14. How many gas chambers to kill people were there at Auschwitz?

The IHR says:

None.

Nizkor replies:

Wrong, as usual; no evidence, as usual.

There were five "Kremas," each containing, among other things, an extermination gas chamber and furnaces to cremate the victims. The first was converted from its original use. The remaining four were designed as gas chambers from the start.

(For completeness' sake: a talented and well-respected amateur researcher by the name of Pressac believes that the two largest Krema were originally designed to be morgues and were switched over to gas chambers very early in their construction. He is in a minority of one in this belief.)

Two other extermination installations were called "Bunker I" or the "little red house" and "Bunker II" or "the little white house."

And again for completeness' sake: the first gassing was performed in the basement of Block 11, and there was also a sixth Krema which never got beyond the very early planning stages.

Recommended reading: Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp, Gutman et al., pp. 157-245, and, for excellent historical perspective, Auschwitz: 1270 to the Present

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