Toilets and real showers in the camps

[borjastick]

I have been watching youtube films on the camps and interviews with 'survivors' and see very little direct reference to the washing and toilet facilities in the camps. Indeed I have yet to see a decent spread of photos of these from after the camps were liberated.

The point is that if as claimed the Germans were hell bent on inmates dying they would hardly be concerned with the provision of showers, hot water and decent sewerage in the camps.

Can anyone provide me with pictures or reading material on these facilities at key camps like Auschwitz, Buchenwald etc? I mean was there any hot water in the camps?

[hermod]

Auschwitz

Source: AUSCHWITZ: Technique and operation of the gas chambers by Jean-Claude Pressac, 1989; Caption: « A group of prisoners, carrying their shoes, has just showered and is going into the "Trockenraum. R. Seite / drying room, clean side". Some of the 50 showers are visible and the installation corresponds to that shown no [PMO neg. no. 20995/477] »


Dachau


Strutthof-Natzweiller (France, Alsace)

The water was warmed with the heat generated by the crematory ovens.

That room was (and still is) said to be a gas chamber (a 'gas chamber' with windows and bathtubs ! - probably the most ridiculous "Nazi gas chamber" ever seen) and a picture of it was even used by a French newspaper to illustrate the Holocaust as late as in 2012 !


Newspaper Le Point, Special Edition, February-March 2012, p. 3

Before the French newspaper Le Point recycled that ridiculous picture in 2012, nobody had dared use it during 47 years for obvious reasons.


January 1965: Front cover of the booklet published by "La Fédération nationale des Déportés et internés Résistants et Patriotes" (FNDIRP). Caption: « That was 20 years ago: The Liberation of the Death Camps - The Survivors testify, so that the World won't forget. »


January 1965: booklet published by "La Fédération nationale des Déportés et internés Résistants et Patriotes" (FNDIRP) for the 20th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi 'death camps' (Booklet "C’était il y a vingt ans : la libération des camps de la mort. Pour que le monde n’oublie pas, les rescapés témoignent" , éd. FNDIRP, January 1965, p. 70.). Caption: « Les SS criaient “pour les douches, avancez !” et le gaz mortel faisait son œuvre… » (« The SS guards shouted "for the showers move forward" and the lethal gas did its job... »).

https://web.archive.org/web/20130404094 ... int_hs.htm

[borjastick]

Thanks Hermod, very interesting and informative indeed. In the case of Auschwitz, having never been there, do you know if the shower room shown in your picture is actually shown to the tourists these days?

[hermod]

Thanks Hermod, very interesting and informative indeed. In the case of Auschwitz, having never been there, do you know if the shower room shown in your picture is actually shown to the tourists these days?

My pleasure, borjastick.

Yes, the tourists are allowed to visit and see that shower room, but I don't know if they were not allowed to do so for decades as for "the Central Sauna" where the inmates' clothes were deloused with steam (http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2010/ ... auschwitz/). The tourists are not allowed to visit and see the delousing gas chambers yet (http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/ ... -show-you/).

[Hektor]

...
Yes, the tourists are allowed to visit and see that shower room, but I don't know if they were not allowed to do so for decades as for "the Central Sauna" where the inmates' clothes were deloused with steam (http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2010/ ... auschwitz/). The tourists are not allowed to visit and see the delousing gas chambers yet (http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/ ... -show-you/).

Not allowed to see or not taken during the tour their? I recall Rudolf having head pictures of those.

[Zulu]

...
Yes, the tourists are allowed to visit and see that shower room, but I don't know if they were not allowed to do so for decades as for "the Central Sauna" where the inmates' clothes were deloused with steam (http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2010/ ... auschwitz/). The tourists are not allowed to visit and see the delousing gas chambers yet (http://furtherglory.wordpress.com/2011/ ... -show-you/).

Not allowed to see or not taken during the tour their? I recall Rudolf having head pictures of those.

Pressac wrote in 1989

Lastly I would point out to visitors that the Zentral Sauna is not normally open to visitors but the Polish staff of the museum never refuse a request to see it.
ATO, Pressac p. 67 http://www.mazal.org/pressac/Pressac0067.htm

[Zulu]

Source: AUSCHWITZ: Technique and operation of the gas chambers by Jean-Claude Pressac, 1989; Caption: « A group of prisoners, carrying their shoes, has just showered and is going into the "Trockenraum. R. Seite / drying room, clean side". Some of the 50 showers are visible and the installation corresponds to that shown no [PMO neg. no. 20995/477] »

Thanks Hermod for this excellent material. I would add complementary information concerning the sanitary equipments installed at Auschwitz described by Pressac in the same book.

CHAPTER 3: The prussic acid delousing installation in the reception building of the main camp (Stammlager)

Worksite 160 represents the second phase of the sanitary arrangements planned to meet the extension of the main camp whose capacity was to be increased to 30,000 prisoners [Drawing 1]. The “sanitary” installations being a matter of urgency, the first things to be planned at the end of 1941 were a new Krematorium, then a complex comprising a laundry building with another containing a reception area, a delousing block and a shower area [Drawing 2]. The reception building with its delousing installation and showers for the prisoners operated as follows:

The north wing (on the right) houses a “rapid” circuit for prisoners already registered, enabling them to take a shower under the surveillance of the SS who watched them undressing, showering and leaving (this was the arrangement on drawing 916 [Drawing 2], but on drawing 1361 [Drawing 3], the surveillance room has become that where the towels are issued). The prisoners followed the path indicated by the arrows on drawing 916.

The central aisle contains a more extensive circuit with a separate entrance. This is for newcomers selected for KL Auschwitz. Here they were registered, tattooed, stripped of their clothes and personal effects, underwent a medical examination. showered, dried themselves and either received civilian clothes (their own) which had meanwhile been deloused or the striped prison uniform when this was available.

ATO Pressac, p.31 http://www.mazal.org/Pressac/Pressac0031.htm

Drawing 2, Bauleitung drawing 916

ENTWURF FÜR AUFNAHMEGEBÄUDE MIT ENTLAUSUNGSANLAGE U. HÄFTLINGSBAD / Project for reception building with a delousing installation and prisoners baths.
ATO Pressac, p.34 http://www.mazal.org/Pressac/Pressac0034.htm

Drawing 3, Bauleitung drawing 1361
AUFNAHMEGEBÄUDE MIT ENTLAUSUNGSANLAGE UND HÄFTLINGSBAD /Reception building with delousing installation and prisoners’ baths (BW 160)

ATO Pressac, p.35 http://www.mazal.org/Pressac/Pressac0035.htm

CHAPTER 5: The delousing and disinfestation installations of BW 5a and 5b, in KGL Birkenau

In B W 5a and 5b, the delousing of the prisoners and their clothing always followed the same pattern. Simplifying the procedure somewhat, the prisoners entered, from left to right on the first two drawings [Drawings 2 and 3], through the windbreak entrance into the “dirty” room where they undressed [Photo 16] and their clothes were taken through the “dirty” anteroom and airlock to the gas chamber. After destruction of the lice using hydrocyanic acid, the effects were once more available to the prisoners, rid of parasites, but still just as dirty. For their part, the prisoners passed under the showers, whose temperature varied according to the whim of the hot/cold water “mixer” on duty, then emerged on the “clean” side and waited for their treated clothes so that they could get dressed again. The overall operation could proceed more or less correctly or he transformed into a nightmare if the Capos or the SS were so inclined.

This modus operandi had a serious fault: the dirty clothes, that had been alive with lice, were given back with the lice dead but the clothes still dirty. Arrangements were made to try to alleviate this problem, the use of autoclaves [Photo 15] and hot air chambers [Photos 12 to 14] making it possible to disinfest and disinfect at the same time, as well as to roughly clean. It should be noted that the introduction of this new system and the sauna meant that the direction of the disinfestation circuit was changed on the last two drawings [Drawings 4 and 5] to right to left, the sequence for the prisoners being: undress / sauna / shower / wait / dress. As for the clothes, it is not possible to state whether they went in the autoclave, then in a gas chamber or were subjected to only one of these treatments.

ATO Pressac p.53 http://www.mazal.org/Pressac/Pressac0053.htm

Drawing 2, Bauleitung drawing 801 of 8/11/1941
ENTLAUSUNGSANLAGE FOR KGL / delousing installation for prisoner of war camp
[PMO neg. No. 209321/I ]

CHAPTER 6, THE DISINFESTATION INSTALLATION OF THE GYPSY CAMP IN SECTOR B.IIe OF BIRKENAU

Pressac is vague for the description of that building by lack of drawings. However, the presence of showers together with the disinfestation installation can be deduced from the testimony of Amann, a former Auschwitz prisoner, reported in "Der Auschwitz Process" by Hermann Langbein (Europa Verlag Wien. Frankfurt. Zurich, a report of the Frankfurt trial in 1963-1965), volume 2, p. 568. :

"“I belonged to a disinfestation Kommando. Klehr was the chief. Our job was to delouse the accommodation Blocks and the people. At first, we used mobile disinfestatIon vehicles and later, AN ELECTRIC HOT AIR CHAMBER was built in the Birkenau Gypsy Camp.”

“We deloused the clothes, the people and the buildings. When a Block was to be deloused, it was evacuated. The people were sent to the disinfestation service where they were shaved and had a liniment applied. During this time, the clothes were placed in a steam boiler, where they remained for an hour and a half. Meanwhile, the prisoners bathed then had to wait on the ‘clean’ side of the disinfestation service. The blankets remained in the Block to be disinfested.” "

ATO Pressac p.63 http://www.mazal.org/Pressac/Pressac0063.htm

ZENTRAL SAUNA
Drawing 11, Bauleitung Drawing 3084 [PMO neg. no. 20930/7]
Bestandplan der Desinfektions- und Entwesungsanlage (K.G.L. Auschwitz) / Inventory drawing of the disinfection and disinfestation installation

50 showers with hot water are visible at the bottom of the right
Note: Boilerraum / hot water tank room
ATO Pressac p.76 http://www.mazal.org/pressac/Pressac0076.htm

In addition, an ongoing project for the installation of 100 showers of hot water at Krema III must be noticed accordingly with 2 documents showed by Pressac. A bizarre demand considering that the "extermination" was supposed to be performed there. However, the author alleges that these showers would be installed "in an annex building built on the southern wall of the Krematorium". That is purely speculative as they could also be installed in one of the 2 morgues 1 and 2 already built and provided by a sufficient network of drainage. That was made possible because the 4 Kremas were initially planned for a prevision of a population of 200 000 inmates while that number was never reached. As consequence, the large morgues at Krema II and III could have been partially used for any other purpose than as corpses storage.

17th May 1943

In this telegram, Jährling requested the urgent study of an installation to obtain hot water from the waste incinerator of Krematorium III, then under construction, to supply about one hundred showers (probably to be located in an annex building built on the southern wall of the Krematorium). Prüfer was supposed to bring the relevant drawings with him on 17th May. [This plan was never implemented, although such installations were built in other camps, for example in the crematorium of K L Natzweiler (Struthof) where the incinerator was the main source of heat for the showers]. Although this request for a hot water system for a hundred NORMAL showers was in no way criminal it was recorded in the Krematorium III, worksite 30a, file under the heading “SONDERMASSN[AHMEN] / SPECIAL MEASURES” because the funding was connected with these measures, the killing [!!!]and cremation of Jews unfit for work.

ATO Pressac p.236 http://www.mazal.org/pressac/Pressac0236.htm

[manuscript] Krema II
[Error: should be III]

Auschwitz, 15/5/1943
Correspondence register no. register no. 28819/43/Jä/Lm

URGENT
TELEGRAM!

Address : Topfwerke Erfurt
Text: Bring Monday [17th May] rough plan for production of hot water for about 100 showers. Fitting of heating coils or boiler in the waste incinerator at present under construction Krema III or system for using the high temperatures of the flue gases. It would be possible to raise the brickwork of the furnace to take a large tank. Herr Prüfer is requested to bring the relevant drawings on Monday 17/5.

Sig. Bischoff

Transmitted 14/5
Time 1730 hours
Sig. Civilian Employee Schwender

Distribution
1 SPECIAL MEASURES file, POW camp, [manuscript] Krema III, BW 30a
1 Project leader [Kirschneck's initials]
1 SS Second Lieutenant Kirschneck

ATO Pressac p.241 http://www.mazal.org/pressac/Pressac0241.htm

Why to mention "killing" here Monsieur Pressac? As "SPECIAL MEASURES", both documents refer clearly to sanitary measures by mentionning 100 showers with hot water installation. Maybe some killing by sending boiling water out of the shower heads. Who knows? Somebody has already seen steam chambers at Treblinka...

[TheBlackRabbitofInlé]

This is a photo of some of the prisoner toilets in Field I at Majdanek.



By way of comparison, below is a photo of the one of the visitor toilets in the prestigious Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev, opened in 1981.

[forasanerworld]

Can someone please locate the buildings shown in drawings 916 and 1361 on a map of Birkenau and indicate the route of prisoners from the train arrival road?

[Fred zz]

Had warm water showers at Majdanek in three places. B41, B42 and the new crematoria. I have no toilet photos.
Interesting though, I toured US Pres Abe Lincoln's house inside and saw his toilet. It look like one of those Auschwitz toilets
See attachments

[Lamprecht]

Can someone please locate the buildings shown in drawings 916 and 1361 on a map of Birkenau and indicate the route of prisoners from the train arrival road?

Not Birkenau, Auschwitz 1.
I think it's D (Reception Building/Prisoner Registration)

[hermod]

17th May 1943

In this telegram, Jährling requested the urgent study of an installation to obtain hot water from the waste incinerator of Krematorium III, then under construction, to supply about one hundred showers (probably to be located in an annex building built on the southern wall of the Krematorium). Prüfer was supposed to bring the relevant drawings with him on 17th May. [This plan was never implemented, although such installations were built in other camps, for example in the crematorium of K L Natzweiler (Struthof) where the incinerator was the main source of heat for the showers]. Although this request for a hot water system for a hundred NORMAL showers was in no way criminal it was recorded in the Krematorium III, worksite 30a, file under the heading “SONDERMASSN[AHMEN] / SPECIAL MEASURES” because the funding was connected with these measures, the killing [!!!]and cremation of Jews unfit for work.

ATO Pressac p.236 http://www.mazal.org/pressac/Pressac0236.htm

[manuscript] Krema II
[Error: should be III]

Auschwitz, 15/5/1943
Correspondence register no. register no. 28819/43/Jä/Lm

URGENT
TELEGRAM!

Address : Topfwerke Erfurt
Text: Bring Monday [17th May] rough plan for production of hot water for about 100 showers. Fitting of heating coils or boiler in the waste incinerator at present under construction Krema III or system for using the high temperatures of the flue gases. It would be possible to raise the brickwork of the furnace to take a large tank. Herr Prüfer is requested to bring the relevant drawings on Monday 17/5.

Sig. Bischoff

Transmitted 14/5
Time 1730 hours
Sig. Civilian Employee Schwender

A crematorium now used to heat an English town's swimming pool...

https://postimg.cc/zVtGc30r

[HeiligeSturm]

Auschwitz ‘showers’ offend some visitors to the former Nazi camp
https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/world/au ... index.html

[forasanerworld]

Auschwitz ‘showers’ offend some visitors to the former Nazi camp
https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/01/world/au ... index.html

This ably depicts my continued reason for my amateur Revisionist activity, when I became aware of school children being fed nonsense in classrooms, being trooped off to the nearest Holocaust shrine and even worse being flown to Poland and be subject to what can only be called psychological abuse, I want to stop that be they Jews or anyone else.

[forasanerworld]

Can someone please locate the buildings shown in drawings 916 and 1361 on a map of Birkenau and indicate the route of prisoners from the train arrival road?

Not Birkenau, Auschwitz 1.
I think it's D (Reception Building/Prisoner Registration)

Thanks for that, it's odd that I can't find the location or route from the "dirty" side to the "clean" side, at least for the pre zentralsauna innauguration.