The Alleged Gas Chambers at Majdanek

I have previously written about how the alleged death count for Majdanek has drastically been lowered over the decades since the war. This is no doubt due to the fact that the Majdanek camp remained largely intact after the war, thus it is more difficult for Holocaust fabulists to get away with shenanigans.

The death count isn’t the only part of the Majdanek narrative that has changed. The number of alleged homicidal gas chambers has also shrunk. The following is the State Museum at Majdanek’s (SMM) retcon of earlier claims about the alleged gas chambers:

Some older publications devoted to Majdanek suggest that a total of seven gas chambers were built in this camp, but these lack clear confirmation as to whether these chambers were in fact used for the extermination of people. This number appeared for the first time in the expert account of the Polish/Soviet Commission which, in August 1944, conducted an investigation of Nazi crimes committed at the Majdanek camp. According to its findings, one chamber was located in a bathhouse (barrack No. 41), three in the neighbouring bunker, two in a barrack on Interfield I (Zwischenfeld I) and one in the so-called ‘new crematorium’ beyond field V. However, a communique of the Commission’s findings, issued in 1945, states that there were a total of six chambers [Communique of the Polish-Soviet Extraordinary Commission for Investigating the Crimes Committed by the Germans in the Majdanek Extermination Camp in Lublin (Moscow, 1944), pp. 13-14].

I think it interesting to note that the book about Majdanek written by Jürgen Graf and Carlo Mattogno, Concentration Camp Majdanek—A Historical and Technical Study, was published before the SMM article in question. Could the SMM article have been spurred by Graf and Mattogno’s revelations? Perhaps.

Since there is a “lack of clear information” (i.e., no evidence) of seven gas chambers being used at Majdanek, what is the most current official story of the alleged gas chambers?

Apparently whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry on Majdanek didn’t get the memo that the seven gas chambers is out of date. This illustrates the fact that it is difficult to maintain the massive lie that is the official Holocaust narrative.

The folks at the orthodox Holocaust Encyclopedia are more hip with the Holocaust fabulist scene. From the original count of seven, which was given to us by Polish and Soviet officials, we are left with what appear to be three alleged homicidal gas chambers. Even the United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum (USHMM), who runs the Holocaust Encyclopedia, won’t fully admit to the third gas chamber that “some sources” reported that carbon monoxide was used to murder Jews. If the likes of the USHMM won’t even bother to stand firmly behind this supposed third gas chamber, there is no need to address it as we know it’s just BS.

The following is a panoramic view of one of the alleged gas chambers in the “brick building” (for a full size image click here). As you can see, there is Prussian blue staining that is indicative of the use of cyanide gas. However, how do we know that this was not just a delousing chamber? The answer Holocaust fabulists would give you is witness testimony. This is not something that I will get into in this article. Rather I will show you the physical improbabilities of the claims made about the alleged gas chambers. To do so, I will use research from the Graf and Mattogno book I mentioned earlier.

To begin, let’s look at the following image. It is a Soviet soldier demonstrating how Zyklon B pellets were poured into the chimneys of the gas chambers. Never mind that this man is actually standing on the roof of the drying facility, which is not claimed to have been a homicidal gas chamber. What it does illustrate, however, is the claim that Zyklon B was introduced through the chimneys. Note that the alleged gas chamber in the “brick building” does not have any ceiling holes.

The following are images from the alleged gas chamber in barracks 41. You can see fresh white plaster that interrupts the Prussian blue staining. This means that modifications were made to the room after Zyklon B was no longer being used in it. More on this later.

You may have also noticed a window. About this window the SMM article states that:

Jean-Claude Pressac, who analyzed the use of gas chambers at Majdanek, claims that the most significant argument determining whether the so-called makeshift gas chamber was used for killing people is finding out whether a window, visible today in that room, existed there during the camp’s operations. Indeed, this window is not visible on a photograph of the bathhouse taken in 1942. Most likely it was added after the war, during the initial repair work, when the bathhouse barracks were connected to the bunker and the entire structure covered with a common roof.

It is true that the window was added after 1942, although it is contested whether it was by the Soviets or the Germans. This controversy is besides the point that I find interesting: the admission that modifications were made to the camp after the war. If adding a window is considered repair work, what else were the Soviets adding and removing from the camp buildings?

To the claim of using the room in barracks 41 for homicidal purposes, Graf and Mattogno have this to say:

For one thing, the chimney as it is described on the aforementioned invoice from the Michał Ochnik company could not have been used to introduce Zyklon B, because the HCN-soaked pellets would have landed on the floor of the chimney without getting into the two parallel pipes in the concrete ceiling. For
another, while the gas-proof door on the south side (leading into the Shower) is closed from the outside, the one opposite it, on the north side, is closed from inside. This means that the disinfector who had to distribute the Zyklon B had to enter the area wearing a gas mask, close the north-side door, pour the Zyklon out of the can, leave the room through the south door, and close it from the Shower. In a homicidal gassing scenario it would not have been possible to open the north-side door due to the piles of bodies blocking it from within. (source page 149)

Clearly the room was not intended nor suitable for homicidal purposes.

Taking account of the modifications that I mentioned earlier, Graf and Mattogno came up with a more reasonable hypothesis about the alterations made to the room. They suggest that the use of Zyklon B was discontinued and the delousing, not homicidal, gas chamber was converted into a hot-air delousing chamber. This was probably due to a shortage of Zyklon B during a typhus epidemic in the summer of 1943. The previously mentioned window may have been installed by the Germans to aid in ventilation.

Even Nazi documentation from the war is evidence of the Germans building life-saving delousing chambers, not homicidal ones. In a report from January 20, 1943, SS-Hauptsturmführer Krone states the following after a trip to the camp:

Sanitary facilities
The delousing, disinfection and bath facilities present at this time are adequate for the current population of 5,000 inmates, However, according to the camp commandant, a larger population is to be expected shortly. At this time, Amt CIII has access to some steam disinfection apparatus [for disinfestation purposes] and steps have been taken towards providing three larger facilities. Division of the delousing facility into a clean and a contaminated side has been done. (source page 61)

Here we have clear evidence that the Germans had intentions to build more delousing facilities and that they had the safety of the camp in mind.

For more information on the alleged homicidal gas chambers of Majdanek, you can read pages 117-153 of Graf and Mattogno’s book.