Ruins of Krema III
View of the ruins of
the gas chamber in Krema III at Auschwitz-Birkenau
The photo above shows the ruins of the
Krema III gas chamber at Auschwitz II, aka Birkenau. The gas
chamber, which is shown on the left, was about five feet below
ground but not directly underneath the brick building which housed
the furnace room. The roof of the gas chamber was three feet
above ground and covered by dirt with grass planted on top. The
reinforced concrete roof was six inches thick, with four holes,
in a zig-zag pattern, where the Zyklon-B gas pellets were poured
into the room. These holes were shown on aerial photos taken
by the US military in 1944, but they cannot be seen today because
the entire roof of Krema III was destroyed when the Nazis blew
up the building on January 20, 1945, two days after they had
abandoned the camp.
On the blueprint of Krema III, the gas
chamber was called Leichenkeller 1 (Corpse Cellar # 1). In the
photo below, one can see the solid concrete columns that once
supported the roof of the gas chamber. When the gas chamber was
in use, it had holes in the roof through which the Zyklon-B gas
pellets were poured into wire columns, which can no longer be
seen today. The holes were closed up by the Germans before they
blew up Krema III and the wire columns were removed, so that
no evidence that this was once a gas chamber can be seen today.
Ruins of underground
gas chamber at Krema III
The photo below is a shot of the display
board at the ruins of Krema III. The top of the diagram points
to the north. Krema III was a mirror image of Krema II, with
its gas chamber pointing to the south.
A - Entrance to undressing room; C -
undressing room; D- underground gas chamber; E - holes on roof
for Zyklon-B pellets; F - five cremation ovens; G - chimney for
the ovens; M - the International Monument built in 1967; K -
gate on the main camp road which goes into the courtyard of Krema
III. The dotted line across the bottom of the diagram denotes
the main camp road. The five cremation furnaces, shown on the
right on the display board, were triple muffle ovens with a total
of 15 doors for shoving three bodies inside, so that 45 corpses
could be burned at the same time. The ovens in Krema II could
also burn 45 corpses at a time.
In the foreground of the photo below
is the steps of the International Monument, shown as M on the
diagram. On left edge of the photo, at the midpoint of the picture,
is a hole which is what remains of the SS entrance to the anteroom,
shown as H on the diagram. Behind the anteroom where the SS staff
entered the basement is the Vorraum (vestibule) which connected
the gas chamber and the undressing room.
Steps of International
Monument are right next to the ruins of Krema III
The location of the SS entrance, shown
on the left in the photo above, was not on the original blueprints.
Krema III was originally planned to be built at Auschwitz I,
the main camp. The original blueprints for Krema II and Krema
III called for corpse cellers that were completely underground
and included a corpse slide which ended in front of the Leichenkeller
doors, but this slide was never built. The SS entrance was built
instead, but not in the same location as the originally planned
corpse slide.
Krema III was located on the right-hand
side of the east-west main camp road, while Krema II was on the
left side of the road, as you enter the camp. A short road, perpendicular
to the main camp road, connected the two barbed-wire enclosures
of the Krema buildings. Directly opposite the gate into the Krema
III barbed-wire enclosure was an identical gate into the Krema
II enclosure.
Krema II was a mirror image of Krema
III with its undressing room parallel to the undressing room
of Krema III. The gas chamber of Krema II was on the south side
of the building, while the gas chamber of Krema III, shown in
the diagram above, was on the north side of the building.
The undressing room
at Krema III, looking west
The photo above shows the undressing
room, which was called Leichenkeller 2 (Corpse Cellar #2) on
the blueprint of the building. The victims entered the building
by descending the stairs shown in the background in the photo
above. Note that the stairs are very short, since the undressing
room was only about five feet underground. To the left in the
photo are the steps of the International Monument which is between
Krema II and Krema III at the western end of the former camp.
Behind the camera is the SS entrance to the basement which is
on the south wall of the building, facing the main camp road
which is to the left, but out of camera range.
The undressing room was only partially
underground since the concrete roof over it was three feet above
ground. The crematory ovens were on the ground floor with the
entrance on the south side of the Krema III building. There was
a typhus epidemic at Auschwitz-Birkenau in the summer of 1943
and the undressing room could have doubled as a morgue in the
event that the bodies piled up faster than they could be burned
in the ovens.
The entrance to the
underground undressing room
The victims walked down the steps into
the undressing room, shown in the photo above, while an orchestra
played classical music. The location of the orchestra was southeast
of Krema III, outside the barbed wire enclosure and right next
to the soccer field. This was the location where concerts were
held for the prisoners while the gassing operation was in progress.
The victims were told that they were going to take a shower,
after which they would have a nice, hot meal. They took off all
their clothing and then proceeded to the end of the long undressing
room where there was a door into a Vorraum (vestibule).
On the left wall of the vestibule was
a door into the gas chamber, which was located at a right angle
to the undressing room. On the right wall of the vestibule was
a door into another anteroom which had an exterior entrance for
the SS men. On the back wall of the vestibule was a single elevator
which was used to bring the bodies up to the crematory ovens
after the victims had been gassed.
This page was last updated on June 30,
2008
|