[WW2] - Auschwitz

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The decision to build three more crematories at Birkenau was made on 19 August 1942 (p. 49), after Himmler, during his inspection of Auschwitz on 17 and 18 July 1942, had ordered that the actual forecast for the KGL (prisoner of war camp) at Birkenau be increased from 125,000 to 200,000 prisoners (p. 44). It also came during the terrible typhus epidemic in the summer of 1942, which caused decimation in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp: In the male sector alone, from 1 to 19 August, 4,113 deaths were registered, [24] on the average 216 per day. In the third trimester of 1942, the mortality was 20.5% of the average camp population, [25] which did not exceed 25,000 units. The capacity of the crematories was therefore quite adequate for the camp population established by Himmler, and provided for a possible future typhus epidemic.

---But 19 August is also a date on which a terrible typhus epidemic raged at Auschwitz-Birkenau that decimated the prisoners of the camp.

Pressac himself admits that:

la pression de l’épidemie de typhus, avec chaque jour ses 250 à 300 morts parmi les détenus, ainsi que les civils et SS les accompagnant dans l’au-delà, conjuguée aux incessantes arrivées de convois juifs, poussa Bischoff, sur demande de Höss, à précipiter la réalisation du programme crématoire et à le doubler. (p. 50)

[the pressure of the typhus epidemic, with its 250 to 300 deaths among the prisoners each day, as well as the civilians and SS accompanying them to the hereafter, plus the incessant arrivals of Jewish convoys, pushed Bischoff, on Höss’s orders, to expedite the crematory program.]

Actually, the decision to construct four crematories at Birkenau depended exclusively on the terror which the typhus epidemic provoked in the SS, [63] in light of the proposed expansion of the camp’s population by about ten times.

Pressac shows that the installations and the precautions of the SS, which were aimed at halting the typhus epidemic, bore the designation special (Sonder-) in the SS terminology.

Doctor Wirths:

prévoyait un retour du typhus si des ‹mesures spéciales› (Sondermassnahmen) pour améliorer la situation sanitaire n’étaient pas prises d’urgence. (p. 82, our italics)

[foresaw a return of the typhus if some ‘special measures’ (Sondermassnahmen) to improve the sanitary situation were not taken urgently.]

Pressac explains correctly that:

les termes ‹mesures spéciales/Sondermassnahmen› et ‹mesures de construction spéciales/Sonderbaumassnahmen› désignent des dispositions liées aux questions sanitaires ou aux bâtiments s’y rapportant (par exemple, alimentation en eau, mesures d’hygiène appliquées aux détenus, etc. (p. 107, note 256, our italics)

[the terms ‘special measures/Sondermassnahmen’ and ‘special measures of construction/Sonderbaumassnahmen’ designate the dispositions relating to the sanitary issues or to the buildings if involved (for example, water supply, hygienic measures applied to the prisoners, etc.]---"

massavrättningar medels skjutvapen

"Avlusning" = talk to the butt.

Har en jättebra referens på det, bl.a. berättelser från ett kompani soldater som utförde dåden, med avrättning medels gevär, men måste sondera hjärnans vindlingar för att komma på titeln.

Annars finns böcker som t.ex. "De baltiska judarna".