Die Krematorien von Auschwitz: Die Technik des Massenmordes by Jean-Claude Pressac

Abstract

198 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Die Krematorien von Auschwitz: Die Technik des Massenmordes. By JeanClaude Pressac. Munich: R. Piper, 1994. Pp. xxvii + 211; illustra­ tions, notes, appendixes, index. DM 38.00. Given the importance ascribed to the unique technical means of the Nazi genocide, it is long past time that a historian began to pro­ vide the necessary knowledge to speak credibly on such topics. This, Jean-Claude Pressac’s second book, is the first comprehensive narra­ tive of the path of invention that led to genocide. Unfortunately, there are no current plans to translate it into English. Those who cannot read French (the book was originally published as Les créma­ toires d’Auschwitz [Paris: CNRS Editions, 1993]) or German may refer to Pressac’s Auschwitz: Technique and Operation of the Gas Chambers (Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989). The volume under review is a considerable improvement on the first book, both in scope and orga­ nization; it is a tightly woven narrative accompanied by a detailed chronology, generous photographs, biographical appendix, and lucid technical explanations and drawings. Pressac’s personal history explains much of the purpose of his study. He was once an avid follower of Robert Faurrisson, a “literary critic” who claims that the Holocaust is an ornate fiction perpetuated by a world Jewish conspiracy. Ten years ago Pressac set out to study original documents to prove that the genocide did not happen; led by evidence—in Western archives, the Polish Auschwitz Museum, the archive of Katowice, and, most recently, collections in Moscow—he became convinced that, in fact, it did. His research is dedicated to repudiating all doubts of the veracity of Nazi atrocities in a straight­ forward narrative of the important names, dates, and institutions of mass murder, as well as the complicity and historical guilt of the actors involved. He also points out that few were brought to justice. Pressac remains, however, an amateur historian. His book is illinformed by general knowledge of the Third Reich or of the history of technology. His sweeping comments are the weakest part of his work. Some (e.g., “The Jewish transports brought in an unending booty, much larger than extermination costs. With these ‘recovered’ funds the Reichsführer SS financed his wildest fantasies for the Waffen [militarized] SS.” [p. 56]) are simply false and must be con­ sidered flights of fancy informed by the romanticization of evil and espionage that surrounds popular discussion of Nazis. With this caveat in mind, Pressac’s detailed narrative of invention is valuable and unblemished. He describes how crematoria, then as now a normal, accepted means for disposing of bodily remains in Germany, became an industrial technology meant for continuous op­ eration. A minor engineering division of a single firm, led by the civilian engineer Kurt Prüfer, was responsible for most of the work involved. Prüfer did not conceive his ovens in conjunction with the genocide; rather, his efforts merged with the technology of mass TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 199 murder little by little. Technology for mass killing had developed separately. Experiments using carbon-monoxide exhaust in gas vans began in 1939 (already documented by Christopher Browning and recapitulated by Pressac). The first victims were Germany’s mentally retarded patients. In the course of 1941 the SS quickly extended gassing to mass executions of political opponents in Eastern Europe. In the dead of winter, gassing began in stationary chambers at Chelmno near Lubin. Here the SS began to murder the European Jews. The search for technical means was not, as is commonly believed, a demonical drive for efficiency. New technology was necessary to overcome the revulsion that SS officers experienced at wanton mur­ der in daily, face-to-face executions. By mid-1942 experiments were under way to replace carbon monoxide with prussic acid, a plentiful chemical used to exterminate vermin. Meanwhile, sometime in late 1941 or early 1942 Heinrich Himmler decided to make Auschwitz a regional center for genocide. Prüfer had already installed his crematoria at the camp, and Pressac specu­ lates that the ovens’ capacity may have influenced Himmler’s decision. In 1942 two technologies converged as engineers began to convert the morgue cellars of the Auschwitz...