"There was no proper ventilation in the gas chambers"

The negationists claim the gas chambers had no mechanisms for removing the hydrogen cyanide from the building.

Facts:

The fragment of a plan shows the solutions implemented by the Zentralbauleitung and the company Topf und Söhne of Erfurt, which supplied KL Auschwitz with the cremation furnaces as well as the ventilation systems. In the underground gas chambers of crematoria II and III, there were ventilation ducts, the upper ones to supply fresh air from the outside and the lower ones to remove the poisonous air. Fans powering the ventilation system were located in the attic, and the chimneys drawing in the fresh air and expelling the poisonous hydrogen cyanide air were on the roof.

Scheme of the ventilation system in crematoria II and III. The ventilation ducts drawing in air from the outside are marked green and the ventilation ducts near the floor, marked red, thanks to the fans, drew the air poisoned with hydrogen cyanide out of the building into the open air. Source: Archives of Auschwitz Museum.

Crematorium III building in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. On the photograph the ventilation shafts from the basement as well as from the gas chamber are indicated with the frame. Source: Archives of Auschwitz Museum

The inlets of the lower ventilation ducts were protected by special grates which protruded from the gas chamber wall so that the bodies of the murdered victims would not block the ventilating airflow.

On photograph: One of the grates protecting the inlet of the lower duct which removed the hydrogen cyanide from the gas chamber. This grate was found in the ruins of crematorium II. Source: Collections of Auschwitz Museum

One of the several dozen covers for the ventilation duct supplying fresh air from the outside into the gas chamber, found in the ruins of crematorium II. Source: Collections of Auschwitz Museum.

In 2007, during an examination of the ruins of the crematorium II gas chamber, a gas mask air filter was found. It is assumed that the gas mask would have been used by a prisoner, particularly in the initial stages, during the removal of bodies from the gas chamber.

Gas mask air filter found in the ruins of the crematorium II gas chamber. Source: Collections of Auschwitz Museum.

Excerpt from Shlomo Venezia’s account:

‘After undressing, the women entered the gas chamber, thinking that they were in a shower room. They couldn't possibly know where they actually ended up. It occurred that one of the women began to have doubts waiting in vain for water for some time. However, if she approached the German standing in the doorway, she would be brutally beaten and forced to return to her place. She was dissuaded from asking any questions. Afterwards, the men were pushed into the gas chamber. The Germans assumed that if they pushed in around thirty strong men at the very end when the chamber was almost full, it would be easy to use their strength to push the others further in. Indeed, shoved and beaten like cattle, the men involuntarily pressed into the crowd, trying to get inside and avoid the blows. It seems to me that was when many people died, even before the gas was let in. …

Finally, a German appeared with the gas. He took two Sonderkommando prisoners to lift the external cover above the gas chamber, and then he would pour the Zyklon B through the opened hole in. The cover was made of concrete and very heavy. The German never even tried to lift it, and we could only lift it if there were two of us. Sometimes, I was one of those assigned to this job, at other times it was someone else. I have never spoken about this before, but it deeply pains me to admit that I had to lift that cover and then put it back in place once the gas was in the chamber. But that was how it was. …

After the gas was poured in, the whole procedure lasted from ten to twenty minutes until everything fell silent and everyone inside was dead.

The German would then come to check if everyone was dead. He would look through a peephole in the massive door (on the inside, protected with a grate to prevent victims from breaking the glass). Once he was sure that they were all dead, he would open the door and, having switched on the ventilation, immediately entered.’

Source: Shlomo Venezia, Sonderkommando. W piekle komór gazowych [In the gas chamber hell], Warszawa, 2009, pp. 79-80.