Did Pressac seriously believe that the ovens at Auschwitz-Birkenau
were able to cremate a corpse with 2.61 kg of coke? As we have seen
above (chapter 9.2.), he brings in the report (allegedly) written by SSSturmbannführer Alfred Franke-Gricksch and asserts that this capacity
was “coolly doubled when explaining operations to high-ranking visitors (cf. SS Major Franke-Gricksch’s report above, giving a figure of
10,000 in 24 hours).” However, in that document we read (p. 238):
“As fresh corpses burn particularly well, the whole process requires only ½ – 1 hundredweight of coke.”
One Zentner or metric hundredweight is 50 kg, and the coke consumption of one cremation was thus 25-50 kg, as Pressac himself correctly notes in the translation of the document (p. 239). This corresponds to an amount 10-20 times as high as the amount assumed by
Pressac (2.61 kg). He does not mention this fact in his discussion of the
document at all. The reason is easy to understand: even if we assume
the low figure of 25 kg per corpse, the 497 tons of coke mentioned
above would have been enough for the cremation of (497,000÷25 =)
19,980 corpses only, and Pressac’s assertion of 165,000 to 215,000
gassed victims would have crumbled.
Keep in mind it says "only"! In other cases it must have required some more coke.
By the way, a hundredweight IS 50 kg, for those wondering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundredweight
