Memorial examines role of Auschwitz oven builders

History • January 2011 • Views: 1,460

ERFURT, Germany (AP) — A new memorial is opening in Germany that examines the role played by educated professionals such as the engineers and architects who created the crematoria ovens for Auschwitz to help carry out the Holocaust.

The exhibit is housed in the former administrative building of the Topf & Sons company that collaborated with Hitler’s SS to design and construct special ovens to meet the demands of the death camps. It opens to the public on Thursday, the day of international Holocaust remembrance.

Using original blueprints, letters from the Nazi SS, and other documents, the exhibit shows how a “normal” German company, based in the central city of Erfurt, knew and took pride in its role of designing a crucial part of the killing machinery.

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26 comments

Bob Levin Thu, Jan 27, 2011 10:01:12am

This is the million dollar question. There isn’t any mystery how psychopathic, criminal anti-Semites come to be. But how do such misshapen minds come to power? It takes the normal, educated and uneducated people to do this.

That’s the concern, how did the quiet people who live in the same apartment building, who’ve known a Jewish family for years, simply look the other way and do it with such ease?

This is the question that our institutions have never really addressed. It’s too frightening.

Interesting Times Thu, Jan 27, 2011 10:52:17am

re: #1 Bob Levin

That’s the concern, how did the quiet people who live in the same apartment building, who’ve known a Jewish family for years, simply look the other way and do it with such ease?

There is no limit to the evil ordinary people are capable of, once they’ve been sufficiently brainwashed. Especially if it happens gradually. “Boiling a frog” effect.

sproingie Thu, Jan 27, 2011 11:21:44am

The frog-boiling effect is actually an urban legend, but I suspect it’s just that the frogs are smarter.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Thu, Jan 27, 2011 12:39:53pm

I have records of interrogation of these fuckers by the Soviet SMERSH. All of them were sentenced to 25 years in camps (capital punishment at that time was briefly suspended so 25 years was the maximum). One of them, Kurt Pruefer, who designed the ovens, died in the camp, the others were amnestied in 1950s and sent to DDR. I wonder what happened to them.

Bob Levin Thu, Jan 27, 2011 1:44:37pm

re: #4 Sergey Romanov

You know that the Russians kept many prisoners, not civilians (they did other things to them), until the 1950s. Only a few of these prisoners survived. Can’t help but think about Karma with this.

Cheese Eating Victory Monkey Thu, Jan 27, 2011 1:49:46pm

re: #4 Sergey Romanov

I was reading this wikipedia entry on Majdanek and came across this quote:

However, of the 1,037 SS members who worked at Majdanek and are known by name, only 170 were prosecuted. This was due to a rule applied by the West German justice system that only those directly involved in the murder process could be charged.

Can you please explain why most people who were involved in the Holocaust were not tried?

Here’s another piece of trash that wasn’t punished and still gets fan mail.

Bob Levin Thu, Jan 27, 2011 1:50:25pm

re: #2 publicityStunted

My wife says that I watch too much of this stuff—but, folks involved describe it as being fed an anesthetic drop by drop, and when it finally touched their lives it was too late.

I’m not sure that there is no limit to evil, but I’m prepared to say their is no limit to denial. And fear.

How do you teach a person despise their own denial, to face their fears? That’s the problem that needs to be solved.

wrenchwench Thu, Jan 27, 2011 1:53:56pm

Two years later, they applied for a patent for a “continuous-operation corpse incineration oven for mass use,” knowing the Nazis would use the ovens to dispose of corpses of Jews, Gypsies and others murdered en masse in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

A patent. To stay ahead of the competition. Just a regular business practice.

This is a tiny start to the kind of education needed, and not just in Europe. I think it can start now because the ones who could not despise their own denial (good phrase) are dying off.

Bob Levin Thu, Jan 27, 2011 1:58:39pm

re: #6 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

Judgment at Nuremberg says it all. Where do you draw the line if you can draw a line? Also, the Soviet threat was too big, and politics dictated an end to the trials. Even more politics dictated a release of the prisoners within 10 years.

Bob Levin Thu, Jan 27, 2011 2:04:17pm

re: #8 wrenchwench

I think it can start now because the ones who could not despise their own denial (good phrase) are dying off.

You think? Guess who wants to be leader of Egypt? Who is the leader of Iran? How did Yasser Arafat get to be known as a ‘man of peace’? What US President followed Ford?

How did LGF get to be as popular as it is? Dan ‘Denial’ Rather.

Unfortunately, denial is our default setting.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Thu, Jan 27, 2011 2:35:43pm

re: #6 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

I was reading this wikipedia entry on Majdanek and came across this quote:

However, of the 1,037 SS members who worked at Majdanek and are known by name, only 170 were prosecuted. This was due to a rule applied by the West German justice system that only those directly involved in the murder process could be charged.

Can you please explain why most people who were involved in the Holocaust were not tried?

Here’s another piece of trash that wasn’t punished and still gets fan mail.

The last Majdanek trial was hard, it went on for many years, some lawyers were even denying that gassings happened (apparently it was before anti-denial laws). And it was the trial of some pretty well-known thugs. I don’t think a trial of lowly underlings would’ve been more succesful. While some other trials were more successful (Auschwitz, Treblinka trials come to mind), German justice still largely failed. There’s a whole book about this, Tom Bower’s Blind Eye to Murder, a must-read. Aside from politics, one of the reasons was the peculiarity of German jurisprudence’s view of murder - first of all, “I was given orders” did count as a defense lots of times, second, the standard of proof is high, one had to prove that one had some “base motives” for murder or something like that. Basically, it’s like the failed prosecution of the My Lai murderers, just magnified by a large factor.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Thu, Jan 27, 2011 2:40:51pm

re: #8 wrenchwench

A patent. To stay ahead of the competition. Just a regular business practice.

This is a tiny start to the kind of education needed, and not just in Europe. I think it can start now because the ones who could not despise their own denial (good phrase) are dying off.

Here’s the drawing from their 1942 patent:

[Link: www.topfundsoehne.de…]

If implemented, the death toll would probably be much larger given that the body disposal problem would have been decreased.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Thu, Jan 27, 2011 2:55:28pm

Also note that they were not only oven-builders. They also installed ventilation system in the largest gas chambers (to suck out HCN).

wrenchwench Thu, Jan 27, 2011 3:03:14pm

re: #12 Sergey Romanov

Here’s the drawing from their 1942 patent:

[Link: www.topfundsoehne.de…]

If implemented, the death toll would probably be much larger given that the body disposal problem would have been decreased.

Thanks for that link. Here’s my favorite page from it. Something positive from the following generations. And thanks for your work.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Thu, Jan 27, 2011 3:10:55pm

re: #14 wrenchwench

When doing research in GARF (State Archive of the Russian Federation) I actually leafed through lots of original German documents, including the original Topf Auschwitz documents dealing with crematoria. An “interesting” experience.

(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Fri, Jan 28, 2011 12:05:45am

re: #6 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

Can you please explain why most people who were involved in the Holocaust were not tried?

Political reasons: Too many of them were too useful after the war for even the new political power players. Prime example: Germany’s Foreign Office. See here: [Link: www.guardian.co.uk…] (most of this was already known, of cource, largely due to the work of historian Joseph Wulf who to this day is shamefully underacknowledged). Even in East Germany the trials just stopped after a while.

The direct involvement thing your quote refers to is likely refering to the legal phenomenon called “Kalte Verjährung”. A part of this phenomenon was West-German lawmakers (CDU and FDP) in 1968 having passed legislation in a stealth move that basically provided a statute of limitations that meant you could not be prosecuted for having been an accessory to murder during WWII anymore if the prosecution could not prove “malicious intent”. This was somewhat reversed later, but I have to admit I do not know all of the details (as many don’t), but the part of the most important part of how the Holocaust was treated after WWII is legal history and one very important part of it is history of laws and jurisprudence.

(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Fri, Jan 28, 2011 12:06:25am

No idea why that Guardian link got funked. Here, have at it.

(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Fri, Jan 28, 2011 12:07:43am

re: #2 publicityStunted

There is no limit to the evil ordinary people are capable of, once they’ve been sufficiently brainwashed. Especially if it happens gradually. “Boiling a frog” effect.

There is no “brainwashing”. Evil is banal.

Cheese Eating Victory Monkey Fri, Jan 28, 2011 1:26:41am

re: #11 Sergey Romanov

Thanks for your explanation. It seems to me that with the exception of a few big fish, Nazi Germany and its collaborators got away with the Holocaust. All the tattle-tail neighbors, the train logistics planners, the war profiteer corporations, and most SS vets went back to normal life and some are collecting pensions to this day. Why lock up your neighbors and sons when they can get back to work? More trials means more resources being spent, more crimes getting revealed that hurt national pride and the rebuilding effort, and politicians not getting reelected.

What’s particularly horrifying about this is the lesson it conveys - that once a society commits to genocide, only a few top dogs will get punished, and everyone else who participated peripherally will be OK. All the cog needs to do is keep doing his lowly work in the machine, and then since there are so many cogs, there’s safety in numbers. This lowers the risk for future low-mid level perpetrators.

Add to that a relatively small reparations deal with Israel (in comparison to the amount stolen) to calm the German national conscience, and you have a society ready to rebuild.

Cheese Eating Victory Monkey Fri, Jan 28, 2011 1:32:25am

re: #11 Sergey Romanov

On a different issue, where can I find documents about the Soviet transfer of Polish army soldiers to the Siberian Gulag in 1939 (right after the division of Poland)? A few of my relatives crossed the new border splitting Poland in two, refused Soviet citizenship, and got sent to prison.

(I Stand By What I Said Whatever It Was) Fri, Jan 28, 2011 1:45:03am

re: #19 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

What’s particularly horrifying about this is the lesson it conveys - that once a society commits to genocide, only a few top dogs will get punished, and everyone else who participated peripherally will be OK. All the cog needs to do is keep doing his lowly work in the machine, and then since there are so many cogs, there’s safety in numbers. This lowers the risk for future low-mid level perpetrators.

Exactly. The same herd effect that escalates the genocidal conflict into mass-scale proportions later prevents its prosecution. This has also been a great problem in Cambodia, trying to establish the case against the Khmer Rouge.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Fri, Jan 28, 2011 1:46:44am

re: #20 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

On a different issue, where can I find documents about the Soviet transfer of Polish army soldiers to the Siberian Gulag in 1939 (right after the division of Poland)? A few of my relatives crossed the new border splitting Poland in two, refused Soviet citizenship, and got sent to prison.

If you want just to read the documents in English, I don’t know if I can help. I’m sure some of them were translated, but since for my purposes I need only Russian original texts, I wouldn’t know where to find the translations. If you have anything specific in mind, I can look it up since quite a lot of documents were published (in Russian), as well as I can ask around since I’m acquainted with researchers dealing with the topic (e.g. the “Memorial” society).

BTW, it’s not simply the Poles, it’s the refugee Jews as well, about 90,000 of them.

Decatur Deb Fri, Jan 28, 2011 1:54:42am

re: #19 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

Thanks for your explanation. It seems to me that with the exception of a few big fish, Nazi Germany and its collaborators got away with the Holocaust. All the tattle-tail neighbors, the train logistics planners, the war profiteer corporations, and most SS vets went back to normal life and some are collecting pensions to this day. Why lock up your neighbors and sons when they can get back to work? More trials means more resources being spent, more crimes getting revealed that hurt national pride and the rebuilding effort, and politicians not getting reelected.

What’s particularly horrifying about this is the lesson it conveys - that once a society commits to genocide, only a few top dogs will get punished, and everyone else who participated peripherally will be OK. All the cog needs to do is keep doing his lowly work in the machine, and then since there are so many cogs, there’s safety in numbers. This lowers the risk for future low-mid level perpetrators.

Add to that a relatively small reparations deal with Israel (in comparison to the amount stolen) to calm the German national conscience, and you have a society ready to rebuild.

There was a crude cosmic justice: Some day a B-17 comes and breaks all your stuff. It was a blunt justice, but a deterrent none the less.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Fri, Jan 28, 2011 1:56:52am

re: #19 Cheese Eating Victory Monkey

This has always been so. After the fall of USSR who answered for all the crimes, like criminal “psychiatry”, sabotaging the dissidents, unfair verdicts etc.? (I’m not even talking about the earlier murders and imprisonments under Stalin.) Even at the height of the anti-Communist sentiment, no one. And this is not limited to undemocratic societies either. Societies usually take a softer approach to those members of them who commit crimes against “outsiders” during uneasy times (like war crimes and such).

Cheese Eating Victory Monkey Fri, Jan 28, 2011 4:25:23am

re: #22 Sergey Romanov

Thanks for your kind offer. Is there a contact form or e-mail address on your blog? There’s a project I want to get started on in the near future, but first I need to go through some of the dusty documents I have at home.

Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Fri, Jan 28, 2011 6:15:59am

Click on my nick now, you’ll be able to email me. Do you know some Polish by any chance? I think I know some good Polish articles on the issue.

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