This is an account of Auschwitz written at some unspecified time in 1944 by a Soviet POW named Pavel Gavrish. I've never heard this name before and there are no mentions of "Gavrish" on the forum or in the CODOH library. From a quick Google search, this is about the only relevant thing I could find (aside from recent articles): https://auschwitz.ru/en/auschwitz/resis ... telegrams/
The Russians decided to release it for Jan 27 which is the anniversary of the Russians taking over the camp.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has dedicated the release of the historic document to the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau camp by Soviet forces, which is marked on Friday.
Over a million people, mainly Jewish, Polish and Soviet prisoners, were executed at the death camp in southern Poland between 1940 and 1945, with senior lieutenant Pavel Gavrish being a witness to many of those terrifying events.
Here's how it describes the crematorium/gas chamber.
The Soviet officer also described the design of the infamous Auschwitz crematorium, which, in his words, was equipped with “state-of-the-art Nazi technology.”
This “enterprise to exterminate humanity” consisted of a leakproof gas chamber for 3,000 people with a window through which a gas container was deployed, and another premises that contained 15 ovens, the Soviet officer wrote. The two areas were connected by rail tracks, with cars used to deliver dead bodies to the incinerators.
“There were days when the number of those burnt reached 25,000 to 30,000 people,” Gavrish wrote. The victims, including elderly, women and children, were told that they were going to a bathhouse as they were sent to their death.
All of the Jews arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau were killed, while some of the young and more healthy representatives of other nationalities were spared and turned into workers at the camp.
25,000 to 30,000 per day? Bodies sent to the ovens via rail car? Preposterous.
I wonder what other material the Russians have that they've never bothered to release. I am convinced that they have some good stuff but they have little incentive to debunk "the Holocaust." While their spin on it is a little different that the Jewish version, WWII and Hitler are still a major part of their own national mythology.
