . . . These photographs provide irrefutable proof that the story (is) historically unfounded."
Mattagno concludes:
". . . in case of discrepancy between testimony and physical evidence, it is physical evidence that should prevail. . . technical reality and physical evidence show the material impossibility of a mass extermination at Auschwitz-Birkenau."
In summary, what Nizkor so glibly and irresponsibly believes is technically
possible to prop up the faltering "Nazi Holocaust Mass Murder"
claims is simply not borne out by knowledge about the functioning of crematoria
- then or now.
In summary, what Nizkor so glibly and irresponsibly believes is technically
possible to prop up the faltering "Nazi Holocaust Mass Murder"
claims is simply not borne out by knowledge about the functioning of crematoria
- then or now.
