The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Why did the concentration camps have crematory ovens?


43. Why did the concentration camps have crematory ovens?

The IHR says:

To dispose efficiently and sanitarily of the corpses created by the typhus epidemics.

Nizkor replies:

...and the mass-gassing operations. See the reply to question 45.

One might ask the IHR why the Nazis required so many stokers, as this SS document clearly demonstrates, if only a few hundred thousand Jews died? (See Question 36

stoker-number.jpg

In October 7, 1944, the strength of the sonderkommando (referred to as "heizer" = stoker/burner, in the official SS documents), was:
Krema II: day shift 84, night shift 85.
Krema III: day shift 84, night shift 85.
Krema IV: day shift 84, night shift 85.
Krema V: day shift 72, night shift 84.

That is, 663 altogether.

APMO, D-AuII-3a/1, Inventory No. 29723. See Czech, "Auschwitz Chronicle 1939-1945". p. 724. See also Document on display in the "Jewish Martyrdom" exhibit in Auschwitz Main Camp, listing 661 stokers in October 3, 1944.


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