Many Jewish survivors of the German labor camps claim that they saw flaming chimneys at Auschwitz/Birkenau. First and foremost it is important to understand that the presence of these chimneys is not at all sinister. They belonged to the crematoriums which the Germans used as a preventative measure against the spread of disease by being a more sanitary method of disposing bodies. These crematoriums had individual ovens, or muffles, designed for one person at a time and they would not have been efficient or practical for mass murder.
Let’s take a look at some of the flaming chimney claims.
From the Testimony of Marie-Claude Vaillant Couturier at the Nuremberg Trials:
From Elie Wiesel’s book, Night:
From Sonderkommando, Henryk Tauber:
The sight of flames rising up from the chimneys is quite the Holocaust survivor trope. I invite you to take a moment to think back over your lifetime. Have you ever seen a chimney with flames coming out of it? Let’s Google flaming chimney and see what we get.
What’s this? Looks like flames coming out of a chimney is actually a sign of trouble.
For a more scientific explanation we can turn to Carlo Mattogno:
Knowing that flaming chimneys in Auschwitz/Birkenau wouldn’t have been a thing, the real question is why did these so-called survivors feel the need to add this inaccurate element to their stories?