Model of a Crematorium

Sickening the efficiency worked out by the Nazis to accomplish their 'Final Solution' to the 'Jewish Question'.  Originally they only constructed Crematorium I at Auschwitz I labor camp.  It did not have enough ovens to burn the bodies and could only gas about 600 people at once.  Eventually they built Crematorium II, Crematorium III, Crematorium IV, and Crematorium V at Auschwitz II-Birkenau.  These larger spaces could handle up to 1500 people at a time.  They had plans for a much larger Crematorium VI, but were unable to complete it before the end of WWII.

A major problem with the original Crematorium I was that it was above ground, the screams of those being gassed could be heard and the Nazis had to park tractors and trucks around the gas chamber while people were dying slow deaths that could take up to 15 minutes.  They would rev the engines to muffle the sounds of the screams.

With Crematoriums II-V, they were located underground.  Basically, as you can see in the model, the prisoners would be selected directly at the train platform as you can see in the photo in the previous post.  Those selected to die would leave their luggage on the platform and walk the short distance (no more than 100 meters) to the entrance underground and into the 'changing/undressing room'.  The Nazis had even taken the time to hang signs which read 'Leave your clothes here', they did not want panic among the condemned.  Then they would exit the first room and walk to the right where the Nazis had stuck fake shower heads sticking out of the walls and the doors would be shut.  Then the Nazis would toss in canisters of Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide), a pellet that would release a poisonous gas when the temperature reached about 27 degrees Celsius.  It could take up to 15 minutes for all of the prisoners to die.  Then members of the Sonderkommando (special work force made up of other Jewish prisoners) would pull the bodies up to the furnaces and burn them.  This model shows an entire crematorium.  Later we would visit the sites of Crematorium I, and the much larger Crematorium II and Crematorium III.