Auschwitz “Death Camp” Blueprints Discovered in Berlin Apartment

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By Jonathan H

Auschwitz - Birkenau
Creative Commons License photo credit: One From RM

It was in January of 1942 that it was widely believed Nazi Germany made the decision to kill 11 million Jews, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, Roma, political prisoners, and Blacks. Since then, the January 1942 epoch is what all historians have marked the actual beginning of the “purge.” But recent architectural drawings, discovered in a flat in Berlin seem to indicate that the decision was dated much earlier than widely assumed. The newly discovered Auschwitz plans (also known as Oświęcim) contain 28 pages of yellowing renderings – largely drawn by SS technicians, but also by inmates who may have eventually faced the death camp itself. These plans may provide definitive proof that the decision to purge the Jews was made as early as the drawing of these documents: Oct 23, 1941.

The documents, other than the vital evidence they provide in the way of dates, also point towards the systematic and deliberate understanding of most SS officers and high-ranking German officials: Hitler’s plan was not a secretly carried out attempt, but rather a well-recorded and deliberate effort, of which even low-level officers were well aware.

The gas chamber architectural drawing for Auschwitz, recently discovered.

The gas chamber architectural drawing for Auschwitz, recently discovered.

The blueprints themselves reveal chilling details.  One area, boldly marked the “Gaskammer,” or gas chamber, shows a 11.66 metre by 11.20 metre room where prisoners were tricked into entering by believing they were communal showers.

“The documents disprove beyond all doubt that which Holocaust deniers claim…” said Hans-Dieter Kreikamp, head of the federal archives office in Berlin, “… That Auschwitz was nothing more than a labour camp where no gassing took place.”

Kreikamp even affirms that a portion of the blueprints, drawn in distinctive green ink, are from the pen of none other than SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Still, speculation is swirling about the potential authenticity of the documents. Prof. Robert Jan van Pelt, an expert on the planning and construction of Auschwitz, believes that the plans are not Auschwitz, but rather plans for a forced labor camp meant to house 130,000 prisoners. He said the plans have been acknowledged for years, and that they may exist in the Polish National Museum at Auschwitz and in an archive in Moscow.

These blueprints show a building whose basement contained a gas chamber.

These blueprints show a building whose basement contained a gas chamber.

Even though the plans that were in the SS offices in Berlin during the 1944 bombings by Allied forces were said to be destroyed, it’s possible that they survived, but unlikely. Van Pelt believes that the “gas chamber” room in the drawings was likely a room meant to disinfect clothing, and that Heinrich Himmler, as such a high-ranking official, would not be found scribbling on the plans of a camp, despite how large. Van Pelt speculates that the document itself is likely a forge, likely copied from the Polish National Archives record, considering the large interest and market for Nazi memorabilia online.

Further Research

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1035958.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/3411647/Auschwitz-plans-found-in-Berlin-flat.html

4 comments on “Auschwitz “Death Camp” Blueprints Discovered in Berlin Apartment

  1. christina on said:

    that is all so depressing
    make me wanna cry

  2. Jonathan Haeber on said:

    Apologies, Christina… I try not to brood here. If you look at some of the other posts, you’ll find much more of an upbeat demeanor.

  3. Stever on said:

    The room to the right of the “gaskammer” is the “schnittenhaus”, or whatever they called it; the place where the victim’s hair was cut off (schnitten), and ‘saved’ for the Reich.

    Having complied with the mandatory undressing, and then suffering the indignity of having one’s hair shorn off; the next step to the “gaskammer” would draw little resistance. Most people knew that it was not a shower.

    I was surprised to see the bold labeling on the plans. There can be no doubt about the singular purpose of this “architecture”.

  4. jeff kaplan on said:

    as a history buff this is actual documentation of what really happened horrid beyond belief!!
    I would like to get copies of the blue prints of Auschwitz and all the sub camps.

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