"Official documentation lacks information about the extermination at Auschwitz"

Holocaust deniers often raise the argument that there is no written order to carry out the mass extermination of Jews, which, in their opinion, undermines their existence.

Facts:

Of the extant archive materials concerning the functioning of KL Auschwitz, the most extensive number of documents concern the construction of specific buildings within the camp. Holocaust negationists very frequently use these documents to demonstrate the scale of these investments and focus especially on those that were supposed to be for the benefit of the prisoners. Although there is no specific order for the mass extermination of the Jews, official documents referring to anything concerning this matter use euphemisms, such as: ‘the final solution to the Jewish question’ (Endlösung der Judenfrage), ‘eastward migration’ (Ostwanderung), ‘resettlement of the Jews’ (Aussiedlung der Juden), their ‘special treatment’ (Sonderbehandlung), or ‘separate accommodation’ (Gesonderte Unterbringung). Likewise, documents concerning the construction of facilities used very enigmatic words and phrases, and attempts were made not to produce separate documents concerning mass extermination or the securing of Holocaust victims’ property. Nevertheless, in exceptional cases when official correspondence was addressed exclusively to the initiated, direct references were sometimes made to the gas chambers to avoid misunderstandings.

An example of such a direct reference appears in a letter, dated 29th January 1943, which, in its description of Birkenau crematorium II, calls the gas chamber in the basement the ‘Vergasungskeller’ (gassing cellar). The term is highlighted with a red line:

Letter from late January 1943 informing the head of Department C of the WVHA (SS Main Economic and Administrative Office) Hans Kammler of the imminent activation of crematorium II in Birkenau. Source: Archives of Auschwitz Museum.

Another example is the daily report, the so-called Tagesbericht, of 2 March 1943, which mentioned concreting of the floor in the gas chamber room (und Fussboden betonieren im Gaskammer) of crematorium V (here referred to as the ‘incineration plant’ – Einäscherungsanlage).

Daily report of work concerning the construction of crematorium V, dated 2nd March 1943. Source: Archives of Auschwitz Museum

Enlarged fragment of the letter containing the phrase: ‘concreting of the floor in the gas chamber’.

Yet another example is a written memo, dated 5th June 1942, regarding an order Karl Bischoff had received from Commandant Höss to build barracks for the storage of the belongings of Jews killed in the gas chambers (für die Sonderbehandlung der Juden). Even though the order was oral, Bischoff wrote an official memorandum concerning this assignment, most probably to obtain a formal basis for claiming expenses for the ‘investment’:

Official memorandum of the head of the KL Auschwitz building department regarding the oral order of Commandant Höss to build barracks for the storage of the belongings of Jews (i.e. the belongings of Jews murdered in the gas chambers). Source: Archives of Auschwitz Museum.

Also worth mentioning is the reactivation of one of the provisional gas chambers (bunker II – ‘the white house’) in Birkenau due to the commencement of the mass extermination of the Hungarian Jews in KL Auschwitz in mid-May 1944. The number of arriving transports was so great that they exceeded the cremating capacity of the three operational Auschwitz crematoria (by then, crematorium IV had broken down and was not reused). In response to the Auschwitz Zentralbauleitung (Central Building Office), the head of the WVHA Building Department, Hans Kammler, granted permission for the construction of three barracks to serve as undressing facilities in the vicinity of the ‘alternative bunkers’ (Ausweichbunkern), i.e. provisional gas chambers. In the document, the mass extermination of the Jews from Hungary is referred to as the ‘Ungarn-Program’ (Hungarian programme):

Source: Archives of Auschwitz Museum