Slovakian Jew Rudolf Vrba (born Walter Rosenberg) is perhaps
one of the most well-known Auschwitz eyewitnesses, this mainly due
to his co-authorship with Alfred Wetzler (Josef Lanik) of the so-called
Vrba-Wetzler Report, which was included in the New York War Refugee
Board Report of 1944, as well as the publication in 1964 of a memoir
entitled I Cannot Forgive (later republished as I escaped
from Auschwitz). Vrba escaped from Birkenau together with Wetzler
on April 7, 1944.
While the late Vrba's bizarre statements at the 1985 Toronto
Zündel trial concerning crematory capacities and Auschwitz victim
figures are well-known to most of the revisionist readership, his
claim of having observed from a shorter distance a gassing at Krema
II has not been much discussed. This article will demonstrate how
Vrba's testimony in 1964 and 1985 on this alleged observation is
irreconcilable with statements he made in the 1944 War Refugee Board
report regarding Birkenau crematorium buildings II and III.
Vrba's alleged observation of a gassing at Krema II
Let us begin by quoting at length Vrba's testimony from the 1985
Zündel trial:
A. I came from the night shift where several transports during
the night arrived, but I was exchanged on the night shift approximately
at five o'clock in the morning and broke into my barracks for
sleep. Instead of sleeping, I get out from the barrack and walk
over to Block 27 to the mortuary to talk to my friend, Wetzler.
This mortuary had a window on this side.
Q. Indicating on the side closest to the crematoria?
A. On the side closest to the crematoria. (...) While I was
drinking my coffee I could see that the people from the night
which I had seen arrive, most of them were not seen but there
were several hundred, first on this yard which was enclosed
with electric fences, and with tower guards, and they went into
this building which is known to us as Krematorium No. II. This
Krematorium No. II had, apart from buildings, long bunkers which
were approximately the height of two such tables. Say the bunker
was about this height, above a head of a human being.
Q. All right. You are indicating about six and a half, seven
feet?
A. I would think so. In other words, a man who would climb on
it would have to lift his hands and sort of make an exercise
in order to swing himself on top of the bunker. This bunker
had air lifts, openings for airing, approximately three or four,
along, which were covered by wooden or some lid which was easily
removable.
[...]
[The Sanitäts Dienst Gefreiter] came having about four or five
of those Zyklon tubes which I knew very well from loading into
the Red Cross van. And he came to the bunker and he put them
down, and then he started to put those lids, those tins on top
of the bunker until he had them all on. And then he climbed
on the bunker by holding on his hands and in a sporty way swinging
himself over, which attracted my attention because it was not
usually the demeanour of S.S. men to make sport. He then, on
top of this bunker, took out a gas mask which he had hang over
and put on the gas mask, and with something which, from a distance
of about fifty yards, opened the lid of the Zyklon-B tubes,
which was well-known to me from distance, and then he went to
one of the vents in a leisurely step, opened the vent and shoved
in the content of the tin in the vent in a leisurely way, and
when he was finished he a couple of times has hit the ---
Q. Indicating tapped the tin.
A. Tapped on that opening. Then he closed the opening, opens
the tin, again in a rather leisurely way, having the gas mask
on, and went to the next vent where the procedure was repeated
until he dropped into each vent one or two of those tins --
sometimes one, sometimes two. And when he cleared it he took
the empty vents to the edge of the bunker, climbed down from
the bunker, took the empty tins again down from the bunker,
put down his gas mask, put the gas mask back into his holder,
and with the tins under the hands walked away, disappearing
inside the crematorium. [1]
Vrba also identified the building from which he supposedly observed
the gassing as a small mortuary just next to Block 27 of Birkenau
Bauabschnitt Ib. [2]
To summarize: Vrba claims to have seen, from a distance of about
50 - 60 meters, how a single SS man, wearing a gas mask and carrying
five or six cans of Zyklon B (likely difficult but not impossible),
put said cans on top of the concrete "bunker"(i.e. Leichenkeller
1) protruding from Krema II and then swung himself up on the roof
of the "bunker", situated somewhere between six and a half and seven
feet - that is, approximately 1.9 - 2.1 meter - above ground, proceeding
to pour the contents of the cans into "approximately three or four"
vents on the roof.
Douglas Christie conducted the following cross-examination of
Vrba on the issue of the SS man's way of getting on top of the alleged
gas chamber, a detail which will be crucial for our critique on
the testimony's veracity:
Q. Just the part about getting up to the bunker. Just describe
that. Let me say to you that you said he put one can up on top
....
A. Yes. He first put the cans down because he brought them not
with the carriage; he brought them under his arms, and there
might have been five or six.
Q. Five or six cans.
A. Yes.
Q. And he picked one up and put it on top?
A. First one down and he started to put them up on top, and
he crept up on it like a monkey, which surprised me.
Q. You say he hooked his arms over the edge and pulled himself
up?
A. Yes. He sort of climbed up like a monkey.
Q. He had to reach up to the edge of the bunker?
A. Yes. Or, you know, to get a hold with his hand.
Q. Yeah.
A. And then he was climbing over the cement, which is rather
smooth, but he managed to get up.
Q. Well, the last time you said he was rather sporty in the
way he pulled himself up, yesterday.
A. Yes.
Q. Now, how high was it that he had to reach up?
A. I would say it was high enough that he couldn't walk up,
but he could make an exercise.
(...)
THE WITNESS: He had to make an effort. He couldn't walk up or
jump up. It was higher than that.
[3]
Thus it is confirmed that the witness was not mistaken about
the height. The roof, according to Vrba, was defintely "above a
head of a human being" forcing anyone attempting to climb it to
carry out a kind of swinging exercise.
The visibility of the scene from Vrba point of view was also
further elucidated during the cross-examination:
A: (...) I could see perfectly what was happening on this road
and what's happening here, from the crematoria.
Q. You described barbed wire. Was there any kind of fence around
those buildings that are crematoria that would prevent you from
seeing what was happening there?
A. Not at the start. At the start I could see perfectly well
from here, in January 1943, February 1943, perfectly well what
is happening here. The distance is not more than fifty, sixty
yards. I mean, the distance apart from the barbed wires would
be like over this room, quite close. So that I could see perfectly
well what was happening in this area.
[4]
We should thus expect the witness to be more or less precise
regarding details such as the relative dimensions of objects etc.
Regarding the timeframe of the alleged sighting, Vrba testified:
I saw the crematoria, and within the vicinity of the crematoria
from January 1943 until April 7, 1944, as the time went, this
was the first crematorium and this is where I was witnessing
the gassings of the first in the crematorium. Soon after the
crematorium, three were opened.
[5]
The phrase "first gassings" would imply late March 1943, if we
are to follow the orthodox chronology laid out by Danuta Czech and
others. Krema II was taken into operation on March 15. On June 8,
1943, was moved to another position of work in the camp.
[6]
In the testimony given by Vrba at the West German Auschwitz Trial
held in Frankfurt am Main, the gassing is described thus:
Witness Rudolf Vrba: (...) This is Bauabschnitt I, yes.
That is, the first crematorium which I saw in operation, and
victims taken into [die Opfer ins Krematorium hereinzuführen]
that was in Bauabschnitt Ib. (...) I could see the whole
thing very well. And behind this Block was a mortuary, which
is not drawn in [on the map]. (...) When during the night I
came back from the Aufräumungskommando, that means, in
the morning, I did not go to my Block but instead to the mortuary.
At that time Wetzler, with whom I escaped from the camp, was
the mortuary's secretary. And I spent most of my spare time
in his company, since we were close friends. Now, from this
small chamber behind Block 27 I could readily observe what was
going on at the crematorium. At the time the crematorium was
completed there were no trees as drawn here [on the map]. There
was nothing. There was only the electric fence. Inmates were
of course not allowed there. The gassings were usually carried
out in the early morning before the roll call. (...) [At the
mortuary] when I was back from the ramp, I often saw the same
people [that had earlier deboarded trains at the ramp] who often
had very characteristic looks. For example the Dutch looked
very different from Poles or Jugoslavs even at a distance. I
could see from there the people marching inside this building
[Also da konnte ich die Leute hereinmarschieren sehen hier
in dieses Gebüude]. And then I saw for the first time that
on top of a bunker... I mean, it was like a place made of concrete
[so wie ein Betonplatz]. Then suddenly... I was sitting
in the mortuary, eating and drinking coffee. And then I saw
how a man in SS uniform heaved himself up [heraufkriecht]
on top of this bunker, with a gas mask, and [he] had a large
can in his hand and opened the can and poured something through
an opening [eine Öffnung] on the...
Judge: Block of concrete [Betonklotz].
Witness Rudolf Vrba: On the block of concrete, yes. [He] had
opened something and poured it inside. And with me then was
the Kapo of the mortuary, who was a Czech physician by the name
of Lubomir Bastar. And I said to him: "Lubomir, look what he's
doing. What is he doing?" And then he, Bastar, explained to
me: "That is the transport you unloaded tonight, and now they're
pouring in the gas. But don't tell anyone, or it will cost our
lives." And since that occasion I could observe this a number
of times or rather often [mehrere Male oder ganz oft].
[7]
From Vrba's 1964 testimony we gather the statements, that he
had seen people marched inside the crematorium, and that he had
witnessed gassings at a distance from the mortuary not merely once,
but repeatedly.
In the next paragraph I will see how Vrba's witness statements
from 1964 and 1985 compares to what is factually known about Birkenau
Krema II.
Ill. 1: Rudolf Vrba at the time of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial
(Photo: Günther Schindler).
Rudolf Vrba vs. Reality
The above quoted testimonies contains some statement contradicting
the official view of the alleged Krema II gas chambers. For example,
the number of Zyklon B introduction openings is given by Vrba as
either three or four, while the orthodox view has it as definitely
four. Given that Vrba's statement at the Frankfurt trial about repeatedly
observing gassings from the mortuary is true, it indeed seems less
than plausible that he should be uncertain about the number of Zyklon
B introduction vents. Even if due of his perspective he would not
have been able to see one of the alleged four opening vents, it
would nonetheless have been possible for him to deduce the number
of openings by counting the number of times the SS man poured down
Zyklon B through one hole and proceeded to the next - especially
if he had the opportunity to watch the whole process repeated times,
as he claims.
However, rather than discrepances with the details of the orthodox
historiography, it is the contradiction between a detail of the
testimony and a verifiable feature of the crematorium building's
architecture which deals a decisive blow to Vrba's credibility as
a witness.
As the reader may already have guessed, it is the height
of the concrete roof of Leichenkeller 1, the alleged gas
chamber, which forms the crucial detail. According to repeated statements
from Vrba, the part of the "bunker" visible above ground rose to
a height surpassing that of an average man, that is, about 2 meters.
What was then, in early 1943, the actual elevation
above ground of Leichenkeller 1? The first place to look
in for an exact answer would be plans and blueprints from the time
of the building's construction. Exterminationist Auschwitz historian
Jean-Claude Pressac has reproduced a drawing showing the vertical
dimensions of Krema II Leichenkeller 1 (the "gas chamber").
[8] From this drawing it is apparent that the structure's elevation
above ground level was about one meter. This means that even a very
short SS man could climb on top of the roof without engaging in
the kind of exercise Vrba is talking about. He certainly wouldn't
have to stretch his hands above his head. Observing an event from
50 meters away, the witness would not have been able to make detailed
measurements with his eyes. He would however have been capable of
appreciating the relative sizes of objects located close to each
other, given not too small differences in size.
That the measures shown on the drawing reproduced by Pressac
is in (at least approximate) accordance with the real dimensions
of Leichenkeller 1 in 1943 can be confirmed by looking at
the so-called "Little Train Photo" taken in February 1943 and showing
Krema II in the background (Ill. 2). On this photo the shortside
of the structure, which is known to have measured 9.58 meters, is
clearly visible. [9] By comparing
the visible height of the structure to its shortside we find out
that the elevation above ground level could have been at most around
135 centimeters, since the shortside's length is approximately 7
times the height. The man Vrba saw standing before the "bunker"
with arms stretched above his head in order to swing himself up
on the top of the roof must surely have been one of Mengele's midget
victims, for unknown reasons doubling as gas chamber executioner!
Ill. 2: Enlarged portion of the "Little Train Photo ".
Vrba's 1944 description of Krema II and III
In the OSS translation of the Vrba-Wetzler Report, the description
of the twin crematoria II and III read as follows:
Models I and II [Krema II and III] consist of a waiting hall,
which is equipped to resemble the hall of a bath, can accomodate
2000 persons. There is reported to be another waiting hall,
equally large, below this one. A few steps lead from the big
hall (on the ground level) into a very long and narrow gas chamber.
False showers are built into the walls of the gas chamber so
as to give the impression of a very large washroom. Three skylights
in the ceiling of the chamber can be hermetically sealed by
valves. A narrow-gauge track runs from the gas chambers through
the waiting hall to the incinerators.
[10]
And this is how, according to Vrba and Wetzler, homicidal gassings
were carried out in the aforementioned buildings:
The victims are first led to the waiting hall, where they are
told they will go to the bathhouse. They undress and, in order
to support their delusion that they are going to bathe, two
attendants clad in white distribute a towel and a piece of soap
to each. Then they are squeezed into the gas chamber. [...]
When everybody is in the chamber, the doors are sealed from
the outside. There is a short wait, presumably to allow the
temperature inside to rise to a certain deree. Then SS men with
gasmasks go up on the roof, open the valves on the windows,
and pour a powderlike substance into the chamber. The cans containing
this substance carry the inscription: "Cyklon zur Schaedlingsbekaempfung"
and the trademark of a Hamburg factory.
[11]
Regarding how the text of the report was originally written,
Vrba testified the following during the 1985 Toronto trial:
The final text was typed by a typist, and was presented to me
for signature and to Wetzler, to confirm that his typescript
contains our words. [12]
Therefore Vrba would have been able to delete all to him patent
mistakes.
In the OSS translation the "testimony of the first escapee",
i.e. Vrba, takes up 12 pages. The second section of the report,
consisting of "Testimony of both the first and second escapees",
runs to 21 pages (excluding pages with illustrations). In both sections
taken together, Vrba's observation of a gassing at Krema II is devoted
a total of zero (0) words. It seems highly curious that the witness
should fail to mention his own sightings of the gassing procedure.
Another damning detail is the fact that Vrba and Wetzler in their
report depicted the gas chambers of Krema II and III as located
more or less on the first floor of the building. We read that "a
few steps" led into the gas chamber and that a narrow-gauge track
ran from the furnace room to the entrance of the gas chamber. And
even if "a few steps" was to interpreted as the gas chamber being
located underground or semi-subterranean, the rough map of the crematorium
attached to the report does not match reality. On the drawing in
question (Ill. 3), the "gas chamber" is shown as having its shortside
parallell to that of the rest of the building, while Leichenkeller
1 in reality protruded from the main part of the building with
a 90 degree angle. Why is it that the witnesses drew such an incorrect
map in 1944, if they were able to witness gassings in Leichenkeller
1 repeatedly, for months on end?
Finally, how come that Vrba in 1944 was certain about the number
of Zyklon B introduction openings being three, when he had witnessed
the pouring of gas into the same openings, which orthodoxy claims
numbered four, onr repeated occasions?
Ill. 3: Vrba and Wetzler's rough map of Krema II-III as redrawn
for the OSS translation of their report (Source: Mendelsohn, p.
262).
The testimony of the "second escapee"
In the OSS translation, the "testimony of the second escapee",
i.e. Wetzler/Lanik, amounts to eleven pages. While the singing of
a camp hymn at Majdanek is devoted considerable space, with complete
lyrics quoted, Wetzler does not devote a single line to his time
as a Schreiber at a mortuary close to Krema II. In fact,
Wetzler's entire time at Birkenau is devoted only the last paragraph
of his testimony:
I soon lost my comparatively confortable [sic] job (October
1942?) with the Aufraumungskommando, and as punishment was transferred
to Birkenau, where I spent one and a half years. On 7 April
1944 I succeeded in escaping with my companion.
[13]
Wetzler worked for several months at the wooden mortuary building
adjacent to Block 27, so it stands to reason that he should have
been able to observe from a distance gassing actions not only once
or twice, but a considerable number of times.
Since the text of the report was not the result of an
interrogation, but of the two escapees freely giving testimony to
a stenographer, together and separated, it follows that Wetzler
either did not found his stay at Birkenau worthy of mention, or
that he for some reason did not wish to talk about it in detail.
Conclusion
Auschwitz star witness and co-author of the 1944 Vrba-Wetzler
Report, the late Rudolf Vrba claimed to have observed from some
distance a number of homicidal gassings carried out in Birkenau
Krema II. In two documented court testimonies, one from 1964 and
the other from 1985, Vrba explicitly claims to have seen an SS man
standing in front of the outside of Leichenkeller 1 (the
alleged "homicidal gas chamber") with the roof of this structure
at a level above the head of the SS man. At the 1985 trial, Vrba
indicated the height of the Leichenkeller above ground level
as approximately 6.5 to 7 feet (2 - 2.15 meter) and "above a head
of a human being." He also stated that the man "hooked his arms
over the edge and pulled himself up."
However, contemporary German documentation in the form of construction
drawings from the firm Huta, as well as a photograph giving a rear
view of Krema II in February 1943, shows that the elevation above
ground could have been at most 1.3 meter. Therefore both the observation
of the SS man's head being below the roof of the "gas chamber" and
the arms-above-head swinging which the witness has the hangman engage
in for the purpose of getting on top of the chamber (described in
the same wording in both testimonies) must be regarded as in all
likelihood false.
What further reinforces the impression that Vrba concocted the
whole story sometime after the war, perhaps as late as in the early
1960's, is the fact that the 1944 Vrba-Wetzler Report does not mention
the sightings with as much as a single word. Neither is Wetzler's
work in the close proximity of Krema II touched upon. Finally, the
layout of the rough map of Krema II and III found in the 1944 is
not in accord with the actual structures, which it should have been
if Vrba had indeed witnessed Zyklon B being poured into Leichenkeller
1. We must therefore conclude that either Vrba does not tell us
the truth about this alleged observation of a gassing at Krema II,
or else that he for some unknown reason, some time before April
1944, was suddenly struck by amnesia and forgot all about the sighting
prior to writing his famed report together with Alfred Wetzler.